Have you ever wondered if the business you’re in (or aspiring to start) is what God wants for you? 

I used to constantly ask God if my business was my calling. I just wanted to find my purpose! Can you relate?

If so, you’ll want to tune into this episode, because I’m breaking down the 4 things you need to identify if you want to gain confirmation on whether or not the Lord is calling you to start and/or stay in your business.

Let’s dive in.

ONE – Is the business you’re in what God wants you to do?

Let’s move right into number one first and foremost. It is very, very, very important to identify where this question is coming from. Are you asking this question because you were thinking about pivoting into another business or is it because you want to simply make sure you’re on the right path? Or do you feel this aching feeling that something is off and you’re just not sure what it is, or is it because you’ve been working your tail off on this specific business, but you haven’t seen the fruits of your labor?

There are so many reasons why you could be asking this question, but I truly believe you need to identify where this is coming from. If that means you need to sit down and take the time to journal this out, please do so. Take the time to pray, journal, talk to God and just identify why you’re asking this question.

It’s really important to understand why you’re listening to this right now. There could be multiple reasons why you’re asking this question and why you want to know the answer to this, but it’s so important to get to the root of it so you can truly understand.

Now, once you take the time to do this and let’s say you realize, “I’m asking this question because I’m thinking about pivoting my business.”

You could be thinking about changing to a different niche or, a different company, or something different entirely. If this is you, I highly recommend checking out episode 12 of this show. Episode 12 is titled, “How To Know When It Is Time To Pivot In Your Business and How to Pivot Successfully.”

But if you are someone who has been working their tail off, and you’re not necessarily seeing any fruits of their labor yet, I highly recommend you listen to episode 13. It is titled, “Is God Telling You to Pause or To Push? Here’s How You Know.”

TWO – Identify your intention with your business

After you’ve taken the time to understand why you’re asking this question, the next thing you need to identify is your intention with your business. A really good question to ask here is, “Is your intention flesh fueled or faith fueled?” If it’s flesh fueled, it’ll be a lot of, “I want to do this business because I want X or I want etc.” Now don’t get me wrong, There is nothing wrong with having desires in this physical world, but it becomes a problem when we want it more than Jesus.

So that being said, “What is your intention with your business?” Here’s the thing, Your business can provide these physical things. Your business can provide these fleshly and worldly ones too, but is that the primary reason you’re doing the business? 

I will tell you right now and I’ll be straight up honest. I started my business because I wanted time and financial freedom. That’s what I wanted, but that doesn’t mean that God did not want me to do this business. He wanted me to learn from this business.

My business was a catalyst for my growth with Him. Did time and financial freedom still come? Yes, they did. But, I had to learn that it couldn’t be my intention. My intention had to always be Jesus. It had to always be, “I am using this business to grow the Kingdom and to nurture the Kingdom because our purpose as Christians is to love Jesus, to know Jesus, and to make Him known, It’’s to serve Jesus.”

That is our entire purpose for our existence. That’s it. I truly believe our calling is essentially how we live out our purpose. It is the vehicle that helps us serve Jesus and make Him known. So my business became my calling because it helped me know Jesus better, and it helped me serve Jesus better.

And it’s helping me make Him known. That’s what He called me to the business for. He knew the business would be the catalyst for my growth and others’ growth.

I want to go back to this–you have to identify your current intention. If you realize that your current intention is very based on these fleshly wants and desires, I encourage you to dive into prayer and into Scripture and see if the Lord wants to help you shift that. 

I was in a position where I was financially strapped. I was crying. I was sobbing. I was mentally worn out and I prayed to God, “Please take this obsession I have with success and money and my business away from me and replace it with an obsession for you.”

I prayed that prayer and I still to this day have to pray that prayer because the world has this funny way of sucking you back in. I’m not perfect by any means. Honestly, I feel like the reason I’m being called to share this is because I struggled with it so heavily, and I still struggle with it.

If I’m being totally honest, that’s why I still have to pray this prayer. So that being said, please identify your intention. And please ask Him to shift that intention. But just keep in mind, you have got to be obedient and get in the Word, pray and praise Him. You’ve got to be obedient and faithful to Him. And when you do, I promise you, He will shift that for you.

He will shift your heart. He shifted mine, and I firmly believe He will shift yours. 

THREE – What fear is holding you back?

So once you identify the intention, it’s really important to identify the fear.

What is the fear keeping you stuck in the position you’re in? Because I would bet you’re asking this question because you feel stuck in some way, right?

What is stopping you? Why are you stuck? What is the hesitation?

Is it fear of failure? Is it fear of success? Is it because you are comfortable? These things are all forms of self-sabotage. And if you have not listened to episode two of this show, I break down five reasons you might be self-sabotaging and how to biblically stop it.

If you are having a hard time identifying the fear, I have some additional questions for you regarding this.

Answer this question: Would you feel at peace if you don’t do the business, or would you always have this aching feeling telling you that you need to move forward? If you would be at peace letting your business go, that may be God saying this is not for you. But if you feel like you would always wonder, this may be God saying yes, but all that needs to shift then is your intention.

That’s how it was for me. I needed to shift my intention to gain even more clarity around my business, and why I was pursuing this business. Reframing my intention made things so much clear to me and gave me strength because I was relying fully on Jesus. You’ll want to make sure you’re not chasing the business specifically for the business or for money or success, but you’re doing it for Jesus.

And I can promise you when your intention is pure, and your heart is pure, and you intend to serve Jesus fully and completely, I promise you that He is going to provide every single thing that you need. All you have to do is obey.

FOUR – Identify if the business leading you into sin

This leads me to the fourth and final thing you need to identify.

Identify if the business is leading you into sin. I know no one likes to talk about sin and it is a very hard pill to swallow, but let’s just be real. We are all sinners here–every single one of us listening to this. Even preachers and pastors. We are all sinners and that is exactly why God sent his only Son to die for us–to redeem us of our sins.

As Christians, we should be constantly trying to flee from sin, not getting closer to it. So it’s really important to identify if your business is leading you into sin, because if that is happening, that may also be a reason why you’re staying stuck. So one of those ways is of course the intention, which we already talked about.

What is your intention with your business? This goes back to idolatry–that would be the sin here. Are you idolizing your business, success, money, recognition, or validation? Are you idolizing something over Jesus?

That is one way that your business could be leading you into sin.

Now, the next way is through the New Age. I’m not going to speak too much on this right now, but essentially New Age is very tricky. And I went down this slippery slope myself, and I didn’t even realize it because the enemy is always going to appear in ways you don’t expect. He’s going to appear like light. And I truly believed when I was doing some New Age things, it was from God. I truly believed it, but that’s because the enemy convinced me that it was. It is really manipulative and sneaky, but a way that you can identify it is by the intention. 

A question to ask yourself is, “Are you serving yourself, or are you serving Jesus?”

We have to be very mindful and we have to be in the Word so that we can discern what is from Him and what is not from Him. I truly believe that if I was in the Word more, I would have been able to discern that slippery slope I was going down. 

Now, another way to identify the New Age is tactics like just simping knowing ourselves better versus knowing God better. What I’m saying here is that we have to be careful to not to go down a route where we are looking at ourselves like a god. 

But if you need help with this, feel free to DM me on Instagram @hannahbrindley. Just send me a DM over there. But just remember it’s really important to direct everything to the Lord and put everything next to Scripture.

That right there is the key. You’ve got to take it to the Lord because there are a lot of things in the entrepreneurial space that just aren’t biblical. And we have to be mindful of that because these New Age practices are sneaking in where you least expect it.

I didn’t even realize that they had snuck in. That is how dangerous they are. So just be mindful, put on your Armor of God (Ephesians 6), and be constantly getting into the Word so He can give you that discernment.

Another sin I talk a lot about is in episode 13, and it’s this concept of working from a place of overflow versus working from a place of overwhelm. And in that episode, I revealed to you that I was working from a place of overwhelm and essentially I was having this striving mentality. I was going back into this mode of, “Okay, I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to do this to see X happen.” That was not working out for me as you will learn if you go back and listen to episode 13.

But when you are working from a place of overflow that you have received from the Holy Spirit, this means you have surrendered to Jesus and you are working from this place of Jesus giving you strength, because His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

When you work from a place of overwhelm, you are typically trying to take control of situations. You are typically trying to be in control of everything. That’s you saying, “Oh, hey God, I’ve got this, because you don’t have this. I’ve got this. Let me take the reins back. Let me take the wheel back.”

But where does that get us? Personally, It gets me to burn out and exhaustion and also a place of stuckness and feeling unfulfilled. And I would bet if you were feeling like that you are probably having this misalignment with your intention with your business, but also probably being stuck in this state of overwhelm versus overflow.

Sometimes it can be the right business, but you may just be pursuing it from a place of overwhelm, or you have a different intention, or you’re doing it with New Age tactics that you don’t realize. It means you could perhaps be in the right vehicle, but you’re giving it the wrong fuel, so it’s not able to work efficiently or effectively. 

Your fuel is either faith or its flesh. How are you fueling your vehicle? So, what are you fueling your business with? Is it faith or is it flesh? That’s what you need to identify because a lot of the time it’s not necessarily the business that’s the problem. It’s the fuel.

But even if you have made the “wrong choice,” God will re-route. I have gone through all of these seasons that I mentioned, and God has re-routed me every single time. But it’s so important that once you identify what is happening, you obey Him.

If you are feeling stuck or paralyzed or afraid, yes, this could be happening just from self-sabotaging behaviors, but it could also be because you’re staying stuck in sin and the enemy is using that against you to keep you stuck and paralyzed and afraid.

I’ve personally found that if people are asking this question, “How do I know if my business is what God wants me to do?,” it’s usually because they’re stuck in a place of lack of clarity, they’re afraid, or they’re just paralyzed and they don’t know what to do.

As you go through these things, as you spend time with the Lord, as you pray, as you journal and you realize, “Okay, some things need to shift, but this is the business for me.” Or maybe things don’t need to shift, but you are ready to move things forward, I highly recommend checking out Faith Fueled Coach Academy.

Faith-Fueled Coach Academy

This is exactly why I created Faith-Fueled Coach Academy–to help women like you finally go full-time online in their coaching business with the Holy Spirit leading us both. If you are ready to start and/or scale your faith-fueled coaching business, head on over to www.hannahbrindley.com/fca to learn more about the program and get on the waitlist for when we launch again.

This is my six-month immersive group program. To help you start, grow, and scale your holy spirit-led coaching business. If you are feeling that Holy Spirit nudge right now, make sure you head over to www.hannahbrindley.com/FCA to get on the waitlist. If you are thinking about this at all, you’re going to want to get on the waitlist ASAP because the castle doors are opening to a very small number of women very soon, and waitlisters get first access to applications and discounts.

If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to send me a DM over on Instagram @hannahbrindley, and I will get back to you ASAP.