When God Removes What You Thought You Needed
- Tina Smith
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
A few years ago, before the storm pressed in from every direction, the Lord gave me a dream.
I was standing at the front in a wedding gown, wearing red shoes. There was a holy confidence in it. Purity and fire. Covenant and courage.
In front of me stood my family and the friends who have carried me in my brightest days and my darkest nights. The ones who never reduced me to a moment. The ones who saw me through the eyes of Jesus and remembered who I was when I forgot. They celebrated with me. They wept with me. They held my arms up when I could not stand.
Behind me, seated in the chairs, were those who had been left behind. The misalignments. The relationships that could not carry the weight of the vision. The ones who misunderstood the mandate. The ones who brought their own wounds into the assignment and responded with dishonor, gossip, and slander.
At the time, I did not understand the dream. My life did not look like separation. It did not look like pruning. It did not look like loss.
Now I see.
The Lord was not reacting. He was rearranging.
He was making room for what He had always intended.
God is Pruning You
Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” John 15:16. Sometimes the fruit that lasts requires pruning that hurts.
There are seasons when God removes what we thought we needed in order to establish what He knows we must carry. John 15:2 reminds us that every branch that bears fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
It was never about me. In my humanity, I do not have the strength to carry mandate, rebuilding, restoration, and vision on my own. But “with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26.
The red shoes now make sense. There was a cost to obedience. There was blood in the surrender. There was courage required to stand when narratives were swirling.
But “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” Exodus 14:14.
If you are in a season where things feel unbearable, where alignments are shifting and you do not recognize your own life, do not interpret it through discouragement.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” Proverbs 3:5 to 6.
He has you.
He has you in the quiet nights when you are questioning everything.
He has you in the courtroom of opinions and accusations.
He has your call in His hands.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28
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Tina Smith
Author | Mentor | Supervisor | Mediator-in-Training | International Coach | Director | Founder of Selah Treatment Center
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