If you have ever wondered how to tell the difference between when God is telling you to PAUSE and when He’s telling you PUSH, this episode is going to be for you.

This episode was inspired by an experience in my own life and business recently. The experience is still very fresh, but I am going to be sharing this experience with you because you NEED to know this (it is an announcement) also because it’s going to be a great example for this episode.

All of that to say, go grab a hand towel because I’m about to spill some tea with you as well as sharing with you 2 ways you tell if God is telling you to pause, or if he’s telling you to push. PS–Stick around until the end because you get to hear a Holy Spirit download in real time! I literally had a breakthrough recording this podcast!

If you have ever wondered how to tell the difference between when God is telling you to PAUSE and when He’s telling you to keep moving forward despite everything else going on… then you are in the right place, sister friend.

And with this, I actually have an announcement to make as well as a story to share regarding the announcement.

At the end of last week, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I made the decision to press PAUSE on the Reclaimed to Reign Membership. This Membership was actually set to launch the day this episode goes live. That being said, the Holy Spirit was really making it clear for me recently that this launch really needed to be tabled for another time.

I’m going to share some ways I knew that this was how He was leading me, but I want you to know that I did not take this decision lightly. As silly as it sounds, this was a very emotionally heavy decision for me to make. If you’re not sure what membership I’m talking about, I will share a bit about it in a minute, but the formation of this membership has literally been on my heart since November of 2020. And I was absolutely determined to launch this May 3, 2022 as planned. If I’m being totally honest, I was sincerely looking forward to launching this membership NOW because the purpose of the membership was to help women in business be blessed with a community of other like minded Christian, entrepreneurial women, keep Jesus at the center, navigate spiritual warfare, and overcome self-sabotage. And truth be told, this lights me up, y’all!

But last week, I just kept feeling like the Holy Spirit was telling me to pause–that it wasn’t time yet. There are some logistics that He has revealed to me that need to be shifted, and I’m excited to share that with you in due time. And that being said, I do believe He has given me a time to launch it, and I do believe it will still be this year, but I don’t want to make any promises right now because like I said, this still is very fresh, but He was clearly telling me to pause. For a bit, I thought I just needed to push forward, but after lots of prayer, I recognized He was definitely telling me to pause.

When I realized that’s what He was calling me to, I actually went and individually messaged every single person who had already secured their spot inside of the membership, and I let them know what was going on and basically insisted on giving a full refund.

I’m not going to lie–This was pretty hard for me–not the giving the refund part, but for a bit, I felt like the enemy was really trying to get me to feel defeated and like a failure, which didn’t work… but also, he started weaseling his way in by bringing up the fact that I might be disappointing people. And THAT was the hard part for me. I didn’t want to hurt or disappoint people that TRUSTED me to put this together. And I did feel like I let them down, but I KNEW I had to move forward with the pause.

And with that came a whole lot of peace, which is a huge confirmation from the Lord. And while I thought I was going to be disappointing the women who signed up for the membership, their responses back were so graceful, and kind, and understanding, and loving. And y’all, if you are one of those women who signed up for the membership, please know I appreciate you and love you so much. I am so grateful that you were just so understanding that I am just trying to do what the Lord is leading me to do even when it’s hard. Because truth be told y’all, my flesh wanted to just “do it anyways.”

Which actually leads me into the 2 ways you tell if God is telling you to pause instead of telling you to move forward.

1. Are you working from a place of Overflow or Overwhelm?

Here’s what I mean.

Over the last couple of weeks, I had been preparing for the launch of the membership, I’ve been working with clients, and working on meeting a bunch of deadlines for a lot of things. Now, you don’t need to know all the ins and outs about that, BUT whenever I would work, I noticed extreme tension building up in my body. I was fighting off cluster headaches and migraines for over a week, my eye started twitching constantly, and I even started noticing tremors in my hands. Needless to say, it was very obvious I was overwhelmed and I was harboring a lot of stress and overwhelm in my body and that manifested physically.

I’ve told you guys many, many times that I can sometimes be a workaholic, and I have really struggled with putting my business over Jesus in the past, and I was noticing that it was starting to happen again. I wanted this membership to come to life SO BADLY that I noticed I was letting my flesh begin to take over because my flesh always has this tendency to STRIVE… EVEN THOUGH this membership was all about keeping Jesus at the center of everything, and above your business.

I knew for me personally that I had to PAUSE because I was working from a place of overwhelm versus overflow from the Holy Spirit, because I started noticing I was STRIVING again. I kept feeling like I just wanted to get this membership out because I do know the membership is going to be life-changing for so many, and I know the Lord called me to that… but I know the Lord was telling me that I could NOT bring this membership into the world when I was working from a place of overwhelm.

So, really, it comes back to intention. I share this all the time–what is your intention with your business? Is it truly to honor God and fulfill His mission and purpose for your life? or is it because you’re striving for success in your life, or business? What is the intention behind what you’re doing? for me, I had to pause because while I thought my intention was to fully honor Him, I just had to regroup. I was finding that my flesh was trying to take over. I didn’t want that.

2. Does the thought of pausing bring you peace, or fear and anxiety?

Peace is from the Lord.

Anxiety, or fear comes from the enemy, and the enemy is also known as the king of the world, so essentially fear comes from the world.

Whenever I would think about PAUSING on the launch of the membership, I had my reservations and I didn’t WANT to pause… but it brought a lot of peace and I just KNEW in my spirit that was what I was supposed to do. When I thought about continuing on with the launch of the membership, I obviously experienced a ton of anxiety bc deep down, I just felt like something was just off.

Now, I really want to explain something here.

As an entrepreneur, we face fears, obstacles, and roadblocks all the time. And working through that fear, and busting through obstacles is SO IMPORTANT. So, how did I know that this specific roadblock I was facing was one I needed to pause at versus going through and overcoming the obstacle?

Typically, for me, I notice the obstacles that the Lord is leading me to bust through, I don’t feel at peace until I actually bust through it. until I work through it. For example, if I would have NOT felt peace about pausing, I would have known this is probably an obstacle I need to just push through. Because I would have known that I would feel peace once I busted through the obstacle. But I knew that if I didn’t pause, I wouldn’t feel at peace. I would literally feel like I wasn’t walking in obedience because I knew He was guiding me to pause.

Another thing with me here is that the obstacle I was facing actually wasn’t fear. The obstacle I was facing was myself, my flesh, and my tendency to want to strive. And for me, I knew that if I kept moving and going through that, that is actually me striving instead of pausing when the Lord is telling me to pause.

And He was guiding me to pause because there are a few changes that need to be made in the membership that’s going to make it even better, but He knew I wasn’t working from overflow.

so, really, these two points go hand in hand. They work together, because I wasn’t having peace with moving forward because in my spirit I knew I wasn’t being obedient BECAUSE I wasn’t working from a place of overflow. I have to re-center, I have to re-ground. I am only human, and I never will sit here and tell you I’m perfect at this–I’m not.

BUT I am committed to the process of learning and growing with the Holy Spirit, and this is part of that process.

So, all of that to say, I hope this brings some clarity around whether you need to press pause on something, or move forward with something.

As a recap, in order to determine if God is telling you to pause or if He’s telling you to move forward, you must first determine if you are working from a place of overwhelm or overflow. And then you must determine if there’s a fear you need to face, or if there is going on within yourself that you need to work.

I know I mentioned that this WASN’T a fear for me, but the Holy Spirit just helped me realize that it actually WAS a fear for me. I was starting to be afraid of NOT striving–of what would actually happen if I did pause. So, really, I did face the fear. THAT was the fear I was overcoming. If my fear was me being afraid to launch the membership, then I would know that was the fear I needed to overcome. But that wasn’t my fear–my fear was pausing. My fear was not striving, so I needed to pause.

So, ask yourself…

Where is the fear coming from? Because remember, fear is from the enemy and peace is from the Lord.

Like I said, I hope this brings some clarity around whether you need to press pause on something, or move forward with something.

Next Steps

I really hope you get on the waitlist for the membership when we do launch. If you want to get on the waitlist, please head on over to www.hannahbrindley.com/membership! I would love to see you there!

If you would like to get a feel for how I teach and are desiring to dive deeper into your relationship with Jesus as you are growing your faith-based business, check out my FREE 3 Day Devotional Series for Faith-Fueled Female Entrepreneurs called ROOTED.