House of Hope Update 4/13/23

For the last 5 months, I’ve been working at a corporate Audio/Video company that’s headquartered about 45 minutes from our house. I haven’t been online in any kind of meaningful way as doing so has been caustic to my mental and emotional health. Although I’ve been very full from a revelation standpoint and I’ve wanted to share my insights with those who could be blessed by them, I’ve been working through the tension of creating something that keeps people engaged on an online platform that is toxic to their mental and emotional health. The same tension exists from the standpoint of wanting to share our journey regarding the house. The thing is, I don’t like not sharing our journey and I want to bring you guys up to date with the journey with the house and what God has been speaking to me as I feel that both have a good chance of encouraging you.

There came a point between now when we bought this property where I had a bit of a breakdown. I was overwhelmed. So much to do. So many people’s well-meaning voices, some nasty trolls and a house that seemed to eat money and effort and give little back in terms of being a pleasant place to call home. That, coupled with a sudden decline in income, left me in a financial state that we haven’t been in for as long as I can remember. We’ve not been that far behind on our bills in over 15 years. Pressure. And then more pressure.

In the context of such pressure, I got really overwhelmed. I ended up in a really dark and hopeless place and started sending my resume out on different job websites. I got the job at the A/V place and got us a good way out of the hole we found ourselves in.

The Christmas Testimony: How God reacquainted us, as a family with His grace and favor

I got the job at the very end of November. Christmas is coming and I’m treading water in an exhausted state of pressure-driven depression. Not a fun season.

But one thing this house has taught me is the power of giving up.

Taking my hands off the wheel only to find that God Himself is more than capable of steering this ship and powering it with the wind of His own Spirit than I could ever be on my own. As we will see later, the end of our strength is the beginning of His. It’s been the perfect reset back into the lifestyle of the favor and goodness of God that we lost sight of when we moved to Leesburg.

So, my job provided barely enough to get our bills back up to date and Christmas is coming. So, by the grace of God, I had an idea. I gathered Erika and the kids and told them,

“I don’t have any money for Christmas. Nothing. I’m not sending out any emails or making any social media posts. I’m not going to ask anyone for help or let anyone know about this situation. What we are going to do is, we are going to go to God and ask Him for what we want for Christmas. We are all going to make lists, not of what we think would be possible with little, but of the things we actually want regardless of price and whether it looks possible in our own strength. We are going to spare no expense and give these lists to The Lord and see what happens. Make this list as if Your Father has all the money in the world. Get crazy.”

And they all made their lists. So far beyond anything I could pull off and it was perfect because the pressure isn’t on me to come through for them.

I gave up. I tag-teamed God. Well…..perhaps giving up isn’t the most accurate way to describe it. I deligated and I trusted God. (That, by the way, is integral to any collaboration. Delegate, trust, and move on to your part. Note to self: Write more on the culture of collaboration with God and man.)

Whatever happens next is entirely His fault.

My kids saw me tag-team God. I put Him on the spot. He’s The One with all wealth. He’s the one who decided to call Himself Jehovah-Jireh. That’s not my fault. He did that. So I put His name on the line. If God is zealous for the hearts of my kids, I set Him up to show them in a big way or give them all the evidence they need for the atheism that the world is trying to convince them of, and then…..I got out of the way.

I was too exhausted to even try to sort that out. If I had pushed past that overload, it would have resulted in mediocre results and resentment and that sucks so I wasn’t going to do that. Instead, I delegated the task to someone who was more than capable of producing the results I was after.

I want my family to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves them and cares about the dreams and desires of their hearts. I want their hearts established in the goodness of God so that they can live their lives in the rest that comes when we trust Him.

That’s what I want for Christmas.

That’s what’s on my list.

That their faith would be not in the strength, wisdom and power of man but in God who raises the dead things to life and speaks those things that are not as though they were. I want their hearts resting in the security of knowing that they are never alone and that Their Father is always looking out for them. Imparting that to them seems like the best thing I could give them considering the state of the world and man’s cascade of failing systems. Seems legit. So I put that on my Christmas list.

Well. I’m figuring you’ve got an idea of what comes next.

I created a situation that was simply irresistible to God. He loves showing love to us, dreaming and collaborating with us. By the grace of God, I really set Him up to look awesome to my family and He did not disappoint.

Before the A/V job, I was working at a friend’s pizza place and they do a gift tree for kids at Christmas and I was encouraged to put my kids on the tree. Some of the things that came in were notable and answered some of the things on the list but remember, I told my kids to go nuts so there were still some pretty large holes. Nonetheless, the presents showing up got my kids attention. It had begun!

The next wave came through a group of ministries that decided to adopt us and take up offerings and buy gifts for our family. It was all delivered to us at a house church we sometimes attend down the road.

Remember.

We aren’t talking about this to anyone.

We aren’t dropping any hints.

We made our list and submitted it to God and we were quietly trusting in Him. So we came home with a trunk full of wrapped gifts. (We had no idea what was in them but they were all labeled with our kid’s names and such. Very interesting development.)

Then, Christmas started to get really close and there were still some very large and expensive holes in this list (bearing in mind that we didn’t know what was in the wrapped gifts.) It was the week before Christmas and I get a call from a Central Florida friend that I hadn’t talked to in over 15 years. He calls me and asks how my family is doing regarding Christmas things. I tell him the story as I felt a release to do so. He then tells me this story.

His wife and he run a non-profit where they provide gifts for kids every year. They have their two-car garage set up as a warehouse where they fulfill the wishes of kids and what they want for Christmas. They had just finished their distribution for the year and were closing up shop to prepare to head to Texas to do Christmas with her family when a box truck rolls up to their house. A church down the way had apparently done a huge toy drive on their behalf and had neglected to tell them this and now, a week before Christmas, a box truck full of toys was unloading into their already stocked two-car garage.

They prayed and asked God what to do and He clearly spoke to Shaun and told him to call me and that’s when I first heard from him.

When I told him about the story and the lists, he told me to send them over. They then had me come over and loaded my Santa Fe down with a ton of presents. Some are on the list, some are above and beyond. They let me go shopping in their warehouse and told me to just take whatever I wanted. I wasn’t trying to be grabby but I did get a lot of stuff for the kids and it barely made a dent in their stockpile. He then told me to list any holes we still had. The holes were tablets, a video game console and a 3d printer. They sent the remaining things via Amazon. All week, things kept being delivered to the house. The kid’s minds were blown. It was working!!!!

Our minds were blown and our hearts were overcome by the goodness of God as all of this unfolded.

To date, this is the most abundant Christmas our family has ever experienced.

(While typing this, I just got a call letting us know that we were literally just forgiven of a $700 plus debt as I’m writing this….wow. Thank you Jesus! The testimony is doing what testimonies do, reproducing after their kind. Every time we share the testimony, we are inviting God to do it again and He just did. Would you look at that? Let it be so in your life as well.)

This is exactly what we needed to get out hearts reminded again of who we are and how we are called to live. We had lost sight of that in the pressure and intensity of buying this house. We had started to rely far too much on our own strength. It’s one thing to rely on your own strength when you actually have some. It’s when your strength fails that things get scary and we were so deeply past the failure point of own strength. We had spent every dollar we had trying to make this property a home.

The Christmas testimony re-established the culture of our hearts by reminding us of the grace that was always meant to sustain us and The One True All-powerful and Kind God of All Creation that so loves us and cares for us. We were never meant to be those people who live by the strength of our own will. We were never meant to be those who exalt the false glory of human effort but those who live to display the goodness of God and inspire His kids to trust in Him and collaborate with Him to make a brighter world possible for generations to come.

By His grace I was reminded of how to collaborate with God. You put His name on the line and He will always come through. He cares about people and wants then to live in the rest that comes with trusting in Him. He cares about our mental and emotional health and when we trust Him and step out, He reinforces our faith in Him and it puts courage into our hearts to step out in greater ways, to engage more in the desires and dreams He’s put inside of us. People see that happen and are inspired to trust Him as well. Like all things born of God, it reproduces after it’s kind.

Back to the house.

I all but gave up on the house. I gave it to the Lord and told Him that He can fix the place. It was too much for me. It overwhelmed me and I tagged teamed Jesus and went to work focusing on doing what I could do. I could work and get us out of the hole.

So I did my part.

God has been doing His.

Collaboration.

Delegate, trust, and move on with my part of the collaboration.

It’s been a huge culture shock going to the rhythm of the 8 to 5. I’m used to being present and available to my family to some degree for the last decade and a half and now, and now, I just work dark to dark and use the weekends to recover.

My life got really simple really quick.

What is truly important to me, became very clear.

I prioritize being with my family and I prioritize being able to do a good job taking care of them. All the time spent not at work were spent recovering and spending time with my family. I spent little time in church services as it doesn’t end up being a net positive experience for the family in most cases. When there is very little time to do things, what we choose to spend our time on really needs to be worth it.

I started to see life, from the perspective of a typical American man working a full time job to take care of his family.

I get it now.

I get why so many men in the past would ask what I do for a living when they hear about my life and how we live. I used to be intimidated by that line of questioning. It felt like perhaps I was being judged or measured up or something.

Like these men were trying to assess my value by what I do.

There are tragically far too many people who fall into the tyranny of believing that a person’s value is determined by what they do.

Perhaps it was the case at times but I’m seeing something different from this perspective.

I imagine there are some that see the way we live and want to be home with the family more. They want the flexibility to travel and make memories. They want a sense of purpose in their work. The grind, when it only serves to make one money and secure survival is a bleak existence and I was experiencing that first-hand. I have more than a decade and a half of seeing God come through, although we always lived just above survival, I know that it’s possible to work for God, live the dreams He put in me, and still be okay on some level.

I want that back.

God is showing me what it’s like to live like the very people He is calling me to inspire. To feel the pressure. To feel the bleakness and to develop compassion where there once was intimidation and the need to defend myself. He’s letting me see what the every-man is facing in America today and then He’s showing me the way out of the darkness and I intend to lead an exodus into the freedom of living in light of the favor and unlimited goodness of the favor of Father God. Moses had to go back to Egypt to lead the Exodus.

The thing is, when I had it before, we seemed to be in a consistent state of barely making it. We made it. But not by a very wide margin. That’s because the season behind us were the years of wilderness.

Recalling The Wilderness

The wilderness is that space between the bondage and the promised land where we learn God’s faithfulness outside of man’s systems and our ability to manipulate or interface with them, where we lose our fear of failure. Where we learn that God is always with us, even when our life can look like many people’s worst fears and that, His presence has a way of making the wilderness bloom. The wilderness is where we learn that His Grace is sufficient for us.

It’s where we learn that His strength, is made perfect in our weakness.

The wilderness is the season when God fathers the orphan out of us until we learn we can rest in the grace of His loving care at any and all times. It’s where we unlearn the orphan culture of this world and every area in our lives where there exists a belief that He would ever leave us or forsake us.

He does this by taking us to the very edge of our fears and then loving us there until they no longer have any power over us.

He will bring us into the depths of our desolation and begin to rebuild those broken places with His faithfulness. He does the miracles that heal us in ways we didn’t know we needed. He shows us that He is steadfast and able to provide when it seems impossible so that our faith in Him grows vibrant. It overcomes the wreckage of our brokenness and steels in us a conviction that He is with us and that that is more than enough.

The wilderness begins to bloom. I’ve learned to love, actually deeply love the wilderness. In fact, I long for the quiet desolation and focus on the simplicity of the goodness and presence of God that has only come in the wilderness. My heart longs for the desert simplicity. I’ll return in time. But for now, I’ve got an assignment.

We grow fearless in His love as we surrender to the wilderness process.

Then…..He puts a giant in front us.

Learning the Promised Land Culture

The wilderness is essential as it forms in us the confidence in the goodness and presence of God resulting in the necessary courage to overcome adversity that we will face when it comes time to possess our promised land. This difference in the seasons is significant as it requires us to think differently as we walk with God in this season.

Before, the assignment was to learn how to lean on God in our weakness as we learn He is always with us. It’s where we grow familiar with what it looks like to live by His strength.

The wilderness where we learn the culture of His heart.

The promised land is where we learn to deploy it.

The promised land is where we learn to collaborate with Him in the world to create solutions that reflect His kingdom and His heart. It’s where we learn to possess the land in His name and demonstrate His goodness in the earth.

The wilderness is where we learn to receive.

The promised land is where we learn to collaborate.

The wilderness is where we learn to slay the lion and the bear, like David on the hillside. He learned the culture of the heart of the Father on the hillside so that, when he faced his giant, he was galvanized during years of solitude to depend on God alone and he had the iron in His spirit and the testimony established to know that when the giant shows up, there was no way it wasn’t falling.

God is a powerful and faithful collaborator.

Having believed Samuel’s anointing over his life, He knew He was destined to be king and he had spent years in the wilderness learning to lead, fight and win with the heart of a shepherd. God raised him up and prepared him in his wilderness season to know exactly what to do when he faced his giant.

It’s taken me some time and its not coming as clear to me as it appeared to come to David but I’m starting to see some of why we are here. We are here to allow the Lord to own this land through us and to collaborate to make this place something truly beautiful.

We are here to create space for a vibrant expression of kingdom life to come into form.

We are here to carve a path that others can follow into the vibrancy of a life lived in creative collaboration with God to make the world a bright place.

This property is a school of faith.

Being that' I’ve not been posting to my facebook “wall” lately, I’ve found myself naturally gravitating to writing the things I feel that God is saying to us on the walls of our house. It’s a symbolic and artistic way of putting the testimony of Jesus over us inside the walls of my house with the expectation that this will be only one of the ways that this will come to pass.

We are learners here and God has made it clear that we are also to be teachers.

For years, I’ve dreamed about innovative ways to express the kingdom of God.

Ways to be church as a family that feel vibrant and life-giving.

To carve out a path for families and create an atmosphere where we can lead people into an experience with the goodness of God.

This property is here to teach us that and as we are taught, we are being asked to teach others, to share the journey with those who God would draw or lead us to. That’s why you’ve got something to read here. Otherwise, I’d be more than happy to just simply live this out and enjoy my family but God likes you. Lucky you. ;)

Shadows of things to come

I’m being reminded of the way I was living before we moved from Florida 13 years ago. I was living a rhythm of prayer, worship, fasting a ministry to the poor. I’m being reminded by God that I’m a movement maker and He’s showing me all that I’ve learned through The Economy Of Love experiments. He’s showing me all the things that He’s worked in us over the past 13 years and how we now stand, ready to serve with that which He has worked in us. This is all unfolding as we are here.

God answers prayer through people who are willing to collaborate with Him.

Earlier I talked about how we gave up on the house and tag teamed God to do what we could not while I did what could to get the bills up to date. One of the things that He did was tap the shoulder of some of our friends from Eastern Oregon. The Schaefer family. They built out an old school bus into an RV and drove all the way down here loaded down with tools. They have been here for a few months and as I am at work, Tom and his girls are working on our house. I regularly come home to new parts of the house being fixed up that overwhelmed me.

Above is a picture of Tom. He’s my friend. He’s a cowboy. A real one. Not like, “lives in Dallas and wears a cowboy hat and tight pants” cowboy but an actual dang cowboy. He’s spent a large amount of time in the middle of nowhere with no one but the cattle he was herding (or whatever it is that cowboys do.) He was out there doing cowboy things for most of his life. Although not a construction guy, he’s got the kind of brilliance of mind that’s developed when you live….well, in the wilderness. Far away from the modern solutions to so many problems. He’s well versed in learning to problem solve relying on God to lead and guide him. He’s good at hearing God and employing the solution in real ways that result in the world around him looking brighter. A few years back, he had a radical encounter with the grace of God and now, he and his family travel the nation seeking to love and serve wherever God leads them to. It’s amazing what God can do with a family fully surrendered to Him.

This is The Schaefer Family bus that they travel across the country in. It’s been cool seeing it come together even since they’ve come. We got to see them install their solar power system, A/C, and the paint job. It’s been really cool watching their place come together as well. I haven’t asked permission to take pics of the rest of the fam and I’m not around with my camera in hand when they are all out and about. I’m usually at work when all the action is happening. That’s why there aren’t more pictures of the rest of the fam in case you were wondering.

He’s put countless hours into working on our house and he does so out of love for God and our family. He is what it looks like for God to love you through a set of willing human hands. This is how God responded when I tagged teamed Him regarding our house. Tom and his wife Sabrina have advocated for us and raised thousands of dollars in funds for materials for our house and put in countless hours to put them to use.

This is a picture of how God answers prayer. He uses people most of the time. People who are willing to hear His voice and do something about it. This is how it gets done. I’m beyond grateful for Tom and his family being willing to become the answer to our prayers.

Becoming The Answer To People’s Prayers

That’s one of the things we feel called to here. To do what we can to become the answer to people’s prayers. It’s one of the most powerful things we experienced during the Economy of Love experiment. The feeling of being the answer to someone’s prayer, to be the way God responds to someone crying out to Him is unlike any other feeling on the planet.

In this day and age, there are a lot of people praying that probably weren’t too much a few years ago. The pressure of inflation and WW3 trying to start and the job market that’s far too slow in responding to the swelling cost of living and the rest of the pressures that life in America in 2023 have got a lot of people learning how to pray again and I feel the zeal of God to show Himself strong on behalf of those who’s hearts are loyal to Him. There are those who don’t yet know Him and I feel His desire for collaborators on the planet who will work in step with Him to be His hands and feet in this day. He’s looking in this hour for those willing to create solutions that will raise up a standard against the rising flood of despair trying to drown the hearts of His loved ones.

There are solutions to every problem on the planet right now. Wholesome and vibrant solutions. They are there for the taking is only we would trust God and set Him up to show off in ways like what happened for us at Christmas this year. That provision didn’t stop there. Far from it. It simply served to remind us of the fact that it’s there for the taking. God is showing me that I’m a prophet of hope and that my family is for signs and wonders. We are those who will shine a light on a better way in a season of history when so many of man’s systems are failing. When people are losing faith in so many of the institutions that have been set up by the strength and “wisdom” of man, He’s got a better way and He’s looking for those who are willing to put themselves out there for Him to demonstrate that better way for all to see.

We are starting to see that this is our call in this season and we are experimenting with ways to put the kingdom on display as a family that will make the world brighter. This is what we have been up to. I’ve had no interest in being seen or acknowledged by anyone in this process. In fact, I’ve been trying to keep what we are doing hidden and private as I’ve lost my taste for wanting or needing to be seen or accepted by people but God has got some other plans. If He wants us to live as an example of what it looks like for a family to be vibrant in the goodness of God in 2023, I’m here for it.

Now, I’ve no interest in religion or systems that don’t work for us so we will be custom-making some things in the days to come that may serve you as well. Whatever comes next, needs to flow at the speed of a vibrant family life.

Jesus is washing our feet and showing us how to love people in the days to come.

God gave me a word about this property saying that this place is the feet He is washing through His body like in the last supper in John 13-14. He knew who He was. He knew where He had come from and where He was going. He knew that all power had been delivered unto Him and what He did was He girded himself as a servant and washed His disciple’s feet. It was hard for them to receive and it flew in the face of what their ideas of greatness were.

Moments prior, the conversation around the table was about who would be the greatest and what position of authority they would each have.

Then, Jesus turned their ideas of what greatness looked like on its head as He served them by washing the dirtiest part of them.

He then finished and told them, “I have done this as an example to you that as I have to you, so you ought to also do for one another.” He, was their Lord, their teacher, their rabbi and He washed their feet and in so doing showed them how they are to love one another.

This is what greatness looks like.

The picture God gave me was when Peter didn’t want to let Jesus wash his feet. It was necessary. Peter’s ideas of what greatness looks like had to be reconciled with the truth. Peter could only give what he had received and so it is with the way God is serving us now through His people. He is showing us by example part of how we are called to love and serve people during this season in Central Florida. He said that this property is the feet He is washing in this season and showing us how to serve in doing so.

This house has been a place of great shame for me. It reminds me so much of the crap holes my dad had us living in growing up. I’ve written on this in the past but it’s been a place of constant triggering and trauma for me. It’s in process, I know and it has improved a lot. Most of the improvements have been to the structure of the house. The roofing system was in bad shape and the foundation needed attention. Tom continued the work that my father-in-law, Benny started and our roof structure and foundation are all now far more solid and stable than they were. It’s a huge improvement although not the most photogenic one.

Looking up the hallway towards the master and 2nd bedroom. The framing to our master suite is up and now we are awaiting funds for materials to clear for us to proceed. I’m going to miss the large amount of sunlight in this hallway when it’s all closed up. I’m hoping we can get a couple of solar tubes in that hallway at some point.

It’s a picture of what’s happening on the inside of us. God is taking the places of shame and loving us there and in so doing He is showing us how we are called to love others. It’s not comfortable. Everything is exposed and dusty. The problems are blinding obvious and overwhelming. It sucks. It’s not fun. It’s hot and sweaty in all but two rooms of the house. But this is the process we are in and we are making the choice to encounter the goodness of God here.

A look into the roof structure and some of the remaining janky wiring that’s being replaced as we repair areas of the house. So far, we’ve got new wiring in both back bedroom and have removed a large amount of really sus wiring. Even the wiring you see is an improvement on what it was like.

A current picture of the house. I actually hate that my house looks like this. We need storage solutions. All the changes are happening on the inside.

Looking down the hall from the other direction.

Alright. Thats’ all I’ve got for you now. Thank you for reading this update. I pray it’s been inspiring to you all. Please pray for us. We are starting to see the silver lining in it but it’s still really hard. I apologize for taking so long to update you all. It’s been a long process and it’s still ongoing. If you want to follow more with what we are doing you can check out The Bright Hope Patreon. There are posts that are public over there as well as other posts that are for patrons only. It’s pretty much the only place that I’ve been posting anything over the last 5 months or so.

I appreciate you all. Thank you.

Matt Bond and the Bond Fam