From Bankruptcy to Breakthrough: How Edna Harding Found Her Calling in the Ruins

Edna Harding was hiding in a bathroom in Houston, praying for one more chance. Her husband—the one who'd promised to love her—had just tried to choke the life out of her, declaring he would "kill the Jesus" inside her. When she saw his eyes turn, she knew something demonic had taken hold.

That night in Houston, Texas, Edna texted 911 to her parents. They arrived just in time. As she walked out of that house, blood-stained and broken, she made a covenant with God: "From this day forward, you have all of me."

She was in her mid-twenties. She had no idea that covenant would cost her everything—and give her back far more than she lost.

The Girl Who Saw Angels

Edna grew up in a home where faith was woven into the fabric of daily life. Her mother was the first in her family to accept Christ; her father was the last—the rebel who finally surrendered. Edna recited scripture before she could tie her shoes. She saw angels. She knew God was real.

But knowing God and surrendering to Him are two different things.

As a teenager, Edna straddled two worlds—one foot in church, one foot in the world. She pretended to smoke without inhaling, played at rebellion without fully committing. It was a dangerous game that led her into a decade-long relationship with a man who looked good on paper: Baptist, clean-cut, respectable.

Behind closed doors, he was an alcoholic and an abuser. Edna kept it hidden. She was a youth leader, the deacon's daughter, the girl everyone looked up to. Admitting she'd made a mistake felt impossible.

The night he tried to kill her, she forgave him—not because she was weak, but because she knew she was done. "I forgive you," she said. "But no more."

Forty Days in the Wilderness

After the divorce in 2013, Edna went to Israel for forty days. She walked where Jesus walked. She wept at the empty tomb. And somewhere between the Garden of Gethsemane and the Via Dolorosa, God healed the trauma she'd been carrying.

I fell to my knees and couldn't move. My tears just flowed and flowed. I knew the Lord was healing me from that traumatic time—all of my past. I went into the tomb and came out a new person.

She returned to Texas hungry for more—more of God, more of the prophetic, more of the supernatural she'd tasted in Israel. That hunger led her to a new church. It also led her into the worst deception of her life.

The Scam That Almost Destroyed Her

The pastors saw her vulnerability and her bank account. They told her God had spoken: "He wants you to give me $10,000." Then another $10,000. Then they asked for her Social Security number to take out loans—commercial real estate to fund the gospel in third-world countries, they said. Transitional homes for abused women.

Edna, still raw from her own abuse, said yes.

For two years, $7,000 a month drained from her accounts to pay for loans she never received. The pastors stopped paying her back after the first month. Her hair fell out. She broke out in hives. She had no money for food. She was on a forced fast, starving while the people who called themselves shepherds fed on her trust.

When the FBI and SEC finally got involved, Edna learned the truth: she wasn't the only victim. Over 144 people across sixteen states—many of them elderly believers who'd given their pensions—had been scammed by the same network of pastors.

The lawyers asked if she wanted to sue. The Holy Spirit said no.

Edna obeyed. She pled guilty to being part of the scam—even though she wasn't—to protect the other victims' cases. She filed bankruptcy. She lost her two offices, her home, her car, and the reputation she'd spent years building on integrity.

It was like a Joseph season. I was being blamed for something I did not do. And God asked me, 'Do you still trust me?' First, I did. The first six months, yeah. Then as the years went on, it was harder.

Building a Business with Nothing

Here's the part that would break most people: before Edna discovered the scam, God told her to quit her six-figure corporate job and work on her business full-time. She obeyed. Then everything collapsed.

She had no income. No safety net. No Plan B.

But she had a calling. And God had positioned her—through corporate betrayal, abusive marriages, and church deception—to understand the intersection of faith and business like few others could.

Today, Edna runs Favor and Wealth, a growth strategy firm that serves three distinct audiences. She helps startup founders turn God-given dreams into executable plans. She scales six- and seven-figure businesses by eliminating revenue constraints through clear positioning, strong sales systems, and operational flow. And she advises successful CEOs who want to align their companies with God's standards—rooting out any trace of mammon, control, or New Age influence they've unknowingly adopted.

Her clients don't just want business growth. They want kingdom impact. They want to fund the gospel through excellence, not hype. They want to build companies where employees can make a living, not just survive paycheck to paycheck.

My role in the kingdom is to fund the gospel. And the way I do that is by helping those who have a vision and dream from God—something that came from Him. I help them go from 'no' to 'known'—first by God, then by man.

The Restoration

In 2015, Edna met a man who would become her husband—a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, a man who loved God and protected her fiercely. He proposed after watching her file bankruptcy and lose everything. They married in 2018. Today, they have two daughters, ages four and six.

It's the opposite of what she had before. Not just better—completely redeemed.

Edna documented her journey through the scam in over 366 videos on YouTube. She didn't do it for views or sympathy. She did it so that when God brought her through, no one could question whether the story was real.

Now, when she speaks at Shell or ExxonMobil conferences, she puts Scripture on the slides. Some organizers say no. Some say yes. The ones who say yes? Those are the events where people come up to her crying, saying, "That word was right on time."

Fixing What Broke Her

Edna once asked God why He kept showing her the ugly side—of corporate, of sales, of church. His answer changed everything: "That's the area I called you to fix."

The same spirit of greed and deception that operates in the marketplace operates in the church. Edna was called to expose it, to shine a light, to show believers that prosperity without integrity is not kingdom prosperity.

She's been there—on both sides of the table. She's built businesses with plenty and with nothing. She's seen God multiply loaves when the cupboard was bare. And now she teaches others to do the same, using strategies rooted in Scripture, not shortcuts.

People perish because of lack of knowledge. The church is trying to reach the lost, but there are wounded people within the church who aren't being equipped with wisdom and tools to get out of that funk. We need to get to the root.

That's what Edna does. She gets to the root—unforgiveness, fear, pride, anxiety, the soul wounds that sabotage success. She helps leaders build internal wealth before external wealth, because God's Word promises we will prosper as our souls prosper.

She didn't choose this calling. It chose her—in a bathroom in Houston, in the empty tomb in Jerusalem, in the bankruptcy court where she lost everything and found her voice.

If you're a leader who's tired of surface-level faith and business content, who wants to integrate Scripture into strategy without compromise, who believes God can use your business to fund the gospel—Edna Harding knows the way. She's walked it. And she's ready to walk it with you.