Every lapse in progress, or setback, that has happened to me over the past twelve years of my life has been divinely designed. There is no doubt in my mind that God’s plan for my life has been for Him to use my every setback as a setup for my reason-for-existing comeback.

In the last twelve years, I have gone through long seasons of displacement—times when I have felt like I had lost God’s favor . . . felt like nothing I did pleased God. These times of feeling as if I were flying below God’s radar have been extremely uncomfortable, like I was in quicksand and sinking fast. Even so, His Holy Spirit always has confirmed in my spirit, always has made it crystal clear to me, that God was using my times of displacement (seasons of being moved or shifted from the usual place or position) to show me that He was unsettling me so that He can settle me in my divinely appointed place. Currently, I am waiting on my reason-for-existing comeback.

The divine truth is that my displacements meant that I had outgrown my prior places: relationships, jobs, spiritual maturity, and ministerial duties. Thus, in the last twelve years of my life, my divorce setbacks, my employment setbacks, my familial setbacks, my social setbacks (loss of friends or the lack of close interaction from friends), my emotional setbacks, my “calling” setbacks, my sanctification setbacks (spiritual growth at a stand still . . . spiritual discernment disabled), and, the biggest setback of all, my financial setbacks are those divinely appointed setups (God’s predestined plans for the future He has for me) that, at the time of most of my goings through, it seemed as though my circumstances only had created a kicked in my gut effect.

Needless to say, I didn’t always recognize how God was working in my life. I didn’t always discern His plans to take care of me, not abandon me, but to give me the future I also hoped for (Jeremiah 29:11), especially not while I was feeling frustrated, stressed, worried, and sometimes convinced to give up on God’s promises, and even give up on my own life.

I am thankful to God that, in spite of my feelings of lost, my feelings of not belonging or fitting in anywhere, He has never failed to see me through my worst of times. Having comeback stronger, spiritually speaking, than I was before each displacement takes place, I now know what I need to do this time. In particular, I am spiritually mature enough to wait on my next comeback without contemplating the give up and go back to Egypt (back to the places that I have outgrown) thoughts that come against God’s Truth (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

However, I have to say that it usually is only in retrospect that even seasoned believers, who are weathering life’s storms, can respond to their displacements like seasoned sailors who never look back, never look down, and never give up; it often takes much time and many storms before Christians become the kind of seasoned believers who just keep on anticipating their comeback, which by the way doesn’t always mean economic recovery . . . comeback doesn’t always pertain to getting ahead in life, as in prospering financially.

In my case, even though I am waiting on my next comeback, I know that comeback for me means God is going to bring me back stronger, greater, and more committed to my call—more committed to what God already has promised me. If financial prosperity flourishes in my life during this comeback, then the monetary increase that God transfers to me is that which He gives me to advance the Kingdom of God on Earth.

What I am experiencing right now (my setback) is solely because the devil senses that God has set me up for a comeback, and that I am just a short distance away from walking in my destiny. So, in this pressing time, I will continue to press, to press, and to press on, while, in between my old and my new place, I also will be sure to take every thought captive, for I am fully aware of the direction my thoughts will take me if I act on those thoughts that are not in harmony with God’s purpose and plan for my life.

God has me on the move, and soon He will make the shift . . . place me where I am destined to fulfill that which He has intended for me to accomplish. When He shifts me, I will find myself no longer displaced, but rather in the right place at the right time, and doing the Will of my Father on time!