It was barely over 10 degrees outside. When you stay downtown, everything is an encounter of walking. From going to the store to get food, to going to mail a letter, being thrust into the freezing temperatures is sometimes unavoidable. 

On January 30th, 2026, our lovely and comforting refuge that the Lord provided in the downtown Airbnb apartment would be ending. The weather predictions for that day were terrible for moving and traveling. 

It was supposed to only reach a high of 13 degrees, with heavy winds and snow. The thought of moving in the freezing cold was a horrible affliction to me. I desperately hoped and prayed that we could extend and be rescued from having to endure the brutal winter weather. 

Just walking in the freezing snow, and slippery sleet was a sport that had to be mastered, let alone trying to drag suitcase wheels through the ever-growing snow hills gathering on the sidewalk.

On top of the dilemma of a winter storm and being forced to vacate the short term rental home, I was also hit with the realization that there was no place to go. I knew God would be our Home, because that was His promise and His has been completely faithful to us in this journey. Because where God guides, He provides…

However, I was haunted by the past times of suffering, and facing extreme fears. Some of which we had just gone through. It was so awful to endure such a contrast of what God promised, and the outward appearance of nothing coming to help. 

As I saw the approaching date of the move with dread and heaviness in my chest, the Lord began to encourage me to pray through my hopes, as He has taught me in the past. 

Since day one of our journey, the Lord has taught me to flip my hopes into prayers, and then turn my prayers into promises that are fulfilled with certainty. It has been a miracle dance that I have encountered with the Lord so many times, but not every time.

This kind of faith acrobat technique must be done a certain way, and there can be absolutely no shadow of doubt or uncertainty. It involves laying all of your heart in open, vulnerable trust in God to believe COMPLETELY…all while walking through the bitter cold of opposite looking situations. 

This trapeze act of faith also depends heavily on entering the fulfillment in advance through child-like imagination exercises. It is a way to trick the mind out of doubt, and into such a heightened belief, that joy and gratitude pours out like a blue-green sparkling waterfall. 

I knew I had to put everything into seeing this desired outcome. My hope/prayer was to stay and that the room would be extended before the check out date. The problem was, I still remembered the times before. 

The time just before, we had to check out of the room, and I had the same prayer to extend. Not only did we have to check out of the room before, but we entered into the harshest looking contrast imaginable. 

God had told me a promise of the money He would send. I knew how much, and I even knew where it would be coming from. However, that promise seemed late to arrive, and we ended up having to vacate the room, and move into the car again. 

So there we were, in the car, waiting on a God’s promised rescue, without even enough money for a little snack. Nothing was happening, and it was as if the whole world fell asleep for a while. 

On top of that, I had a flashing red light on my car, indicating a flat tire was close to happening. It was terribly scary to walk through, because everything looked the opposite of the promise that was given to me. 

Just like all the times before, God had rescued us during that past time, but I was left with the pain of experiencing such a scary thing. It was like going through a tornado. Although we were rescued, I was a bit traumatized from going through it. 

Fast forward to this new time and place. I really, really hoped that God would allow us to extend the room, and shelter us from having to move in the freezing snow storm. Not only would moving be hard, but driving was expected to be rather dangerous from low visibility and snow covered roads. 

As I entered this faith acrobatic moment of turning my hopes into a fulfilled promise, I struggled to move into my hopes because of the doubts that clouded my vision. It was like I was seeing through the blood-stained eyes of the past sorrows, and I had a hard time trusting God with my hopes, and going all into faith with all-abandon. 

To be honest, the times before when I had to endure such a close call, it was because I was playing in the ‘grey’ area between fully certain faith, and fearful unbelief. That is a dangerous place to be, because we get the outcomes that we believe. 

If we are undecided, and on the fence, then we open ourselves up to enemy warfare, where we can suffer undesirable things. It is a battlefield of the mind, and when you are not abiding 100% in the safety of LOVE and HOPE, then there can be bad outcomes. 

It finally dawned on me that the only way that I could see the success of my hopes being fulfilled was to let go of all the past pain that I was holding onto. If I can be open with you, I was keeping score, and I had personal records in my heart of every time I was disappointed by my experience with God. 

Something had to give….so I said to the Lord, “God, I am going to take a chance. I am going to hope as though I have never been hurt. I am going to hope so boldly, like I have never suffered. I am going to hope as if I have never been disappointed”…

It was an experiment for me to see what would happen if I put all of my trust in God to fulfill my hopes without even the tiniest ounce of unbelief, distrust, or worry. I chose to BELIEVE COMPLETELY. That meant I had to let go of the past. 

I spent several days exercising my faith to believe in my hopes, and I placed all of my weight on my hopes. No back up plans, no ‘what if’s’. Just a full surrender to hope…which is a CONFIDENT EXPECTATION. 

To my delight, and even surprise, God showed up early just like I hoped. 

The thing about the journey that God has taken us on, is that God is the one who shows us where to go every time. He tells us where to go, and how much to spend, and it is only for me to trust and follow Him. 

Much of the experience is learning how to trust Him beyond my understanding, and to expand into all He has called me to be. Obedience is not always what people think. Sometimes it can be the hardest thing to expand limiting beliefs. 

I needed to cover the steep month-long room and downtown parking payment, and I only had a few dollars lingering in my account. I didn’t even know how we would pay for the $13 parking place for moving day, let alone how to cover the month room, and month parking in the city. 

At the same time, during my faith exercising, God kept confirming the promise of His Sovereign support. My hopes grew into prayers, and my prayers grew into a promise. That promise was fulfilled. 

The experiment of releasing the history of past disappointments, and suffering is what saved me. God turned winter into art. After I cut off all of the ‘darkness’ of fear from my hopes, we soared up like eagles into the fulfillment of promise. 

With a swift burst of power, God showed up with the fulfillment of this promise, and we were blessed to extend the room until the 1st of March. Hopefully Chicago can thaw out a bit more before the Lord moves us to the next destination. 

It was the emergence of Mark 11:24, God answered with the outcome that I believed to receive. The horse was prepared for battle, but deliverance from the Lord. He had the power to uphold His words, after I let go of my history of fear and doubt. 

Faith must be constantly renewed. We have to see that each day is a new day, without taking the past pain and sorrows with us. When we can believe without the contaminations of past pain, then we can rise up into our hopes made tangible. 

The thing is, it cannot be just a little bit. Promises mixed with unbelief do not bloom into reality. We cannot move into the promise, and stay in the burial grounds of past pain, and difficulties. 

Everything can be new now. Today is a day that you have never visited. If you can have the vulnerability and bravery to release your history, the path ahead can be more glorious and miraculous than anything you’ve ever seen. 

Try the experiment, and begin again, as though this was the very first day. You’ll surely rise up like an eagle with God’s power beneath your wings. With a hope that throws all caution to the wind, to trust with all abandonment, nothing will ever stop you again. 

Opening up our heart with the vulnerability of absolute hope, and letting go of our history of past pain will release a new song over our experience. Everything is suddenly made new, and flowers that you’ve never even seen start to bloom with ravishing beauty.

There are no limits when you choose to start again. Hope without an inkling of doubt, and you’ll rise into places greater than you’ve ever dreamed, prayed, or imagined to be. ♡

I love you tremendously, 

Dannette

https://diamondsfromthedust.com/