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700% Income Increase—What Sticking to God’s Plan Did  

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Josh Mellette is a successful software developer.  However, he couldn’t find a job in his field the first few years out of college. To support his wife and himself, he took a job working construction.

“I was making about $12 an hour. My wife just started teaching at a public school, so she was the breadwinner,” he recalls. “I was scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as financial income.”

With fluctuating credit card debt, car payments, house payments, Josh’s $35,000 student loan and unexpected medical bills, it was a challenge.

“I was onsite at a construction job, and I remember looking around and this awful empty feeling that I had of, ‘What am I doing in life?’” Josh admits. “It was pure misery.” 

Josh’s wife, Priscilla, prayed that God would move him out of construction.

“I knew that he was supposed to be a computer programmer because the Lord told him that and so if the Lord told him that, then I knew it was going to happen,” she explains.

Josh began claiming that breakthrough, especially after watching other people’s financial testimonies on the 700 Club.

“We'd see, ‘One day so-and-so overcame this; one day so-and-so overcame that,’ he says. “I knew that if the Lord could do that for them, that He is no respecter of persons and that one day He will do that for me.” 

He believed it could happen for them because, like the people he saw on the 700 Club stories, the Mellettes faithfully tithed, and had done so their whole marriage.
 
Josh adds, “At the end of the day my thought process was, ‘You know what, the only person that can get me out of this situation is going to be the Lord.’   And so, if that means that we tithe with what small amount of money we have, that means that we tithe on that money.”

Finally, Josh got an entry level job, working with computers. Before long, he was offered a software development position.  

“It was actually double the amount that he was making in his prior job,” declares Priscilla.  

“That provided a great relief to start getting rid of some of the debt that we were fighting with. It was a financial freedom that we had never experienced before,” says Josh.

They also started giving to CBN.

Josh explains, “The Lord spoke to us and asked us to start giving to The 700 Club, and-and so we did.”

Priscilla adds, “I love hearing about Operation Blessing and all the things that you do for the people who need, honestly, to be blessed. People all across the world. It's – you are able to be a missionary right where you're at.”

“We started off $20 a month, we were faithful every month writing out those checks, and over time the Lord would, you know, nudge us to give more,” says Josh.

Throughout the process of paying down the debt, the couple had also been struggling for years with infertility. Then one day while watching the 700 Club… 

“They came on, and they said, ‘There was a woman out there and she's trying to get pregnant, and I have a word from the Lord right now, and He's saying that you're going to get pregnant, and you're going to have a healthy baby in nine months from now,’” Priscilla shares.  “And so, I am like, ‘I am claiming it.’ And then exactly nine months to the day, I was in the hospital having my son.”

Meanwhile, as Josh switched jobs several times, his salary continued to go up.
 
“We’re seeing the blessing from the Lord for being faithful,” Josh explains. “You know, He says, ‘Give, and so we kept giving and giving, and then – and then we would start to see the return fall back onto us. There was so many times where we would just have extra money that we couldn't even, we didn't know why we had extra money.”

Today, the couple has two children, and their debt is gone. Recruiters regularly approach Josh with better job opportunities that result in higher pay, and his income has increased 700%.

“There was no way I could fabricate this type of financial success,” declares Josh. 

“I'm a true believer that the Lord can bless you if you give Him that opportunity,” adds Priscilla. “All we're supposed to do is be obedient in His word. And part of that word is He asks us to give the 10%.”  

“It was the relationship of the giving and it was because we were faithful, because we didn’t stop, because we continued to seek the Lord, because we continued to give,” says Josh.

Priscilla concludes, “Yes, you can never out give God. There's no way.”  
 

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About The Author

Cheryl
Wilcox

Cheryl Wilcox is a 700 Club Producer.