Prophetic Word Yanks Mom Out of Kitchen and Into Political Campaign
Call it her Jonah moment: Michelle Darnell says she was in the kitchen one day when God redefined her career path.
“(It was a) calling that God literally yanked me out of the kitchen,” Darnell tells Charisma News. “I had four kids but He told me, ‘You need to do something about this, you need to change the world.'”
That was six years ago. Today, the foreclosure defense paralegal is running for the Washington House of Representatives District 48.
Every step of the way, she says, has been confirmed by prophecy.
When God first spoke to her in 2010, she had no desire to touch the political arena, but she felt convicted about the housing crisis and big banks evicting middle-class families from the homes where they’d invested all of their life savings.
“At the time, I thought that was absolutely insane … I’m not a politician; I don’t speak in public. I’m baking cookies and taking care of kids,” she says. “(God told me that) in 2016, I was supposed to run for office in Kirkland. Mind you, I’ve never even been to Kirkland, but I was to run for office in Kirkland and be the first female elected as libertarian in the country.”
But in 2014, she says she heard the voice of the Lord speaking to her once more. This time, He asked her to run in the 2014 campaign.
So Darnell pulled a Gideon and asked for two specific signs: The return of an earring she lost a few weeks before and for $500 to pay her filing fee.
By the day’s end, she had her earring and the King County GOP had offered to pay her filing fee.
But Darnell lost the campaign.
“Now I understand why He wanted me to run for office,” Darnell says. “(It was to) get experience to run in 2016. I was learning the ropes, and seeing that there’s a lot involved in a campaign. It definitely gave me the experience and network to call on this time around.”
Two years later, Darnell knew it was time to answer the Lord’s original calling. But she didn’t want to. She begged Him to let her retire. But God refused.
Darnell won her primary Aug. 2, and though she’s a “Ron Paul-style” Libertarian, she’s King County’s Republican endorsement.
Once more, God confirmed she was His pick.
“I was sitting in my car listening to the radio when a guy walks up to my car and said, ‘I have a message for you,'” Darnell says. “He proceeds to tell me that I’m going to win my race, but I need to think smaller, that I need to rely on my team. He said something was going to happen in three weeks, and it, in fact, came true. I was supposed to ride it out and have faith.”
The man spent a half-hour regaling Darnell with details of her own life, her children and why God had chosen her for such a time as this.
Darnell says her campaign and Libertarian platform is now a manifestation of her walk with Christ.
“The Libertarian message of freedom is an expression of love and empowerment. Jesus was the first libertarian, and He was killed for it,” Darnell says. “He challenged the religious and political establishments. He stood and talked more about freedom and freeing us from sin and oppression than he ever talked about homosexuality or any of these other things we think are so important to talk about. “I think we need more freedom, that’s why I’m running for office, to be an example of thinking differently. I think the whole world (is) going through transition right now, like labor pains (and the way to) go through a difficult time is to think about (issues) differently,” like how to solve the abortion problem.
“If our ultimate goal is to save babies, we need to rethink how to do that,” Darnell says. She’s pro-life, which differs from many popular Libertarian candidates. “We’re so divided and hateful. We need to talk about the economic situation and how a lot of families can’t afford to have any more children and those who can afford to have kids don’t have time or resources or emotional capacity to (train them up) with the sort of values (society needs). … TV is raising them and then we wonder why they’re shooting up schools, getting pregnant and on drugs. I think we need to rethink how we approach these things.”
She believes that with the Lord’s help, she can begin to change the world.
