Categories: Faith Stories

My Hannah Vow

Following God on this journey of faith into promises has been an experience of extreme highs and extreme lows. God has also challenged my willingness to obey and trust by asking me to take huge leaps of faith that go against all logic, fear, and doubt.

In the beginning, He asked me to jump with my kids to a hotel room in Florida, with no car or way to support myself. That leap of faith was a crossroad that led to encountering His ever-present love.

God rescued us and began to teach me how to enter His promises by faith. Before I left, I was desperate for God to save us and keep us from being homeless on the streets.

After reading about Hannah in the book of Samuel and her vow to God, in exchange for God to give her a child, I wrote my own vow to God, as I asked Him to save us from a life of death, poverty and homelessness.

As I kneeled on the floor with bitter tears rolling down my cheeks, I vowed to God that if He would rescue us and give us a home and to be financially free, that I would give my life as a vessel to Him, and that I would pour myself as an offering of total obedience to Him.

I wrote out my vow and dated it, and then I tucked it away. After that, Jesus told me to follow Him, and to leave all of my fears, doubts, and logical complaints behind.

He led me to get a hotel room with just a small bit of money in a state where I had no one to help me, and no car. I followed Him…and He saved us and took us on this journey into promise.

Back in July 2023, He asked me to take a wild leap of faith again. I only had enough money in my account for one night at a hotel, and He told me to follow Him to another state.

I followed Him, and we have been on an extremely daring faith journey ever since in Chicago, which will eventually bring us into our permanent home.

So far, the journey has been full of extreme highs and extreme lows. In the last place we stayed, it was in a very low, grungy part of town. It was a cheap place to stay, but there were many attacks there.

After only 2 weeks of being in that place, my car was stolen. I eventually got my car back and then 2 weeks later, my catalytic converter was stolen. It always sounded like they were setting off fireworks outside, but they were gunshots. I had to trust in God’s ever-present protection.

The worst part for me was the insects. There were giant centipedes that would come out at night, and I would cry because I have dreads about bugs. I bought 6 cans of raid in the 6 weeks we stayed there.

Yet in the midst of all the bad, there was beauty. I came face to face with some of the most needy people in Chicago. I was able to help homeless mothers feed their kids, and I was able to minister God’s love and kindness to those who many could never reach. It was like finding diamonds in the dust, and I am so happy for the experience.

That started me into a street’s ministry, where everyday I would go out and minister to people with love and comfort from God. Every day was another experience of sharing God’s comforts and love to those who going through the lowest imaginable amounts of pain and discomfort.

The time came to leave there, and God told me that the next place would require a HUGE leap of faith. He wanted me to go really high, as a way of warfare. It was a leap that where I had to choose if I would fear man or trust God. If I would please man, or please God.

I knew that the only way to stay safe and protected was in God’s planned path, and going my own way to “save money” out of a mindset of lack, fear, or doubt would only place us in danger.

Plus, there was my vow. I made my vow and there is no going back. My life belongs to God, and I will go where He tells me to go and not take the path that pleases man and the anti-faith lack mindsets.

So yesterday, God took us to a sky-rise hotel in downtown of Chicago. It was exciting, and also terrifying. We only paid for a week, and I have to trust in God’s plan for us.

He said that this leap of faith was a ‘crossroad’ that led to fulfilled promise. It is a weapon of warfare, to choose faith and abundance over fear and lack. The monarch butterflies take a similar leap to survive the harsh winter months.

The monarch butterflies will fly 3000 miles to the high mountains in Mexico, to find refuge in the cloud forests. Taking this GIANT leap of faith was strategic from God, to save us from the low level attacks that were plotted to come.

It took complete dying to my fears and doubts, in order to go. I had to die, in order to fly. I had to fall into God’s arms in total obedience, in order to rise. This has been the biggest leap of faith yet, and I hope that we will come out of this like the beauty of tangerine butterflies that fly high in the sky.

The only reason that we have survived so long is by following God’s plans, even when it seemed illogical, insane, and impossible to survive. God has a plan to take each of us into the life that God dreams for us to have. But it costs everything…an absolute abandonment to trust in His loving hands to do the very best.

This was His reward to us for the attacks that we endured, and this is the crossroad that leads to the life that He promised to give. It is upside-down and backwards. Moving by faith will completely tear down the limitations of lack, fear, and doubt.

We have to come to a crossroad at some point, where we choose fear or faith, lack or abundance, doubt or trust. I made my vow, and since God saved our life, we go where He plans for us to go, even if it means upsetting those who are still stuck in the fear-based mentality below.

I choose Jesus 🧡 and the plan that He has made for my life.

Thanks for “flying” with me into this new, exciting adventure.

Love,

Dannette

🎧 https://youtu.be/4RWbdH9fHCc