Stop Putting a Deadline on Your Calling – It’s Killing Your Business

#023// "If this doesn't work by [date], I'm done." Sound familiar? That sentence is a "self-destruct button" — and it's killing your business.

👉 Download the FREE Kingdom Builder's Mindset Toolkit: ericapyle.com/toolkit

In this episode of the Jesus Girl Gang Kingdom Business Podcast, I'm telling on myself. That sentence — the deadline, the ultimatum, the "I'll give it six more months" — was my emergency "eject button" of choice for years. I used it every time I felt like I was losing control of what God called me to build. And it nearly took me out.

This is a confrontation episode. If you've ever quietly negotiated with God about the timing of your calling, this one was recorded for you.

Here's what we get into:

→ Why that deadline isn't wisdom or stewardship — it's conditional obedience, and conditional obedience is disobedience

→ The scripture where God directly addresses the "it's taking too long" objection and what He says about the appointed time of your vision (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

→ Why the harvest is guaranteed but the only variable is whether you quit before you get to reap it (Galatians 6:9)

→ A secret weapon from Jesus' mother at the wedding at Cana — five words that accelerated God's timeline and pulled a miracle forward

→ The Proverbs 31 woman and her five pillars of purpose — why you were designed for multi-passionate, high-capacity Kingdom building

→ Why the wall you keep hitting isn't God saying no — it's evidence you need something for the next phase (and what that something might be)

→ The heart question that changes everything: if nothing visible ever came from your effort but God was pleased, would you be satisfied? Your answer reveals who you're really building for.

→ What Jonah, Gideon, and King Saul teach us about attaching our joy to metrics instead of obedience

→ How to go back to your first love when the revenue pressure has stolen your fire (Revelation 2)

📖 Scriptures Referenced: Habakkuk 2:2-3 · Galatians 6:9 · Hebrews 10:35-36 · John 2:1-5 · Colossians 3:23-24 · Proverbs 31:16-31 · Matthew 11:28-30 · 1 Samuel 14 · Revelation 2 · Exodus 18 · Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

🔗 Resources + Links:
→ FREE Kingdom Builder's Mindset Toolkit: ericapyle.com/toolkit
→ Show Notes + Blog Post: ericapyle.com/ep23
→ Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@ericapyle
→ Instagram: instagram.com/ericapyle
→ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ericapyle.com/KBPapple
→ Subscribe on Spotify: ericapyle.com/KBPspotify

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Jesus Girl Gang Kingdom Business Podcast, where faith finally meets real strategy to launch your online business. Well, hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Jesus Girl Gang Kingdom Business Podcast. I'm your host, Erica Pyle. And today you are getting me straight from our holiday, from our vacation. And so I'm excited to be here with you guys today. And I wanted to talk to you about kind of a topic that is very personal to me. The name of this episode is Stop Putting a Deadline on Your Calling. It's killing your business. All right. So as you can see, I am in a very different kind of setting as I have been when I normally come to you. So things are going to feel a little bit, I don't know, let's just say they're going to feel a little bit casual. Okay. Because as I'm sitting here trying to figure out like how I can see my notes and how I can make sure that I can see everything that's going on, it's going to be an interesting little moment. But it's all good. So here's the thing. If you don't, if you haven't been here before, you don't know a lot about me. I like to share topics from my own personal life. And this topic today about putting a deadline on your calling or maybe saying something like this if this doesn't take off by XYZ date, then I'm quitting. Anybody, anyone ever do, ever do that? See, because that for me, in my experience of my entrepreneurial journey, has been what I call my emergency eject button. And in other training, other teachings that I do, and if you're in my mentorship, I talk about this a lot. Whenever you hit the eject button on something that God has called you to do, whenever you hit the eject button, he's just gonna wrap you back around. It's called a wormhole. It'll just wrap, he'll just wrap you right back around and drop you off where you are. Why? Because his heart is that he wants you to learn the lesson. His heart is that he wants you to actually grow and to become. And it's in this process of the hard, it's in the process of places where you feel stuck or you feel like you cannot do something that he allows that kind of pressure and that kind of difficulty to form you. Has that ever happened to you? Well, I gotta be honest. I if I'm not a very rebellious person, I'm just not. I'm pretty compliant. And I'm very black and white when it comes to God, and I like to be pleasing to the heart of God, and as we all do. But for me, I I very rarely go to like outright rebellion. That's just not my thing. However, however, when I am starting to feel like I'm losing the plot, I may not be able to do something, I'm under-resourced, or it's not happening in my timeline or what I think, I will, I will hit that emergency eject button. And I will say, if if this doesn't work by X date, then I'm done. I'm quitting. Has have any drop it in the comments if you have ever experienced that. We're recording this live on YouTube as I'm recording the episode. So if you're here with me on YouTube and you have ever said anything like that, maybe for you it doesn't sound like that. Like for me, this was my whoopie, my emotional support eject button, right? My last ditch effort of grabbing whatever control I thought was still available. And I used it for many years in my business over and over. And if you ask my husband or if you ask like my close girlfriends, they will tell you like that's how they knew that I was like at my at the end of my rope because I would threaten to quit. And I'd be like, look, if it doesn't work. Maybe for you, it's not that exact sentence. Maybe for you it's, you know what? If I can't get five clients by September, this wasn't meant to be. Or maybe it's if I don't make X amount of money by X date, then I'm going back to my day job. Or I'm not gonna do this anymore. God, I'll give this, I'll give it six more months. And if it doesn't break through, then then I'm done. And, you know, what's interesting is this is not just an entrepreneurial happening. This isn't just something that we do with our businesses, right? For me, I realized it, you know, in every area of my life. And that's scary to say. It really is. You know, I'm a pastor of a local church alongside my husband. I, you know, I have a women's ministry, I disciple women in this place of following Jesus. And yet there were places in my life where I was like, you know what? If, you know, I I had challenges in my health, and I would be like, if this diet doesn't work by X date, then then I'll just, I'm just gonna go get on the medicine. I'm a holistic health coach. I don't just one does not just go and get on medicine as a holistic health coach. It's like really against like my, I'm not against medicine. I it's just not the approach that I take. Um, and yet here I was like making that statement, like, if this doesn't work by X date, then I'm just gonna do this. And it's just this outrageous, crazy thing. And, you know, we do it, you know, we could do it with our health, we could do it with um our finances, we could do it with our business, we could even do it with our marriage. Like, have you ever been like, if if he doesn't, if he doesn't straighten up by X date, then this is what's gonna happen. And it's like we we put these ultimatums out there and we use it primarily wherever we feel out of control. And today, what I want to do is I want to show you what that deadline, when we do that, when we set that kind of deadline, that drop dead deadline with God, you know, what it actually means and what God says about his timing versus ours. And then I want, I do want to give us a little bit of hope because I do have a secret weapon from the Bible that, you know, while we can't always be fully in control and make it happen the way exactly we want it to happen or as fast as we want it to happen, I do have a story in scripture that I can share with you that's pretty impactful. And I think um it'll give you some hope. But first, I just like if you're new around here and you're like, okay, who are you and why are you talking about um kingdom business and women in business? So I have over 25 years of process engineering experience. Um, I started in big for accounting and then moved into the marketplace. I worked for a$2 billion publicly traded Fortune 500 company based in New York City for a number of years. And while I was an accountant, I have a C I'm a CPA retired. Um, I got my master's of science and taxation. And I really do, you know, I did love working in the tax world. Uh, by the time I got into my latter years of my CPA um stint and that my big four accounting stint, and then when I went to the company that I ultimately ended my marketplace career with, um, even though my title there was senior director of global tax accounting, and I oversaw the, you know, the tax footnote for um, you know, this 1800 plus subsidiary conglomerate that came together, I wasn't spending most of my time each day on tax stuff as much as I was spending it on process, process engineering, process implementation, training people on process, implementing process in the various subsidiaries around the world. Um, during my stint at that company, I traveled to over 33 different countries and trained, and some of them multiple times, and trained each of these offices on how to implement process that ultimately would roll up and give us the numbers that we needed to report into our public financial statements. And this is a lot of stress, it's a lot of pressure, but I was made for it. And so I started out my career as an accountant, as a tax accountant, a tax specialist. But really, from like week two of my first job, I was tapped with being the um orientation specialist. Like I was training people, onboarding people within the first year of me being a part of any of the companies that I was in. And I think this is because people realized oh, she's really good at taking complicated process and breaking it down and explaining it and helping people to get on a rhythm, get on a process that actually is productive. And they were right, like that's kind of like part of my design, my God-given design. And so I started this love affair with process engineering, process management, implementing process and helping others to implement process over 25 years ago. And I left the marketplace almost 20 years ago. Like it's we're getting there, we're getting pretty close. And I came into the space of ministry and then into the entrepreneurial space. And I've been in the entrepreneurial space again. I'll say again because I did have a stint many years ago, but I came back into the entrepreneurial space about 11 years ago as a holistic health coach and in the network marketing space. And right from the word jump, that was the strength that I brought back to the party, which was the ability to curate systems and strategy and implement those systems and help others to implement systems so that they could see results faster, more efficiently, like they weren't burning out. And so this is kind of like where I came into the fullness of what I bring to the party of online marketing and online businesses. You know, I love being a strategist around launching online businesses, kingdom businesses, because I truly believe that, you know, the Proverbs 31 woman, this is going a little bit off of our topic today, but the Proverbs 31 woman, she had five pillars of purpose. So if you look at Proverbs 31, you'll see these five different pillars of purpose in her life, all working together at the same time. She was one person, she had one purpose in her life, but there are five pillars to that purpose. The first one is godly daughter, she was a daughter of the most high living God. Um, she was a she was a godly wife, speaks a lot about that in there. She was a godly mother, she was a godly sister friend, you know, she led the team in her home, in her household, um, to run that household. And then she was also a godly entrepreneur. It says that she went and considered a field and bought it. She actually wound up planting it too and causing it to produce. And then also, she took extra wares from what she'd made and and prepared in her home. And when she had extra, she took it to the market. So there are these five different pillars of purpose that are on this Proverbs 31 woman. And so, you know, we are meant to be multi-passionate, ambitious Christian women out here in these internet streets. If you've been called to have an online business, then this is something that you should be able to do with all those other pillars of purpose operating. Now, do you need to be a rock star in all five at the same time? No, that's probably not gonna happen. We're human beings, right? But I think the thing that we get stuck on most is we think to ourselves, oh, well, I can't possibly do all of those. I'm gonna have to choose. And I believe that that's just a narrative from the pit of hell that says, you know, you can't don't believe for too much. Don't think you can do too much. And so we find ourselves bombarded with this lie that somehow we can't have it all. Listen, sister, here's the truth. You can have every single thing that God has promised you. You can have the life that God promised you. And it is a multifaceted life. And if you, you know, and if you're listening to this, you most likely are an ambitious Christian woman who is high capacity. You you thrive in environments where it's high pace and there's a lot coming at you. You enjoy being able to be high capacity and to do things. Now, that's not to say that sometimes we don't hit our wall and we're just like, okay, this is too much. But can I tell you something? We don't ever hit the wall of too much because we're not designed for this kind of thing. It's more that we've believed lies and we've believed the narrative that's been spun around us and we've hit some suffering, we've hit some pain, and we've allowed what that pain to mean. We've allowed what that pain means to be something like, I'm not made for this, I can't do it. And so it's the same when we start to pick up this idea or this lie of, you know what, if if I can't make this business work by X date, then I'm not meant for it. I should just quit. That's us aligning with that narrative that we were never made for. If you're listening to this episode, to this podcast, I know you are an ambitious, multi-passionate Christian woman who has been called to big things. I know that about you. You wouldn't be listening because my sound is very direct and my sound is is um it's kind of hammery. And but it's but here's the thing, it's also highly encouraging because it's like, I see you. I know that you're meant for big things. I know that you're meant to be able to do multiple things at one time. I know you're a Proverbs 31 woman. I know it. And so, you know, it just takes sometimes for us to hear another woman who is like us to say, yeah, it's okay to want it all. It's okay to want to be able to be great at a lot of these things. The Proverbs 31 woman was, and I mean, like, read it. It says, and you know, her husband and her children call her blessed and great, and like they they she's favored and and they brag on her at the at the city gate. So I don't actually think that it's a bad thing for you to want that in your life. It's just that when it's hard and when we feel like it's not happening at the exact time or in the exact way that we want it to, we will start to grasp for control. And that's where this thing, this this habit comes into play when we start negotiating with God, basically, and saying, look, if it doesn't happen by this time, if it doesn't happen in this way, if it doesn't happen before X, Y, Z, then I'm quitting because I clearly I'm not made for it. And listen, that uh can I be honest? Can we be honest with each other? That's you and I throwing a pity party for ourselves. It really is. Because there comes a point when it feels so heavy, but in in our mistake, we go to the place that says it wasn't meant for me. When the reality is, if God said that it was for you, then it's for you. It just may not be this way, it just may not be in this time. So when we say something like, hey, if this, if I can't get this by this amount by this date, if I can't, if I can't make this happen by this date, then I'm quitting, or it's not for me. That's us trying to we're self-sabotaging. And I really wanna, I want to talk about that today. I want to talk about this wild thing that we do where we put try to put a deadline on breakthrough. So what is that deadline actually? Well, first of all, it's not wisdom. So just understand that even when I was doing it, I knew it wasn't wisdom. I was just at the end of my rope and I was being dramatic. I knew I was being dramatic. Now, for you, you may not know you're being dramatic, but there came a point when I realized that when I threw this thing out there, like, well, if it doesn't happen by X date, then I'm just quitting. I'm just done with this. I'm not, this isn't for me. I must have heard God wrong. Okay. When I I got to a point a few years ago where I could see it on myself. And I was like, this is not wisdom. This is me just being at the end of my rope and basically trying to negotiate with God. And here's the thing: God doesn't negotiate with terrorists. And quite frankly, I could start to see at that time that I was a terrorist to my own life, to my own terror territory. I was self-sabotaging. And it was like I didn't want to believe anymore that God really was for me and it was going to happen because I tried in so many different ways. And I had tried with so much effort, with so much that was in me, that I was like, if I'm being honest, and and I think that that's what this is here for. I want to be clear. I think that that's what this ep, this podcast is here for is we got to be able to be honest. Okay. But I was mad. I was mad at God. I was like, God, you know my human frame. You know what I'm capable of, you know what's hard for me, you know what I've been through, you know how hard I've tried. So why aren't you letting this happen? And then I immediately assumed that it was either punishment or like I wouldn't actively believe this about God, but I think that sometimes when we get tired and we get worn out, we do allow us to have our to have that thought that says, maybe, maybe God doesn't see, or maybe he's not paying attention, or maybe, but but really what it I think it breaks down to a whole lot more is maybe I heard God wrong and maybe maybe that I'm not where I'm supposed to be. And then we like start deconstructing our whole life. Do you have you been there? And I know that I was there. So it was actually kind of a blessing when I could start to see that when I played this card, that truly I was trying to negotiate with God. And it was a little bit, it was a little hint of a rebellion, just a little hint of rebellion on this girl's life. I wouldn't say that like I'm an outright, like I'm gonna rebel, like I'm gonna do what I want. Hashtag I do what I want. But I do think that when I get worn out, I tend to be like, you know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna dig my heels in the ground. And your move, God, can I tell you something? When you play that game, get ready for the move to be aggressive. Get ready for the move to be aggressive because he loves us far too much to leave us in that place. So, you know, like here is for me, this is what it looked like. Every time I stalled out in my business because I doubted myself, or I worried that it wasn't gonna work, or I couldn't see the resources or the equipping that I needed lining up properly, then this risk of me giving God a deadline would show up. You know, it felt in the beginning, and and and I want to validate this for you because if you've been here, then I bet you've said this. Erica, it feels responsible. It feels like I'm stewarding God's resources well. Because if I say, look, if I can't make it work by X date, then I'm gonna just cut it off. Well, does Erica, doesn't that make me a good steward? Because then I'm saying I'm not gonna waste any more money on these subscriptions when it's not getting anywhere. Uh, I'm not gonna waste my time on it and give my time away from my family into this business if it's not working. So, like, isn't this responsible, Erica? Isn't this good stewardship? You know, and and in some ways it felt like I was just being realistic. But here's the truth it's just self-sabotage dressed up as wisdom. That's all that it is. Because here's this this is the this is the tell. If God said it, that settles it. If God told you to build and launch this business or ministry, then that settles it. Now, that doesn't settle the how, it doesn't settle the timeline, it doesn't settle the amount of pain or struggle you're gonna go through. It it doesn't it it doesn't settle any of that. What it settles is I am gonna keep running this race no matter what. And in doing, and if that's the case, if that's true, and I believe that that is, if you've heard God, if you said if he said it, that settles it, we keep moving forward, then actually it is quite irresponsible to say, I'm gonna stop trying. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna stop. That that is irresponsible. But we in false humility are like, no, but I'm gonna save money because I'm gonna cut down all of these things. You know, this business is costing me money. I'm having to invest in it every single month. You know, now I'll just quit and I and I won't do it. But what about the people that God called you to help and serve? What about the breakthroughs that God has planned for that business or ministry that he's called you to build and launch that are gonna shift things in the earth? What about the expansion of the kingdom that he's placed on your purpose? What about the glory that he's gonna get when you obey him and you keep going? See, when you start to see it like that, you start to realize it's not very responsible to try and make excuses to get out of your purpose and to get out of your calling and your assignment, right? It you know, I truly believe that we do this when we're trying to get more control of a situation, and I did it for years, and the I believe that the mercy of God in it is that He allowed me to see why I was doing it and He allowed me to like kind of dig deep into it and learn because he knew that one day I was going to be leading a company of women who struggle with the same thing. And if we can identify it and acknowledge it faster, then we can just realize like, yes, this sucks. It's hard. Yes, it's not happening as fast as I want it to. Yes, it is taking more out of me than I expected it to. Yes, my family is complaining in this season. And I hate that because I don't want them to think that I'm taking advantage of them or that I'm not prioritizing them. Um, yes, this is terrible because I thought that by now it should have happened and all of that. Like I get it. Those feelings are real, but those feelings don't then justify hitting the self-destruct button, hitting that eject button. Because I'm telling you, it's just gonna put you in a wormhole. You'll find yourself right back here. You'll be like, that conviction, I go listen to last week's episode. That conviction is not gonna stop. And so you just trying to cut it off is you just taking an unauthorized break. You know, we got to call that what it is. It's you think that you may think that setting the deadline, like I said, is wisdom or responsibility, but actually it's conditional obedience, and conditional obedience is disobedience. We're saying, God, I'll obey you as long as it produces the results on my timeline. And so I think we need a little selaw moment for that, because that requires repentance. That that requires us stopping and repenting, because what we're saying really is I'll follow the, I'll keep on following your word for my life and this calling if it starts to pay off by X date, if I start to see the blessing by X date. It's giving next level Gideon. It's giving next level Gideon. And I know that a lot of people teach Gideon like the fleece stuff is like a is a good strategy. I gotta tell you something, it's subpar faith. You know, we could do a deep dive into Gideon, and I could show you that he was from the the smallest tribe and and he acted like it. And he allowed that to impact his identity and he allowed his father's wicked ways, you know, he had an ashtray pole in his front yard. Um, he allowed familial generational stuff to impact him and his belief about himself to the point where he just believed, you know, the angel calls him mighty man of valor. And he's like, You talking to me? Like, no, no, no, no. I'm from the smallest tribe. I'm nothing. He's, you know, beating out the wheat in a wine press that the enemy, the Midianites, don't steal his wheat. Like, it's just it's given real next level Gideon vibes when we go, like, no, no, no, no, I can't. It's not possible. And God, if you don't do it in this timeline, then then clearly, clearly, you're not meant to do it. And so I'm just gonna quit. And that's not stewardship, that's actually negotiation from a place of fear. And we've got you would not operate from a place of fear. Would you teach your kids that? Would you teach your kids to settle? Would you teach your kids like to like, oh, well, if it's not working out, you know, if high school's hard, you know, and you can't seem to break through, then you know what? Let's just quit. You weren't meant meant for it. It's like, no, like we know that the things that God calls us into, our kids into, there's meaning if they will work at it where they are, because in the future, God is stacking, he's stacking things for them, he's preparing them for things, he's equipping them, he's resourcing them, he's producing things in them, he's expanding capacity in them. And so it's like we can see this for our kids. We can see this even for other people, right? But then we start to think about it for ourselves. And I don't actually think that we're bad kids. I don't think that we're lazy. I don't think that we're the kind of people who are like, well, you know what? I can just give up on a deadline. You and me, oh man, we'll we'll go back to the house and we will absolutely kill ourselves about the fact that we quit. It is not a walk in the park to quit, right? But but what it is showing is like we're we're believing these lies about ourselves that if we can't do it a certain way or in a certain amount of time, then that means something negative about us. And I gotta tell you something, we've gotta stop believing that because in his delay, in God's expansion of the time that he's giving us to meet a milestone, he's actually blessing us with preparation, with refinement, with resourcing, with capacity expansion, with understanding. And I know that it's hard because, like, I get it. It's like you're looking at your thing and you're like, well, can this at least break even? Can we at least get to the point where we break even so that I'm not being a drain on my family's finances? Or, you know, can we at least get this to a point where it's automated and it's actually working so I can say to my family, see, it was worth it. This was worth it. Like, God, come on. And God's like, if you could hear him, this is probably what he would say. He would say, look, it's more important to me that I establish your character in this than that we speed up so that you feel better about the demand that you're placing on your family or your finances. Uh it's more important to me, I believe, says the Lord, that I teach you how to steward the blessing that's coming right now so that when it comes, you don't fumble. These are the things that when it's not happening in the timing that we expect it to, that's what he's building into us. And I think that many times we miss it because being high capacity, ambitious, multi-passionate women, we we just feel like I gotta keep moving, I gotta keep moving, I've got to keep on hitting the marks. I'm gonna run out of time. It's not gonna work, right? And God's like, can't will you please walk with me, work with me, see how I do it. I won't put anything heavy or ill-fitting on you, Jesus says. He says, Come and learn the unforced rhythms of grace. That's Matthew 11, 28 to 30 in the message translation. That's what he wants. He's like, girl, like, do you understand? He's like so enamored with you, he's so thrilled with you. And he watches you get into this spin and this kerfuffle. And for us, we're just like devastated by it. For him, he's like, girl, you're so cute. Like, but seriously, like just chill for a second, just walk with me. I want to show you something. Like, if you could just relax and walk with me, you would be amazed. And I think this comes down to really enjoying the journey. Enjoying the journey. So, what does God say about timing, right? I think that one thing that we kind of get lost in is we take the timing onto our tick list. Like we take the timing of things and we think that if we're delayed or if something's taking too long, that it means something negative about us. But the reality is the timing is the Lord's. You know, in Habakkuk 2, verses 2 and 3, it's a the he's God says to the prophet, write the vision and make it plain on tablets, so he who he may may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits it's a point in time and hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It doesn't say there, it doesn't say if it seems slow, tell God that you're gonna quit. If it seems slow, tell God that you're not in it to win it anymore, right? No, no, no. It says if it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. And here's the kicker. And this is the part that really like gets my goat. He says it will not delay. I'm like, we are about to miss that payment, or we are about to like fumble this launch. We're about to, like, it's about to happen. And God's like, Erica, my timing does not delay. The vision is coming, it's coming right on time. It's coming exactly when I wanted it to come. So I need you to put your eyes on me, he's saying. The vision has an appointed time. It's his and not mine. It will not lie. So the calling is real, even when the results aren't visible yet. If it seems slow, I'm supposed to wait, not quit, not renegotiate, not move the the goalposts. I'm supposed to wait. If it seems slow, wait for it because it's surely coming and it will not delay. You know, my deadline, I had to learn, my deadline is not the appointed time. And it's very rare that I even get like a download, a prophetic download of the appointed time. More times than not, I just focus on staying in step with him and doing what he says to do. And the appointed time appears in front of me. And that's part of the blessing because I didn't have to wait on it. I could be the passenger princess. Like, listen, I believe that that's a word for us. We need to be a passenger princess in our businesses and in our ministries that we're building with and for God. You and I need to learn how to be that much-loved, beloved daughter of the king and a passenger princess. And we need to say, Lord, what do you want me to do today while I'm in the passenger seat? Do you want me to like read the map? Do you want me to like crochet something? Do you want me to call somebody? Like, what is on the hit parade today while you are determining the cadence, the direction, you know, the speed, and when we're going to get there, the ETA, what can I be doing in this passenger seat? One thing that I know that we should be doing is not growing weary, not getting a bad attitude. Galatians 6 9 says, let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we don't give up. And when I was making that statement to God that says, look, if it doesn't happen by this time, then I'm quitting. That was me giving up. I thought I was being responsible because I was giving notice. Oh, God, I'm gonna give you a two-week notice that if you don't do this by this time, then I'm quitting. That's so responsible. No, no. That's that's that's that's gross, right? So, you know, my job is to not become weary and doing good, this thing that he's called me to do, because we will reap if we don't give up. Now, if this is conditional, it says if we don't give up. Here's what's interesting. If you look at that scripture, the harvest is guaranteed. God is the God of the harvest, so the harvest is gonna come. The question is, are you gonna get to reap? Am I gonna get to reap? This is what we're dealing with. The harvest is gonna come. But if we grow weary and we quit, we're not gonna be there when it comes time to reap the harvest. And so we won't get to reap. And that is where we lack the fulfillment because we started, because we put effort in, because we started to do the thing, and then we quit. And that's like an abortion, friend. That's like aborting your purpose. That is so sad, and it should feel like grief when you do that. And I know for me, when I did it multiple times in my entrepreneurial journey, it felt like grief until the conviction came back in and got me fired up again and got me moved forward. Because the call doesn't cancel just because it's hard. The call doesn't cancel just because the timing isn't happening the way that I expected it to. You understand? So it's if if we don't give up, then we will reap. So the harvest is guaranteed. The only variable is whether I quit before I get to reap it. So my deadline is the mechanism by which I'm forfeiting a harvest that God already prepared for me. It's me, I'm the problem. Hey, it's me, I'm the problem, it's me. It's totally me. It's totally me when I quit. It's totally me when I do that. Now look at Hebrews 10, verses 35 to 36. I sat on this passage of scripture for months last year. He says, Don't throw away your confidence, for it has rich reward. You need to persevere now so that when you've done the will of God, you will receive what was promised, what he has promised. So when we give a deadline to God, when we start to hedge, that's us throwing away our confidence. And when we throw away the confidence, we throw away the reward with it. The writer of Hebrews says, no, no, you need to persevere, even when it doesn't feel good, even when you feel like quitting, even when you're like, no, like, no, no, no, no, no, you persevere so that when you've done the thing that God called you to do, to build and launch this business, this ministry, serve these people, make build the wealth that he's given you, the ability to build, expand the kingdom, bring him glory, operate in your purpose, get the fulfillment. When you do that, then you will receive what he has promised. And when we set those deadlines, when we negotiate with him, that's us throwing away the confidence. And then we try to call it wisdom. Now, if you're like me and you want to have some kind of skin in the game when it comes to the timeline. A few years ago, probably a good amount of years ago, maybe five or 10 years ago, you know, I was struggling with this concept. And I was like, really, there's no way, Lord. There's I have no say in the timing. Like, really? What's the point? Right? Because I I teach a whole other um message. I I preach a whole other message and I teach a whole other teaching around how our effort is worthless for what we think it's worth worth for. And it it's pretty provocative. And um, but really, our effort does not derive what we think it does. And we're out here striving and working real hard for something, and the reality is it's not actually gonna produce the way that we think that it is. And so I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about this idea that I work really hard and I'm still not seeing the fruit in my business. This was years ago when nothing, when it wasn't happening. And I was like, really, there's no way, there's like no way that we can like accelerate the timeline. And then the Lord showed me in John chapter two, in the story of the wedding at Cana. I don't know if you've ever read it this way. Um, you know, a lot of times we just read that story of Jesus at the wedding and we think, ah, he turned water into wine. It was his first miracle, so crazy. So a lot of times we focus on it as the first miracle. Um, and then sometimes we focus on it like when we want to argue that it's okay for Christians to have a drink, because we're like, why would Jesus turn water into wine if it wasn't okay to have a glass of wine? Right. So all the things we we've heard these teachings, but what I saw was this interesting thing. I saw Jesus and Mary having a conflict. And what happened was they ran out of wine, and it wasn't like Jesus just walked up and was like, Let me help you out. This is really embarrassing. That's not what happened. What happened was that Mary, Jesus's mom, saw what was happening, and she turned to Jesus and said, You need to do something. And Jesus says, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour hasn't yet come. This is Jesus. He's never sinned, he was without sin, so he wasn't lying. He said to him, he said to his mother, like, why are you talking to me? My hour hasn't yet come, meaning it's not my time to do a miracle yet. That that God is speaking, he's like, it is not my time. And yet, Mary does not even bat an eyelash. She turns to the servants and she says five words do whatever he tells you. Do whatever he tells you. I love this because there's no conflict here. She's not she's not disobeying the word of God. She's just like, I have a belief that God is good and that and that he can, that he's able. And this was a very embarrassing thing to happen at a wedding, is to run out of wine when you still have celebration left. And this is a wedding, and God loves weddings. And um, and so Mary says, Do whatever he tells you, and she let it be to him. And so I find this so powerful because that sentence accelerated the timeline. Jesus performed the miracle before what would seem to have been the appointed time. But because in faith, she said, do whatever he tells you to, like he could have said, No, we're not doing anything. And she would have been honoring to Jesus in that. But instead, she had this thing in her of like, I reckon we can go. It's like 1 Samuel 14 when when Jonathan says, Come on to his armor bearer, he's like, I reckon we can win by many, or I reckon my God can win by many or by few. It's like it's that it's that risk in faith, it's that audacious faith that God loves. And so instead of that denointed kind of, well, if it doesn't happen by now, then I quit. I'm not doing it anymore, right? No, this is, you know what? I reckon we can move this faster. I reckon we could hit it by the end of the year. I reckon we could get X number of people in by this amount of time. I reckon, God, that you can do this with this business. You can have this kind of impact. And then to pray the prayer that says, all right, do whatever he tells you to. Mountain, be moved the way that he tells you to be moved. Resourcing, come to me the way that he tells you to. Um, relationships, equipping, come to me the way that God tells you to. Do whatever he tells you to. This sentence, it accelerates timelines. God will move. See, Mary positioned herself in trust and obedience instead of control. This is the secret weapon that pulls promise forward. It's not demanding, it's not negotiating, it's not setting some deadline, it's surrendering control and positioning for obedience. It's allowing the word of God to be performed and saying, I trust it, I believe it. Does this make sense? Do whatever he tells you. This is such a powerful secret weapon. It's not passive, it's the most powerful posture that we can have as a kingdom builder. So I guess the question, you know, as we're starting to wind down here is have you been trying to control your timeline? Is that what is bringing the frustration? Is that what's bringing the stuckness? Because we've got our hands all over it and we're getting in the mix. How's that working for you? I know that for me it didn't work. And when I started to apply what I learned in John 2 from Mary at the wedding at Cana, things started to shift. When I shifted my posture, then my timelines accelerated. Things started happening. And here's the crazy thing: they did not happen the way that I thought they were going to. So I'm not telling you that this makes it so that what you wanted exactly is what happens. It's that what God wants to happen happens and it becomes your new favorite. It becomes your absolute pleasure. It's like, oh my gosh, this is so good. Right. So I just I really want you to get this, you know, because when we think about why isn't this working? And listen, God has compassion. I was reading um a passage in Matthew. When Jesus walks into a town and he's experiencing the crowds, and it says he had much compassion for the crowds because they were helpless and without a leader. They were like sheep without a shepherd. And it made him sad. It like grieved his heart. And so when you and I are hitting walls and we feel like we're stuck, it is grieving to God, but not because we're not going to break through. It's because we are like sheep without a shepherd. We're trying to figure it out on our own. And it's really sad. And the thing is, like, he knows that you're not setting this deadline or negotiating with him because the calling on your life isn't real. But we tend to start to question whether the calling in our life is real. You know, but really we're setting this deadline and making these hard drop-dead statements to God because I keep we keep hitting the same wall and interpreting that wall as God must have closed a door. And I need you to hear me loud and clear. That wall that you keep hitting is not God saying no to you. If he called you to it, if he assigned it to you, then he is going to walk with you all the way through it. You're going to win. You are going to get to the other side and you are going to see victory. The wall that you keep running into is not God saying no to you. The wall that you've been running into is evidence that you've been building this thing and trying to do this thing without something that you actually need in this moment to move forward effectively. And so God is just stopping you because He's like, Hold up, you're missing something. It's like when our kids try to run out in the snow without a coat. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. My kid, he tries to run outside in his socks all the time. We are we buy socks for him like every three weeks. I'm not even kidding you. And I'm like, how many times do I need to tell you to I bought you shoes? I bought you slip-on shoes. Slip on. So you can slip them on. So save the socks, right? But it's like I'm stopping him. And he's like, Oh, you're trying to stop my fun. You're trying to, I'm like, put just put shoes on. That's it. Like, go do everything you want to do. But I'm trying to resource you right now. And he like he doesn't get it. He thinks that like I'm telling him no. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. Just put shoes on. And that's what God is saying to you. He's like, I'm not telling you no, it's not going to happen. I'm telling you that you need this thing before you go forward. This could be a resource, a relationship, some certain kind of timing so that you don't miss something. That he's that he's working for you. This delay isn't about you failing. It's about proper positioning and resourcing. So maybe you're lacking, like maybe this is a season where you're lacking support and coaching and the environment around your business that would actually produce results in this season. The reason why I say that is because that's what I do. I'm a business coach and I come around women who keep on hitting that wall. And it's not enough to just be like, here are all the resources. You know, we we constantly are strategy switching, looking for a strategy, looking for the next big idea. But it's like, you know what? You need to be in a kingdom coaching environment where you can hear someone say, I think you're hitting that wall because there's um a character capacity issue. I think that there's a mindset issue that God is working out and he's slowing you down so that he can build the capacity in you so that when he does pour out the blessing, when the victory does come, you'll know what to do with all the spoils of war. Right now, you would be overwhelmed. Right now, you wouldn't even know how to manage them well. You would lose them. So it's like it's good to be an environment where you've got kingdom women, kingdom leaders who are like, let's talk about the real thing that's happening here. And so that's why you should subscribe to this podcast because that's the kind of conversations that we're having here all the time, you know? So if you keep on, if you find yourself being the kind of person who keeps on looking for that next free webinar, that next strategy, if you keep on thinking to yourself, I have to build this thing and I have to figure it out on my own, because that's part of it, is I have to figure it out on my own. And, you know, it won't be a success and it won't be mine if I don't figure it out on my own. Um, that is probably one of the easiest ways that the enemy is gonna get you. Because when you're doing it all alone, which the Bible in no place says to do, listen to last week's episode, um, you're gonna lack accountability, you're gonna lack support, you're gonna lack encouragement, you're gonna lack confirmation. Um, and quite frankly, like let's just be honest, it's it's better to go together. It's it's more fun, it's more like life-giving, it's those relationships are so good. And so I just want to encourage you that like maybe this is the season if you keep on hitting that wall and you're like, okay, well, I want to be resourced and equipped by God. I want him to do that capacity thing. You know what? He does it best when we're in community. And that's a biblical pattern. So you can just read the Bible and you can see all the places that God brought people into community so that he could fill them and so that he could do those sorts of things for him. You know, the fact that this promise that God has placed on your life hasn't produced fruit yet is not evidence that God didn't call you. It is evidence, though, that God is trying to get proper resourcing and positioning to you for the next phase of this journey. So I want you to stop breaking yourself down here and trying to protect yourself by self-sabotaging and hitting that emergency eject button out of your calling by saying, if this doesn't happen by XYZ, then I'm quitting. Okay, stop. You are meant to be right where you are right now, even listening to this podcast episode. And God is with you right now, equipping you and positioning you even now. Even now. So take a minute to believe that and to know because here's the real question that we should be asking. Not, am I really called? Did I hear God wrong? Um, am I doing this right? Should I quit? Like, stop with all those questions. Here's the real question that you should be asking right now when you're feeling stuck or like it's not working. You should be asking, who am I building this for anyway? Who am I building this for anyway? This is the heart of it. Because when I set a deadline, you know, on my success, I'm measuring by the world scoreboard, you know, because I hear it all the time in our in our industry. It's about revenue by a certain date, clients by a certain month, how many leads, how many people in my webinars, how many people do I have in my membership, right? How much money am I making on a launch? And these are results that prove to me and to everybody around me that, you know, the effort was worth it. That's such a worldly way to look at it. But that's building, you know, that's building for the approval and the pleasing of people, not God. I mean, just think about Noah for a second. Could you imagine if that's how he was building that that boat would have never been built and we wouldn't even be here. So we've got to get a bit of that Noah mentality that says, if he said it, that settles it, I'm building it. Amen. The real question that we have to ask ourselves is if nothing visible ever came from this effort, but God was pleased with the handful of people that you impacted, if God was pleased with the impact that you had, but you didn't have any of the vanity metrics that you think you should have, would you be satisfied? Would you be fulfilled? Because if the answer is no, then that's a very telling thing. It says something about your why you're building, about your drive. It's it's giving Jonah vibes, right? And I had to deal with this even this week. I had to look at something. God was like, you know, Eric, you're being a little Jonah about this. And I'm like, what? I'm not going in the opposite direction. What? I'm not, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing that, I'm not doing that. I'm going through the whole story. And then we got to the part where at the end it says he set himself up a little booth because he wanted to watch and see what happened. He wanted to say, I told you so. He wanted to say I told you so. And God was like, All right, and he let that gourd die. And then Jonah was all upset again. And he's like, What? What? Like, your your joy is attached to your metrics, it's not attached to the fact that the heart of God is pleased that a bunch of people in a city came to know him. And it's like, I think that a lot of times when we get to this place, it's like we're not building this business to get glory from people. We're building this business because God said to and because we want to bring him glory and we want to have impact and make impact and income in this world such that we can expand the kingdom. You know, I'm building a company of Luke 8 ladies. These were women who traveled with Jesus and provided for his ministry out of their own substance. We can do that today. We can build businesses that create wealth because God gave us the ability to do so that actually fund the ministry of Jesus in the earth today and expand the kingdom. That's what gets me excited. And, you know, I've been there before. I've been to that place. It's like, oh, if I don't get this many people in my membership by this date, if I don't make this much revenue, then I'm gonna quit. And God's like, that is not the goal that I gave you. And then I have to go back and remember. I remember Colossians 3, 23 to 24, which says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. And it reminds me, I'm not building for my clients. Even though I'm called to serve a certain people group, I'm not building for them. I'm building because God told me to build it so that I can serve them for him. I'm not building for the revenue, although I will make revenue and I have made revenue. I'm not building for the people that are watching my Instagram stories to see if I'll make it. I'm not building so I can put the haters to rest. I'm building for the Lord. And he doesn't, he doesn't look at it on a timeline. He looks at obedience full stop, absolute. You know, my story, you know, it involves even coaches, even coaches that I've had asking me for revenue targets and goals, you know, expressed in business metrics over the years. And God just eventually said to me, no, stop. Here's the vision 50 living, breathing, heartbeating for God, Jesus girl entrepreneurs who want to build big, bold, impactful businesses with and for God to his glory and for the good of the people that they're called to serve, and to make wealth along the way as we expand and finance the expansion of the kingdom in the earth. That that is my goal. That is the work that God has called me to. It is going to make gobs of money. It is going to impact lots of people. There are going to be people around. And in fact, there already have been people around that are like, wow, how are you doing that? And I'm like, here you go, to the glory of God. I can just take that. Yep, you can just take it, have it. Go ahead, use it. Whoa, what's happening? It's because it's not about any of that. It's about building a company of women, Luke 8 ladies, who all have this bold and audacious sound on their life and purpose on their life to build big, bold, beautiful businesses with and for God so that the kingdom is expanded, so that God gets the glory, so that the people are served, so that we feel fulfilled in this part of our purpose and we keep on expanding the kingdom. You know, it's just that focus that really lights me up. And I'm wondering, what is that for you? Because if you've been sitting in that space for way too long, like I think maybe you have, if you're still listening, then it's like you got caught up in the revenue number, you got caught up in the in the client number, you got caught up in the timeline and gotta go back to your first love. In Revelation 2, it talks about that. It's like, I have this against you. You've forgotten your first love. And he's like, So go back to your first love. Go back to why God called you to this business and why he called you to build it. Let that light you up and then work at it as unto the Lord, right? You don't have to worry about producing the harvest, my friend. That's his part. But, but don't give up because, in right time, if you don't give up, you will reap. All right. That's what I have for you today. All right. So look, if this hit you today, if you know, like, oh, I gotta be in this place. I do this recording every Thursday at 3 p.m. here on YouTube. So I want to make sure that you are subscribed here. I do push this out to the audio platforms. And so if you're listening on an audio platform, you are more than welcome to subscribe right where you are so you can get me in your ears every week. I usually push that out on Fridays. But if you want to be here with me first while I release the word on Thursdays, I do that on YouTube. So come over and subscribe to my channel over here on YouTube and we can do it together. Okay. Now listen, if you related to this lie that we've been believing of, if it doesn't work by X date or if it doesn't work this way, then it means that I shouldn't be doing it and I'm done. That's actually a lie that the enemy is perpetrating against you. And I want you to take that to the thoughts exchange worksheet. I talked to you a little bit about this last week in the episode, but you can go to ericapile.com slash toolkit and download the toolkit that includes the thoughts exchange worksheet. And I want you to put that lie on that worksheet and ask God for something better. Okay. It's a free worksheet. Like I said, go to EricaPile.com slash toolkit and download your toolkit. Listen, sister, your calling does not have an expiration date. God is just not on your timeline. You're on his. And he's not finished with what he started in you. So I want to encourage you, exhort you, stop negotiating, stop grabbing for the control. Do whatever he tells you to do and watch what he does. You've got this because he's got you. All right, that's all I got for you for now. I hope that was helpful to you. Come see me on Instagram if you want to let me know what hit you in this episode. I'd love to chat you with you there. But otherwise, I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.