A Prophetic Inspiration: An Unlikely Comeback

In this encouraging message, Dianna Hobbs shares a prophetic word, reminding you that whatever the enemy intended for harm, God is turning it for your good. Your scars, struggles, and battles are not the end of your story—they are the foundation of your powerful comeback testimony!

Dianna Hobbs is President of EEW Magazine and writer of Your Daily Cup of Inspiration blog—one of the Top 100 blogs in America for women of faith.

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Growing up, I was mocked mercilessly. In a big family with meager means, my out-of-date, secondhand, no-name brand clothing and shoes might as well have been a flashing sign that screamed, "Easy target."

My small stature and frail frame, quiet demeanor and nonconfrontational stance, “Jesus freak” reputation and church girl persona screamed vulnerability. But here’s the truth: I could fight—and a few provokers learned that the hard way.

Sure, I was the perfect prey in the predatory ecosystem of adolescent cruelty. Too principled to start a fight. Too committed to my faith to typically retaliate. But when someone pushed too far? When the taunts crossed a line? They quickly discovered that a small frame doesn’t mean a small spirit.

Every whispered taunt, every cutting laugh, every calculated social exclusion felt like a deliberate assault. I wasn’t just different; I was a walking target. My gentleness was misinterpreted as weakness, and my faith seen as an open invitation to ridicule. The bullies could smell my hesitation and circled like predators sensing an easy mark.

Kick Me

You probably know the scene from one of those notoriously cheesy Afterschool Specials: a clueless student navigating the treacherous hallways of adolescence, a "Kick Me" sign plastered to their back. Mean kids hovered, snickering, savoring every calculated humiliation. The victim? Completely unaware, just trying to survive another day.

I knew those sounds intimately—the sharp whispers, the cutting laughs, the sting of being the designated punchline of every cruel joke. Humiliation became my unexpected curriculum.

But childhood torment was only the opening act.

As I grew older, life continued its relentless game. The schoolyard bullies were gone, but the challenges that followed were far more brutal. My "Kick Me" sign remained invisible, but the blows? They were devastatingly real.

In 2016, autoimmune diseases ambushed me without warning. Life-threatening surgery complications pushed me to death's doorstep. A few years later, brain trauma and PTSD became my most persistent stalkers, haunting me like an unshakable, merciless shadow.

For years, I wrestled with a question so raw it could have been lifted directly from the anguished pages of Job: "Why have you made me your target?" (Job 7:20). Each hospitalization, each setback, felt like another calculated blow in a battle that seemed rigged against me from the start.

Over the past five years, my post-brain trauma era became a relentless obstacle course of false starts and abrupt stops. Just when momentum seemed within reach, something would inevitably slam on the brakes. I'd gather every ounce of hope and determination, muscles coiled, ready to leap forward—only to watch plans collapse like a house of cards in a sudden, merciless wind.

Have You Ever?

Have you ever teetered on the razor’s edge of hope, so close to a breakthrough you could almost feel its warmth—only to watch it slip through your fingers?

Phantom promises—opportunities that shimmer with dazzling potential, only to dissolve into nothingness. Each near-miss feels calculated, as if an unseen choreographer has orchestrated a heartless, deliberate dance of disappointment.

There’s that dreaded “Kick Me” sign again, you think to yourself.

The kicks aren’t just physical—they’re emotional, surgical in their precision. Discouragement comes like darts and arrows, piercing deep, leaving invisible wounds that ache far more than any physical pain. Some days, the weight of it all is suffocating. Betrayal. Sadness. Devastating disappointment—these aren’t fleeting emotions; they are landscapes you inhabit, terrains of spiritual and emotional desolation you feel you cannot escape.

And yet, amidst the struggle, there are glimpses of grace.

Even so, there’s a unique kind of pain in living with that contrast—the constant sense of being targeted, even as grace weaves its way through the struggle.It’s a soul-deep weariness, where the weight goes beyond the physical and into a place where questions drown out answers, and the negatives seem to eclipse the positives.

But trust me—this is not where your story ends. This is just the beginning of your comeback.

“I prophesy that God has written an epic comeback story for you. Your present is nothing compared to what’s next!”

In Mark 5:1-20, we encounter a story that reveals what it means to feel hopeless and relentlessly targeted.

Here was a man so thoroughly possessed that demons had overtaken every part of his being—a hellish multitude so overwhelming they identified themselves by one name: “Legion,” meaning, “we are many” (v. 9).

This unlikely comeback story unfolds in the Decapolis, a region on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire—ten predominantly Gentile cities where the name Legion carried profound weight. A Roman legion typically consisted of several thousand soldiers, a powerful and oppressive force painfully familiar to those living under occupation. To call the demonic presence Legion underscored the overwhelming, unrelenting torment this man endured.

Imagine a human being reduced to a walking battlefield. Stripped of dignity. Wandering naked among tombs. Cutting himself. So violently broken that no one dared to approach (vv. 3-5). This wasn’t just suffering—this was complete spiritual occupation, a life so thoroughly hijacked that normalcy had become a distant memory.

But then Jesus arrived, and something extraordinary happened. The demons—those very spirits that had turned this man’s body into a prison of torment—suddenly begged for mercy, pleading with Jesus not to torment them (v. 7). The Greek word for torment, basanizō, captures their terror. It means to vex, to harass, to distress.

Isn’t there a profound irony here? The very entities that had been tormenting, terrorizing, and harassing this poor man now pleaded not to be tormented. But mercy was not on the menu for these evil spirits. Jesus, with absolute divine authority, did something remarkable. He didn’t negotiate. He didn’t compromise. With a single command, He drove every demon out of the man and into a herd of about two thousand pigs, which then rushed into the lake and drowned (vv. 8-13). In that one transformative moment, the Savior ripped the metaphorical “Kick Me” sign off the man’s back!

It Gets Even Better

What Jesus did for this man was already miraculous—a moment of divine intervention so profound it defied human understanding. But here's the breathtaking part: this wasn't the end of the comeback story. It gets even better.

“What the enemy meant for harm, God is using for good—to turn your pain into a platform for His glory.”

Overwhelmed with gratitude, the man begged to go with Jesus, to follow Him onto the boat and leave his old life behind (Mark 5:18). Can you blame him? After years of spiritual imprisonment, all he wanted was to cling to the One who had set him free. But Jesus had a more radical plan.

The Savior turned his demon possession into a faith profession, sending him back to the very region where his torment had been on full display, to preach the gospel. Now, he carried the gospel, boldly proclaiming the good news of the One who had set him free.

In the Decapolis, a region steeped in Gentile culture and unfamiliar with the Messiah, this man became a living, breathing testimony of Jesus's authority and grace. His scars told a story. His transformation preached a sermon. He didn't need a pulpit; his life became the message.

This wasn't just a personal healing—it was a strategic divine deployment.

Imagine the conversations. "Wasn't this the man who used to live in the tombs? Who cut himself? Who no one could control?" His testimony would have been impossible to ignore. The very people who once feared him now listened in astonishment. His deliverance wasn't just personal—it was a declaration of Christ's power that would ripple through an entire region. Now if this isn’t an unlikely comeback story, I don’t know what is.

Mark tells us that "all the people were amazed" (Mark 5:20). This man's story became a gospel seed planted in Gentile soil, a profound moment of breakthrough that aided the gospel in spreading beyond Jewish boundaries.

What does does this tell you?

When Jesus steps in, all your pain, your past, your most broken moments? They don’t mark the end of your story. They become the launching pad for your most powerful testimony.

I Prophesy Over You

Friend, I’m releasing a prophetic word over you: there are some folks in your orbit that witnessed your breakdown who are about to see your breakthrough. God has chosen you—the one the enemy tried to kick when you were down—to become a living testimony of His transformative power to turn setbacks into comebacks.

Those who watched you struggle, who saw you at your most vulnerable, who perhaps even whispered judgments or counted you out, are about to become witnesses to a miracle. Your restoration isn't just for you. It's a declaration. It’s a prophetic demonstration that what the enemy intended for destruction, God turned around for good—and He will do the same for anyone who places their hope in Him.

“God has an incredible plan to redeem your pain for His purpose, leaving others in awe of what He accomplishes through your life!”

God, who specializes in turning graveyards into gardens of life and broken stories into powerful declarations of His grace and glory, told me to tell you that your testimony will echo Genesis 50:20 (NLT)—a verse that encapsulates Joseph’s unlikely comeback story and serves as the sweetener in your cup of inspiration: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people."

As you drink from this cup of inspiration, remember this: The Lord is transforming your turmoil into triumph. What appears to be your undoing is simply the prelude to your breakthrough. The scars you carry—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual—are not the end of your story. They are evidence of God's faithfulness, a testimony waiting to be shared.

The comeback God has prepared for you won’t just change your life—it will impact others, pointing them to the true source of liberty and redemption.

If you believe it, come into agreement with this prayer:

God, I have endured tormenting trials in the fiery furnace of affliction—so painful, I often felt I would be consumed. But I thank You for assuring me that this phase is not final. You are using this hard season as a sign to others that You are the God who redeems past pain for Your greater purposes and empowers us to come back from any setback. I believe it. I receive my breakthrough by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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