Credit: Getty/Tim Kitchen/Illustration By EEW Magazine Online

Editor’s Note: This devotion was written by Dianna Hobbs and used by permission from her ‘Your Daily Cup of Inspiration’ blog. To read more encouragement like this, visit YourDailyCupOfInspiration.com

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In God’s Kingdom, before He increases you, He decreases you. Before He blesses you, He tests you. Before He positions you, He transitions you.

Unfortunately, these processes feel jolting and uncomfortable, but they are unavoidable paths to the promise and prerequisites for increase. So, if you are in a season where you are struggling with trauma, trouble, and transition, God sent me to tell you that something good is coming out of this. And if you can just endure the trial and keep the faith, you’ll see that in the end you will be more blessed than you’ve ever been before.

***

I grew up not having a lot of things. Sometimes our big family didn’t know what we would eat. We lived in homes where rats and roaches ran about freely. On numerous occasions we were without working electricity, heat and hot water. I wasn’t raised with the safe feeling of having enough.

But I always found solace in my relationship with God.

As I grew older and ventured into entrepreneurship, I learned that I had a knack for business. Though I never envisioned myself owning my own business, I leaned into it because I didn’t want our family to experience the harsh realities of poverty that I had endured as a child in a family of 14.

Over time, things grew and expanded in my business. Those who saw me flourishing in the marketplace would say things like, “Wow, you’re so lucky.” “You’re so blessed!” “That’s amazing that you can collect big checks.”

They didn’t know that although I was building a team, doing major business with Fortune 500 companies, being invited onto platforms I’d never dreamed of, building lucrative online media properties, being hired to launch marketing, branding, and publicity campaigns for multi-million-dollar organizations, and being paid handsomely for ghostwriting best-selling books for business and ministry leaders respected worldwide, none of that filled me up.

Once I learned the ropes in business, of course my heart was grateful that the Lord prospered me. With His help, making money came easy for me. And yet, I knew that growing my bank account wasn’t my ultimate purpose in life. But if you asked lots of my colleagues and peers, I had made it. In their eyes, receiving a steady flow of new clients and experiencing rapid growth and expansion was the quintessential definition of living the dream.

Even so, I felt unimpressed and uninspired by what impressed and inspired them. The business gains felt like personal losses because they left me hollow and unfulfilled. Deep down, I knew that there was more for me. In fact, God was leading me down another path. He was setting me up for greater things—and by greater, I mean more purpose-driven things. Making money, while necessary and helpful, was never the be-all and end-all for me. I have always believed that God showed me how to build my network and net worth so that I could build His Kingdom, not my own reputation. The opportunities He granted me were not given to me to satisfy carnal desires for worldly gain.

There’s a saying I love so much, friend, that goes, “Some people are so poor, all they have is money.”

Money devoid of purpose, in my view, equals poverty. At a time when I was making more money than I ever had and responding to more offers than I’d ever received, I was also more restless than I’d ever been. I didn’t have peace the way I once did.

God was shifting me.

I didn’t know it right away, but He was leading me away from the for-profit business model to a non-profit ministry model. The change didn’t happen all at once. Gradually, with prayer and open ears to hear what the Spirit was saying, the transition began. So, when certain opportunities to sign big contracts came across my desk, God told me to say no. When huge doors I once routinely walked through would open, God told me to walk away from them. And when favorable and lucrative strategic partnerships were presented to me, God told me to decline them.

Though I didn’t know exactly where He was calling me, I knew who was calling me, so I followed the Lord by faith.

I turned down the old and familiar to embrace the new and unfamiliar. Looking back, I can truly say that this was one of the best decisions of my life! God has faithfully kept His promises to me and caused me to experience greater impact, fulfillment, blessings, and prosperity in the things He has called me to.

Walking By Faith

My journey, which required me to believe and obey God despite not knowing all the details, calls to mind Abram’s faith pilgrimage in Genesis 12. God called Abram, who would eventually be known as Abraham, to walk away from everything familiar and travel to a new and yet unknown place. Before receiving his divine calling, according to Genesis 11:27-32, Abram was just a regular guy living with his father, Terah, and two brothers, Nahor and Haran, in place known as Ur of the Chaldeans.

Now, at the time, Abram was a pagan—a sort of chip off the old block, I guess. Abram’s pagan father, Terah, according to Joshua 24:2, served many gods, living a polytheistic lifestyle until he died at the age of 205 in the land of Haran. As the saying goes, “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

Though deeply immersed in idolatry, Abram experienced a life-transforming divine encounter after his father Terah’s death. The Lord appeared to Abram and told him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s household and head to an unfamiliar place. God also promised that there was a major inheritance attached to the move—both for Abram and all his descendants.

Without question or delay, despite having no heir or prior experience with exclusively worshiping the one true and living God, Abram believed the Lord. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”

Through uncertainty and all, he obeyed God, which made Abram righteous, according to Romans 4: 3, thereby establishing the foundation for salvation by faith. Romans 3:22 tells us that “this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

When we consider Abram’s journey of faith, we celebrate it, but I think we sometimes fail to process the magnitude and difficulty of what he did. When God called him, he was not some faith stalwart committed to the Lord and sold out for the Kingdom of Heaven. Not at all. All his life, Abram had known paganism. And since he was already 75 years old when he responded to the voice of God and left his hometown, he was forced to undergo a wholesale change as an old man.

At his advanced age, Abram gave up a very comfortable living arrangement. He wasn’t struggling or desolate in Haran. Abram was privileged. He was rich in livestock, silver, and gold. He had servants. By cultural standards, he had it all, and there was no reason to start over. But through Abram’s life, we see that when you hear and heed the voice of God by faith, you make decisions that defy logic just to say yes to the Lord’s calling.

Hearing and Heeding God’s voice

Hearing and heeding the voice of God will transform your life and catapult you to greater dimensions of purpose, blessings, favor, and prosperity. Take into consideration the fact that the level of wealth Abram possessed in Haran in no way compared to what God was about to release to him as a reward for his faith.

Whenever God calls you away from the familiar, uproots you from the comfortable, and draws you to a new place, that means He has more for you. Something greater awaits you on the other side of your yes. It may not make sense at the time, but if you trust God and heed His call, He will reward you in ways you haven’t considered yet. Abram’s obedience by faith shifted his destiny and the destiny of generations. You and I are reaping the benefits of his faith!

Friend, there are generational blessings tied to your yes. There are supernatural breakthroughs connected to your obedience. There are miracles, signs, and wonders that will be released by your faith. So, if you are going through a time of uncertainty, where nothing makes much sense, do what Abram did and tell God yes. Walk by faith and not by sight. Accept God’s call to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar, and you will step into your promise, receive your inheritance, and position yourself to reap every single thing He has stored up for you.

“There are generational blessings tied to your yes. There are supernatural breakthroughs connected to your obedience. There are miracles, signs, and wonders that will be released by your faith.”

— Dianna Hobbs

Listen, God sent me to tell you that there is a calling on your life to do more, to be more, to have more. That’s why something on the inside won’t let you settle for where you are now. It’s not just something; it’s the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is awakening something in you. That deep desire, great hunger, and unquenchable fire in your soul for more is from Him.

Philippians 2:13 is a Scripture I love so much—and I especially love the way it’s broken down in the Worldwide English (New Testament) Translation. It says, “For God is at work in you. He helps you want to do it. And He helps you do what He wants you to do.”

That’s good, right?

Let me repeat that: “For God is at work in you. He helps you want to do it. And He helps you do what He wants you to do.” So then, both your “want to” and your “able to” come from the Lord.

Speaking of wanting to do something, God had to do a Philippians 2:13 work in my heart after I experienced brain trauma four years ago. He had to reawaken my want to, rouse me from a dormant state, and give me back my drive to walk in purpose. You see, I had lost so much that I was too busy mourning the losses to celebrate what yet remained.

I have told you many times before that God often speaks to me through dreams, and I remember this recent dream I had with a meaning that deeply impacted me.

All is not lost

In this dream there was a woman who was pregnant with octuplets but had complications. It took a long time for the doctor to deliver her children, and the delay caused further issues. Things got so bad that seven of the babies died in childbirth; only one, the eighth child survived. The surviving infant, however, was very weak and feeble and could only grow strong if the mother nursed it.

Unfortunately, the new mom, who had an abundance of milk, was lying in a fetal position sobbing uncontrollably, too distraught to nurse the living baby. Her breasts were engorged and hurting from the overproduction of unconsumed milk. The doctor came to me in the dream and told me to try to shake her out of that state of grief so she could nurse the baby.

“It will give the baby strength and give her relief from engorgement if she will feed her child,” the concerned doctor explained to me. He insisted that she get up and strengthen the one baby she had left.

In this dream, the mother losing seven children is significant because seven is the number of completion. Therefore, this mother felt like she had totally and completely lost everything. Her dreams were totally decimated. Furthermore, there is significance in the survival of child number eight, being that eight is the number of new beginnings and fresh starts.

If this mother in my dream could see past her devastating loss, what seemed to be a total dismantling and destruction of her hopes, dreams, and future, and embrace her new beginning by nurturing what she had left, she would both get relief and give life.

I was like this mother. I was destroyed over the loss of brain function in 2019 after my mini stroke and seizures left me with severely diminished capacity. It felt like the end for me. It seemed to be all over. I was convinced that the hopes, dreams, and divine visions I had for my future died during that horribly traumatic health crisis. But it wasn’t over. Not even close.

Not for me. And not for you. I couldn’t see then what I know now: I was on the precipice of my new beginning. Granted, I lost some things. Memories. Vocabulary. Emotional intelligence. Impulse control. Confidence. Courage. Mental clarity. A sense of direction. Engagements. Opportunities.

But all hope was not lost.

God, who is always so gracious toward us, saw to it that I didn’t lose everything. Though my surviving vision was weakened, I still had within me “the sincere milk of the word” referenced in 1 Peter 2:2 that could help both me and my vision grow strong again. But I had to tap into my faith to see that, own that, and walk in that, and it wasn’t easy.

triumphing over trauma

Friend, when you survive a traumatic incident and come through a life-altering transition, it changes you. While survival is a blessing, you shouldn’t expect to emerge the same. Even if you don’t experience a traumatic brain injury like I did, trauma of any sort still changes you. It causes psychological injury that can feel like an emotional or spiritual death. But there is life after trauma. Life after loss. Life after earth-shattering ordeals.

But it takes faith to leave the familiar past behind, embrace an unfamiliar and uncertain future, and live again. It requires faith to accept and receive the truth that God has more for you. That it’s not over. That you won’t always be where you are. That things will not always be this way. That the deep wounds will heal. That the situation will get better. That you will hope again. Smile again. Love again. Experience wholeness again.

Wholeness may look different and require you to embrace a new normal like I’m doing; but know that God is with you through the transition. He’s right by your side, holding your hand, leading and guiding you down a new path that leads to destiny.

By faith, I want you to grab tightly to the hand of the Father and don’t let go for anything! Wherever He leads you, follow Him. As you follow, believe that He’s taking you somewhere better, albeit different. Believe He has more for you if you are willing to pivot. Shift. Move. Transition. Embrace this nest-stirring season. Accept that God is disturbing your comfort zone and forcing you to use your wings to get you to soar to new heights and discover previously unknown and strange destinations.

The trouble and transition are blessings in disguise. This is happening because you’re called to more. This is pushing you out of your familiar place into the land of the unfamiliar where miracles happen and blessings flow like milk and honey. If you trust God, He’ll lead you to greener pastures, guide you to better days, and grant you new hope for your future.

Before ending this devotion today, God told me to share this Scripture with you that contains a divine promise in Isaiah 42:16 NIV. In fact, this verse is the sweetener I’m stirring into your cup of inspiration. In it, God says, “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”

As you drink down the contents of your cup, may you be heartened by the fact that God has spoken this promise over you to make the rough places smooth, to give you beauty for ashes, to enlarge your territory and bless you beyond measure.

If you keep walking by faith, in the end you will see that what you viewed as a breakdown was actually a breakthrough. God was just setting you up for more. You may not see it yet, but because God promised to cause all things to work for your good, you can rest assured that it ain’t over ‘til it’s good.

Now let’s pray.

God, thank You for reminding me that You have more for me. This season of struggle, trauma, transition, and pain is not all there is, for You promised to do greater things if I endure this test. Please help me to trust You through trauma, stand firmly on Your word when everything around me seems like it has been shaken, and to believe that You are able and faithful to deliver me out of every affliction according to Psalm 34:19. By faith, I thank You for my season of increase, deliverance, and breakthrough that is on the way! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Dianna Hobbs is founder of EEW Magazine Online and CEO of Empowering Everyday Women Ministries — a 501c3 nonprofit organization that shares the gospel and provides humanitarian aid to the hurting. She is also the writer of Your Daily Cup of Inspiration and executive producer of the companion podcast. Follow Dianna on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. Sign up for her free ministry newsletter here.