“Every NO is 50 YESES.”
I have been marinating on this phrase since I received this word in my Senior Prophecy from the one and only Ted Hanson at G42 in November 2019. Ted explained that in the Kingdom of God, “Every NO from the Enemy is a YES from God.” He said that for me, “I had a grace upon me that I had a gift to see and show others that Every No is actually 50 Yeses in the Kingdom.” I honestly was blown away and didn’t really understand the fullness of that statement at the time but thankfully, I have it recorded, so I can hear it again and contemplate it and let God reveal to me what that actually means for me. So, I definitely haven’t fully unpacked it and probably never will fully until Jesus returns. However, I felt prompted to write about what the Lord has revealed to me regarding this prophetic word over the past 6 months.
So, it’s been spoken over me that I am the “gift of hope” and I’ve been pressing into that more than ever these past few months with COVID craziness and isolation and moving to a new city alone and stress from a new job, etc, etc. I’m realizing that you must have hope as your foundation in order to view your NOs as YESES. You must be willing to step back and ask God to reveal the goodness in the situation and give you eyes to see at least a glimpse of what He’s doing and to strengthen you to press on and endure for the blessing that is coming. To view the No as a grace upon you which is ushering you into His best for you, even if it doesn’t look like it currently. To take on His perspective as you choose to renew your mind with His thoughts and to trust that He really is working all things for your good.
So, the Kingdom of God is one of abundance and multiplication. If Every No is not just One Yes but 50 Yeses, then it really is true that all His promises are “Yes and Amen.”
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.”
2 Corinthians 1:20
So, even if you can’t see the Yes in the No quite yet or you can only see One Yes, cling to the character of God and His faithfulness and His love for you and to that one tiny Yes that you can see to give you hope and strength to persevere. As you sit at Jesus’ feet and ask Him how he views the situation and hear His still small voice, you will start to see more and more of the Yeses but it’s a process and you may never identify them all BUT you trust that the Lord multiplies that one NO into 50 YESES because that’s who He is and He is in the business of multiplication and of producing tenfold what was sown.
And, at first, I thought the NO was from the Enemy but now I’m realizing that it could be a NO from the Enemy and/ or it could be a NO from God as well. You may be asking for a new job (Ahem, Ahem) and the Lord says No for now and asks you to stay where you are even though it’s hard. And the Enemy definitely throws NOs our way to discourage us and get us to doubt God and get us off track so it’s a Both/ And always.
I think it will be so encouraging and fascinating to see one day when we’re in Heaven all the ways the Lord protected us from things we didn’t even realize were dangers (sparing us from car accidents every time we drive, etc) and how His hand was guiding us all along and all the myriad of blessings we didn’t even realize that He was pouring down on us. It truly is a GIFT that we can even see any of the blessings/ YESES in our lives, honestly. God doesn’t have to reveal them to us but He chooses to because He’s a good Father who delights in giving us the desires of our heart and showing up again and again.
So, I’m just going to share a few examples of how God turned a NO into a YES for me in my life. It’s a cool exercise to look back on your life and look at God’s faithfulness in the moments where you experienced a resounding “NO.” I challenge you to do the same and try to find at least 5 examples where He turned your NO into a YES.
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In July of 2017, the company I was working for lost the contract with the hospital so I essentially lost my job and every door to a new job was slamming in my face and the difficulty of finding a new job spurred me on to take a leap of faith (with some prodding from amazing friends) and I ended up doing the World Race, which changed my life forever and where I grew in intimacy with the Lord and could hear His voice clearly and I was totally healed and transformed.
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For my missions practicum at G42, I requested to do a medical mission trip to Honduras that I had set up myself to combine my passions for Spanish and medicine. I was told No by staff, then set up to go to Costa Rica (Yay Spanish!) and lastly given a “choice” but really told to go to Swaziland, Africa to work with a nurse where I didn’t have many opportunities to use my medical skills as intended and I lacked purpose because I was alone and there wasn’t a lot for me to do. However, the Lord blessed this season and I was able to lead a college-aged group for a month and they were amazing and I learned how to be a leader and how I specifically lead and it was such a gift. I also got to rest with the Father in a slow season that was such a rare gift in this fast-paced world we live in.
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I was interested in a guy at one point but He was pursuing someone else and it was frustrating because I didn’t want to have feelings for him as I knew he was taken. The Lord revealed to me that he was the John the Baptist to my Jesus, and that he was the forerunner heralding the message to my heart from God that the Lord does have a good man for me but that this isn’t him and if I think he’s great, just imagine how amazing my actual husband will be! He advised me not to get caught up on John the Baptist and worship him but wait for the Messiah, my husband. Crazy analogy but that’s what the Lord spoke into my spirit.
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After I returned from G42, I planned to go back into the ER, as that was my previous experience in medicine. However, I realized that basically every hospital system wouldn’t allow you to work in the ER if you didn’t have experience in the past 24 months and that I would have to do another specialty where I could build up my procedure logs in order to eventually work in the ER again. I was frustrated and mad at God. And at this low point, I figured, “What do I have to lose? I might as well look into functional/ natural medicine options as that’s what I really want to do and nothing else is working out for me. So why not go for the gold?” Long story short, I googled holistic offices in Atlanta (where I had absolutely NO connections) and just messaged 10 practices. A few responded but nothing came of it. Then I saw a job posting for one of the offices and I applied and I was able to talk to the doctor who loves the Lord and offered to mentor me in my journey to learn/ practice functional medicine and I’ve been able to shadow him and his staff have welcomed me in with open arms and loved on me and taught me and perhaps one day, I can work with them. All that happened because I was at a breaking point and the Lord just showed up.
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My current job has caused me a lot of anxiety and stress and isn’t my ideal job but the Lord has told me to stay and to press in and to claim my authority and not let others steal my peace/ joy and that I am to be a light in this place for the season He has me there and that I just get to speak life over that clinic and my boss/ staff and love on the staff/ patients there and that it’s my privilege. And, I’ve also realized how providential it is that I got hired when I did right before the shutdown when many hospitals/ clinics went on a hiring freeze that is still in effect due to low volumes. I have not been furloughed and I have a recent job to put on my resume and I’m building up my procedure logs and I love my coworkers so He’s using this job to refine me and opening up my eyes to the blessings that abound in this season at this specific job.
Y’all! The Lord is so GOOD! And, EVERY NO really IS 50 YESES!
Declaring that over each person who reads this right now that Every No you experience will multiply into 50 Yeses. Love y’all!!
All my heart,
Raina
