Working WITH God, Part 1 – Define+Direct – Ep 192

Throughout the year, I host half- and full-day retreats to bring the message of redefining hustle and pursuing success God's way to Christian women in business. Recently I hosted the WITH retreat, focused on what it means to be working WITH God, bringing in concepts from Allen Arnold's book "The Story of With." While we may think that working with God is logical because we know what to do in business and we know how our relationship with God works. Yet what I heard time and again in the room that day is that women are often challenged by integrating their faith and business. The gap between these areas is what often leads us to overwhelm, overachievement and missing out on the clarity, serenity and fulfillment: the abundant life Jesus promises. And hearing this, I came to two realizations: 1. God is always inviting us to His more, His plan, His work. We are called to be His co-laborers, but He doesn't force it on us: we have the free will to choose working with God. To quote Allen Arnold from the book: "we can either run with God or run from God, but the only way to experience His miracles is to put ourselves in position and to operate from a posture in which we actually need him." 2. I am humbled and honored to be used by God as His vessel for this message of redefining hustle, and to be positioned in the space between faith and business to hold space for His high-achieving, ambitious daughters and help them integrate faith and business so they can build thriving Kingdom businesses only by working WITH God. In this episode and the next, I'm sharing excerpts from the WITH retreat, in which we applied the 4 Keys to Redefine Hustle: Define, Direct, Discipline and Develop to working WITH God. So we could understand His desire for us to work with Him, His direction for doing so, how to do it in real life, and how the Holy Spirit develops us over time to get stronger in doing so. I believe we often lower and limit our expectations based on what we know we can do, and because we like to be in control. However, that's leaving God out and trying to fit Him into our box. Let's stop doing that by truly committing to working WITH Him.   In this episode we're focused on the first two keys: DEFINE and DIRECT How does is working with God defined by God Himself, and how does He define you? How are we directed for working with God by God's own directions, and how do we lean in more to understand and accept His direction? Here are a few questions to ask God as you pray over applying these two keys to working with Him: Show me how I define my identity is misaligned to how you define me. What gets in the way of me hearing and obeying your direction? What am I clinging to that needs to be released? Reveal to me any blind spots that hinder me or are barriers that keep me from working with you. What stops me from allowing you to have your way in my business? As you listen (or watch on my YouTube channel), please remember that this is God's message He's given me to share and I am simply the vessel. While I so appreciate you following and engaging with the content I share here, on social media, through my emails, through my coaching and strategy days. etc., ultimately it is Him that gets the glory and whom to follow. Remember that our responsibility is to keep Him at the center. If building a Kingdom business is your priority, you will benefit from a coach to help you align your strategy to working WITH God, keep you accountable and focused in doing that day in and day out, and to encourage you along the way. And that coach could be me! DM me on social about it. These scriptures were referenced in the episode for you to read along or study: 2 Corinthians 9:8 John 10:10 Psalm 1:1-3 1 Corinthians 1:9 Isaiah 41:10 Proverbs 16:9 Deuteronomy 8:18, 31:8 RESOURCES FROM TODAY'S EPISODE The Story of WITH by Allen ArnoldThe Story of WithThe Story of With YOUR CALL TO ACTION 1.