Today’s guest, Founder of Women World Leaders Kimberly Hobbs, is interviewed by Nancy Sabato, host of The Call podcast series. Kimberly shares her personal and transparent story of walking in sin, to full surrender, to a life of serving the Lord Jesus Christ in a worldwide ministry calling. *****
Nancy Sabato Kimberly, welcome to the call. Thank you, Nancy,
Kimberly Hobbs It’s a pleasure to be here. Hi, everybody,
Nancy Sabato How can you encourage someone who may feel that they have been left behind in their dreams of doing something great for the kingdom of God?
Kimberly Hobbs Well, we all have a story, ladies. And we come from a past. And I just believe that through sharing our stories, through being able to be open and transparent, that God will use those stories for His purpose. And when, when you can open up and share the great and powerful things that God does through your life that in turn inspires others to think that wow, if this person can overcome this, or that, you know, I can do this. And, and it just shows that our Lord is strong, he is powerful, he can do great and mighty things. And we just show them how through sharing our testimony of how we came to know him.
Nancy Sabato And that’s where I bring you into this. And so what happened to you that turned you towards a heart for Jesus and transformed your life.
Kimberly Hobbs God gave me a husband at 19 years old, we fell in love. And we had two children, we were going to church faithfully, we became very involved in church and, and we lived a simplistic life. And my dream was coming true. We built a log home out on five acres of land, we just, we just loved it. And our church life was becoming very involved. And because we built this home kind of far out, we decided to take a little break from church, and we are going to stay close to God, how many of us have good intentions, right? Like, we’re gonna, oh, you know, I can handle this, I’m just going to stop going to church, and we’re strong in the Lord. And we’re going to just do our thing for a little while, we’re going to focus on getting our house and our land and build a horse barn. And you know, I’m still, you know, searching for those dreams. And so as active as we were in this very small church, did a lot we pulled out, we took that rest period. But that’s exactly when the enemy got his hooks in. And everything that was our focus, which was God and family, and church, and we did everything together as a family, and it was innocent. But we allowed outside influences to start coming in. And Romans 612 says, to beware, you know, do not let sin control the way that you live, and don’t give in to sinful desires, and don’t let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. And that’s the beginning of the tears in my story, is that enticement of sin when we took ourselves out of that connection with God, and we didn’t have that covering, you know, just going to church and just having the accountability anymore. We were left to ourselves, we’re starting to spread out in our life. And we, my husband, and I became tempted in in sexual ways. And that’s where the, the devil got in to destroy that Christian foundation and we had no armor for battle, because we weren’t going to church. We are not reading our Bible like we should we just kind of allowed ourselves to get busy with things in the world. And that haunting memories still haunts me to this day, the pain of regret because the devil just slithered his way in. And without God’s presence in our life, and just that you constantly had that struggle of temptation, you know, good and evil. We got into an entangled mess, both of us in our sanctified marriage bed became defiled. And we tried to hide from God but we really were already exposed. And it’s weird when we tried to hide right, everybody like I think people can relate because you justify what you’re doing. You say it’s not that bad, and you try to convenience yourself, but really, you’re doing wrong. And God says in Psalm 90, verse eight that all of our flaws and faults are in full view to God, everything that we want to hide God searches it out, and he exposes it by the radiance of his face. Well, he knows What we’re doing right so here we are in our weakened marriage. And the enemy had a foothold. And in there was darkness all around in my life started growing into a monster of lies, deceit, wickedness. And it became like a sexual addiction. And unfortunately, our 20 year marriage began to crumble. And he went one way I went another we divorced, and all my dreams were shattered, because I truly loved him. We were married for 20 years. So the challenge is facing, you know, that perfect life and that dream were all shattered. And I was crying out to God through that time, because I’m like, God, how did this happen? You know, because everything was so beautiful. My perfect life was going perfectly, you know, until we stepped out of that, again, that covering that community. And it just seemed like God wasn’t hearing my cries during that time, because I wasn’t happy. I knew I was in sin. And James 22 are James 226 says that faith without works is dead, right? So I can cry out to God, but if I’m not doing anything about it, and I’m living and wallowing in that mire, and dirt and scum, what’s God gonna do? That’s my choice. That’s our choice to stay in sin. And I knew God was there, I cried to him, but I wasn’t willing to change. So my tears could have filled up buckets with that addiction of sin that weighed me down, and I cried and cried, and I wanted to be free from that sexual addiction. And I wanted my innocent life back, but it wasn’t coming back. And the devil had his hooks so deeply in me. So anybody that battles addiction out there, I know what those hooks are when they get into you, because you you try and try and try and you want to escape, but you’re trying on your own. So how do you get away from that, you know that the enemy is powerful, he’s powerful, and he’s roaming around trying to devour us. So again, I wallowed in that pity of unforeseen misery, because I didn’t see it coming at all. And I tried so hard to just hold on to glimpses of my past life, and I wanted it back so bad, I wanted that happy marriage back, but I couldn’t stop with that. sexual drive toward other things, now you get a taste of it, and it just wasn’t coming back. And it was so intense that pain was so intense that I just wanted to die. Nothing was satisfying. I tried to go to church here and there, and but I still felt the absence of God’s presence. And you might be wondering why. And again, it’s because my heart wasn’t willing to change or give up. I really didn’t want to let go. But I kept saying, God, God, I please stop it, you know, like, like, God’s the fix, I’ll do all. He gives us His Word with all the instruction. But do we really look into that and make a difference with our hearts, so I wasn’t willing to change and I wasn’t willing to fully surrender to Him. And I wasn’t obedient to God. And so the cycle continued, and there was no healing from the sin. And I was deceived one day, that my prayers might have worked. And I use that word deceived, because when you’re looking, and the enemy knows you’re looking for things to get you out of what you’re not happy. And so I’m praying, but remember, I’m not praying the right prayers. I’m just praying, God, stop this pain, God stop all this, but I’m still going and falling back into sin. So feeling my my prayers worked, I met an extremely wealthy man. And he I started confiding in him and talking to him. And once again, the devil lured me in to another lifestyle. And this one was so strong and so intense, and the chains of bondage that had me shackled. I, before I even knew it, you know, it’s like, that’s how strong the lie is. Right? Nancy? Like, the devil wants us to believe that lie. So he’s gonna put whatever he can in front of you to continue the misery but he’s gonna mesmerized like he mesmerized me.
Nancy Sabato Yep, he will do if yes, he finds the crack. I tell people this all the time. He finds the crack in your armor, and he knows exactly where to go with it.
Kimberly Hobbs Exactly. And so I was memory mesmerized I was filled with now a complete different stimulation. And this was tantalizing to my eyes every moment my attention was a lord to money and power. Soon I was traveling to places that I only saw in movies i You couldn’t even imagine in your wildest dreams. I was traveling the world, money and power places I was meeting movie stars. I was meeting presidents of the United States I met presidents dinner with presidents a breakfast with presidents. This relationship developed with this person. And before I knew it, I moved in with him and I compromised everything that I knew in God’s eyes to be true because now I was being taken care of I was treated like a princess. As time progressed, I found myself being fed quantities of earthly abundance. And now it went from the sexual to now the addiction to living this lifestyle, you know that only 1% of the whole world probably gets to live I was driving Ferraris and Bentley’s and Rolls Royce and I can choose from general lineup of cars in the garage of whatever car I wanted to drive. It was like I had jewels of every kind diamonds and more diamonds I had a seven carat engagement ring because he said he was going to marry me right? So all these lies, I’m just led to believe the lie and he knew enough and don’t get me wrong he I believe he loved me. But the devil was going to continue to make me believe the lies I’m going to marry you here’s a seven carat diamond ring you know and my goodness I had my closet was as big as people’s houses. And I had every designer outfit in it you know Louie Vuitton purses, Prada, Gucci, you name it. We traveled all over the world, I had it filled. So I had magnificent show horses, you guys like I can’t tell you this lifestyle because but this is going to be the power of God when I tell you the clincher. He even brought my family in and bought them everything. So that relieved a lot of my guilt that he was taking care of them too, which again held me captive in this lifestyle. But I was lonely. And the more I was given the more I started to just give to other people I was taking care of completely. So I wanted everybody else to get a taste of what I was living. So I started giving my money to everybody in need. But I still had that emptiness growing inside of me. It was like incredible, having lived through what I lived through. And I was slowly losing my identity, who I was because I belonged to somebody else. And I was so disconnected from God like you can’t even imagine that disconnect. And the emptier I watched my life become I again, I just compromised everything and I became silent in this world of just opulence and festivities until one day. It was truly a miracle. Because I knew if this man just accepted Jesus will get married will live happily ever after will have a perfect life and everything’s gonna be fine. So there was a church I knew that was going to Israel. And I was asked everybody I knew that was Christian to pray for my fiancee who I was living with, okay, just getting compromised everything. So I’m like, could you pray that God will touch his heart because I know if I asked him to go on this trip, he’ll go because we travel everywhere in the world. I never asked him for anything. I’m gonna ask him for this one thing. And of course, he accepted. So everybody was praying for him. And I thought to myself, alright, God, you’re gonna do a mighty miracle in this man’s in this man’s life on this trip. And so we went and as we listened every day to messages on that seven day trip. And I had been to Israel several times before, but it was in a different way. We were you know, we built an underground playground for the kids over on the Gaza Strip and but I had never been on the Christian side of it. And so he did that for me and he took me in I knew something powerful was going to happen on this trip. And I thought he’s going to come to know Jesus as a savior. And as we went through message after message, God was convicting my heart. And he wanted my attention. And it was the last night of the trip. And we were in the Garden Tomb. And my fiance, was there for every message, and he gets a call, and he goes and leaves the garden. And now this was God, because God removed him. So I wouldn’t sit there and think, Is he getting this? Is he hearing this? Does he understand this? God wanted my attention for that message. And that message was about surrendering your life. And we were going to take communion. And I sat there wrestling with God in that garden, the last day of the trip, because I knew everybody was watching me on that trip. And like, Who are these people that are on this trip with us? And I thought, I can’t take communion God because I know what that meant. If I took communion unworthy, and I hadn’t confess my sins, and what is confession mean? That we’re going to turn 100%? And go the other way, right? That REPENT OF HEART, if I didn’t do that, and I took that communion unworthily, what does the Bible say about all the plagues, all the damnation that’s gonna come to you cannot do that. And so I had this wrestling match with God like, and God says in Psalm 37, seven, to quiet your heart, in His presence, and pray, keep hope alive as you long for God to come through for you. And I heard God speaking to me, and he asked, Do you love me? And do you trust me. And I sat there, as the communion was going around, and I was the last one in that circle of 30 people to take communion. And it seemed like forever for it to get to me. And God said, I needed to walk away from this lifestyle and repent of all of it everything. Because my entire path needed to be confessed right now in that moment, and God said, I want your heart back. But I want all of it. And I heard his voice really clear. And I was trembling with fear, because I knew whose voice I heard. And I was faced with a choice to make. Could I surrender everything to Jesus? Where are you right now in your life? Can you surrender everything in this moment to Jesus and walk away from the sin that may be consuming you right now you have a choice to make? God’s not going to make that for you. He gives us the choice. So where are you we’re setting in to me right now. Because how could I do this? How can I walk away this man took care of everything, and I had everything in the world. And Philippians four, six tells us Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything and tell God what you need. I needed out of this life of disobedience. So simply put,
Kimberly Hobbs I surrendered it all to Jesus at that moment, and I trusted him inside that Garden Tomb that night. And I knew that God heard me. And I told him, I was sorry for everything. And I said, God, I don’t know how I’m going to go forward, and I’m gonna trust you. And I know you have a purpose for my life. I don’t know what it is. And I don’t know how I’m gonna get out of this. But please, God, will you forgive me, and gives me a chance to go forward, I’m just going to trust you. And that’s what we have to do people, we have to trust him completely surrender it all. Put yourself on the altar and give it all to Jesus. First, John one nine says that if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I just knew that’s what I had to do. And I did it. And God forgave me. And so I had to put action on my prayer, right? We have to put action on what we say we’re going to do. So Psalm 86, seven says, I’ll call out to you whenever I’m in trouble. And you will answer me he’s going to answer you people just like He answered me. I called out to him in that moment. I didn’t know where I was going to go. I didn’t know where I was going to live. I let go of everything in my life to be calm the puppet of this man, and I had no voice, but God knew. And so I needed to trust. And God says in Psalm 138, three, as soon as I pray you answer him He, you encouraged me by giving me strength. That is such a powerful verse. And God strengthened me in that moment. And I began to pray fervently. And this prayer brought healing that I started out with, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, so I had to do both of those right, I had to seek God’s face, and that garden, and I had to say, Yes, God, I’m going to turn from my wicked ways. Then he said, he would hear from heaven, and he would forgive my sins, and he was going to bring healing. And he did. So now focusing on God in His Kingdom, I had to make a change. And I had to serve Him with purpose and a plan and obedience. And God says, then you will call on me and I will come and pray, you will come and pray with me and I will listen to you. So God heard my heart that I wanted to serve Him, that I wanted to do something for him, I wanted to start my life over and be obedient to Him, in a way of service to my king. So it wasn’t easy, because I had to tell somebody that I loved and that loved me and gave me a life I could only dream of he didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t understand it. But I had to say, I need to go and I needed to go serve the Lord. And I need, I can’t live with you anymore. I’m living in sin. And that says He will guide us, He will. So when you let go of that he’s going to guide you, he’s going to give you help. It wasn’t easy. I’m not gonna say it was easy. It was I wanting to fall back and run back to that life of luxury that I live, you bet I was. And it was constant that I needed to rely on God. So what God told me to do was to leave Ohio, I was born and raised 45 years of my life up there. But that’s where everything I knew was there. So I had to make a change. So if you’re addicted to something, and you’re going through something, you have to make that change, so that you’re not putting yourself in that temptation over and over. So I had to get away from everything I knew. God led me to Florida. And that’s where I heard his voice that he called me to write and share his story. And how important it is to start sharing our story because there is healing through it. I didn’t know there was going to be healing through writing. So I left it all I came down to Florida. And I got this one bedroom, dilapidated old condo, it was my detox place, because I had to start stripping off all of the all of the stuff that I was clinging to, that I thought was my new identity. And that’s not what my identity was. I knew my identity was now in Jesus and him alone. And so I had to have a completely different look of how I was living, not that I was punishing myself. Because at first when I got this little condo, and it was like from the 1950s. And everything was old in it. And I was like how am I doing? I went from a house servants and laying on iron sheets every night. No, I’m in this, this, this one bedroom place and but there is where God healed my heart. And as I started writing, my purpose started coming out. And I found so much healing and writing in writing out my story. And I encourage you, if you’re listening, write your story. Talk about your story, share your story, and people will encourage you as they hear it. And Psalm 191 69 says, Oh Lord, listen to my cry. Give me the discerning mind that you promised. And during writing, I would ask him all the time, God, what do you want me to write? How do I write this? I have to be transparent for you. And so I opened the Bible one day to begin my writing and I seriously closed my eyes. I asked God, God, give me a verse that you want me to start over with that will become my life first. I had never done that before. And I closed my eyes. I opened the Bible. I was in Orlando, Florida, sitting in somebody’s backyard and I looked open, I opened my eyes and it was Ephesians 320, which says unto him, who’s able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or imagine according to the power that’s at work within us I circled words on that scripture in my Bible. I had never seen that verse before. This was 1214 years ago, never saw that verse before. And I kept circling words, God, what is this verse mean? So for two hours, I sat there, and that verse has now become my life verse. It’s our verse for women, world leaders, the ministry I’m in. Because God said He was going to do it, he was going to do exceedingly, abundantly above what I can imagine, not by what I was doing, but by what he was going to do the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit working within me, and he will do that for you, too. It’s not going to be you. It’s going to be him working through you, but only when you give him that permission by full surrender. And so as I communicated with Him through prayer, morning, noon, and night for four years, four years, and I was lonely, I wanted a man in my life, I pray God, I want a man in my life. I was, I wanted to go out with friends, but I knew I had to just seclude myself with God. And I’m not saying everybody could do this, your story might be different. But that’s what it took for me to get in the Word, to write my story to understand what God was speaking into my heart, all the lonely days that I would cry out to God. He was doing a new work in me and he was preparing me for that man I prayed for that I could serve and travel the world with that I could do things of God. I wanted to do all those things I was doing before that I felt so empty with because I wasn’t with a believer. I wasn’t with the man that God wanted me to be with. But I had known in my heart he was going to provide that if I just stayed the course and stayed obedient to Him. So fight, people fight with all you can to fight that enemy in the lies that he puts in your head and you look to God every day, morning, noon, and night, Pray be in the Word. I can’t. I just can’t express that enough because that is what changed my life. God brought into my life, the man of my dreams, we now serve the Lord together. He’s in his ministry unite and men of honor. God brought to me a vision of just there’s so many women in this world that are broken and hurting, like I was an empty and messed up in their life, and they carry the shame and the guilt and they can’t release it. But God, and so I had a passion to start a ministry to help women, empower them, encourage them with my story. And that’s how women world leaders started. So it took time. I’m not gonna say it happens overnight. But Isaiah 6524 This vs. Awesome. God says I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs. I will go ahead and answer their prayers. Isn’t a beautiful Nancy like that?
Nancy Sabato Yes. He always goes before us. Well, since we’re talking about women’s world leaders, talk about that. What are you doing there? And you have the podcast talk about that a little as well.
Kimberly Hobbs So Women World Leaders is a group of women that have God has joined us together from around the world we connect on Facebook or through women world leaders.com You can find us on Facebook at women world leaders. But what we do is we provide ways for women to connect from wherever you are. We have opportunity for you to serve God with us. What are your gifts, what are your talents, we want to hear about them? We have different ways of serving which is we allow you to write your stories. We do books we do a magazine called voice of truth that comes out and it goes around the world. We are digitally in 70 countries we are nationally in the printed version. Our books have all gone to number one best seller and you can share your story by writing we come alongside of you and help you do that. We have podcasts where God has called us to do I do empowering lives with purpose every Monday and share women around the world their stories, their god stories, how God is moving because other women need to hear that. And then we have teaching podcasts on Wednesday where my co partner Julie Jenkins, in the ministry she’s a teacher And she teaches through the word walking through the Word. And so then Fridays we have celebrating God’s grace. And different women in the ministry give you just that inspiration that go into the weekend. And it’s just tools, people, it’s just tools to stay connected. Stay engaged. We have zoom meetings for leadership Connect. We have prayer groups, where we have 50, prayer warriors on a group knew that pray over the ministry, if you love to pray, come on board with us. And we’ll put you in our prayer group. We need people that pray for our world, right? Yes, but we just do so much. And I just I love just working and sharing with women and meeting new women. And you can reach out to me at Kimberly, at women, world leaders with an s.com. And just send me an email and say, I want to connect with you. I want to talk to you and I would love, love, love to connect with you. Yes, actually, all of all of our books are on women world leaders.com, you can go to the shop. Thank you so much. And they are available on Amazon. So we have about eight books out right now. So one of the things the ministry is doing is this amazing magazine that goes out worldwide, digitally in 70 countries. It’s called voice of truth. And it goes out to the US in printed version. And you can go to our website, women, world leaders, and you can look on the website and read it all the past editions are up, but look at how beautiful like it is full color, All scripture and different things in here to bless women. And it’s just amazing. There’s no advertising or anything. God provided this amazing coffee table quality magazine. And it’s just beautiful. So yes, please go to women world leaders.com. And you can read it online. And if you like it, then you can request your copy in the mail. If you’re in the United States.
Nancy Sabato Wonderful. And what would you like to leave the audience with today.
Kimberly Hobbs And the enemy is going to keep you as far from the Lord as He can because he knows that God has a great and mighty purpose for your life. And please follow after God get in His Word, pray, surrender, whatever it is in your life that is holding you captive. surrender that to God and allow him to take over in your life and know that he’s going to do what you ask. He’s not. He is a respectful guy, but he’s not going to interfere where he’s not welcome. So ask him in. surrender your life to him completely. And then seek Him with all your heart. Every every day in Scripture is a must walk with Him in prayer and communication. Let him be your best friend. Morning, noon, and night. That’s how much you need him not just once a week when something happens. You need Him every day, every hour. So I just encourage you to seek Him with all your heart and He says he will be found.
Nancy Sabato I pray this program has strengthened and encouraged you. And in James 2:5 he says, Listen, my dear brothers and sisters, has God not chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world. To be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him. You’ve been chosen for greatness. Pray for God to open your mind to all the great possibilities because God speaks to you every day. Are you listening to the call?