Are you being who God is calling you to be? Or are you being who everyone else thinks that you should be? That's right, we're diving right into the hard question. And I genuinely want you to think about that, like, are you trying to be anything else but what God is calling you to be? Think about the perception that people have of you and what you think will work or what you think they'll like. Are you trying to meet other people's expectations of that? Or think about yourself. Do you have a vision of who you desire to be, who you think you should be, and therefore are you trying to meet that expectation of your own self? If either of those things, meeting people's expectations or your own expectations of who you think that you should be, does not align with what God is calling you to be, then we gotta fix that, my friend. Now, I know I jumped right in. I know I hit you with a really tough question. But the reason why I am talking so passionately about this and just getting straight to the point is because I truly believe that this is a major issue that a lot of us face, whether we realize it or not. Now, quick backstory. I noticed that I myself was falling into this trap of being who I thought people wanted me to be, rather than really stepping into who God was calling me to be. And I'm just now waking up to the fact that those two things do not align with each other. And I was unintentionally people pleasing, rather than seeking to please God within my calling. And what's so funny is I've known this for a long time. I've known that there was a part of me that was people pleasing rather than fully, confidently walking in what God was calling me to do and who he was calling me to be instead. I always felt out of alignment in some small way. And I'm finally realizing and getting to the point of being like, you know, what? This is never going to fulfill me unless I fully decide to trust God and to go His way. Now, I was tested in this recently because as I was trying to go about God's way in this all, I ended up losing a client because of it. There was a client of mine that was working with me, was paying for my services, and emailed me very recently saying that they no longer wanted to work with me because they didn't like how much I talked about God in my business. I respect it. I'm not for everybody. You, my friend, are not for everybody. When you show up in your creative ambitions, your goals, your business, whatever it is that God is calling you to, you are not for everybody. But there is a specific group of people that God is calling you to specifically help within your unique calling. So when I had got that news that they no longer wanted to work with me, there was a part of me that felt so disheartened and that questioned if me going the route that God was calling me to go in, which in my case was just talking about him more and taking a specific approach with my business coaching. If me going that route was the right choice. I'm not gonna lie. I questioned it. Because I don't want to hurt people. I don't want people's perception of me to be wrong or bad. And hey, I'm, I'm going to be the first to admit it. I am a people pleaser. I'm not even a recovering people pleaser yet. I will be straight up honest and say I still struggle with that to this day. So because I struggle with it, There are moments where I question if me saying this or approaching it this way or doing it this way even though I know God is calling me to do it in that way, I still question it because I don't want to hurt other people's feelings. I don't want to come off wrong or be seen as a certain way. I want everyone to just like me. Well, my friend, Those days are over because all I care about now is going God's way. I know that that is the only time I'm going to feel fulfilled. I'm going to feel the most confident. I'm going to find the most peace, contentment, and joy in all the blessings and in all the circumstances that I might face in this life. I will only find that if I go God's way. And whenever I try to go my way, whenever I try to live up to what I think my calling should be, or what other people think my calling should be, there is failure that's going to exist there. There's depression that's going to exist there. There is this feeling of never being good enough that is going to exist there. So I ask you, my friend, if that is my story, what is yours? What area of your life of your creative ambitions in the way that you're showing up right now? What area are you trying to live up to people's expectations of you or your own expectation of yourself that is not in alignment with what God wants for you? In what ways are you walking in the calling that other people want for you or that you want for yourself? versus walking in God's calling for you. Sit with that, because it's really important to be aware of it. Fix it, flip it, and go God's way entirely with your calling. Because here's the thing, you have a calling over your life, And I'm being very careful with the word calling over purpose. I believe that as a believer, our purpose is the same. Our purpose is to be like Jesus. Our purpose is to reflect the light of Jesus. Our purpose is to know God and to help other people know God within the life that we live. Your calling is how you go about that. It's based off of where God is calling you to in your career, in your family, in your goals, in specific endeavors. Everyone is going to look different. You have a very beautiful, unique calling that God is waiting for you to walk in. Not only that, but to be consistent in walking in so that he can bring you through the opened doors that he has planned for your life. But those doors are not going to be opened if you are not walking the path that God has for you. What is God calling you to despite everyone else's opinion? Is it a career move? Is it a business idea? Is it a conversation or conversations? Is it a creative venture? Is it a specific area to simply show up better within your health or your family or your work, whatever it might be? What is it for you? Think about that and think about what areas of your life are creating contrast to the calling that God has placed in your life. It's time, my friend. It is time to stop people pleasing and trying to meet the expectations of what people think you should be or how they think you should do it. It is time to stop trying to live up to the calling that you yourself want to place over your own life. Because when you do that, my friend, you are trying to play God. You are basically telling God that your calling that you want over your own life is better than the calling that God has ordained in your life since the day you were born. Before that even. Walk in your God given calling. Not in your people given calling, not in your self given calling, walk in the God given calling that He has been calling your name to for a very long time. And you know it. I know that you know it. It's time. It's time. Now here's the hard part. How do we do it? How do we figure out? what God is calling us to, and how do we actually walk in that consistently? Because the reality is we're living in a very cold, difficult world with plenty of distractions, plenty of anxious thoughts, plenty of doubtful thoughts that can completely deter us off of the path that God has ordained for us in the first place. So how in the world do we start walking towards what God is calling us to walk in and how do we get consistent in that without giving up? Without the world getting a hold of us, without distractions getting the best of us, without our own depression, insecurity, doubts, anxiety, stress, whatever it might be, clouding our minds to the point where we end up getting off of the path. Let's talk about it. You know, I'm always the one to not just come on these episodes and preach at you. I like to give actionable steps to help you take action because it's tough and without steps and really knowing how it's difficult to do it in the first place. So let's talk about it. First thing that I want to say in walking in your God given calling and being able to do so consistently. Is to first get aligned. You my friend need to be in a season to get aligned with God's calling over your life and to disalign from the calling that you have placed on yourself or that other people have placed over your life that you are trying to meet. Get aligned with what God wants for you. Now, how do you do that? You already know the first thing that I'm going to say is to open up your Bible. I know I say that so much in these podcast episodes, but I say it because this is oddly a very difficult thing for human beings to do. Why? Because we live in this world, we're distracted, we're stressed out, we got work, we got kids, we got family, we got 80, 000 things to do that our Bible ends up collecting dust on our bedside table. That's not what it's meant for. That Bible, my friend, is your roadmap. It is your ultimate guide. It is the solution to everything that you are looking for. If you would just open it, read it, meditate on it, understand the historical context of the verse that you're reading, dive deep into how that verse applies to your current life, in order for your spirit to fully absorb it and to implement it out into your life. That is the first thing that you have to get more consistent in when it comes to getting aligned with what God is calling you to do, who he's calling you to be. This is especially for you if you're listening and you're confused. Maybe you don't know what he wants you to do or who he's calling you to be and you have a thousand different ideas, a thousand different routes to take, and you're not sure on which route is the right one. Your first step is to open up the Bible. When you do, your spirit starts to get much more in alignment with who God is in himself and what he desires for you, the person, the unique being that he created. The second thing that I would say is to just try. When it comes to getting aligned with what God is calling you to do or who he's calling you to be, first things first, open up your Bible. Second thing, try. If you have ideas of what you think it might be, try. Put in effort. Sometimes God waits for us to take one step of trust, one step of faith to at least try to at least put an effort and he will redirect our steps accordingly to the point where down the line, it all makes sense down the line. you now are very clear on what you're called to do. And the beautiful thing about trying is if it is for you, meaning if it is God ordained, if it is a part of you walking in the calling that he has destined for you, if it is, as you go about trying, nothing is going to feel forced. I want to be very intentional with my words there. Nothing's going to be forced. I saw this one TikTok post the other day that said, if it is for you, you will not have to sin to get it. You will not have to try to figure out loopholes and be sneaky to get it. You will not have to force things to get it. So when you're going about trying and when things feel forced, or if it's causing you to sin, or if it's causing you to try to be sneaky with your tactics or whatever, my friend, that is not God ordained. When you put in effort and you try, yes, you might go through obstacles and circumstances, absolutely, but that doesn't necessarily mean that things should feel forced or you should find yourself sinning to get it. Things should just flow. You try, you put in effort. If it is for you, things flow, opportunities happen, and God redirects your steps to the point where you end up being exactly where He needs you to be, walking on the exact path that He has called you to walk on. Get aligned, my friend. Get aligned with God. The next thing that I want to say in how you can go about finally walking in your God given calling and being able to consistently do that. You gotta get strong. You have got to get so spiritually strong that every anxiety, insecurity, doubt, distraction, any ounce of wanting to give up, any ounce of feeling like you're not good enough, you are so spiritually strong to the point where it overcomes all of that. All of those thoughts, all of those negative feelings pushes it out to the point where it is no longer in the forefront. It is no longer taking lead over your life. It is no longer your identity. Why? Because you're so spiritually strong to the point where you only identify as a confident child of God. That is it. And confident children of God trust him, trust him. As they walk in their calling, they have peace and contentment and try to refine their joy. Anytime life hits them or knocks them down because they know that at the end of the day, God is their provider. God knows their future. God knows the outcome. And if they could just trust in that, everything will be okay. You have to get strong. I'm currently reading the book of First Peter in my Bible right now, and I came across this powerful verse that I want to share with you today because it speaks heavily to the topic of today's episode. So let me read this really quickly. First Peter chapter 5 verse 6 says humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. I want to pay attention to the order of these verses. It first starts off by talking about humbling yourself under God because you trust and know that he will lift you up when the time is right. But right after that, in order, it says cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. I. Am a huge believer that sequential order of the verses, the context around every verse, the verse before it, the verse after it, means more than we think. There's power behind it. Because I'm reading this and I'm asking myself, why are we now talking about anxiety? The other verse was talking about humbling yourself and trusting God that he'll lift you up at the right time. That seems like a completely different subject from the following verse, which is now talking about anxiety. Surface level, two different things. Deep down, they go hand in hand. Why? Think about it. When you know That you are called to more and you're just waiting on your season of being lifted up of finding success of Finding that moment of wow I got here. I am lifted up When you know that, a lot of times we're in the waiting season until we get there, until we're lifted up, until things start working, until we're starting to see success. We're kind of in the waiting season until we start seeing those things, right? What happens in the waiting season? We're working hard. We're tired. We have a lot of anxiety, a lot of doubts and insecurity, constantly thinking, Is this going to work? Will I find success? Will I be lifted up? Will God lift me up in this current endeavor? That's why these two verses go hand in hand. God knows that anxiety comes with the waiting season, as you're waiting on seeing the outcome or the result or the success of you simply walking in your God given calling. He knows that. That is why he's saying, as you wait, entrusting him to lift you up in the right time, you, my friend, need to work on casting all of your anxiety on him because God cares that much for you. It's just so powerful. And if you read the rest of that verse, it continues on to talk about the importance of being sober minded, being strong so that the enemy does not get the best of you and brings back those negative thoughts into your mind. If you want to confidently walk in your God given calling consistently without distractions getting the best of you, depression getting the best of you, insecurity getting the best of you, you have to get strong. You have to cast all your anxiety on God. You have to trust Him that He will lift you up at the right time. Ugh, I get chills when I actually read my Bible and I dive deep into the meanings and the verses around it and I'm like, wow, this is the roadmap to life. Get strong, my friend. Get spiritually strong. The last thing that I want to say in regards to how you can start walking in your God given calling, no longer putting it off, you, my friend, have got to get consistent. When I say consistency, I am talking about the fact that you keep going. You show up frequently. This is so important because it's easy to hop off of being consistent when we allow other people to sway us, people's opinions, Or, if we start unintentionally playing around with going the path that people think we should be on, or trying out this path over here because we think that it might be better for us, and we no longer have tunnel vision. strictly focused on the path that God has for us. We're looking to the left for this potential path over here because, oh, this could potentially look right. This could potentially be a good option. We're looking to the right over here because we're like, oh, well, that looks kind of cool, or maybe I want to give that a try, or this worked for that person, so maybe it could work for me too. Pause. If it is not what God is calling you to do, You need to stay focused. You need to refocus on what he is calling you to do and remain consistent in that. When you sway, you start to not be consistent. Now, here's the thing. It happens. We are only human. We're not perfect. So when we get distracted, or when we start getting that shiny object syndrome, where, you know, you see something shiny and you're like, oh, let me pick it up. Let me, let me look over there instead. When that happens, you need to catch yourself in the act. And you, my friend, need to fight back with the God given spiritual strength that we had talked about previously. You need to fight back. You need to refocus and you need to recenter yourself in your relationship with God to continue going the path that he has called you to walk in. And let me tell you, there is a very strong chance that you will be tested. When you walk along your God given path, there could be circumstances, roadblocks, financial issues. people making you feel doubtful. There could be so many things that very well could be tests to see if you have enough faith to stay the course, or if your faith dwindled a little bit to the point where now you're looking to the left and right and you're looking at other options to get out of it because, hmm, you're starting to have doubts about your God given path. Fight back. If that happens, when that happens, fight back. Refocus, recenter yourself and cling to the very real, very powerful belief that God has got you. Even when you go through circumstances or roadblocks as you're walking where God is calling you to walk, doing the things that he is calling you to do. Cling tight to the fact that everything will work together for your good. There is internal success here. There is external success here. Whatever God ordained the result to be in that path that you're walking on, it's there. You just have to keep going to find it, to get it. All in all, my friend. You've got to get aligned. You've got to get strong. And you have got to get consistent. God is waiting on you to do what He is calling you to do. And I have a very strong feeling that you know what that is. You spiritually know what it is. But you're scared. You have fears. You have doubts. You don't like the idea of stepping out of your comfort zone. You don't like the idea of stepping out of what feels safe or secure. Can I tell you something? When God calls you to something, many, many, many times that something is not going to be comfortable. Why? Because you cannot grow in comfort. It takes discomfort for you to grow. You also cannot grow in what feels convenient or what feels absolutely safe. It takes you having a leap of faith, not knowing what the future holds, for you to grow, for you to learn what it really looks like to trust God. So think about that. What is that thing for you that God is calling you to do? who God is calling you to be, how he's calling you to approach something different, to rise up in a unique way. What is that for you? And how can you finally get aligned, get strong, and get consistent in going that route? I'm just going to leave you with that, my friend. And I pray that this marinates in your mind for the rest of the week in a very hopeful and confident boosting kind of way, it is a very real fact that you were created on purpose for a purpose. And he is waiting oh so lovingly, oh so patiently for you to simply take that first step or if you already took that first step, if you feel like you already took that first step to get back on track. You might have swayed, you might have fell off, you might be dealing with doubts or uncertainty. It's okay. Get back on track, get back aligned, get back strong and get back being consistent. I love you so much, friend. I'm going to be praying for you this week. I'm going to be praying over your confidence to finally take that step. And hey, if you need any help along the way, know that we are 100 percent here for you. Matter of fact, if you want to dive deeper into topics like this, go ahead and text that number that you see below this podcast show notes or below the YouTube video, if you're watching there, text it and write in an idea of what you'd like for us to talk about or dive deeper into within our next podcast episodes, because we love continuing these conversations and helping you out along your life's journey as much as possible. And with that much love to you and we'll see you next week for another episode of the God Empowered Podcast.