When God Says No (It's Not What You Think)

Have you ever wondered whether the door that closed in your face was actually God's mercy?

In Episode 5 of She Lives Wise, we explore the powerful truth that what feels like rejection is often God's protection or His redirection.

Sometimes the prayers God says "no" to are the very things that would have taken us away from His best. His delays, closed doors, and unanswered prayers are never without purpose.

Scriptures referenced:
• Romans 8:28
• John 4:42
• Psalm 37:4
• Psalm 73:26

If this episode encouraged you, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who may be struggling to understand a closed door in their own life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I said if this was what it takes, I can't do it. I don't want to do it. In fact, take this all from me. I can't do this anymore. Hello and welcome to the She Lives Wise podcast. My name is Shadow Elizabeth, and I am your host, and I am back with another pod. I'm super excited today because I've not been here in a while. But we thank God that I am back here in front of your screens or in your ears, in your speakers, and I'm so excited to be here. On today's pod, we're going to be speaking about a topic that I have been thinking about, and the Lord has been kind of sitting with me on for a couple of weeks now. And it is on the topic of rejection. Rejection versus protection. Now, I know when a lot of people hear that, they're probably like, oh my goodness, don't want to hear it, don't want to talk about it. I feel that there is something beautiful in learning from our past hurt, our past pain. Um, and I'm reminded of the scripture in James, the writer of James says that when you go through diverse trials, count it all joy. Because out of you it produces something. And out of that production comes um, you know, fruit to teach somebody else, you know, um, to help somebody else along the way or be able to understand God better. I feel that when we go through these things, we encounter Jesus, we encounter God, it allows us to know Him more, it pulls us close to Jesus. So when you go through seasons of pain, you know, name that pain. But I think as Christians, we tend to not focus on our pain. We we kind of tend to like, you know, put our pain to the side and like not really speak about our pain and just say, hey, I've got to be thankful, I've got to be thankful, you know, though he slay me, let will yet will I trust him and all of this. And that's absolutely true, and that's good. But I do think there is a place for naming your pain, looking at your pain and evaluating how you got from one situation and circumstance to the other, instead of just forgetting about the pain. No, let's talk about the pain and how you got out of that pain or how the Lord is helping you even inside that moment. I'm a firm believer, and I say this to people all the time, that when you encounter Jesus for yourself, you're able to have a better testament of who he is. When you experience Jesus for yourself, I believe that you are truly able to understand him better. You're able to really learn who he is when you encounter the person of Jesus in your life. And I'm reminded about the woman at the well, you know, in John chapter 4. She encountered Jesus at the well. But what she did after was that encounter led her to tell other people about him. And she told other people about him. And she said, Hey, come see a man who I have met and he has told me everything I ever have been. And what's interesting about that story is that Jesus now spends some time with the people who she testified, you know, to. And then it then says that they also encountered Jesus and they came to know him and said, yes, truly, he is the savior, not just because you've told us about him, but because we have encountered him ourselves. So there is always a need for encounters. I believe it so much. Some people say don't chase encounters, etc., etc. I understand and I know Jesus did speak about it, but I do think there is a place for encounter where you encounter Jesus for yourself and you're able to learn more about him. So today I am going to be sharing a story with you. Um, and I encountered Jesus. I encountered the Lord with rejection. I encountered him, and I'm going to be sharing a story with you about my um the purchase of my property, which I am in right now. And it's a long story, but I just want to kind of hone in on one particular piece of the story to truly give you understanding about rejection, redirection, and protection. I firmly believe, and if I believed it before the whole house buying process, I believe it even so more now. That the Lord works all things together for the good of them that love him and are called according to his purpose. There are two things that I really love about that scripture. That is in Romans 8.28. The first word in that scripture that I really love is the word love, that four-letter word. It says he makes all things work together for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. Let's actually go there. Let us read it in the New Living Translation from the Bible directly. Romans 8 28. It says, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Two things. If you love God, you are called according to his purpose. He's gonna make everything work together for good. And when I read this scripture, I imagine myself as an actor in his play. Like he's the director. I am a mere actor. He is good. I love him, and I am willing to be an actor in this play that he is putting on. I just have to learn the script and I just have to fall in line according to the script that he has given onto me. And he's gonna make sure that this thing works in accordance with the very purpose for which he has specifically called me. So if you're going through anything right now and you're thinking, God, where are you? What are you doing? Trust me, if you love God, you are called according to his purpose, not your purpose, his purpose, which means that he is going to ensure that all things work together for good. Amen. Now, in the process of me buying a house, um, I had a lender that I went to. And some of you may not understand the process of buying a house, so I'll quickly explain it. So houses cost a lot of money, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds. Um, and so typically, if you don't have the full cash to buy outright, you can get a lender to lend you the money, borrow you the money. They will basically pay for the house and you will pay them back in instalments, which is called a mortgage. So I found a lender. Now, backstory. I had been on the search for a property for about two to three years. I'd been believing God for the testimony of, you know, purchasing my first home. And um, in that process, I had reached out to mortgage advisors, mortgage brokers, you know, I reached out to lenders, and many of them told me, hey, you're you're just not ready. Like your profile just doesn't work. Like, you know, your credit score is not that great, you know, you it just didn't work, right? And so I just tried to work hard, tried to build my credit. I grinded literally for like two, three years, got my credit into a really, really good place. Now, once I had got my credit into a good place, I kind of thought, you know what? I think I'm ready now. So I contacted a mortgage advisor and they then, you know, put me forward to a panel of different lenders, and we started the process to try and find a mortgage uh lender who would borrow me the money, right? So they put me in front of these um a panel of lenders, and unfortunately for me, the lenders were still saying, hey, your case is still a specialist case, um, which means that an if if you know anything about mortgage lenders and stuff, the specialist lenders always have a higher rate. Now, not to get too technical, but the rate basically determines how much they're going to charge you for giving you this money. So, for example, a company could say, Hey, I'm gonna give you 100,000 pounds and I'm gonna charge you 100,000 pounds for that. So you owe me 200,000 pounds. Another company could say, hey, I want to give you 100,000 pounds, but I'll charge you 50,000 pounds. So you owe me in total 150,000 pounds, etc. So the specialist lenders, hey, they can say, hey, we'll give you the 100,000, but we're gonna charge you 300,000. So you owe us 400,000. So it's crazy. Like it could literally be stupid, right? And so the mortgage broker that I had said, hey, we can't find any lenders that are on the high street, the normal high street lenders who typically would give a lower rate, so they would charge less for borrowing the money. They said, we're gonna have to go to the specialist lenders. Now, at the time, right, my desire for the house didn't allow me to see anything. Right? Listen to this. All I wanted was the house. All I was praying for was the house. I didn't care if it was a specialist lender, if it was a high street lender, if the rate was, I didn't care. All I cared for was the end product, right? And I had already built my mind's belief that, hey, I'm not gonna be able to get high street lender because they've already told me that my case is special and I'm gonna have to absolutely definitely do a specialist lender. So I had zeroed my mind to any good rate. I thought it's all it's gonna be the worst rate, but we'll make it work, right? So fast forward now, they find me a lender who says, Hey, we are willing to give you the money. We can give you this money and you can pay us back, etc., etc. etc. Now the rate that they gave me was stupidly high. In fact, I didn't even tell people, like when I was going through the process, I didn't, I didn't speak to people about it because if you say that rate, they'll be like, oh no, that is just so high. But at the time, I thought, at the end of the day, this is this is what we've got. Like, this is what I've this is what I've been presented with. And so continued the process with them. But for some reason or the other, they gave me a mortgage in principle. So they said, hey, I'm gonna, we're gonna give you the money in principle. We just need to do some further checks. And so, in doing the further checks, they they just never came to giving me a final offer. They just kept asking for an if anybody has been through house buying before, y'all know it is the trenches. It's the trenches. Like, I'm telling you, they will have you digging up everything about your life. Like, it's it's so invasive and it's so it's such a vigorous season. So they could literally ask you for anything and you have to provide it. You don't provide it, they don't give you the money because it's a lot of money, right? It is a lot of money, and I appreciate that. Now, they kept asking me for different things. One day it was this, next day it was that. Then, just as you think, oh my goodness, this is just so much. How am I gonna be able to do it? You manage to get everything that they ask for, and then they'll send you another list of 20 items. And I remember this happened to me. So we were going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. We started the process in around October, and it got to around January, February, and nothing was moving. It was January, end of January. They just kept asking for more. They kept asking, it was it was absolutely ridiculous. And I remember I had sent a final email with everything that they had asked for. And I remember saying that if they ask for anything more, I'm gonna give up. Like, I don't have any more fight in me. Like I kept saying, I was telling, you know, one of my closest friends, I said to her, look, I don't have any more fight in me. Like, if they come back and ask me for anything else, I genuinely don't know if I can continue. Um, like I'm out. I'm out. I tried, bro. I tried. And I said to myself, I kept saying, like, it's not every it's not by false. Hey, maybe this thing is not for me, kind of thing. But I was believing God, I was praying to God, I was asking God, please, God, this is something that you have said. And I remembered that somebody had given me a prophecy that this thing is mine. In fact, the person said to me that your house is um in the process of being built, and I can see angels standing around your house right now. And I'm like, I can't, okay, okay, but but how is it coming? Like, how is this thing manifesting? Because, okay, Lord, you've said that it's mine. You've told me that it's just it's I just need to actually receive it on the earth, but it's actually mine. In fact, you've sent your angels to protect the house already. God, how am I getting this house? And I remember in that season, it was such a dark season. Like I would, it was horrible. Because I felt as though, God, I'm asking you for something. Just answer. And so every day I was praying, I was praying, I was praying, and I was praying about the lender, and I was praying about so many different things. And one of my favorite, um, one of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 37, verse 4. Psalm 37, verse 4. I'm gonna read it. It's always good to read the Bible. So Sam Psalm 37, 4 says, Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires. Now, a lot of people read that and they're like, hey, if you do good for the Lord, he's gonna give you everything you want. And where that is what it is, the context is it for me anyway, personally, I see it differently. So I believe it's like you take delight in the Lord, and he is going to place his desires that he desires for your life. He's gonna place them into your heart so that what you desire is what he desires. And I remember speaking to one of my friends and saying, Hey, I have two children, right? And imagine what life would be if they desired what I was already cooking up. So for dinner, I'm making, for example, pounded yam. And, you know, they come downstairs for dinner. I'm hey, dinner's ready. And they come downstairs, they haven't told me what they want, but what I serve them is exactly what they wanted. It's like, oh my goodness, I really wanted pounded yam today. Like, life would just be so much easier if what we desired was what God intended for our lives as well. And so I pray that prayer all the time. Psalm 37-4, like, Lord God, allow my desires to be in line with your desires for my life, because otherwise we're just gonna be batting heads, right? And so in that season, I remember specifically I was praying, but I was really more so praying that the will of the Lord would come to pass. And I was speaking over the whole situation, right? But at times I was speaking specifically on the particular lender. Now, I remember there was one day that I sat down on my sofa and the lender had sent about 10 or 12 more points. Now, remember, I had said, if they send me anything more, I'm bowing out. So when I received a long list of 12 more things that I needed to prove in order for them to give me an offer, I wept, man. I'm gonna be real. I said, God, I can't do this. I said, if this was what it took, I can't do it. I don't want to do it. In fact, take this all from me. I can't do this anymore. And in that moment, the Lord told me to, and I remember it was it was so specific. The Lord told me, He said, get up, play a particular song on the TV and give me a sacrificial praise. And I'm like, okay, but one thing about me, I listen to the Holy Spirit. One thing about your girl, she go listen to the Holy Spirit. So I got up and I played this song. It was a song by um, oh, who is the song by? For the life of me, I can't remember who the song is by, but anyway, it was a song, it was a praise song, and the song basically says that my praise is not enough. You know, that I'll praise you no matter what they say, I'll praise you any day, anytime I will praise you. That my praise is not enough. Like every day I'm gonna praise you. That's literally what the lyrics of the song were saying. And so I put that on, and the Lord said, dance like you're dancing in the house. And I remember I did, you know, I wiped my tears, I got up, and I began to dance in my flat, in my little flat. I began to dance like I was in a four-bedroom house. And um the song had not finished playing. I actually have a video because I knew that God was doing something. Like, if you're a person of the spirit, I'm a woman of the spirit, and I kind of sense when God is doing something. So I knew that there was something that was happening in that moment, right? So I have a video and maybe I'll try to insert it, but the song had not finished playing, and I got a phone call. And the phone call was from a mortgage broker who I I had spoken to maybe two to three years prior. She called me and she said to me, She said, Hi, Elizabeth, how are you doing? I said, Hi, I'm fine, thank you. I was quite surprised because obviously I had I wasn't using her, I was using another broker. Um, but she called me and she said, Hey Elizabeth, how are you doing? I said, I'm fine, thank you. And as soon as she heard my voice, she said, Oh, I think I've got the wrong number. I've called the wrong Elizabeth. I said, No, no, no, baby, you have not called the wrong Elizabeth. You've called the right Elizabeth. You got the right number, girl. I said, the Lord sent you. I didn't say that, but in my head, I was like, the Lord sent you. I said, I right now I'm looking for a mortgage. I need to get a mortgage. Like, I literally have put an offer on a house and I need a mortgage. Like, they're literally telling me um they're gonna pull the offer from the house, the person that I'm buying the house from, they're gonna pull it if I don't get a mortgage. So she was like, Oh, really? Okay, cool. Tell me a bit about your situation. So I told me her, my situation, and she said to me, I know three lenders, high street lenders with very good rates that will give you a mortgage today. I said, Oh, really? She said, Yeah. She named the three lenders, um, and these are high street banks, popular banks, that I had been told these people will never give you a mortgage. So I was like, okay, cool. She named them. I said, cool, no problem. Thank you so much. I'll go and do a mortgage in principle. Immediately, Kia Kia, I did not even wait. I went on my laptop and I went on all three of those websites. In fact, I only actually did two. I did the first one. Immediately they said, yep, we can lend you XYZ amount of money, da da da in principle. I said, okay, all right. Um, and then I did the next one and they said, yep, we can lend literally all online took so quick. And I did this all myself without a mortgage broker. And I thought, okay, cool, like, okay, let's see like where this can go. So I then contacted one of the lenders. I made a decision and I contacted one of the lenders, went through the mortgage process. I promise you, the mortgage application process. For about four hours of my life, I was glued to the phone. I was on the phone to a lovely woman. She's called Rosemary, absolutely wonderful woman. And um, she had gone through the application with me. It was so intense. Now, bear in mind, I am directly speaking to the bank now, a high street bank who give better rates. Understand this. And I'm speaking directly to them. I'm not going for a broker, I'm speaking directly to the bank themselves. So, anyway, she put in the application and she said, Yep, everything checks out okay. She said um she's gonna progress this the application proof, she progressed it, and I'm telling you the other lender had asked me for everything. In fact, if they could have asked me for my blood report when I was born, probably they would have. Because they asked me for that what didn't they ask for? The specialist lender, what didn't they ask for? Every nook and granny. This high street bank, I don't even know if they asked me for a bank statement. No, I'm being so real. I genuinely don't remember sending any of my bank statements. They just said, give me proof of earnings, sent them a pay slip and a letter from my employer saying that, hey, she worked and she earns XYZ amount of money. That was all. All of these bank statements and stuff, they didn't ask for proof of deposit. They didn't ask for I don't think it's only if you've been in this situation that you understand, right? I had been through such a vigorous, you know, journey with another lender that coming through this journey was like, how is it so easy? Anyway, went through the process within two weeks. Basically, to cut long story short, they gave me an offer. Now, I had been speaking to the other lender for about at that time, it was about four months, no offer. Two weeks, and this lender gave me an offer. Now Honestly, when that happened, and I look back, I'm just like, thank you, God, that you didn't answer my prayers when I asked you that the specialist lender should give me an offer. Thank you, Lord. And this is what I'm saying. Sometimes rejection is actually protection. And I'll explain why. So the specialist lender had a rate that was double, not a little bit more, double the amount. So they were gonna charge me, just exactly like I said. So if the high street bank were gonna charge me 50,000, the specialist lender was gonna charge me 100. As in, it was double the price. The rate was double the percentage. And I was just like, God, how? How? As in, I got a rate that basically was like someone with very good credit. I got the Bank of England's rate, like what the Bank of England was giving as mortgage rate standard. That's the rate that I got. How can it be? How can it be that everybody and their mother has told me you have to go with a specialist lender, you're not gonna be able to get a good rate, da da da da da da, all of this. And I got without a mortgage broker, direct to the high street bank, got a rate that is the same as somebody who had perfect credit. I said, This can only be God. This can only be God. And in those time months of me crying to God saying, Lord, please let this specialist lender give me the offer. I'm so happy God did not answer those prayers. Because why? If he answered that prayer right now, I would be paying at least, at minimum, over a thousand pounds more every single month of my mortgage. When I think about it now, honestly, it's just like, God, you knew. Like God knows, you know that he's Alpha and He's Omega. He understands the end from the very beginning. And so I use this story to encourage you that sometimes rejection is actually protection from the Lord. Sometimes redirection is actually God saying, Hey, that's not the place that I needed you to go. This is the place. And I want to encourage you out there, don't tussle with rejection, especially when you love God and you are called according to his purpose. Why? Because he makes all things work together for good. And if you truly believe that scripture, then you should be able to rest in the fact that if God didn't allow this thing to happen, I prayed, I fasted, I did everything right. Because hey, if you didn't do things right and you ain't getting things, hey, do things right. But you did everything that the Lord instructed you to do. You did everything according to the letter. You prayed, you fasted. What didn't you do? Sacrificial prayer, what didn't you do? But this thing still didn't come through. I'm telling you, perhaps it is redirection from the Lord. Perhaps it is the Lord shutting a door that he knows he never wants his child to go through. There are some certain situations that the Lord will be like, hey, I know that my daughter cannot go through that. I don't want that for her. I have something better for her. So if you would just trust that, hey, God has something better, rejection might look different in for everybody, right? It might be a job, it might be a relationship, it might be an opportunity that was lost, it might be a closed door. But I'm here to tell you that if you love the Lord and you are called according to his purpose, that he is the one that is working the weavings of your life together. And every closed door does not mean that he doesn't love you. It doesn't mean that he doesn't want that thing for you. Because when the lender was telling me, hey, we need more, we need more, and they weren't giving me an offer. The specialist lender, when they were telling me, hey, we need more, and when I did get the offer, I could have given up and said, hey, maybe God doesn't want this for me. And I'm not gonna lie, I said that. I said, Well, yeah, house buying is not for everybody at the end of the day. There's some people in this life, they will rent till they die. So it's like I could have given up and said, maybe God doesn't want it for me. No, I pressed on and I continued, and the Lord redirected me. Sometimes it's not that, hey, God doesn't want that for you. Sometimes it's that he wants it for you, but he has another route. And it is up to us to trust and believe that he is going to truly make all things work together for good. Amen. I believe strongly in my heart. I heard something recently on Instagram, and the lady was saying that you haven't met all the people that you're going to meet in the world. You haven't been um introduced to all the opportunities that you're going to be introduced to. You haven't opened all the doors that the Lord has available for you. So why do you fret? Why are you sad or worried or concerned or scared when one door has shut in front of you when there are seven more other doors that the Lord is about to open onto you? Perhaps those seven are better than the one that He's closed in front of you. I'm a firm believer in Romans 8.28. And I want to encourage you today to stand on that word, Romans 8.28. Honestly, every single time I go through anything where I feel rejected or where I feel something didn't happen the way I expected, when I feel that I've been left short, when I feel that God, like, why me? Like, why me, Lord? I go back to Romans 8.28 and I remind myself that he is the one who allows everything to work together for good. And like I said, he is just I am merely an actor within his script. And I just need to play my part. I don't need to give up on playing my part, I need to keep going. That's just how he wrote the script. Now, in hindsight, this is a bit weird to say, but I'm so happy I went through that encounter. Why? Because, like I said, the James, the writer in James said it, when you go through diverse trials, count to all joy. Why? Because it produces something in you. I am so happy because I was able to see it's taught me, right, that God can redirect you. And that sometimes re-rejection isn't actually a bad thing. And the reason why I say I'm so happy that I went through it is because today, when I face circumstances and situations where I feel rejected, or I feel a door closed, or I feel I missed an opportunity, I remind myself of the goodness of God. I remind myself of the God who did it when I was going through, you know, buying my house. I remind myself of what he did then, and I say, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, Hebrews 13, today, and forevermore. He is the God that did it then, he can do it now, and he will do it in the future. He is the same God, the same power he used then, he can use now. He never changes, you know. When you learn his ways, you're able to go through life with an understanding of who he is. So I understand who he is now. I understand that, oh, actually, I could feel like I'm being rejected or like a door is being closed to me, but Lord, you've shown me in the past that when you close a door, it doesn't mean that you don't want it for me sometimes. Sometimes it just means you have another door that you want me to open. So I encourage every single person out there, hold on to Romans 8.28. I believe that the Lord will open doors, new doors onto us by the grace of God in this next half of the year. And I believe that the Lord would open up opportunities, new friendships, new relationships, new opportunities, new business ideas onto us by the grace of God, all according to his will, his plan, and his way. I want to leave you with one scripture. I want to leave you with this scripture. Psalm 73, verse 26. It says, My health may fail, my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart. He is mine forever. I really want you to believe and trust that God is the one who will give you the strength to go through that rejection, to go through that pain, to go through that process where God is either refining things in you, teaching you things about yourself, about himself. Your strength may fail, but God remains the strength of your heart. I am praying for every single person right now that is watching that the Lord would truly be strength to you, that the Lord would be the strength of your heart. There may be ones that are facing rejection, facing delay, um, in a season of waiting, in a season where doors have been shut, uh, things have happened. But I believe that God is your strength. He's the strength of your heart. And I pray for you that the Lord, even now, strengthens your heart to be able to walk through this process and that the Lord keeps you even in this process and that you wouldn't give up when you lean on him. You wouldn't give up and you would be cut come to the expected end that he has promised you in accordance to his will. I love you guys so much. Please do uh share this video, share this podcast with your friends and your family to anybody who you feel needs this word. God bless you and see you on the next pod.