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The Estherpreneur is a weekly chat about doing business and life God’s way. Join your host, Edna Harding as she offers biblical strategies and practical applications to improve your mind, business, spirit, relationships, and finances. Listen along as she talks with guests on how to thrive in all areas of life. Edna is a Wife, Mother, Growth Strategist, Author, Minister, Certified Maxwell Business Consultant and Executive Coach, an accredited Master Mindset Coach, and Speaker whose message of hope, truth, and wisdom reaches people all around the world. FavorandWealth.com Estherpreneur.com
Edna Harding [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Estrepreneur, a podcast for entrepreneurs and leaders doing business and life God's way. Each week we discuss biblical and practical tips to improve your mind, business, spirit, relationships, and finances. Listen along as I speak with special guests on how to thrive in all aspects of life. Hi, I'm Edna. Like many of you, I wear many hats. I'm a military wife, mother, author, certified John Maxwell business and executive coach, trainer, and founder of Favor and wealth, where we help the good guys win. So tune in as we bring on the light.
Edna Harding [00:00:46]:
Well, hello, everyone. Thank you for tuning in for another episode of the Estrepreneur podcast. My name is Edna Harding, and I'm so excited that you're joining me again this week. And today we're going to talk about the three myths sabotaging your faith and business success. Essentially, we're going to talk about how God is not a genie. Okay? So I am excited to be sharing with you the wisdom nuggets from heavenly places on this week's episode. Let me take you back first to a moment I'll never forget, okay? And maybe this resonates with you, God, I've tithed, I prayed, I fasted. Why is my business still stuck? Or I've sold offerings, I've made the decrees, I prophesied over my dry bones, and it's still not working.
Edna Harding [00:01:46]:
Anybody? Anybody can relate. Oh, come on. I know there's some out you out there, some of you out there. All right, here's the thing, my friends. I had unknowingly bought into a dangerous myth that basically treats God like some cosmic vending machine, right? Insert prayer, add obedience, and then instant success, output, right? This is what a lot of the stuff out there makes you want to believe. And so when it doesn't happen, you get disappointed and you start wondering what is wrong with me. Now, if you've ever felt this tension between what you expected and what you're experiencing, this episode is going to bless you. So welcome, my friends.
Edna Harding [00:02:36]:
Welcome, welcome, welcome. All right, so let's start off with scripture as we always does do, does do. And let's read James, chapter one, verse 22 to four. Okay? All right, so open up your Bible on this Friday morning, all right? And. Or afternoon or evening. And let's look up James 1, 2, 4. All right? I probably should have have this already bookmarked, but all right. James 1, 2, 4 says, consider it all joy, my brothers, when various trials light upon you, knowing that the proving of your faith produces endurance, and the endurance must attain its purpose.
Edna Harding [00:03:22]:
So that you would be mature and complete and not falling short in any way. But if any one of you lacks wisdom. Okay, sorry. Yeah. To verse four in any way. I'm just going to finish verse five. He must continually ask from God, the one who gives generously without reproaching, and it will be given to him. All right? So first and foremost, I want to say that in the scripture, it basically tells you, pray hard, right? Pray hard, tithe consistently, and speak faith.
Edna Harding [00:03:58]:
And then, boom, breakthrough shows up on demand. Is that. Is that. Is that what the. What scriptures say? Is that what the Bible says? Is that what those verses say? It tells you pray hard, tithe consistently, speak faith, and boom, boom, answer prayer. Is that what the scriptures say? I'm asking you that, like, four times. Because the answer is no. God is not a formula, my friend.
Edna Harding [00:04:19]:
He's a father. He's not obligated to respond to. Hear me, my friends, to spiritual transactions. He's committed. Hear me, my friends, to develop your character first, not your cash flow. So if your cash flow isn't where it ought to be, could it be that your character is not ready to receive the cash flow? Because, my friends, I want to give you a reality check. Faith is a relationship. It's not a recipe.
Edna Harding [00:04:46]:
It's not a formula. It's not step one, step two, step three, step four, step five. No, it's a relationship with the Father, the creator of the universe, the God Almighty. Breakthrough, my friends, is not a result of process. No, no, sorry. Is not a result of performance. It's a result of process. Okay, you don't perform for breakthrough.
Edna Harding [00:05:11]:
It's a. It's. It's you passing the test, you enduring, persevering. And then God rewards you for your faithfulness and obedience and trust in Him. All right, so let's go ahead and dismantle that. Okay, let's look about the second myth. And it's found in Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verse. Verse one to eleven.
Edna Harding [00:05:33]:
Okay, one and eleven. Ecclesiastes, chapter three,. Verses one and eleven. And essentially, what is that saying? If you read it? It's about God's timing, right? God's timing. There's a time for everything. So the myth that says if you just follow the steps, success is guaranteed. Okay, but what happens when the formula doesn't work for you? Right? What happens? So for me, for example, I have an action plan. I have specific steps.
Edna Harding [00:06:05]:
But a lot of times, when prompted by the Holy Spirit, I'll skip some steps and tell them to go to a different step because what, I'm flowing with the Holy Spirit, right? I have a baseline. But that baseline isn't the end all be all. I, I, I listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I allow the Holy Spirit to what? To teach me, to, to teach me, to show me how to help my, my clients and how to help my businesses grow. That is not sore, sure, solely, not so surely solely based on strategy, but based on the Spirit. Okay, so the truth of the matter is your calling is custom built. It's personalized. Your timeline is tailor made.
Edna Harding [00:06:51]:
What works for me at this time might not work for you in that time. Right? God has a specific timing for you. And remember that the process of whatever it is that you're going through, whatever test you have to pass, it's for a purpose. It's not just for happenstance. It's because he's preparing you for he where he's taking you. So if your journey has been long, you probably have a huge call on your life. Remember, Joseph waited 13 years. David was anointed and waited decades, decades before he became king.
Edna Harding [00:07:25]:
Then Jesus, if you think about him, the son of God didn't start until he was 30 years old. And mind you, he was God. So it was a 30 year process. So my friend, I want you to know this and I want to encourage you with this. You're not behind, you're just in a different chapter. So I want you to stop comparing seasons with other people around you. And I want you to start asking yourself, what, what is God building in me right now, this specific hour? What is it that you want to do through me? All right, and let's look at Second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 9 to 10. All right, who has that? Second Corinthians? You know, it's so funny.
Edna Harding [00:08:04]:
I feel like I'm in a, in a Bible study. I'm like, who has that? Read it out loud if you got it. Well, actually, I want you guys to read it out loud. Even though I'm reading it, I want you guys to read it out loud. And he said and, and he spoke to me. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made complete in weakness. Therefore, I should gladly boast more in my weakness so that the power of the Messiah would take possession within me. All right.
Edna Harding [00:08:30]:
Bold. Sorry. Boast in your weakness. Okay. Boast in your weakness. Okay, so what does that mean? That means that this whole myth, if it's God's will your shouldn't struggle is a lie. Because remember, my friend, Paul was broke he was beaten. He was bivocational.
Edna Harding [00:08:50]:
The early church faced poverty and persecution. That's what they dealt with on a regular basis. So why do we think that struggles equals failure when in reality it's part of the journey? My friends, your weakness is not a flaw. It's a feature God uses. God wants to break you before he builds you. Now, do I agree with that process? No. I wish we could skip the breaking. And I wish you could just build me up.
Edna Harding [00:09:17]:
But in reality, I want my flesh to die because I want the spirit to live. Does that make sense? So your challenges that you're facing is not proof of faithlessness. It's actually part of your preparation. So if you're in that journey right now, I want you to be encouraged and remind me, remind me, remind. I want to remind you and me. Thank you, Holy Spirit. What am I saying? That everything is going to be well, just pass a test and move forward. Everything that's happening in your life is happening for you, okay? Good, bad and ugly.
Edna Harding [00:09:56]:
It's happening for you. So stop hiding in your hard seasons and remember that God is using them to build endurance and reveal his strength in your life. Life. All right? And remember James 1:2 to 4, right? Endurance is real. The real evidence of faith. You have to endure. You have to persevere. You're supposed to run the race, remember? I want you to.
Edna Harding [00:10:18]:
I want. I want to break it down for you. In James 1:2 to 4, it says, Consider it joy, which means stop resenting what God is using to grow you. Oh, come on. I'm preaching now. Yes, I am. God is using that thing to grow you. Number two, you need to understand the process that testing builds.
Edna Harding [00:10:39]:
What?
Edna Harding [00:10:39]:
Perseverance, not punishment. Okay. Testing builds perseverance, not punishment. Number three, let it finish. Stop looking for shortcuts. Because character takes time, my friends. It takes time. And last but not least, the result.
Edna Harding [00:10:56]:
Mature. Mature maturity that can handle success without crumbling is the kind of results you want, okay? You need. If God is going to give you success, he wants to make sure you have the character to hold on to that success and not be able to get rid of it or drop it or dismantle it because of your pride, your ego, your selfishness, whatever it is he's trying to purge you out of, okay? A lot of people are praying for breakthrough or answered prayers or God give me intervention, you know, or promises fulfilled. But what we really should be praying for is the capacity to carry that breakthrough or the capacity to carry that promise because it takes a certain individual to Handle the blessings of God. And let me tell you, my friends, when the blessings of God overtakes you and it's just like blessing over blessing over blessing over blessing. That means you now have the capacity to, to carry what he's bringing forth to you. And it's not about you. It's about what he's going to do through you.
Edna Harding [00:12:07]:
So here's my challenge for this week. I want you to audit yourself. Have you expected God to perform instead of partner with Him? Okay. Have you expected God to perform instead of to partner with Him? Number two, have you measured success by timelines instead of transformation from within? Success to me is like I'm looking at my life, I'm looking at who I am. And I am such. I am a much better person now than I was five years ago. I've learned so much over these challenges. Since 2013, I guess or 2012 is when the purging started happening to me from when I got divorced, you know, back in my 20s.
Edna Harding [00:12:53]:
Like that right there. No. Yeah, yeah, that right there just started molding me into the wife that I am now. Right. So just think about all those lessons you've learned from your past. And now I'm able to be an amazing wife to my husband, an amazing mother to my children. Although I'm still a work in progress, all those things prepared me for what I have now and also ultimately, what? To be a bride of Christ also. And also to be a mother to my spiritual children as well.
Edna Harding [00:13:24]:
Does that make sense? Okay, now the, the third question that, that I want you to ask is have you hidden your struggles thinking they disqualify you? Don't be afraid of your testimony because you overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. So if you're ready to reject spiritual shortcuts and you're ready to build a business with biblical endurance, I invite you again to join me in my business unlimited group growth mentoring program. This is probably affordable program out there based on what you're going to get and not affordable because it's low value, but it's because I want to be a blessing to you. This is my ministry, right? This is how I minister to those who are building God given assignment and may not have the funds yet. So go ahead and apply to that on my website and favor and wealth dot com. Okay. Because in the program we're building actually biblically sound frameworks, God back strategies and helping you, yourself, your team, your spouse, whoever, go from a place of false expectations to Bible rooted execution. Okay? That's what we provide in the program.
Edna Harding [00:14:38]:
So if this blessed you, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and all my social media handles, and I hope you have a blessed week ahead. Take care my friends, and have a good one. Bye bye.
Edna Harding [00:14:54]:
Thanks for joining us this week on Estrepreneur. Make sure to visit our website favorandwealth.com for more information on our services. While you're at it, if you found value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on itunes. Or if you simply tell a friend about the show, that would help me out too.
Edna Harding [00:15:11]:
Also, check out my book, the Ugly.
Edna Harding [00:15:12]:
Side of Sales, available on Amazon, where I share seven of my secrets on how to win and grow business the right way. Until next time, keep shining.