Stay Lifted: Faith, Direction, and the Quiet Above the Noise

In this powerful continuation of the “Stay Lifted” series, Coach Dombrowski dives deeper into the hot air balloon analogy—unpacking not just what it takes to rise, but how God shapes your destination, controls your timing, and meets you in the quiet moments above the noise. Through Scripture and practical application, this episode challenges listeners to release control and embrace trust in every phase of their journey.

If you’ve been frustrated with where you are, how fast life is moving, or the silence you’re experiencing, this episode will reframe your perspective and ground you in truth. God isn’t delaying you—He’s developing you. And sometimes, the quiet is where your greatest clarity is found.

Transcript

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What if the reason you feel stuck isn't because God isn't moving, but because your fire went out? What if your life was never designed to stay grounded? What if you were built to rise, but you have just been trying to navigate without heat? Because a hot air balloon doesn't rise just because it wants to, it rises because there is something inside of it that's burning consistently. And I have a question for you, for all my listeners today. Is your faith producing lift? Or are you just sitting in the basket waiting for God to move? Welcome to the Intentional Grounding Godcast, Letters to Isaiah, where we stop listening to the noise of the world and start standing firm in the truth of God. I am your faith strategist, Coach Dombrowski, and I'm here to help you live out your walk, not just believe it. So the hot air balloon, all right. We're talking about lift to get that hot air balloon up in the air. So the L in the word lift is light the fire. This is gonna be our faith ignition. The I is increase the heat, right? Consistency with our faith. The F is fighting the drift. This is gonna be your spiritual navigation. And T is trusting the wind. This is the surrendering of your will to God's direction, right? So we're actually gonna start out with lighting the ignition, right? Faith is the ignition. Hebrews 11:1. And it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Okay. A hot air balloon does not rise until the burner is ignited. Okay, you can have the balloon, you can have the basket, you can have the fuel, but without ignition, nothing moves. And this is where a lot of people are at right now. We have the Bible, we have the church, maybe we have the calling, but there's no ignition. So I do want to break down that faith, and you've heard me say it before, faith is not passive belief. Faith is ignition. Faith is the moment that you say, I don't see it yet, but I'm stepping anyway. All right. Real life application for you would be like you're waiting to feel ready before you start. There's no ignition. Or you're waiting for confirmation before the obedience. Again, no ignition. Or maybe you're waiting for clarity before movement, right? You need to be grounded. So you can't steer a balloon on the ground, all right? You have to ignite it first. The direction comes later. Okay. So now we're going to increase the heat. Increasing the heat is going to be like your consistency. And it actually correlates with Romans 12, 11. And it says, never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Okay. Here's where people miss. It's not just about starting the fire, it's about maintaining the heat. Because the moment that the flame weakens, the balloon starts to descend. Okay. This is like, honestly, this is like spiritual reality. You don't fall overnight. You cool off. Okay. So this could maybe be like, I don't know, skipping time in the in the word would be like your heat dropping from the air balloon, compromising your values, the heat's going to drop again, surrounding yourself with negativity, the heat drops. And you know what? Nobody crashes a hot air balloon instantly. They just stop fueling it. So we're going to drop into the fighting of the drift because this is going to be the navigations piece of it. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And here's what people don't realize about hot air balloons. They don't stare like airplanes, they adjust altitude to catch different winds. Okay. You don't control everything in your life, but you do control your altitude. When life shifts, you have to remember not to panic. You just adjust spiritually. Feeling lost, increase your prayer, right? Take it higher. If you're feeling overwhelmed, return to scripture. Get reconnected. Stabilize yourself. Now we do have to trust the wind. John 3.8 says the wind blows wherever it pleases. This is the hardest part for a lot of us to understand because we want control. But God says you don't need control, you need trust. Okay? You won't always understand your direction. You won't always see the destination. But if the fire is lit, you will, you're gonna rise. All right. So I do want to talk a little bit about the cooling effect here. This is why people fall. There's an emotional cooling, right? You stop feeling, right? And so you stop feeling or or you have spiritual neglect. Less word, well, that equals less fire. Or maybe there's environmental pressure, you know, the wrong voices, which is going to lower your altitude. You see, you don't lose faith, you lose consistency. Where in your life has your fire cooled? And be honest. Are you rising or just floating low? You don't need direction, you need more heat. Now, if you quit here, you will convince yourself that this is just how life is. Now, this is what happens when the fire goes out. And when you stay lit, you don't just rise, you become a signal to other people. That rising is possible. Now, we know, well, I guess I'm gonna go into my letter to my grandson Isaiah right now. There will be moments in your life, buddy, where you're gonna feel stuck, where you feel grounded, where you feel like nothing is moving. And I want you to remember something. You were never created to stay down, but rising, it doesn't happen by accident. It happens when you protect your fire, you know, when you guard your faith, when you choose consistency, even when you don't feel anything. Don't chase direction first, chase the flame. Because if your fire stays lit, God's gonna take care of where you land. So light the fire, keep it burning, adjust your altitude, trust the wind. Do one thing that increases your heat, not tomorrow, today. All right. Now, I also want to ask you this question. What if God isn't trying to rush you? But you keep trying to speed up the wind? I mean, what if the reason that you feel anxious is because you're trying to fly like an aeroplane when God designed you like a hot air balloon? No engine, no steering wheel, no control over speed, just fire, altitude, and trust. And here's the question: are you frustrated with God because He won't move at your pace? So we're gonna go a little bit deeper because now we're talking about destination. We're talking about speed, we're talking about peace. Because if you miss these, you're gonna spend your whole life frustrated with a journey that was actually designed to bring you closer to God. In Jeremiah 29, 11, it says, For I know the plans I have for you. Now, one more thing that people don't realize about hot air balloons, you don't always choose the exact landing spot. Okay. You start out with a launch. That's what you plan. God determines the landing, right? We want exact outcomes, we want exact timelines, we want clarity. And God says, you know, I'm gonna show you once you rise. See, we're trying to map out our lives. I need to be here in six months. Or this should have happened already, but faith says, I trust the one who sees the full landscape. We don't need a GPS. Friends, we need surrender. If a balloon pilot tried to actually force a landing early, they might crash. Okay. And the speed, well, let's talk about why God moves slower than you want. Isaiah 4031. They they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up like wings or like well with wings like eagles. So hot air balloons are not fast. And that's intentional because speed sacrifices awareness. God's not in a hurry. He's building something you, and that's what can sustain the destination. The fast moments, they lead to miss lessons, they lead to weak foundations and shallow faith. But slow movement, it builds, it builds depth, it builds strength, and it builds awareness. As an example, you could be praying, God, please move faster. And God's responding to you. And he says, if I move faster, you won't be ready when you get there. But speed, that's your preference. Timing is God's authority. And I do also want to mention the altitude effect. Psalms 46, 10, it says, Be still and know that I am God. Now, when you hit a high enough, you get high enough in a hot air balloon, everything goes quiet. There's no engine noise, there's no chaos, there's no rushing. It's just pure stillness. And so the higher you go with God, the quieter the world becomes. You stop reacting to everything, you stop chasing validation, you stop needing constant noise. See the noise, it lives at ground level. Peace lives at altitude. So if your life feels loud, it might not be your circumstances, it might be your altitude. You won't control the destination until you trust in God's plan. You won't control the speed. You have to have trust in God's timing. And you're not going to control the silence. You must trust God's presence. Okay, what are you fighting God for right now? Is it the destination? Is it the timing? Is it the stillness? I mean, be honest. Are you frustrated because God isn't moving fast enough? Or because he's not taking you where you expected? You don't need the control. You need trust in the process. And I don't want you to quit at this point either. Because you're going to jump onto something that God was trying to elevate you through. Now, when you learn to trust the journey, you don't just arrive. You become someone who can carry others. I mean, one day we're going to want life to move faster. We're going to feel like we're behind, like things should be happening quicker. But we need to remember God is never late. He's intentional. And the places he takes you, they may not look like what we expected, but they're always going to be exactly where we need to be. We can't rush through life trying to get somewhere faster. We need to stop fighting the quiet moments because that's where you're going to hear him the clearest. Stay patient, stay steady. And most importantly, we have to stay lifted. So trust the destination. Trust the timing. Embrace the quiet. Today, stop rushing one thing in your life, just once, and trust God in it. As always, I appreciate you leaning in with me today. If this episode met you where you are, spoke to you on a deeper level, I'd be honored to hear your story. Drop me a line in the fan mail and share this with someone who might need it too. Because you never know who's waiting on a word just like this. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, Coach Dombrowski out. I'll be praying for you.