A few weeks ago, I was hit with a sudden, unexpected storm. The company that I used to process my payments for donations had suddenly dropped me without notice, and they chose to hold onto all that was scheduled to be sent to me. 

At the time, it felt like a nightmare, and like my ministry was sinking like a boat under the tumultuous sea. I remembered that I had another company that I had used from time to time, and I switched to them instead. 

Within 24 hours, they dropped me too, without even giving me a valid excuse. By that time, I was crushed and scared. As those of you who follow my faith walk story know, God led me and my daughters out on a big walk of faith. 

About a year ago, He woke me up early in the morning and told me to follow Him to a new state. I didn’t have very much money, about enough for one night at a hotel. 

God promised to be our support for the journey, and He said that He was leading me to a place of tangible hopes. It was a time of leaving behind the old, and crossing into the new. 

With the journey, there have been many storms along the way. God made me a promise before we left that we would not be homeless and that I would not lose my car, and that we would always have enough food. 

Those promises were in a constant place of testing, to come out as gold of fulfillment. Four times, I lost my car, and four times God brought it back to me within a week. God kept His promise that we were never stranded, and we never had a single night without refuge from God. 

He has kept us in hotels and Airbnb’s all this time, and His Promises have been a solid place where I could abide. However, before we left 8 years ago to follow God on the first journey, He said that there would be storms until every last fear was cast into the ‘sea’, like the story of Jonah in a way. 

During this storm of not being able to receive online support from my store, it was terrifying because I couldn’t figure out how God would have us survive. 

I found out, eventually, that the companies had dropped me because of the cheap hotel that we stayed at and their internet was not safe. So I started to use VPN’s on my phone and computer and no longer used the hotel’s Wi-Fi. 

Instead, I used my mobile hotspot, or I would go to the Library to work. That changed everything. God started to lead me to build BRAND NEW, and I signed up for a new store company that has turned out to be brimming with treasures and new opportunities. 

The new storefront offers me so much room to grow. I will be able to offer new products, new physical items, offer more courses, and even start a school for those who God calls to live by faith and hope in His vows. There is so much that I have to give and share that I have learned, and God is calling me out to new waters. 

God has been teaching me through all of this to look for His promise of love support in new places. It was really a struggle for me to cross over, because I was stuck in-between for weeks. 

I wanted the past to end. I wanted this journey to be over and to step into all God promised over my life. Yet, I didn’t want to let go of the old. I didn’t want to leave all that was comfortable and familiar. 

Yet, I had to make a choice, because being ‘in-between’ was not taking me anywhere. Like Christopher Columbus said, “You can never cross the ocean, until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”. 

I thought I was under a terrible attack and everything looked so dark and hopeless. So many nights I cried to just be done and go home, but God was allowing the winds that were blowing in to carry me into something new. 

The winds of newness were in my sails, and God allowed the disruption to open the doors for a new beginning. Now that I have let go of the past, I can see so much hope on the horizon. 

I am overjoyed with excitement of all that is coming out. God has been filling me with so many ideas and plans for what I will be offering on my new store, and the best part of all is God is using the hardship that went through to be a blessing to help others encounter the fulfillment of His promises too. 

It is hard to let go of what was familiar and comfortable. I think it is even harder to let go of the limits in our thoughts to what God can do and how His promises can come through. 

I have more to let go of, as God causes us to sail into the new. That was just one thing, and there are many more places that God is helping me to surrender and trust. Those will be something I will share about soon. 

Thank you for those who have been so patient during the times of rough seas for the store, and changing of things. God is leading us to the hidden treasures of new, open seas, and He used the stormy winds to help me to release the self-resistance that I was holding. 

I have been reminded through this that God has it all planned out and that He has all the power that is needed to keep His vows. We don’t need to understand ‘how’, we just need to trust and believe in His words. 

He will lead us on the path of hidden treasure and secret cache. Nothing is a surprise to Him, and before we even leave the shore, He has planned a way. He is the trustworthy Captain to lead us to the buried gold, and before we even begin to understand how it can work…He knows…..♡

Love, Dannette

https://diamondsfromthedust.com/