After two years in Maryland, my active duty orders are finally coming to an end, and I am headed back into Reserve Land. That means I get to pack up my family and move us to somewhere—anywhere—else to start our new adventure. Just one problem: we have no money, no housing, and no job lined up in our new season of life. 😬
It’s just the way God wants it to be.
No Job, No Money, No Problem
“That sounds like a BIG problem! How did you get here? Didn’t you prepare for your transition?” you ask. Well, we obeyed God and here we are.
You see, when we arrived in Maryland two years ago, God directed my family to spend all that we had saved up plus all the credit we had available to furnish our rental home, to get an electric vehicle and a travel trailer, to create a vegetable patio garden, and to stock a three month inventory of canned/dried/frozen foods as well as household/personal care items. We even bought all of our daughter’s clothes and toys for the next two years. We didn’t know exactly why God wanted us to do this, but we anticipated it was in preparation for some sort of shift in the global markets.
That shift came in the shape of global supply chain problems, national employment issues, and international conflicts leading to difficulties finding or affording what we wanted to buy. Many of our neighbors had to go to multiple stores to find cat food or eggs, complained about the increase in gas prices, and decided to slim down their grocery lists because of major hikes in food prices, but we didn’t feel the effects of any of those shifts. Honestly, life felt pretty good and we were thankful we obeyed.
Now, two years later, we have a house full of high-quality stuff, a deeper understanding of the value of on-hand resources, increased faith—and no savings or available credit left to our name. Honestly, I expected God to pay off our debt by now (because we started without debt and only got into debt out of obedience) but it hasn’t yet happened. We are reminding ourselves that God brought us here for a reason: to propel us into the next season of our lives, including the next season of God’s provision, resources, and faith.
A Job I Never Wanted
Meanwhile, throughout the last two years, God began speaking to me more clearly about what my next civilian job was going to be. It started with God telling me to build this website in 2021. I replied, “What am I going to do with a website?” God replied, “It will show the world your heart.” “But I want to show the world your heart,” I replied. “If you show them your heart, they will see both our hearts,” said God.
Later, God began to speak to me about becoming a public figure of some sort. I didn’t know what the route to publicity would be, but no possible route excited me at all; in fact, all I could say to God was, “Why would you want me to be a public figure? I want neither fame nor fortune.” “That’s why I can trust you with being a public figure,” replied God.
God then explained what that would mean; God told me I will become a speaker, author, and influencer. Then, I looked up what those three things meant:
- A motivational speaker is essentially a prophetic preacher like Peter
- An author is essentially a teacher like Luke, or Paul
- An influencer is essentially an apostle like any of the original disciples of Yeshua.
I guess I will be in good company. 😂The only problem is this: to make a living like as a public figure, you need to be a little famous already. People need to know you. It usually takes time to get enough fans to be able to live off of a public figure type income—and we don’t have money saved up to buy that time. When I asked God about that part, God said, “Don’t worry, it’ll happen quickly, but the details are mine alone to know.”
Well, I have finally offered God my heart and given God permission to move forward with his/her plans for my life in this area. Let’s see what happens.
The Land That God Promised
During the same period, God began telling me to dream God-sized dreams just like my husband does because the size of my dreams were just too small for God. So my husband and I began to dream of the life we wanted to build for our family: it would start with an empowered life that learns how to take godly authority over the land on which it lives and causes it to thrive. Thanks to some YouTube real estate channels, we fell in love with a piece of land in Colorado. It has everything we want: a good amount of acreage full of “Rockies and trees as far as the eye can see”, a tasteful house near a pond, a couple of other buildings, and not much else. It’s a short drive from a town with several restaurants and stores, and a 1.5 hour drive from a major airport.
What’s not to love?!
When we asked God if this was the place in which God wanted us to live, God replied, “You can change the world from anywhere. You might as well enjoy where you live.” That sounded like agreement to us.
So we are packing up our bags, moving into our 160 sq.ft. travel trailer, and going west: to Estes Park, Colorado at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park. We’ve never been there, but we hear it’s great, and it’s the start of our next family adventure with God.
Join Us On Our Adventure
Sounds crazy, right? Well, we have gone far too long without enough crazy in our lives! After all, if Abraham could pack up all his stuff and go “to a place where I will show you” just at the word of God, then so can we. I’m inviting all of you to join my family on our 40-day adventure of being led by the Holy Spirit to find resources, a home, and a job in a brand new place where we have never lived, never visited, and know no one. I’m calling this transition #40daysoffaith.
What’s more, I invite you to pray about what your own 40-day faith journey might be. Do you need to follow God into a new profession, a new relationship, a new commitment to your wholeness? Whatever it might be, I invite you to share using the hashtag #40daysoffaith. My hope is that our testimony will demonstrate that God can (and still does) lead The Believers into greater and greater purposes.
TenayBenes.com
Day 1 of #40daysoffaith
starts January 1st, 2023.
Follow my faith journey
and share yours.
Updates
Click on a day to find out where we are in our journey. As you read, keep in mind this postscript to keep the faith!
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