Episode 24 - God Gave You an Assignment... Now What?

God has given each of us assignments to accomplish, but many of us don't know what comes next....  Ready. Set. GO!

Do you start immediately?

Do you wait?

Do you prepare?

How do you know when it's time to move?

In this episode, Val Mitchell introduces a simple but powerful framework she calls Ready. Set. Go. Through the lives of Noah, Joshua, and her own journey of writing I Quit!, you'll discover the three phases God often uses to prepare His people for the work He's called them to do.

You'll learn:

•  What to do when God first gives you a vision 
•  Why preparation is just as important as the assignment itself 
•  How to recognize when God is saying, "Go" 
•  Why obedience and endurance are essential to finishing the race God has set before you 

Whether you're writing a book, starting a business, serving in ministry, or stepping into a new season, this episode will help you identify where you are and encourage you to keep moving forward with confidence.

Scriptures:

•  Habakkuk 2:2 
•  Luke 14:28 
•  Ecclesiastes 11:4 
•  Genesis 6–9 
•  Joshua 1:9 
•  Hebrews 12:1–2

Welcome to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God, a podcast for women who desire to hear God's voice, find healing, and grow closer to Him.

Each week, Val Mitchell shares personal stories, biblical insights, and powerful revelations from her own walk with God. Through real-life experiences and practical faith lessons, you'll discover how God speaks in everyday moments, guides us through difficult seasons, and invites us into a deeper relationship with Him.

Wh

Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Valetha's Greatest Moments with God.

If this message encouraged you, please follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend who may need to hear it.

To continue the conversation, connect with me on Facebook at Val Mitchell, where I host weekly Let's Talk LIVE discussions and share additional encouragement throughout the week.

Remember, God is always speaking. Take time to listen, spend time in

Thank you for listening to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God.

If today's episode encouraged you, be sure to follow the podcast and share it with a friend.

Until next time,

Hear God's Voice.
Find Healing.
Build Intimacy and Trust.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I received a revelation this morning. We all go through different phases with God when He gives a vision. He always releases it. And we have three different phases. We have a ready phase. We have what I like to call a set phase. And then we have a go phase. We think of it instantly with races. You have a team of racers that are about to start going forward. They are set. They come to the finish line. They're doing all their stretching. They're preparing. They're getting themselves mentally ready. And then you hear the man that comes up at the top and he says, ready. And in the ready phase, that's when they figure out, okay, this is where I'm positioned. This is where I'm going to go. And the next they hear set. And in the set phase, they line up where they're placed. Then they position their bodies. They get down on their knees. They get their hands ready. Their heads are up and their eyes are focused on the target. And then in the final stage, when they hear the sound off, hear the gun, then they hear the word go and then they take off running, right? With their eyes set on hopefully finishing the race. So when I was going through and doing things around the house, I heard ready, set, go. And even under my ministry with Pastor Hannah, he also, you know, prepares us to hear go. Because go is when you're just supposed to run the course, right? And I believe many of us are so focused on the word go and running that we forget that when God gives us something, He sets us up in what I like to call a ready phase, a set phase, way before the goal phase comes to play. So I want to break down from a spiritual stance what those phases mean. Many of us are trying to understand which phase we are. What should we be doing in each phase? And even when we hear the word go, how we're going to accomplish so we can finish the race. If you're joining, my name is Val Mitchell. If you just happen to stumble across me, I am talking about ready, set, go. If you have not heard, I am releasing my new book called I Quit on July the 11th. And I am just so excited to share that personal journey with you. But we'll get into the book and all that fun stuff later. So let me just dive into it. If we need to put a theme on this particular topic of what I'm going through today, it's ready, set, go. We all hear those, and like I said, we think about it with that race as the racer gets up to the line and he prepares itself. And as he prepares himself, he moves forward to go. But what are we doing in each phase? And that's what I want to break down. We all, as disciples of God, we get something from God that he wants us to do in the earth. It can be something that's simple or it could be something major. When God releases that vision to you, that is what I call the ready phase. So I'm gonna just take an example with the book I wrote. The book I just got finished, like I said, it's called I Quit. And it comes out this Saturday. I'm so excited. But in that phase, I was literally laying in the bed. And God speaks in so many ways. During this season, God was speaking as soon as I woke up. It was like, open your eyes, the Lord was speaking. And I had to wipe the sleep out of my eyes enough to make sure I received everything I was supposed to receive. So when I first woke up that particular morning, I heard God says, I want you to tell your personal testimony about how you were an exhausted woman, but yet you made it through and what you did to go through that process. I was like, okay, God. And in that stage, I like to call it the ready stage. When God releases an idea, a vision, a specific instruction for something He is asking for us to do. Ryan the Strange is another great, great man of God that I follow. And he released a post recently that said, God gives the vision, but it's us to be obedient to carry it out. So in this phase, which I call the ready phase, that is the phase that God has given you a specific task to what he wants you to do. What is that task he asked for you to do? For me, at that moment, it was to write a book. It was not just any book, it was a specific book that talked about my journey as being an exhausted woman, like feeling I was a superwoman. And what did I do and how did I get through that process? What is he giving you? What is he giving you a specific instruction that he said, I want you to do this particular thing? And then when you receive that instruction, there's some things we have to do in this phase, in this part of the process. One key thing, which is a common verse we hear so often, but it's actually what we're supposed to be doing. And that's Habakkuk 2 and 2. Write the vision and make it plain. When you receive that specific word, that specific assignment, that specific task from the Lord, you got to write it out. You got to clearly understand what that assignment is. And when you get it, you got to be able to trust in the Lord because He gave it to you, right? Sometimes it's some assignments are big. I've gotten big assignments, I've gotten small assignments, whatever it is, each step is still the same. You take it and you literally write out that vision. So for me, as soon as I woke up, I heard I need you to tell your story and write a book. Okay, what is my story? What specific from my story does God want me to talk about? All those things, I had to take time with that instruction and really write it out. Amen. And then I had to make it plain enough so I can understand. Okay, this period of my time was the real tough time. This period when I almost broke in the process of carrying more than I should carry it. So I had to really go through the details and write that out. Amen. And then I acknowledge God in that process. I had to go back in prayer, making sure that one, I heard this instructions correctly. Two, what I thought I should write about is that what God wants me to write about, because I didn't come up with this plan myself. This came from Him. So that takes going back to God and really, really looking at it. We can find in Luke 14 and 28 where it says, Who builds a tower without first counting the cost? I love that verse because it breaks down so much when you know you have to really do something back and plan it out and go through the steps on what it's going to do. So if God is asking me to go through a book, I gotta plan this out. I'm already got a hectic schedule. I'm a full-time mom, single mom. I work a demanding corporate job, which you don't just end when you walk out the door at five o'clock. You know, on top of household responsibilities, I am deep in my ministry. So that is demanding schedule time as well. I travel every month. So there's a lot of things on my plate that now God decided, oh, I want you to write a book. So I had to plan out what day, what time am I gonna sit and carve out time to dedicate to get this book accomplished, right? That's all in the ready phase. Many of us don't do the right steps in the ready phase that we end up not even making it to the set phase or the go phase. Amen. So once you get the idea from God, once you pray about it, sit with God, understand specifically what he's looking for, because he released it, he's going to tell you those things, but it takes us spending time with him so we can get that download. And what did I say? Write it down and make it plain. Schedule when you're going to want to do it and get and be diligent with doing it. Once you have all that in place, and once you have all that mapped out, the next phase that announcer comes up and says, Set, that is the time. If you notice with the racers, they get in line, they put themselves in position, they move their knees, their hands, their bodies all form, their heads are raised, and their eyes are focused on getting ready to go. So when you step back and say, okay, I got the ready phase down, I got the instruction. I went back to God. I took Luke 14, 28 and understood, okay, what this is about. I taught, I looked at it and outlined, okay, I need to really focus three days a week, four days a week, whatever that plan is. Now, when you get in the set phase, and your body's position, and when you think about that racer now lined up at that mark, ready to go. That's your building phase. That is the time that you start doing the work. That is the time that you start sitting down, and actually, like for me, I had to write, right? I had to dedicate one hour a day to do nothing else but write. Now keep in mind another step that many of us don't do is we don't allow God to join us in that process. Yes, he gave you the book. Yes, you got the instructions, and yes, you got what should be in there. But then some of us go back and we start working on whatever that assignment is, and we forgot to include God in it, right? And we're thinking we're good because in the ready phase, we got the initial instructions. But we have to continue to partner with God in the building phase. The reason is because you can forget to put something in there, you can go way off left where he was looking only do this, but you didn't did all this other building too. And he's like, I only asked for this, whatever it is. You have to stay in alignment with God. And how do you do that? Do it through prayer, and sometimes it may even require fasting. Some of us don't realize that from a fasting standpoint, the reason why we fast is not just so we don't eat. I mean, there's other all kinds of ways to lose weight, and mind you, sometimes I don't lose weight anyway, but it's to get you spiritually in tune so you can hear more clearly, where you won't have all the other distractions that block that when God speaks, you can't hear it, you can't receive it, you can't get the revelation from it. So it takes those types of things through the building phase. Sometimes, even your building, you gotta plan out, okay, I got this chapter, that chapter. And I'm just referencing book just for my example. But whatever it is, God placed on your heart. It could be starting a new business. It can be, okay, I gotta do my research, I gotta go test the market and see what product I want to sell, where I want to sell it. Is it people over there that really want it? Okay, I've identified all of that in the set in the ready phase. Now the set phase is I gotta go do it. I gotta go buy the building, I gotta go make the products, I gotta put some samples out, make sure the people I want to go after to buy this product that they really want the product. Is it priced right? All those things are in the building phase in order to make sure you're getting whatever that vision is that God placed in your heart, that you're doing the work with God to get it to a point where it's ready to go. Now, some of us get discouraged because the building stage takes sacrifice, it takes diligence, it takes hard work, it takes maybe sometimes disappointing some because people are look used to you being in the pre-ready phase where you're available all the time, you might be able to do things, you may have to pull back from that so you can focus on building what you're supposed to build. And God has a set go date, He really does. If He puts something on us, there's a date He has in mind, He wants it launched because you got to remember the things that come for God for us to do 99% of the time, it's not for us, it's for His people. One person, 10 people, a thousand people, it's for the people, and He already knows the cares of the world and the times and when that thing is launched right when I need to launch launched, it's gonna do what I need it to do. What he says, how he says, in that in that set phase is what I like to call it. And it's just like going back to the race. The racers have to line up properly, their feet have to be positioned, their eyes gotta be focused because they're probably looking down yonder. Okay, I got three hurdles I gotta jump. Then here's a quick, sharp term. Oh, I remember when I walked this before, there was some puddles I had to maneuver, and I already know this and that. So those are the lot of things that are taking place in that building phase. Amen. Amen. So Ecclesiastes 11 and 4 says, Whoever watches the wind will never plant. A lot of us wait for the perfect time to start. Well, okay, I said I okay, I got the instructions, I wrote them down in the ready phase. I know what God wants me to do, I know how He wants me to do it. Okay, I'm ready to go into the set phase, the building phase, but it's not ready yet. You know, I got all this going on on my plate. I, you know, I'm just not ready yet. There's too much going on, and okay, I know God wants me to do it, but I just haven't got there yet. We have to be able that once we get that instruction, even if it's a little time out of the day, out of the week, we got to be able to move forward because there's a reason why God entrusted you to be able to do that which he's asking for you to do. That part alone, that that that statement wowed me. I had a dream. I'm getting a little off course, but I'm still on course. And in the dream, when God speaks to me, that he's speaking, he always gives me a person of a religious authority. And it could be like my pastor, it could be my spiritual mom, it could be somebody that you know really hears from God. And in this dream, it was the pastor, and we were all in a room upstairs. He had to get ready for something, but he was tired. He wanted to take a quick nap. And so when he came upstairs, now my room was upstairs, and it was a couple other people's room upstairs, and he came in, you know, speaking, saying hello to everybody. But he came in my room. He came in my room, laid in my bed, laid the covers over him, and he was ready to take a nap. That particular scene in the dream spoke volumes to me when I woke up. It was one that God trusted me enough that he could come into my space, lay in my bed, and get comfortable and take a nap, knowing that I would be there to watch the door, make sure he slept, make sure he was good. But he was, he trusted me enough that out of all the three rooms he could go into to get his rest, and when you think about a man, a woman, a God of that caliber, they usually go off on their own. So they can get their downtime, their refreshment, and they come up and see people. Because if you know a lot of people that are at that caliber, certain times they just don't want to be people in with people. But for them to him to come in my room in my bed, and that just showed me that God was telling me, I trust you with this assignment. That spoke volumes. What assignment that God gave you specifically? Big, small, whatever it is. It can be, hey, I need you to watch and make sure your son stays in school and does his homework and is good with his teachers. What whatever the assignment is, that he trusts you enough that he gave it to you because he knew that if I gave it to you, it's gonna launch how I want it to launch because I trust you and how you're going to deliver it. When I got that revelation just from that simple dream, every assignment I get from God, I'm gonna run with it. And because he's trusting me enough to do it. What assignment is God placed in you in the ready phase that he's trusting you enough to release it? And we all get nervous, like, I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know when, I don't know who. Believe me, I go through that too. But that's why you gotta take it to God, you gotta partner with God, you gotta be in a position where when you're in the building phase, you sit like me when it was time to write. I sat, okay, Lord, what are we talking about? What's your outline? What do you want me to say? I know my story, and you know my story better than I know my story because you know what I went through, why I went through, and who I went through it with. And then he will pour, he will release. When I looked and went through the Bible, you know me, who in the Bible goes through these things? I always do that. I came across Noah, and I was surprised Noah popped up. When you look at ready, and we talk about what the ready phase is, you receive from God and you clearly write out the instructions and you go back and pray and make sure you heard what you heard, and you put a plan together. Then you go through the set phase, that's what we call the build phase, and you move and you go forward. And then when God gives the green light, then you go to the go phase. So when the story of Noah came up, I was like, wow, I never looked at it from that. We all know the story of Noah. I think we know it from childhood. Noah was found to be a righteous man in just a world that was just chaotic. There was just no one believing in God, there was wickedness all around the land, and it frustrated God so much, he's like, I'm just tired of what I created. I just want to get rid of them. Lord, please thank you for not doing that again. But anyway, he went and searched the land and he found Noah to be a righteous man. He trusted Noah enough to say, Hey, let me give you an assignment. And the assignment that he gave. Noah was, I need you to build an ark because I'm bringing in the rain, and the rain is going to flood the land, and nothing else is going to be around. But he trusted Noah enough with this particular assignment. Why? Because he found righteousness within Noah. When Noah was in his ready phase, he got the word of the Lord. And this is all found in the book of Genesis, starting with chapter 6, when they start talking about Noah's life. So in chapter 6, verse 13, it says, So God said to Noah, I have decided to destroy all living things, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them out along with all the earth. And then chapter 14 is when he got, I mean, verse 14 is when he got his instructions. Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar inside and out, then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the book about 450 long, 75 feet wide. So he started giving them specific instructions. So that's what I mean when you get the word for like Noah did. It said, Hey, go build a boat. Now, mind you, this at that time was in a time when God had stopped the waters from the sky. So they didn't get rain. They didn't get rain free so long that many of the younger ones that grew up didn't even know what rain was. So to come and say build a boat because it's about to rain and flood, people looked at him like he was crazy. Even Noah, probably like, really, God? It hasn't rained in such a long time. Sometimes God gives us instruction, gives us things to do that, even we are trying to figure out why I was given this instruction, Lord. Why am I writing a book called Exhausted? I don't have time to write a book. But He does that, right? Because He trusts you along with it. Then Noah went from the ready phase to the set phase, which we said the set phase was building. So Noah got the instructions and he went to work. He, and it says in chapter 6, verse 22, Noah did according to all that God commanded him to do. He went to building it, he went to pull out those specific instructions because he partnered with God during that phase. So he knew because he could have said, Noah build the boat. And if Noah never really sat long enough to hear the instructions, he would not have built a boat big enough to sustain that length of time that the waters had to go through all that rain. Mind you, it didn't just start from the bottom, and the boat just went up, up, up, up, and up until everybody was covered, and then it just floated on down the road. No, it was raining, it was stormy, and it was going, and I think it's 40 days. I'm not sure, yeah. 40 days, it was just going and going and going and going and going and treacherous. And if you've ever been on a boat during a storm, that's not a fun experience, right? And then many boats probably collapsed in the process. So you had to build something sturdy enough to withstand all of that, and plus carry you and your passengers because he said keep everything alive, so it got to be able to keep everyone alive. So you couldn't have got that without partnering with God to get those instructions. Amen. Amen. And it got to the point where now in chapter seven, when God agreed with Noah, that the boat was ready. Because it says in chapter seven, verse what, when everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, Go into the boat with your family from among the people of the earth, and I can see that you alone are righteous. When we get to the point where we have built and we can complete it, you started that, you got all the product that you're gonna have, you got 50 supplies, and you know how to reorder, you got the doors open, the building is set, you've already got the pre-marketing material, we're already out there. Bring people in, you got all that ready to go. You cannot hear the goal phase until God says it's ready to go. Which to me is a good thing because even when I wrote my last book and I was like, who I'm done. God was like, Oh no, honey, you forgot in chapter five to go put this in there. Or I don't like where chapter seven is going. You're gonna have to redo that. Take some of that out. That's not the message I want people leaving with. Whatever it is, when you're in the set phase, just like we go back to the racers, those racers were at the line, they were positioned, their bodies, their minds were all set, but they did not get up and run until they heard the gun go off and the word go. So remember in the set phase, do not launch, do not move forward until you and God agree that it is done, that it is ready to go. And then finally, when we get that word and we get excited, and that God officially says, Yep, I looked at it. Yeah, that book looks good. I think you got everything I needed. Yep, the cover looks good. Thank you for helping me with the cover. That cover looks good. Yep, I agree. You're ready to go, or it could be with your business, or it can be with whatever God placed in your heart. When you're partnering with God and He gives you, yes, you're ready. You could be, and it could be not even just the business the book, your business, it could be your character. God works on a lot of things within us as well to make sure when you hit that goal mark, you don't just run the race, you run the ways until you finish. Amen. God releases us when we're ready to go. I think of many things I think of when I my sometimes set phase, and I'm not talking about this book, but I I think about other things that God gave me a big vision, and I had done a lot of work within that set phase that I thought just needed me to do, like speaking. So I went and did a lot of speaking classes. I went and jumped on when I had a chance to talk to people. I do a lot of Facebook Lives and stuff like that. But what I didn't know, what God was also doing in that set phase was working on my inner man, working on my character, making sure I can be a woman of integrity. You know, it was a lot of things that were cutting and snipping in the set phase that God doesn't prepare us and tell us that's what he's doing. So he's not only looking at the finished product that we worked on, but he's looking at the individual as well and making sure they're lined up together that I can say now you're ready to go. And we hit the mark and we start running, right? And when we start running, that means we're ready to launch, we're ready to publish. If you're a speaker and you're about to do a major event, you're ready to go and just tell the world, amen. You got the green light and you are ready to go. But there are a couple things I want you to also remember when you get in that go phase and God tells you you're now ready. One thing he told Joshua, remember when Joshua stepped up when Moses had passed away and the mandate or the mantle, I should say, was cast over to Joshua. Joshua and God had a real heart-to-heart in Joshua 1 and 9. And in that chapter, he told them three times, Joshua, I'm gonna need you to be strong, and I'm gonna need you to be courageous. So that tells you automatically that Joshua might have been a little nervous, might have been a little fearful. He may have been saying the same thing that a lot of us say, God, why me? You sure this is gonna go right? And what can happen, and what can people say about me, and they're used to so-and-so, and all the things that go through your mouth. But when you get a green light from God and He tells you to go, you need to make sure you step out knowing that if God said you're ready, then no matter what comes your way, here I am, Lord. God says, Yes, you have gone through the ready phase, you went through the set phase. Now it's time to go. Amen. So be strong and courageous. The next thing, keep your eyes on the prize. When I say the prize, let's go back to a business. If you started a business, you opened the doors, only two people showed up. Some of us get discouraged. I did all this work, I put all this product in. Ain't nobody coming. Keep pressing forward. I wrote a book. Launches this Saturday. Called I Quit. What if nobody buys the book? What about when I go do the marketing? Only one person should keep your eyes focused ahead. Just like that runner. When he hears the gun, they take off running. And it's a bunch of them that keep going, right? They don't stop and say, Oh my gosh, it's 10 of us that ran, and I'm in 10th place. Keep focused, keep your eyes forward and keep it moving. One verse that I love, Hebrews 12, verse 1 and 2. And it pretty much tells us, let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us. We don't start with speed because everyone, that's how a lot of the racers even fail. They think if they run as soon as the gun goes off and they go as fast as they can, before they get halfway down the track, they're physically and mentally exhausted, and they slow down. And sometimes they even force to quit. And they never made it to the finish line. No, we need to run with endurance. And when you're running with endurance, that's a slow, steady pace. That's why the Bible tells us don't get weary and well doing. Keep going, keep focusing, keep running. Why? This came from God. I didn't put myself out here, I didn't set this up. This came from God. And no, it doesn't seem like it's doing right. Oh my gosh, I made a mistake. I stumbled. It was a big rock that came out. So and I stripped and fell. That's embarrassing. It's pulled me all the way back. But what do you do? Get back up. I like to take learnings from everything I don't do right this first time. Oh, okay. Let me learn this so I know what not to do that again. And you go back and you continue to run your worries. When we get the goal, that doesn't mean we're automatically at the finish line. It means you got some running to do. There's some things you got to go through this process until you see that finish line. What could that finish line mean to a lot of people? To me, with this book, I think the finish line would be people reading it, people learning my journey about being exhausted and applying it to themselves so they can come out of exhaustion and live a fruitful life that God intended them to live. To me, that's a finish line. Could be a person opening up a business. Opening up a business could be the products that you're selling, that you're finally making an income from them, and not, you know, you got yourself out the red, and that people that are buying what you're giving them are being blessed by it. What was Noah's finish line? God made a covenant with Noah when the waters receded. That wasn't his finish line when he first sent the bird out, and the bird came back and said, We found man. And the waters went down and they got off the boat. No, that wasn't his finish line. To me, reading that story of Noah, I find it in chapter nine, when it says, Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God made a covenant with Noah, made a covenant with his sons, and said, I'm renewing my covenant with you. And I want you and your generations and everyone that comes after you, go fill the land, go be fruitful and multiply. To me, that was the reward that Noah got. So I don't want you to get discouraged that when you hear go and you take off running and you're not seeing everything right away and everything coming up, it's not the finish line. That just got you to go moving and releasing what God told you to release. So quickly summarizing, I wanted to make sure what phase are you in today with what God gave you to do? Are you in the ready phase? Has God spoken to you and asked you to do something that He wants to release in the world? Are you in the set phase where you got that instruction? You kind of mapped out how to do it, and now it's time to go to work. It's time to build right on what you were supposed to be doing. It's time to do it. Are you in the goal phase? Have you already built it? Has it already been released by God? And now he's opened up the door. He pressed the gun and he's saying, I'm ready for you to start moving forward with it. I'm ready for whomever I have already pre-called to receive what you have. Now let's give it to the people. And remember, keep running that race if you're in the go phase. Keep going until you see that finish line. Because God is a rewarder of our faithfulness, He's a rewarder of our diligence and our obedience. I've got plenty of testimonies where I've seen his faithfulness where God has done just beautiful things for me and my family. So keep the vision. Don't get stuck along the way. And I pray this has come out how I received it in the part two phase. So I want to thank you.