God Centered Success | Faith and Business

I recorded this one because of a conversation I had with a friend that morning. She opened up about how weary she was getting, how much she was questioning whether God was even there for her, and I sat there thinking, oh my goodness, me too. That is the moment I knew I had to press record.

Here is what I want us to settle today: opposition is not evidence that we heard God wrong.

If you are building something you know God handed you, and it is getting harder instead of easier, and the doubt is starting to whisper that you made the whole thing up, this episode is for you. I walk through three people in Scripture who got a clear assignment from God and then ran straight into resistance. Moses, who had every reason to say no. Paul, who spent years locked up while the work he was called to do waited on the outside. And Nehemiah, who stared at a pile of rubble and still believed there was a wall in it.

I also get honest about my own crisis of faith. I gave God my business, my platform, my calling, my finances, all of it, and then found myself in a life that looked nothing like what I expected. Unanswered prayer after unanswered prayer. I know what it feels like when the fire dims. I also know what it takes to get it back.

The enemy has one strategy here, and it is not complicated. Wear us down until we quit. This episode is the reminder that we are not alone in it, we are in very good company, and the assignment is still ours to finish.

I close with a prayer over you, your life, your business, and your calling.

Timestamps

00:01 • The reason I could not let this week go by without recording this

00:29 • The conversation with my friend that gave me this whole episode

00:56 • The enemy's oldest strategy, and why it works on the most faithful people

01:25 • "Am I supposed to persevere, or is this a warning to turn around?" How I tell the difference

02:24 • The question I am certain Paul never asked himself

03:18 • Why I think the New Testament we hold today required a prison cell

04:14 • Joseph in the pit, and the thought every human being has in that moment

04:39 • I gave God all of it. Then I ended up here. My honest crisis of faith

05:38 • Why the first "where are you, God" moment hits new believers the hardest

06:05 • When the fire dims out, and the real reason I picked this podcast back up

08:05 • The 20 year gap between Joseph's vision and Joseph's promotion

08:51 • Moses, the man God called to speak who could not get his words out

09:49 • What I have learned about stuttering as a speech pathologist, and why Moses' resistance makes complete sense to me

10:47 • Three leadership moves Moses made that carried him through 40 years in the wilderness

12:10 • Paul, handcuffed and still fully on assignment

13:03 • What "I can do all things through Christ" actually meant when he wrote it, and it was not about a game

13:33 • The thorn in his flesh, and the strange gift hidden inside a weakness

14:31 • Nehemiah, my favorite book in the Bible for leadership, and the week I spent studying it

15:27 • The one sentence Nehemiah used to shut down the opposition, and I want us all to borrow it

16:23 • Why God rarely gives us an assignment we can pull off alone

16:52 • Your reminder: if it is bigger than you, that is on purpose

17:21 • The only two responses that make sense when opposition shows up

18:18 • A prayer over your life, your business, and your calling

Key Scriptures

All Scripture in NKJV.

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:11-12 "...for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me... And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'"

Exodus 4:10-12 "Then Moses said to the LORD, 'O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.' So the LORD said to him... 'Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.'"

Exodus 1 through 14 The full account of Moses leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt.

Nehemiah 6:3 "So I sent messengers to them, saying, 'I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?'"

Nehemiah 6:15 "So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days."

Genesis 50:20 "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."

Psalm 42:11 "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God."

Galatians 6:9 "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

1 Timothy 6:12 "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

Key Takeaways

• Opposition is not a redirect. In business and in calling, the resistance is usually the part we are meant to persevere through, not the sign we heard God wrong.

• The enemy's strategy is not creative, it is consistent. Wear us down with doubt until we quit on our own. Naming the strategy takes most of its power away.

• We are never the only one. Every person in Scripture who carried a real assignment carried real opposition with it. That includes Moses, Joseph, Paul, and Nehemiah, and it includes us.

• The prison is not always the interruption. Paul wrote from confinement, and some of the most enduring letters in the New Testament came out of the season he probably considered his most wasted.

• The delay is not the denial. Joseph waited roughly 20 years, and when it came, it did not look like the vision he had been shown.

• Weakness is not disqualification. Moses had a speech difficulty and was called to speak to a nation. Paul had a thorn he asked God three times to remove. God used both men exactly as they were.

• We are not built to carry the assignment alone. Nehemiah rebuilt a wall in 52 days because he cast the vision clearly and got other people to pick up a tool.

• Distraction is opposition wearing a friendlier outfit. Nehemiah's answer, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down," is a complete sentence and a complete strategy.

Action Steps

1. Name what you are actually facing. Write down the specific opposition in front of you right now. Money, silence, rejection, exhaustion, a launch that flopped. Get it out of your head and onto paper, because vague dread is heavier than a named problem.

2. Run it through one question. Has God told you to stop, or is this just hard? Obedience to a clear no is faithfulness. Quitting in the middle of a hard yes is something else. Be honest about which one you are looking at.

3. Borrow Nehemiah's line this week. Pick the one distraction pulling hardest at your attention and say no to it out loud: "I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down." Then go do the work.

4. Take one next step, not the whole staircase. Do one thing this week that only makes sense if the vision is true. Send the email. Record the episode. Make the offer. Faith moves before the evidence shows up.

5. Do not carry it by yourself. Call the friend. Have the honest conversation. My whole day turned around because one friend told me the truth about where she was, and I got to tell her the truth about where I was. Encouragement is a two way street and both of us needed it.

6. Pray the specific prayer. Ask God to strengthen your spirit and your mind, clear the doubt, and refill you with the fire and the faith to keep moving one step at a time. That is the prayer I prayed over you at the end of this episode, and it is worth praying over yourself all week.

If this episode met you where you are, come back next week. I have three more people from Scripture I want to walk through with us, and the encouragement keeps coming.

Much love, Mia :)