I know what I’m born to do. Want to hear it? I help people find their identity. I help, either directly or indirectly, people and businesses see what their purpose is in this world. Essentially, I was born to help other people see what they were born to do. Fun stuff, right?! And I have a clear plan of how to be rich and build wealth for my family: help as many people in the world as possible with the gifts and talents that were given to me. How rich do I want to be? $100K? $1M? That depends on a bigger question: how many people do I want to help? 100K? 10M? See, I’ve learned that if we focus on the task of helping as many people as possible, the riches will follow. But even though we can have the best intentions of helping others and grandiose ideas of solving world problems, the reality is that if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Entrepreneurship is not easy. And Godpreneurship is 10X more difficult because you’re in the thick of the battle between good and evil. So what happens when the riches don’t follow right away? What happens when we are trying really hard to help others, but the bills pile up and it’s so hard to focus on the bigger picture of helping others? How do we stay focused on helping others amidst the twists and loops of the entrepreneur roller coaster? I have the answer: keep your eye on the prize. There’s a funny picture of Michael Phelps and a swimmer that my friend @luthegolden created after his 2016 Olympics. Michael Phelps has his eyes on the prize. The other swimmer has his eyes on a 6’4″ 194lb problem. In the book of Acts in the Bible, we follow Paul along the establishment of the early Christian Church. Here’s an entrepreneur that understood the principle of being rich, but a different kind of way. Paul was storing his wealth in a savings account that he would later redeem when he got to heaven. He endured many pains and hardships, but he did it all to invest in his eternity.  His prize was waiting for him later.  His riches came from investing his time in every person he invited into his home to preach the gospel: what he was born to do. Although Paul lived a tough life, it seems that he did it with a joy and satisfaction…a sense of purpose and dignity. He didn’t live lavishly, but he lived fully.  He didn’t live like royalty on earth, but he knew one day he would sit on the throne next to Jesus. That hope is what drove his every action and helped him live the entrepreneurs dream: knowing what he was born to do. His born to do dream is what fueled him through every battle and storm. This is why it’s important for you and me to find out what we were born to do and simply focus on it. We need to be the best at it. We need to bring together all of the resources we can to make it happen. When we find out what we were born to do, and then help as many people as we can, we will experience the joy that will bring the riches that God has prepared for us, either riches that will be enjoyed now or later. Godpreneur Rule #27: Godpreneurs know what they were born to do and only do that. #WorkLifeBalance #IncreaseEnergy

I’ve read a whole lot of books on wealth, attracting money, getting rich, thinking rich, etc. None of them made me rich. I’ll admit that I have more SKILLS now that can give me a leg up on being wealthy, but the author or its strategies and tactics don’t make me wealthy. Wealth is acquired through the gaining of wisdom.  That’s why you can be rich, but not wealthy.  We can all be rich at moments in our lives, but wealth is a state of mind, a state of being.  It’s only gained through experience and the ups and downs of life. True financial wealth comes from learning from our past financial circumstances and making adjustments to the plan to continue gaining in the future. Students are rich with knowledge right before they take a test.  But wealth is determined by what they’ve retained for long-term usage. Deuteronomy 8:18 says “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” Deuteronomy 8:19 NIV What I’ve learned from the bible has made me rich at times.  But what I’ve retained from the bible has made me wealthy in wisdom.  The wealth in wisdom, over the long run, translates to financial wealth as well because I make better decisions in light of everything God is teaching me. Godpreneur Rule #56:  Godpreneurs seek to be wealthy, not rich. #GainConfidence #MakeMoreMoney #SharpenLeadership

Selling has got a new approach. However, the best way to get people to buy your product or service is to stop selling it to them. Yeah, I mean, stop selling it. My position seems controversial, but that's the most rewarding approach to building a successful and profitable business. I am not campaigning against profit-making in business - I like profit, and I guess you do. I'm simply provoking thoughts to shift our traditional methodology, which has not profited us maximally. Business people can sell more by not selling. Our everyday target has always been to sell and our day seems not made until we sell; we just sell anything because we are interested in making money by any possible means. We often go this way: "Here's a very nice product that can do this or that, so buy it.” This could sometimes be offensive to the target customer. It's good to make money, though, but this traditional method is not sustainable in the long run. A superior approach would instead yield better results than currently enjoyed. We can sell more by not selling our products. Someone said, "The best way to sell something is not to sell it.” No sane person part with his money until he sees value in exchange. What people buy is value. They are not interested in the product of your package but the value of the content. You should provide value (I call it "customized value") in such a way to make people think that buying your product was their idea. So, merely telling people how good your product is, does not make sales. Rather than selling, focus on problem-solving. Jim Rohn said, "We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time to bring value, but we don't get paid for the time". Money flows in the direction of value. We get paid when we present value in exchange for people's needs. No business thrives on mediocrity, so building a successful business requires focusing on value to attract money. This takes time and effort, but ironically, we are not paid for those but the value. Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). This is our (God’s) Kingdom principle. Receiving money is a blessing, but not a higher blessing. You are blessed when giving value. It's not just God bless you; the people will also bless you, in addition to the blessing of money. Dear God's entrepreneur, I have just shown you the simpler, better, and unfailing method to succeed in business. If you intentionally put this to work, you would succeed in what you have chosen to do. Create value, Present value, Discuss value, Negotiate value, and Price value. That's the way to sell. Going forward, do not negotiate the price with your potential buyers; instead, negotiate value. Sell value and not the product. You can be assured that you cannot be out of business selling value. We can change the business landscape by changing our age-long approach to selling. Imagine how happy and satisfied people would be when they are served value instead of anything else. We can approach everything we do with the mindset of value. #MakeMoreMoney

I've been studying the Bible intensely since 2014. A big part of this craving I have for the Word is that there are so many golden nuggets I can pick up for my entrepreneurial journey. I seek to understand God more, see things from His perspective, gain wisdom, and be more like Christ, yet something keeps me from complete spiritual enlightenment. Many of us Godpreneurs want to find that inner peace Jesus promises and improve our business lives. We seek to know God and align our will with His as the ultimate goal of our entrepreneurial journey, yet something is off with the steps we're taking. Well, I discovered that the first step was easier than I could have imagined. While at a men's retreat, the speaker talked extensively about depression and anxiety. He explained that we feel depressed when we're ruminating about something from the past. He then explained that anxiety is when we're stressed or worried about something in the future. His conclusion, therefore, is that living fully in the present is the only escape from depressing and anxious thoughts in our minds. As business owners, we tend to live by correcting past mistakes or planning out future moves. We're constantly in our heads reminiscing of the good times or regretting the things we didn't do while bouncing to thoughts of the following plan, worried about the outcomes. Meanwhile, we neglect the one moment that is fully available to us business owners: the present...the right now. The Bible says “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:34 ESV) Jesus tells His followers not to worry about tomorrow. As He has already said, worry doesn't fix anything. Anxiety over things we cannot control or out of our reach makes no sense (Matthew 6:27). Jesus says, in short, that you ought to let tomorrow worry about itself. He's not saying you can't or shouldn't make wise plans for your business. He's also not saying you should ignore anything but the most immediate questions. His context here is about the emotions of fear and anxiety. Only the present is important because the battle to trust God never occurs in the past or future; it’s always happening in the current moment. When we're living in the Spirit and outside of our mental battle, our spirit allows us to feel something. Feelings (the Spirit) are only experienced in the present because your Spirit can only give you information about this specific moment. So what's controlling us when we're stuck in the past or the future? Well, that's the enemy keeping us from the Spirit. Jesus commands us Godpreneurs to focus on trust for God in a moment-by-moment way. We shouldn't try to solve all our problems, all time, all at once. Let God provide what is needed day by day. As this suggests, there are no advantages to worrying about the future of your business or dwelling in the past, but there are many to living “in the now.” If you manage to achieve that, you’ll experience no major problems along your entrepreneurial journey, just small ones that can be dealt with as they arise. Imagine if we all tried living in the present - dwelling with the Spirit. Let's stop allowing the enemy to take us to the past and fearing the future. If we did this, we would see how dramatically our business lives will improve. #WheretoStartFirst #TrustOnGod

As a branding agency, I sometimes find myself in tough situations with arrogant clients who cause the creative process to turn heated and personal. Some of the clients are big companies or huge authorities in their space, so it’s easy to get intimidated. I've also "gone to war" with my business partners, vendors, contractors, and occasionally an employee. At the moment, I felt justified in my actions, but I always end up the loser because I feel terrible for things I've said and done. In 2014 I committed myself to learn how to control my anger, God's way. My outlet becomes my blog, Daily Godpreneur. See, God has taught me over the years to respond to conflict by serving, not by throwing more heat on the fire or by putting on the boxing gloves. And my highest level of service has become this blog and the courses I teach. Many of my teachings result from conflicts that I needed to solve by studying God's Word. We Christian entrepreneurs have been given the ability to do things differently from our sinful selves. We want to get even; God wants us to give mercy. We want to get revenge. God wants us to forgive. But how can we do that if we aren't studying the way Jesus was able to handle conflict? The Bible says: But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (James 1:22 NLT) In my Daily Godpreneur Method, I teach that business and personal growth come from reading the word, sharing it, and applying the teaching to our own business lives. First, you must always be able to see people through God's eyes and heart. You don't know if they are having marriage problems or financial issues, causing them to act in a way that seems irrational to you. Maybe the pressures of their business cause their thoughts to spin out of control. Maybe they don't have a relationship with God to outlet their own feelings. Enter you and your ability to control yourself, and turn around and blog (journal) about it. Let me share some blogs and courses I created because I conflicted, and blogging about it helped me through it and made me better because of it. 21 Breakthroughs in Business and Marriage Restoring Business Partnerships Gone Bad Overcoming Depression in Entrepreneurship Conquering Integrity in Business The 7 Calling Killers God wants us to respond to hurt people in our business life with compassion and genuine interest. Instead of becoming angry and seeking justification, God wants us to come to Him, lay the problem at the foot of the cross, and receive a divine download on how to handle the situation. Then, you can journal that revelation in the form of a blog. You don't have to share it with that person, but share it on social media so others can be blessed by it. If you do this, you will see the conflict disappear from your own heart (even though it might still be in their heart). If we invest a little time praying for their businesses, their marriages, and their relationship with God, the holy spirit will speak to you and give you the answer you need to journal (blog) about. With care, humility, prayer, and proper reflection, the intimidation we feel evaporates. Then, when our heart changes toward them, their heart may change toward us, and the conflict is almost always removed—immediately. It’s amazing. Walls come down! And in the end, we have a story to share with others on our blog on how we overcame a situation in our business through God's word. It's truly a miracle to experience. When your blogging is done with care, compassion, humility, and prayer, problems disappear. Reflection How have you responded in business situations to someone who demeans, ignores, or intimidates you? If you chose to engage and escalate the conflict, what were the impacts on that person, your business relationship with them, your heart, and/or your bottom line (profit)? What could you have done differently to serve your "enemy" to win them and influence them for Christ's glory? To read more articles about sales, click here. #MakingMoreSales

What would happen if you set the alarm on your phone every morning before your business day starts, and you take a few moments and say “God, make me bold in my business today. May I have the faith to believe that no matter my financial circumstances or people issues, you will show up and do what only you can do? Make me bold in business. Give me unshakable spiritual convictions in decision making; that have the courage and the faith to obey you no matter what the personal cost. God, even though it might be painful, make me bold in business”. I'm encouraging you today to step out and be bold enough to follow the leadership of God in your business. It never ceases to amaze me what God enables an entrepreneur to do if they will just step out. Here's a question: How amazed are people by your boldness in business? When your employees or clients look at you, would they say: “Oh, undoubtedly, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you are a disciple and follower of Jesus." Or would they say, "You're Christian? Really?” There are innumerable ways the Holy Spirit prompts you to be bold in your business. VENDOR CONVERSATION: You may just be in a conversation with a vendor, and suddenly you feel the urge to ask him or her: “Do you mind if I pray for you?” Mind you, you are NEVER comfortable with praying out loud, but next thing you know, you’re calling heaven down and believing by faith that the power of God will touch this hurting person right in front of you. EMPLOYEE MEETING: You might be in an employee meeting, and someone says something inappropriate, and you very lovingly and appropriately say, “Let's not do that. We can be better than that." CLIENT CATCH-UP: You might be bold when a client starts gossiping against a competitor, trash-talking, and you don't participate or even be as bold as to say, “come on, let’s be better people than that." ANOTHER GODPRENEUR: You might see an entrepreneur friend on social media (not necessarily Christian) that is just hurting, and you write them and say, “Hey, I am going to bring you to church this week. I´m not just inviting. I’m bringing." There are so many different ways that God might manifest himself along your entrepreneurial journey through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, it takes 4 key elements that I believe if we entrepreneurs all put into practice, we could slay fear, be bold in business, and be the leader God wants us to be in our respective marketplaces. IT TAKES BOLD FAITH It takes bold faith to be a Jesus person these days in the marketplace, but I want to encourage you to be known in your circle of influence - with your clients and in your industry - that you’re with Jesus. They need to know entrepreneurs like you who love Jesus and put God first in their business. Bold faith in business is a faith that says on a daily basis, "I want to do my best to make choices in my company that honor Jesus of Nazareth. I´m for him, and I would encourage you to be for him. He's made my business better. Jesus doesn’t diminish my brand. He expands my quality of life as an entrepreneur. He expands the contentment I feel in life when I do business." IT TAKES BOLD COURAGE God wants us to be wildly successful business owners. He wants us Godpreneurs to be courageous and bold in whatever we face in business. He has made promises to make it possible for us to face anything and everything and still be standing when the battle is over! Some of you are at a certain point in your business where you're facing something new. Maybe something in your company has come to a close, and now you’re facing something new - a new industry to go after, a new niche to pursue, a pivot in a new direction. Fear always comes against us entrepreneurs when we face new things. You’re not the only one. Every time you try to make any kind of progress, you can be assured that satan will try to frighten you. That’s the way the enemy keeps people from going forward into the unknown where God is calling us to. Bold courage along your entrepreneurial journey often triggers spiritual opposition. There is spiritual opposition, and the bottom line is this: if you are not ready to face opposition for your obedience to what God is calling you to do in business, you’re not ready to be used by God. Entrepreneurial courage is not the absence of fear. Fear is a God-given emotion. Courage is actually forward motion in the presence of fear. You're a courageous business owner when you´re not afraid to step into the unknown. By the way, you’re not a coward because you feel fear. However, we´re cowardly when we let fear control us rather than continuing to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God will lead us through fear and into his perfect will for our entrepreneurial life. If you ever really want to run a God-first business led by the Holy Spirit, you have to understand that God never calls people that are "qualified" or who feel "ready" to do what they’re being asked to do; that’s why it takes faith to do it. Faith in entrepreneurship means that you step out based on what’s in your heart, not based on what’s in your circumstances. In difficult times in business or uncertain times in the marketplace, we don’t look around us. Instead, we look up! Up is where we get courage and strength. Looking up means we’re willing to trust God, be fearless, and be bold no matter what God requires of us. IT TAKES BOLD OBEDIENCE Instead of being afraid of new things, Kingdom-minded business owners should be excited about new things. Honestly, if you would just have the courage to follow God's calling for your business life, you would have an outrageously extraordinary entrepreneurial career! Your employees might not like where God is calling you to take your business. Your partners might disapprove of the new direction. You might not get a lot of encouragement from clients and handclaps on social media when you begin down the road God wants you on. Ignore the peanut gallery and stay boldly excited about the vision - God will prove himself to you! Myself included, I regularly come to places in my business that I haven't been, I haven't done that, I have no experience with that, and so I have a tendency to want to start backing off from it and just stay in my little boat of safety. But I've learned that boldness often releases God's miracles in our businesses. In other words, when you run your entrepreneurial race with bold faith, you´ll often see the hand of God move miraculously in and around your ventures. You won’t be surprised by the miracles of God when you’re operating in obedience to God. Bold entrepreneurial obedience often triggers the faithfulness and miraculous power of God in our businesses. He wants us to be bold, courageous, strong, and not afraid to try offering new services and products, pivot into new industries, and launch into new marketplaces. I think many of the reasons why some business owners don't step out and try new things is they already think before they even try about all the things that might happen if they fail. I think that if you understand how much God loves you and is for your success, then you can operate without that fear of failure. That’ll immediately set you free to try things, take more risks, and stand up for more things you're passionate about. If you do the best you can when you step out into a new direction in your business, then God will promote you over time. Often we look at the way we think it needs to be in its perfection, and if we can't do that yet, then we won’t even step out and do anything. I can tell you when I first gave my entrepreneurial walk to the Lord, it was pitiful, but I was following God's calling for me. IT TAKES BOLD FOLLOWING It's not that you need to be bolder, have more faith, or stop being critical or hard on yourself. Boldness in business comes from a passion for Jesus that, when following Him, everything is influenced in a positive direction. In Joshua:1, we see that when God sent Joshua to take Moses’s place in guiding the Israelites across the wilderness into the Promised Land, he said, “There’s only one thing that you have to do, fear not and be bold.” God can’t work through fearful entrepreneurs; he works through faith-filled Godpreneurs. Fear in business opens the front door to the enemy and lets him right into the office. On the other hand, faith opens the flood gates for God to work in and through our business ventures. Fear comes out of your flesh - out of your financial, strategic, or personal circumstances - out of what you think and feel. However, faith comes out of your heart. God wants us Godpreneurs to follow our hearts. You have to keep your heart safe and free, and if you’re not following the leadership of God for you, then your heart is not going to be free. It’s going to be burdened. I think even if you step out to launch something you believe is God's calling, and you don’t make it all the way, God likes that spirit of aggression and that boldness that says, "I’m going to step out and launch it. I´m not going to live in fear." A BOLD CONCLUSION We have the choice to face the difficulties we face in business in one of two ways. We can do it courageously or, we can do it fearfully God doesn't want his marketplace mavericks living fearfully. He says, “I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7) God is ready to give you and your business the best. The question is: are you ready to trust him for it? If you have the bold faith to stop letting other people make your decisions, the bold courage to step into the unknown, the bold obedience to launch into God's calling for you, and the boldness to publicly follow Jesus, you'll find God's destiny for your business and personal life. You’ll discover what’s going to fulfill you and what you’re meant to do and be, but you´ve got to be bold. You have to be bold enough in business to step out and find out. #BoldInBusiness #LaunchingMyBusiness #GainConfidence #SharpenLeadership

I love promises. There’s something comforting when someone promises something, or when a product or service promises to deliver on what it says it can do. Promises give me peace of mind. They relieve me of worry and stress. If my employee promises to deliver something by a certain date, I’m able to trust and move on to other things. We need promises around us, especially in a world that doesn’t want you to succeed, move up, and make a name for yourself. With so much greed, envy, and pride, it’s no wonder we get stuck in a certain comfort zone. People will tell us we can’t, we’re not worthy or we’re a failure. Past experiences will make us feel doubt and anxiety, holding us back from experiencing more out of our entrepreneurial callings. When we find ourselves stuck in a certain place that isn’t letting us pursue our bigger plans or ideas, we need promises. When we find ourselves out of ideas, desperate to know what the next move is, it’s promised that will pull us out. We need promises around us so that we can keep moving forward, keep creating, and push through to purposed-focused living. God makes many promises to us Godpreneurs. In fact, scholars have found 5,467 promises in the bible. Wow, that’s a lot of promise! The bible says: "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world". (1 John 4:4 NIV) If you’re going to pursue your passion for business, you have to surround yourself with promises like this from God. You have to have authority over you and always believe in you and will show you grace and Light the path in front of you towards your calling. We Godpreneurs especially need to know the promises of God. The business world is tough. Things change every day, people let us down, clients are messy people, and buyers lie. We need promises to lay our foundation so that we can keep loving, keep creating, and keep loving forward in our callings. God promised this in the bible: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope". (Jeremiah 29:11) Once we know that we were born for something, that we have a creator that created us for something, we will go from having no focus or meaning to starting and running a purpose-focused business that will give us a sense of satisfaction no money can buy or education can give us. My prayer for you today is God, please give the reader of this message hope in your promises and rest, peace, and victory over whatever is holding them back from all of what God created them to do! #GodpreneurAcademy #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling Stepping into What You Were Born to Do A FREE 3-Day Business Bible Study to help you succeed in the marketplace by listening to God’s calling, trusting in Him, and having faith. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

When new entrepreneurs come to launch their businesses with me, they are frightened, nervous, and overwhelmed with the amount of work and resources it takes actually to pull it off. Of course, there’s excitement in the air too! They come because they have a dream and they’re finally pressing play on a vision of a better future. I’ve found the biggest difference between the dreamers and the doers come down to one word – faith. The people that don’t pursue internal passions are those that lacked the little faith needed to put them over the edge to walk into the unknown world of the new business opportunity they could take. All of us humans weigh our decisions between risk and reward. We factor in the costs versus the benefits, and we guide our lives accordingly. Some of us are riskier than others. Again, I believe it’s a matter of the amount of faith we bring to the starting line. If God had designed this world for us to be able to make it on our own, there wouldn’t be failure or defeat. But because God’s sole desire is a relationship with us, he inserted an X factor into every business decision so that we would develop our faith in Him. Jesus says in the Bible: He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20 NIV) Faith isn’t about you developing magic tricks. It’s not a wand you wave for secret doors to open. Faith is acknowledging that whatever business venture you’re about to head into, God is at your side, and with Him, you will not be shaken (Psalm 16:8) Faith is all you need to take you from talking about the idea, to actually making it happen. It’s the fuel you need to not only start the venture but to sustain it for the rest of your life. How much faith? Like Jesus pointed out, a small seed planted next to a driveway will eventually grow into a big tree that can literally Crack cement driveways, sidewalks and move entire foundations of homes. A small little seed caused the earth to move out of its way! With just a small amount of faith, we can take ONE step into our destiny. If we do this, I believe God will bless that kind of obedience and continue to guide you from faithful decision to faithful decision. Entrepreneurship might as well be called “Faith Walking.” We can’t afford to be faithless when it comes to pursuing our calling. We must always cling tightly to Jesus because He will use the little faith you have to do great and amazing things through your business. My prayer for you today is Father, I ask you to give the reader of this blog the confidence to be bold in their faith that is rightly placed in Jesus to pursue what they were born to do. #BusinessBibleStudy #GainConfidence #GodpreneurAcademy Stepping into What You Were Born to Do A FREE 3-Day Business Bible Study to help you succeed in the marketplace by listening to God’s calling, trusting in Him, and having faith. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

I have a confession. I’ve had this thing I know I’ve needed to do for a long time, but I struggled to step out of my comfort zone to go and pursue it. I know how to do what I’m currently doing, and I’m amazing at it. But that other thing God is telling me to do… Well, I’m not experienced in. The weird part is that I know it’s what God has called me to. I know it’s in the stars for me to do it, but I’m not doing it. So I keep on doing what I know I’m really good at, and I stay inside my office walls, protected from uncertainty. We all have something God has called us to, but we’re either too comfortable or too afraid to step outside our defense walls. We know God has called us for more. We know God has promised us so much, but we cower away, unwilling to show the smallest faith of taking one step towards His calling for us. We’re not alone. This has been happening throughout the bible. Abraham always wanted a child, but as time went by, his faith in that hope dwindled, and I could imagine by the age of 80 he had lost that dream. But in what is arguably the biggest promise God set in the Bible, Genesis 15 says: Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!” (Genesis 15:5 MSG) If you take a close look, you’ll see that Abraham had to step outside of his tent to see the promise. The tent represents your comfort zone. That’s the place where you feel safe and secure. It’s where you rest and find shelter. It’s your office, your cubicle, your corner, your desk. God is asking you to step outside of that place of comfort because He wants to show you all the promises he has laid out for you, your family, and your future business! It’s going to be dark when you leave, but that’s so that you can rely on God and see the promises more clearly. Stars don’t shine in the day, they shine brightly at night. We Godpreneurs are living in our worldly bodies, and if we only operate from that place, we will always believe the lies of thinking this is all there is, and this is how life is going to end up being like forever. But if we see our next move as a spiritual move – a move to draw closer to God while at the same time step into what we were truly born to do – then God will show you everything He has lined up for you in the rest of your time here. Like the stars in the sky, the opportunities that God has for us to start businesses, rise to the next level and make an impact are innumerable. There’s a specific business calling for every one of us, and for generations to come too! God’s calling us into a fuller relationship with Him, and He’ll use an entrepreneurial venture to accomplish that. The Bible says “Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life. (Psalms 23:6 MSG) Whatever is holding you back right now, whatever is frightening you from stepping outside of your tent, God wants to show you how to overcome that. But to begin that journey, you need to step out in faith, look up, and believe the promise. My prayer for you on this journey: Father, I pray that God would give the reader of this blog the courage to hear you clearly by stepping out of their comfortable tents and into the calling you created them for – into their Born To Do Identity! #BusinessBibleStudy #FindMyCalling Stepping into What You Were Born to Do A FREE 3-Day Business Bible Study to help you succeed in the marketplace by listening to God’s calling, trusting in Him, and having faith. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

When I started my first business in 2005, I was excited to get my Entrepreneurial career off the ground finally. My spirits were high, ambition at full throttle, and dreams of grandeur in my mind. Then, business life happens. Problems arise. Things don't go as planned. Partnerships dissolve. Clients turn into enemies. Employees jump ship. Credit cards go unpaid. The IRS comes knocking for past due bills. And thus began my accumulation of regrets mixed with the discontentment of not being where I had expected to be...ten years later. And even when I started drawing closer to God as a source of hope in my business life, I still couldn't shake off the depression from lack of achievements and the stress of not knowing what formula would fix everything. I knew that living a life of purpose and operating from my calling were keys to successfully doing business God's way, but I still stayed up at night staring at the ceiling, wondering, "God, when will it be my time to be happy." I was stuck in a seemingly never-ending cycle of entrepreneurial discontentment. Sadly, many of us Christian entrepreneurs spend our time either trapped in the regret-filled past or anxious about a future we cannot hope to control. Yet, at the same time, we also cling to the hope that we can somehow improve our businesses, become purpose-focused and operate from our calling, even though we have no clear idea of how to do so. Enter the power of Entrepreneurship in the Spirit; it is a mindset for navigating the complex terrain of our inner lives and our relationships to the past, present, and future. The heart of doing business in the Spirit emphasizes operating in the present moment to avoid most of the pain we usually experience in entrepreneurship. To this end, the methodology focuses on the connection between the mind and suffering, shedding light on the numerous destructive ways our sinful nature uses our minds – for example, to trap us in cycles of suffering and stop us from the present joy God desires us to experience. The Bible says So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. (Romans 8:6 NLT) The Power of Entrepreneurship in the Spirit helps us improve our business lives, including our relationships with partners, employees, and clients, and, crucially, increase our sense of self-esteem and fully engage with our Godpreneurial journey. If we could all operate from the spirit for more hours of the day than not, we would see a significant shift in marketplaces globally. Heaven would become, more than ever, a place on earth. #TrustOnGod #DifferentiatingMyself

From 2014 to 2016 I was on a “hiring freeze”. For 2 years I ran my business with a skeleton crew of 2-3 people. It’s tough to do business with only a couple of people. It gets lonely and it’s a lot of work. Plus, I was just barely getting by financially, meeting my own needs primarily. Early in 2016, I began to feel God stirring me to “unfreeze” my hiring and start bringing a team together. As the team came together, I began to realize something profound: God wanted to use me to bless others on my team financially. We entrepreneurs can sometimes get caught up in the “me mentality”. What’s in it for me? How will this benefit me? How will this hurt me? How will my bank account grow from this? That’s where God wants us to shift our mentality. We serve a God of abundance! He doesn’t want you to have just barely enough to meet your own needs; He wants you to be so blessed that you have more than enough to meet the needs of the employees, contractors, and vendors around you in your business. He wants you to be so blessed that you have more than enough financially that not only can you pay your bills and accomplish your own dreams, but you can also be a blessing to others. The Bible says: “…Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” (Psalms 35:27, NKJV) God wants you to excel in every area of your business. He actually takes pleasure in it! And I believe He wants you to be blessed because, through you, He wants to bless people, your church (with increased tithes), and charities around you that you’ll support. So, how do you live this “blessed” life? Unfortunately, you can’t just “think” your way to abundance. The book “the secret” is really missing a major component in this law of attraction. Yes, first, you have to make room for it in your thinking. You have to expect that He wants to bless your business. If your thinkin’ is stinkin’, so will your life. If your mind is of overflow and abundance, you’re now thinking like God. But where this “law of abundance” drops the ball is that, second, you must walk in obedience. I don’t care how much you think about getting rich or having millions, if you’re stealing money, cheating on your spouse, and living in clear opposition to God’s very best for you, you’re not going to experience the blessings of God. We’re Godpreneurs. Our CEO is God. He sees every part of our life. He knows what we’re thinking and doing. If we can align our thinking and obedience, we can experience the blessings of God. Not because of our own financial gain, but because of the financial gain of others. Change your mindset to want to make money to bless others. He delights in our prosperity! #FindMyCalling #FindingMyPurpose

We don’t live in a business culture today where people are willing to be patient and wait on God’s work, on his time frame. God has a reason when He doesn’t move as quickly as you want Him to move on that big contract. There’s a reason why He doesn’t move as rapidly as you want him to move on that new hire. That waiting in the Lord is a good thing for us entrepreneurs accustomed to taking things into our own hands. The waiting keeps that hope and that expectation in God, the Chairman of your Board of Directors, looking for Him to work that contract, and staying abound and connected to Him. See, the issue with us grinders and hustlers and go-getters is that we're prone to forgetting God is at the wheel guiding things. Instead, we take matters into our own hands because that's the leader in us. However, there are two types of leaders: - Those who patiently wait on the Lord - Those who don't trust in God's timing and promises and take matters into their own hands. From experience, taking action when you should have waited makes your situation even worse than what it already was. As a God-First business owner, waiting patiently means that: I'm going to have an attitude of hope and expectation along my entrepreneurial pilgrimage. I’m determined to stay connected to the Lord. I'm not going to backslide. I’m not going to get tired of waiting for that client to pay me. I’m not going to cuss God out when a launch doesn't go as planned. I’m not going to walk away from the business partnership that God brought together in the first place. I’m not going to quit on my calling. I’m not going to grow weary when I don't see a change in my industry. I’m not going to get frustrated when my partner isn't pulling his weight. I’m just going to buckle down and sit right here because I’m expecting God to move. I'm expecting God to do something. I’m not going to quit. I’m expecting him to work it out. Proverbs 3:5 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your understanding. Christian entrepreneurs, listen. We are like patients in a hospital, calling the doctor for advice. What do you do as a patient when you call the doctor? You’re not telling the doctor what to do. You’re waiting on the doctor to tell you what to do, right? #WaitingOnGod

Many times, in hindsight, you see more of the why behind the wait. I’m going to talk to somebody that's been waiting for a big contract to come through because right now you don’t see it, but years from now, you may look back and say, "oh wow, well, I'm glad I didn't get into that relationship." In the same way, God could be delaying the contract because the contract is about to get even more significant because of some unforeseen event. So I repeat - many times, in hindsight, you can see the why behind the wait. When we look back, we can see exactly why God waited for the perfect time. I've always rested in the thought that God's ways are still good for my business. Just because God felt silent at a time when I needed Him didn't mean He was absent. I've learned to recognize when I'm in a waiting season, and I remember that my God is working! Waiting with the Right Attitude I don’t know how long you've been waiting. I don't know how challenging your situation might be. And I don't know how much longer you'll have to endure your waiting season, but I do know that God will come through. I do know that you can enjoy your wait if you will just improve your attitude. The key is to do your part and wait with the right attitude. You can't stay upset and complain, “when is it ever going to happen?” No! Flip the script and say, “Father, thank you, that what you started in my business, you will finish. Thank you because the vision you gave me is on the way." If you wait with the right attitude, after patience has done its work in you, you’re going to see entrepreneurial promises come to pass. However, our go-getter nature sees waiting as unfavorable we don’t like it because nothing is happening. We’re interested in the destination, but God is interested in the journey. He’s working on us along the way. Us Bible-trained entrepreneurs already know that waiting doesn’t mean nothing is happening in our business. We've read the stories where waiting didn’t mean God had forgotten about his people. We see time and time again themes in the Bible where waiting is part of the process. God's Word shows us that we can stay in faith, knowing that at the right time, God will get us to where we’re supposed to be. David waited 13 years to take the throne after the prophet Samuel anointed him to be the next king. God could have taken him straight to the throne, but David wasn't ready. He had to go through a time of testing. During those 13 years, David faithfully took care of his father’s sheep. It seemed like a menial position for a guy that already knew he had bigger things in him - he heard the prophet say that he was a king. However, had David not passed the waiting time, he would have never made it to the throne. He had to show God he would take care of his earthly father’s sheep before God would trust him to take care of his heavenly father's sheep - the people of Israel. While you wait, doing the best you can where your business is right now, that's a time God is using to see if you’re ready. Something important to keep in mind is that if what you're praying about isn’t changing, then God is still using that situation to change you. Listen closely, you business leaders, you marketplace ministers: If a situation is not working out, then it’s working out something in you. All things in your business are working for your good. God is working in your life as a Godpreneur. I´m telling you, if you have prayed a prayer in faith for your company that is according to the will of God, then God is working. #WaitingOnGod

Many times in business, when we feel like God isn't doing anything, He's really in the boardroom crafting page after page of your business plan. He's fully engaged and invested in every detail of our daily operations. He is never on break; there’s no vacation time for God. Since giving my business over to God, I've come to realize that we never grow spiritually when everything in our business life is just the way we want it to be. I mean, look, you can learn things at church or in Bible reading, but that's just head knowledge. The only way you know what you really believe is to have it put to the test. We can sing about trusting God. We can talk about trusting God. However, you don't know whether or not you trust God with your entire business until something happens in your company that makes no sense. You feel like it’s very unjust and not right, and you can't get any answers from God, and you don’t feel like He’s anywhere in the building, and you’re waiting, and you’re waiting, waiting, and waiting. That’s when you find out if you trust God. When you get to this point of trust on your Godpreneurial journey, you're ready for your Jericho moment. Walls will come down. You'll take your rightful place in your marketplace. Get ready for your land of milk and honey! The Bible says Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? (James 2:5 ESV) In Godpreneurship, the Lord wants us to believe Him, to trust Him, to wait on Him with the right attitude - a believing attitude like what the apostle James was teaching to the early Christians. When I'm in a waiting situation in my business, I always tell myself, "God is grinding." You need a catchy phrase to say to yourself when you're in this situation. I started doing this, and it’s really helpful. When I’m waiting on a big proposal, and I begin to think about how long it’s been, and my mind starts to go negative, I say out loud: “GOD IS GRINDING,” and it helps me because I truly believe He is. You realize that when you get a breakthrough in business, God didn’t start just working on that a second before you got it. God’s working on your business right now. He’s heard your prayers. He’s working in your situation. For entrepreneurs, faith is when you don’t see anything happening in your business, when the journey doesn’t feel right, and when you have questions that you’re not getting answers to. Faith is a matter of the entrepreneur's heart. Faith-filled Godpreneurs believe that God is working and that something good will happen, even when everything around them looks the exact opposite. I'm always in situations that don't make any "business sense," but I believe in God. I think God is grinding. I have faith that something good is going to happen to me. I wholeheartedly believe the situation is going to change. #WaitingOnGod

I'm always thinking, and often I'm not even aware of what exactly I'm thinking about. And often, I think of myself in a negative emotional state. I'm thinking of debt, bad decisions, an employee not doing something I told them to, and the thoughts go on and on. I’ll be the first to admit that it takes me a while to snap out of whatever negative emotion I’m experiencing. However, in studying about being present and in tune with my Spirit, if I backtrack and discover what the original thought was, I can always find that the thoughts are not from God. The idea of operating from the Spirit is to manage somehow to live in the present and not worry about our businesses’ past or future. However, pain, loss, and regret are still very real feelings that happen in present moments along our entrepreneurial journey. Is suffering some kind of message from our Spirit? And, how do we deal with emotional suffering? Enter the Devil. The Devil is known as ‘The Father of Lies.’ (John 8:44) He is incapable of speaking the truth, and his mission is to distort the truth about our day-to-day duties and responsibilities in business and convince us that his distortion is true. Pain is nothing more than the enemy inside our heads shining a bright light on external things that we (supposedly) cannot change. We experience pain when we are unsatisfied with how things are yet are convinced that we are not powerful enough to change. The enemy thus manifests himself, on an emotional level, as a NEGATIVE feeling. I have come to realize along my entrepreneurial journey that when I find myself in the state of being overcome by negative emotion, it’s almost always because I’m thinking of and believing the Devil’s lies. The Bible says Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) Why would the Apostle Peter start with "be sober-minded" when referring to the adversary, the Devil? It's because that's where the Devil does his devouring. Because you think so much about the past and the future of your business and overall entrepreneurial career but can live only in the present, you "feed" into the devil's lie that you have no means to change things that you’re unhappy about. The inner resistance about how things are is what you experience as pain - the devil devouring your relationship with your present-moment inner Spirit. The devil needs you to feel pain so that it can survive in the NOW. It needs to keep you in the depression of your past or anxiety of your future and keep feeding you lies that things will never change so that he can rob you of dwelling with your present-moment Spirit. Since the enemy lives off of your painful experiences, he grows and strengthens whenever you experience pain. Therefore he will try to make your entrepreneurial journey miserable and sad. To make matters worse, this cycle can continue for a very long time until, finally, the enemy replaces the Spirit and becomes an essential part of you: you’ll have fully identified with the father of lies. And because your pain and suffering will by then be such an important part of your life, you’ll be afraid to let it go because doing so would then put your very identity at risk. It's some messed-up stuff we're dealing with when it comes to the devil. It's no joke. He does NOT want us operating in the Spirit and doing the business God created us to do. For example, when a product launch doesn't go well, and you feel yourself getting frustrated, angry, and depressed, the enemy has taken control. The lies cloud your ability to think and act rationally and simply lead to more pain. Even when it seems that pain comes from the external world and we start blaming others for our suffering, it is, in fact, self-created by giving way for the enemy to dwell in our minds: he's prowling around within our minds. The good news is that because we can't lose the Holy Spirit, we can do something about it. John 6:63 says, "It is the Spirit who gives life. Galatians 5:16 says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." The only solution is being completely present with your Spirit right here, right now. Notice how when we put on a worship song, God whisks us away into his arms and, for a moment, we have no suffering or pain? That's the power of operating our business moment to moment with the Spirit. #DifferentiatingMyself #TrustOnGod