June 23, 2025 • 22 mins
đź’ˇ Episode Summary
Half of all new businesses fail within the first 3–5 years—not because the idea was bad, but because it wasn’t from God.
In today’s episode, Jim breaks down the difference between a “good idea” and a “God idea.” Using a four-part spiritual checklist grounded in Scripture and personal experience, you’ll learn how to discern whether your business idea aligns with God's purpose—or just your personal ambition. Plus, Jim shares a powerful testimony of when he got it wrong and what it cost him.
If you're a faith-driven entrepreneur, content creator, or coach seeking divine clarity before launching your next thing, this episode is your wake-up call.
🧠What You’ll Learn
- The 4 spiritual checkpoints to discern a God-given idea
- Why peace isn’t the absence of chaos—but confidence in the storm
- How motives, anxiety, and striving can lead you off-track
- What it means to build in alignment versus building for approval
- The real difference between good at and anointed for
- How to practically invite God into every part of your business plan
✝️ Anchor Scriptures
- Proverbs 3:5–6 — “In all your ways acknowledge Him…”
- Proverbs 11:3 — “Honesty guides good people…”
- Psalm 46:10 — “Be still and know that I am God.”
- Psalm 139:23–24 — “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”
- Philippians 4:7 — “Peace that surpasses all understanding.”
- 1 Corinthians 14:33 — “God is not the author of confusion.”
đź“ť Divine Download Challenge
Take 30 minutes with God this week.
Journal through these 4 questions:
- Does this idea align with Scripture and God's character?
- Is there peace, or is it driven by anxiety and striving?
- What’s the real motive beneath the surface?
- Does it require God-sized faith—or just your grind?
Then reply to The Wisdom Dispatch newsletter and tell Jim what God revealed to you.
📬 Get the Full 8-Point Spiritual Checklist
Subscribe to The Wisdom Dispatch newsletter for the full version of the checklist plus exclusive insights not shared on the podcast or YouTube.
đź“ş Watch the Visual Episode on YouTube
Catch this episode in full video format, plus bonus content and upcoming tutorials like:
🧠How to Use ChatGPT for Deep Bible Study
🎥 YouTube Channel – Lead With Jim
🙏 Support the Show
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio
- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
- Share this episode with a friend
- Subscribe, like, and comment on YouTube
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgoon,leadership coach, Faith first entrepreneur,
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
(00:21):
have to let's get into it.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Content Creators, where
faith meets strategy andcreativity becomes impact.
I'm your host, Jim Ragoon.
It's nice to virtually meet you.
And today we're going to betalking about something that could
save you really years of frustration.
(00:41):
And because you've got a goodbusiness idea, you have one, it's
burning in your heart.
You want to start this thing,you want to do this thing.
But the question that becomesis this business idea actually from
God or is it just a good ideawith Christian flawless flavoring?
Today we're going to unpackwhat the difference is, how to really
(01:02):
tell, because here's thereality of this.
Half the businesses that arestarted fail within three to five
years.
So we can't just settle on agood idea, clever idea.
We've got to settle on what isGod leading us to and how can we
go and get deeper into thatand create something that God is
already doing that's going tobe successful, impactful and build
(01:24):
the kingdom.
Let's walk through a fourpoint spiritual checklist that's
going to help us dive throughand see is it good or is it God?
Now before we start, we wantto anchor our episodes in scripture
because this is why we'rehere, is to understand how God has
us operating in business, whatit means to be a Christian online.
Proverbs 3, 6, part of thevery well known scripture and it
(01:47):
says, in all of your ways,acknowledge him and he will direct
your paths.
5 Before that says, Lean noton your own understanding, but in
all your ways, acknowledge himand he will guide your path.
And the reality of this isthis shouldn't be something that
causes us to be afraid,hesitant to move, but what it should
do is give us a rhythm withheaven that says when we acknowledge
(02:07):
God in all of our ways and notlean on our own understanding and
we follow him, he will show usthe way to go.
That's how we start gettinginto the rhythm of heaven.
We acknowledge God not as partof our business, but the owner, CEO
of the business and we are thestewards in God's business.
Because there's a hugedifference between treating God as
(02:29):
one of our employees or abusiness partner and having God as
the head of an organizationthat he has us start.
So let's dive into this now.
This will unpack some thingsin multiple episodes over the course
of the next few months.
So you're going to want to hitthe follow button and let's have
a conversation and start arelationship where we can unpack
some of this.
But for today's purpose, weare going to be talking spiritual
(02:51):
checklist.
Here is spiritual checklistnumber one.
Does it align with scriptureand God's character?
Does it align with scriptureor God's character?
The first thing we shouldalways understand as Christians is
that God never, and I will sayit again, never contradicts his word.
If it contradicts the word, itis not of God.
(03:14):
I don't care how good orlucrative it is.
Your idea is you've got to askyourself, do you want God's anointing
and stamp on your business ordo you just want to make the money
and just call it God's blessing?
Because there's a bigdifference, my friend.
We want God's anointingbecause anointing is transformational.
It's longevity, it'sgenerational, it causes things to
change.
(03:34):
Whereas if you get just thegood idea, not in God's blessing
or just call it God'sblessing, a lot of times that dries
up and you're left to fightthe consequences of of some shady
stuff.
Because here's the thing, whenyou're not walking with God, we often
operate in shady mechanics.
Think about online, how manypeople online, and I don't care if
(03:54):
they're you.
We see this in Christianity.
We see this in regularcultural marketing, the shady marketing
content.
We see this in manipulative funnels.
We see this in over promisingand under delivering.
We see this in a lot ofdifferent things because all of this
stuff lacks integrity andcontradicts God's character.
So it's not of God.
(04:16):
So if it contradicts his wordor his character is found in his
word, we need to run far fromit, no matter what it's going to
make us.
Because I'm going to tell you,it's not worth it in the long run,
in the end, because we have toput our heart where our leader is
and follow after him wherethose things aren't going to rust.
We want to make sure thatthings are going to be eternal and
(04:37):
they're going to cause impactfor generations to come.
And you can't do that ifyou're not following him.
So is it biblical and does itfollow his character?
And just think about this.
Proverbs 11.
3.
Honesty, right?
Honesty guides good people.
Dishonesty destroys people.
Let that sink in.
Honesty guides people.
Good people.
(04:58):
Dishonesty destroystreacherous people.
Proverbs 12:22.
The Lord detests lying lips,but he delights in those that tell
the truth.
Don't be shady.
Be integrity.
It may not allow you to causea lot of money in the first end or
a lot of business in the firstpart, but when people get a hold
of your character and how thataligns with the Bible and what God's
(05:18):
doing, you will have enoughbusiness coming in.
But you gotta trust, you gotta walk.
And always ask, does it alignwith God's character and does it
align with Scripture?
Number two, do we have peaceor are we striving?
So I like scriptures likePsalms 46, 10, right?
4610 really says this.
And let me read this for youbecause I don't mess this up, because
(05:39):
I.
During two cuts, I completelymessed this up.
So here's what it says.
Be still.
So that word there honestlymeans, stop striving and know that
I am God and I will be exaltedamong the nations and I will be exalted
among the earth.
So here's the thing.
We've got to really come backto this place of being still.
Striving is not of heaven.
(06:01):
Deep peace is not hype.
We have to have confidence,not hustle, not grind.
As in the cultural says.
I did an episode on thedifference between what cultural
hustling is and spiritual hustling.
You can catch that out as oneof the previous episodes.
But here's the thing.
Because God is not a God of confusion.
God is not a God who lies.
We understand that confusion,chaos, constant hustle and things
(06:24):
that rob you of rest is not of God.
It also mentions we have tohave peace, and that doesn't mean
absence of chaos.
I think we get amisunderstanding of what true peace
is.
We think that peace means nochaos is happening.
No peace really is.
I have the confidence that Godis going to come through in the midst
of the storm.
We think back on Jesus.
Jesus in the storm got up andeverybody around him's freaking out.
(06:48):
He said, peace, be still tothe storm and the storm quick.
We have to get back to theplaces of stop trying to follow a
feeling and start trying tofollow God and what God is calling
us to.
Peace.
Peace.
It means we have theconfidence that he is acting even
when everything around us isfalling apart.
We have to have the confidencethat God is on the move even when
(07:08):
Everything seems like justcrazy when life is going to life
basically because that's whattrue peace is, moving in the middle
of spiritual warfare.
Because you're not going tomove towards God and not experience
spiritual warfare.
That's a whole other thing.
We'll unpack at a differenttime too.
And we have this, but we haveto, in the midst of spiritual warfare,
we have to be supernaturallyanchored to peace.
(07:30):
Who Christ is the prince ofpeace and gives us the peace that
passes all understanding.
And that kind of peace theworld can't fake.
We have so many people who arenavigating anxieties both on a mental
health level and just thestuff that we, we do to ourselves
because we live in vain imaginations.
And all of them need to bedealt with compassion, with reality,
(07:53):
with just we need to hugpeople who have anxiety, not judge
them kind of thing.
I deal with some anxiety, youdeal with anxiety.
And so this is also havingcompassion on ourselves and pulling
us back to the place ofsaying, can I anchor myself in God?
Because God and Jesus, becausethat is where the reality is.
If I can anchor myself in thereality, I take myself out of the
place of this vain imagination.
(08:15):
And we come in the midst ofthe warfare having complete confidence
that Christ is going to doexactly what he said.
And if you want to look atthis, Philippians 4, 7, 1st Corinthians
14:33, both talk about God'speace, I will tell you, I'll link
them both in the show notes.
You can go check them out foryourself and I highly recommend that
you do.
I'm actually going to beposting a YouTube episode this week
(08:36):
in conjunction with this onhow to use chat GPT in order to do
a deep in depth Bible study.
That link's going to be in theshow notes and subscribe to the channel
where we're going to divedeeper for things that aren't on
the podcast.
And also you can watch thepodcast visually video wise on YouTube
as well.
So check number three, what'sreally driving you?
(08:56):
This is an agenda.
So we went from Bible, is it biblical?
Is it God's character?
We moved into more of do wehave peace?
You know that feeling side of it.
Because God is the God ofholistically all of us.
So we got to dive in it.
So now we're going deeper intothe heart, which is what is your
agenda?
What's driving you now?
This is one that's going tomake us all uncomfortable because
(09:17):
we got to ask some hard questions.
And the hard questions is doesit glorify God, or does it glorify
you?
Who are you glorifying?
What is your agenda?
Like, what is your real purpose?
And not the agenda that you'vetold yourself and convinced yourself
in a Christian language thatthis is okay, but the true agenda
underneath of what that we maybe afraid to admit that we often
(09:38):
hide what is really driving you.
And in this, and for you guyswho are listening to this, if you
hear some thunder, lightning,it just started pouring and my dog
decided to come under the seatwith me.
So if you hear a littlecommotion, it's because the dog got
spooked and the lightning'spretty hard.
But let's continue the episode.
But here's the thing.
So is it what's driving underneath?
Are you trying to provesomething to yourself because you've
(10:01):
been through so much trauma,or are you serving someone in your
content?
When you're content creating,when you're podcasting, when you're
YouTubing, when you'recoaching, when you're speaking, are
you serving or are you tryingto prove yourself?
Because anointing doesn't needto prove itself.
It just needs to walk into the room.
That's it.
So here's the thing.
Remember, if you're looking topartner with God, then we have to
(10:23):
come into alignment with theheart of God through the word of
God.
And if you're somebody whosays, I don't need the Word, you
already missed the plot.
We have to come back to theword of God to discover the heart
of God.
And then we have to partnerwith the heart of God and move off
of our agenda onto God'sagenda so that we're going to what?
Do what he's called us to inthe way that he's called us to.
(10:44):
And this takes some reallyhard conversations with yourself,
challenging those parts of youthat you've hidden, the part of you
that is trying to prove, thepart of you that's overthinking,
the part of you that's afraidof rejection, the part of you that's
afraid of success, and thepart of you that's afraid to be seen,
all of that has to bechallenged in light of what is God's
(11:06):
heart in the matter.
And here's a great anchorscripture for you.
I'm going to read this onebecause this is going to hit the
heart of this point that we'retalking about.
And that is Psalm 139, 23, 24.
And it says, search me, O God.
David is search me, O God, andknow my heart.
Now, we know in Samuel ThatGod says, I see the heart where God's,
(11:28):
where man sees the outside, Isee the heart, right?
But he says, search me andknow me, oh God, know my heart and
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
It's not saying we're going tobe apart and never have anxiety,
we're never going to have allthis stuff, we're never going to
have negative thoughts.
It's not what it is, but whatit is.
It says, God, search me andhelp me find the thoughts and the
roots of the thoughts so thatwhen I have them, I can put them
(11:49):
before you and we can dealwith them.
That's the essence of what alot of the Bible teaches.
And as a Christian contentcreator, podcast or YouTube, if you
create content in any formatfrom any stage, you're going to deal
with overthinking, you'regoing to deal with these places of
challenge.
But search me, oh God, andknow me.
Let me know the agendas that Ihave versus the agendas that you
want me to have and let mecome into alignment as you heal those
(12:12):
agendas that were caused fromunhealed hurt, un unrealized expectations
and just trauma that I neverlet go of.
So we've done three, threepoints and I'm going to bring into
a fourth point and our fourthpoint is, what's the size of your
faith?
Is it a God sized faith or isit just your grind?
I think this is over underemphasized in Christianity a lot
(12:33):
of time because you see somany Christians out there and you
don't know like they don'tlook different from the world.
You see the people out therehustle and grind, go get your bag.
And then you hear Christianswho shroud the same thing in Christian
language and they're like,let's get out into the holy hustle.
Let's get out into the grindand get the things that God has promised
us.
And you know what you ask?
You've got to ask the honestquestion, how does that differ?
(12:54):
And it doesn't.
Because if you are somebodywho is going to live a God sized
faith, then you're then whatGod's asking you to do should scare
you.
What God is asking you to dois going to not just be in your lifetime,
but pass down to your children.
We look at that in Solomon andDavid, we look at that in Jacob,
Isaac and Abraham.
(13:15):
We see that God is agenerational God and whatever he's
birthing in your heart is agenerational business.
It's a generational thing.
And so we have to acknowledgethat if we can do it in our time,
at our pace, in our lifetime,it may not be God because it requires
no faith.
It just requires us to hustleand grind.
And if it's human sized, thencontrol, pride, predictability come
(13:38):
in.
If it's God's size, this is limitless.
So let's get back to theplaces that says God, if my vision
or actually if this is myvision, let's talk about that first
and say God, my vision.
Is this truly my vision, Lord?
Or help me have your visionand in the midst of that expand the
vision that you've given me tomake it to where it scares me.
(13:59):
So I have to take each step byfaith because I don't know how it's
going to go.
Now we do understand that ifyou can do it all, it's not God.
So let's ask God to expandthat, let's ask God to increase that.
Let's ask God to do the thingsthat only God can do in our lifetime
so that we can do the thingsthat he's calling to, calling us
(14:19):
to because he's empowered us.
And I want to take a minute here.
We just did four checkpointsand I want to take a minute and I've
got a full eight pointchecklist that I would love to give
to you.
It's going to be on mynewsletter called the Wisdom Dispatch
and it's atwww.leadwithjim.com forward/nl for
newsletter.
Go figure.
So with that being said, it'sin the show notes.
(14:41):
Go ahead and click it.
The Wisdoms Dispatch is aweekly newsletter that is behind
the scenes, some extrathoughts, some bible study stuff,
things that you're not goingto find on the episode or on the
YouTube channel.
It's only contentsubscriptions or subscribers only.
It's a free newsletter so goahead and sign up.
But it's only going to beinformation given to you guys who
(15:02):
are on the Dispatch list and Iwill have a 8 point PDF for you to
have those things to gothrough as an entrepreneur every
time you want to check is thisa good idea or is this a God idea?
And these are things, like Isaid, that you won't find in the
episode.
But with that being said, letme tell you one of my own stories
because I have plenty of timeswhere I have messed up and missed
(15:25):
God and I probably have morestories than I like to tell.
But I'm going to tell you this one.
So let's get pull back thecurtain a little bit and let's be
real on where God's brought me from.
And I remember when I wasgoing into the John Maxwell team
because I'm a certifiedleadership development coach, certified
disc personality profilerthrough the John Maxwell team.
But when I joined the JohnMaxwell team, I wanted to be a speaker.
By the way, I feel that God'sgifted me as a speaker.
(15:48):
I've been on stages for 15 to20 years.
A communicator.
Not just a speaker, but a communicator.
And that goes into writing andeverything else I do.
And here's the thing.
So I call them up and I'm excited.
I'm like, yeah, this is cool.
I've got my master's degree,leadership development.
I'm a leadership coach, beenthis way for 20 years, and now I'm
going to get certified.
You ever have those reallycool excitement moments?
And so I call them up and say,hey, listen, I want to do your speaking
(16:10):
track.
I want to be part of thespeakers because that's what I love.
It's a gift.
Let me do that.
And they said to me, and thisis where it's going to be on me for
not going through my own checklist.
And a lot.
Where a lot of this came from.
And they said, you shouldprobably do the coaching route because
the coaching is where all themoney is.
And in the.
(16:30):
At the time, this was a whileago, so at the time, my wife was
in a fit of depression.
My wife deals with mentalhealth issues we've talked about
on multiple podcasts.
Podcast.
We will talk about it on thispodcast at some point.
But she was in a really tough place.
I was in a real tough place physically.
And a lot of things were goingon and it was like life was hot.
Was lifeing really hard?
(16:50):
Did you ever get into thosepoints where it's lifeing so hard
you just say, okay, this is agreat idea.
Let me make some money.
Let's go.
And so I joined the coachingprogram and not the speaking program
because I'm like, I'm a good coach.
I'm a prior pastor.
I taught middle school, highschool, so I could coach, I could
do this.
And I made money.
I made money as a coach.
But 18 months into it, thecoaching started drying up.
(17:11):
And I was like, God, what.
What's going on?
And this is where the HolySpirit spoke to my heart, put it
on my heart.
And he said to me this, hesaid, Jim, 18 months ago, when you
signed up to be a coach, hesays, you never bothered to ask me.
You thought it was a greatidea because of everything you were
going through, and this was away out of what you were going through.
But you never asked me.
So you spent 18 monthsbuilding the wrong business.
(17:34):
And I was like, oh.
And I was like, oh, God, youknow, and I wanted to cry and wanted.
But I repented and I'm so sorry.
He's.
Yeah.
He says you're a great coach,but you're anointed speaker.
He says they're not the same.
He says, I was going to fillyour coaching through your speaking.
He says there was going to bedoors open for you speaking and getting
on stages, and your coachingprogram would have never run dry.
(17:56):
He says, but your coachingprogram is dry because you built
the wrong business because younever bothered to ask me in the first
place.
And if you could be one ofthose moments where you're like,
oh, my gosh, that was that moment.
It was where I followed thegood idea instead of checking if
this was a God idea.
And because of life lifing,instead of going after what God wanted
for me, I spent almost twoyears of my life building the wrong
(18:20):
things that eventually dried up.
And me at that time trying tobuild something else and really trying
to dive deep into what God hadfor me.
And it was like.
It was a hard place to recover from.
Recover I did, but it was ahard place to recover from.
So don't do that.
Don't do what I did.
Follow the checklist.
Let me just give you a quickoverview of the checklist real quick.
Four points.
Scripture and character.
(18:41):
Number two, Peace and strivingmotives and faith, dependency.
Get those in line and then geton the newsletter and get all eight
of them.
But you get those in line, atleast those four.
And I will tell you, it willput you on the right path.
And you can evaluate everyidea that you have and say, God,
is this a God idea or is thisa good idea?
And so what I want you to doas a challenge for this week, pull
out your journals.
Because we believe in journalson the show.
(19:02):
Take 30 minutes with God this week.
Just any 30 minutes.
You can do five a day, or youcan do 30 all at once and journal
through those four checkpoints.
To start with that the ideasthat you have are that you're sitting
on, that you have books of.
Are.
Are they God ideas?
Ask them.
Highlight for me which onesare from you.
God, and what is justdistraction, because if the devil
(19:25):
can't take you out, he's goingto distract you and derail you.
So we understand God.
What are these?
What of these are distractions?
And what are these of you gothrough each idea individually and
ask the Holy Spirit toilluminate, give you revelation on
each one.
Do that for 30 minutes.
And I and then what I want youto do is hit me an email, go on my
newsletter, hit reply and tellme you did that and then tell me
(19:45):
how it turned out, because Iwant to hear some testimonies, but
because I truly believe God isgoing to speak to you on deeper levels
and you're going to findyou're going to be in such a more
fulfilled place doing whatGod's called you to do.
This message actually came to me.
This whole thing came for mein a season where I was imploding
internally, looking forexternal things like that coaching.
(20:06):
And so I was willing to notask God because I asked for forgiveness
and permission.
You ever do those things?
I was willing to forego askingGod for the lore of making sure that
I was comfortable taking careof my family, was taken care of,
we were able to pay themedical bills and all that stuff.
And ultimately I ended up in aworse place.
And this is where thischecklist started coming and birthing
(20:26):
in as we go through.
And we said, hey God, this youor is not you?
And this is and actually itwas during this time where my wife
and I started saying one ofthe four or five mantras in our house
is whatever God wants, God gets.
So we started asking first,God, what do you want in this?
And then we say, okay, let'sgive it to him.
(20:47):
And that we don't always do that.
Like we, we try to do it asmuch as we can, we miss the bar.
But every time we try to putGod first and say, God, whatever
you want, you get, tell uswhat you want.
Then it comes into prayer andwe do miss it, but more often than
not we get it.
So with that being said, as weshut down this episode, I just, as
(21:07):
I always already said, if youwant to hit up on the Wisdom dispatch
www.leadwithjim.com forward/nlfor newsletter and this is where
we're going to go into thosebehind the stories in depth things
to help you grow in wisdom andstature with God and with men so
that you can get out there anddo all God's called you to.
And if you feel so inclinedand you want to support this show,
(21:29):
there's a couple ways tosupport the show.
Whatever platform you'relistening on, go ahead and hit the
subscribe, send a comment,write a review, do the things.
And then here's what I here'sthe last thing.
If there's a person in yourlife that you say this guy or this
woman or this kid or whoevercould benefit from this episode,
go ahead and share the sharethat with them.
(21:50):
Because here's the deal.
This is about serving you andpushing forward the Kingdom of God.
So if we can make sure thiswords and stuff like this get inside
the hearts of people and letthem see what God is doing and how
God can change their life andbuild the calling that God has put
on their life, then it's a winwin for every single person.
And with that being said, Isaid I'm just going to say go and
(22:10):
blessing of the Lord.
May the Holy Spirit give yourevelation, knowledge and wisdom.
May he reveal to you thethings that you're supposed to be
doing while also revealing thedistractions the enemy has placed
there.
And then I would also praythat the Lord give you time, a timetable
on when to do it, also how todo it and when to step in all of
(22:31):
those things that he's doingfor you.
And I'll just pray that inJesus name.
And with that being said,thanks for listening in on the episode,
thanks for hanging out andthanks for having the conversation.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgoon,leadership coach, Faith first entrepreneur,
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
(00:21):
have to let's get into it.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Content Creators, where
faith meets strategy andcreativity becomes impact.
I'm your host, Jim Ragoon.
It's nice to virtually meet you.
And today we're going to betalking about something that could
save you really years of frustration.
(00:41):
And because you've got a goodbusiness idea, you have one, it's
burning in your heart.
You want to start this thing,you want to do this thing.
But the question that becomesis this business idea actually from
God or is it just a good ideawith Christian flawless flavoring?
Today we're going to unpackwhat the difference is, how to really
(01:02):
tell, because here's thereality of this.
Half the businesses that arestarted fail within three to five
years.
So we can't just settle on agood idea, clever idea.
We've got to settle on what isGod leading us to and how can we
go and get deeper into thatand create something that God is
already doing that's going tobe successful, impactful and build
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the kingdom.
Let's walk through a fourpoint spiritual checklist that's
going to help us dive throughand see is it good or is it God?
Now before we start, we wantto anchor our episodes in scripture
because this is why we'rehere, is to understand how God has
us operating in business, whatit means to be a Christian online.
Proverbs 3, 6, part of thevery well known scripture and it
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says, in all of your ways,acknowledge him and he will direct
your paths.
5 Before that says, Lean noton your own understanding, but in
all your ways, acknowledge himand he will guide your path.
And the reality of this isthis shouldn't be something that
causes us to be afraid,hesitant to move, but what it should
do is give us a rhythm withheaven that says when we acknowledge
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God in all of our ways and notlean on our own understanding and
we follow him, he will show usthe way to go.
That's how we start gettinginto the rhythm of heaven.
We acknowledge God not as partof our business, but the owner, CEO
of the business and we are thestewards in God's business.
Because there's a hugedifference between treating God as
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one of our employees or abusiness partner and having God as
the head of an organizationthat he has us start.
So let's dive into this now.
This will unpack some thingsin multiple episodes over the course
of the next few months.
So you're going to want to hitthe follow button and let's have
a conversation and start arelationship where we can unpack
some of this.
But for today's purpose, weare going to be talking spiritual
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checklist.
Here is spiritual checklistnumber one.
Does it align with scriptureand God's character?
Does it align with scriptureor God's character?
The first thing we shouldalways understand as Christians is
that God never, and I will sayit again, never contradicts his word.
If it contradicts the word, itis not of God.
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I don't care how good orlucrative it is.
Your idea is you've got to askyourself, do you want God's anointing
and stamp on your business ordo you just want to make the money
and just call it God's blessing?
Because there's a bigdifference, my friend.
We want God's anointingbecause anointing is transformational.
It's longevity, it'sgenerational, it causes things to
change.
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Whereas if you get just thegood idea, not in God's blessing
or just call it God'sblessing, a lot of times that dries
up and you're left to fightthe consequences of of some shady
stuff.
Because here's the thing, whenyou're not walking with God, we often
operate in shady mechanics.
Think about online, how manypeople online, and I don't care if
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they're you.
We see this in Christianity.
We see this in regularcultural marketing, the shady marketing
content.
We see this in manipulative funnels.
We see this in over promisingand under delivering.
We see this in a lot ofdifferent things because all of this
stuff lacks integrity andcontradicts God's character.
So it's not of God.
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So if it contradicts his wordor his character is found in his
word, we need to run far fromit, no matter what it's going to
make us.
Because I'm going to tell you,it's not worth it in the long run,
in the end, because we have toput our heart where our leader is
and follow after him wherethose things aren't going to rust.
We want to make sure thatthings are going to be eternal and
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they're going to cause impactfor generations to come.
And you can't do that ifyou're not following him.
So is it biblical and does itfollow his character?
And just think about this.
Proverbs 11.
3.
Honesty, right?
Honesty guides good people.
Dishonesty destroys people.
Let that sink in.
Honesty guides people.
Good people.
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Dishonesty destroystreacherous people.
Proverbs 12:22.
The Lord detests lying lips,but he delights in those that tell
the truth.
Don't be shady.
Be integrity.
It may not allow you to causea lot of money in the first end or
a lot of business in the firstpart, but when people get a hold
of your character and how thataligns with the Bible and what God's
(05:18):
doing, you will have enoughbusiness coming in.
But you gotta trust, you gotta walk.
And always ask, does it alignwith God's character and does it
align with Scripture?
Number two, do we have peaceor are we striving?
So I like scriptures likePsalms 46, 10, right?
4610 really says this.
And let me read this for youbecause I don't mess this up, because
(05:39):
I.
During two cuts, I completelymessed this up.
So here's what it says.
Be still.
So that word there honestlymeans, stop striving and know that
I am God and I will be exaltedamong the nations and I will be exalted
among the earth.
So here's the thing.
We've got to really come backto this place of being still.
Striving is not of heaven.
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Deep peace is not hype.
We have to have confidence,not hustle, not grind.
As in the cultural says.
I did an episode on thedifference between what cultural
hustling is and spiritual hustling.
You can catch that out as oneof the previous episodes.
But here's the thing.
Because God is not a God of confusion.
God is not a God who lies.
We understand that confusion,chaos, constant hustle and things
(06:24):
that rob you of rest is not of God.
It also mentions we have tohave peace, and that doesn't mean
absence of chaos.
I think we get amisunderstanding of what true peace
is.
We think that peace means nochaos is happening.
No peace really is.
I have the confidence that Godis going to come through in the midst
of the storm.
We think back on Jesus.
Jesus in the storm got up andeverybody around him's freaking out.
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He said, peace, be still tothe storm and the storm quick.
We have to get back to theplaces of stop trying to follow a
feeling and start trying tofollow God and what God is calling
us to.
Peace.
Peace.
It means we have theconfidence that he is acting even
when everything around us isfalling apart.
We have to have the confidencethat God is on the move even when
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Everything seems like justcrazy when life is going to life
basically because that's whattrue peace is, moving in the middle
of spiritual warfare.
Because you're not going tomove towards God and not experience
spiritual warfare.
That's a whole other thing.
We'll unpack at a differenttime too.
And we have this, but we haveto, in the midst of spiritual warfare,
we have to be supernaturallyanchored to peace.
(07:30):
Who Christ is the prince ofpeace and gives us the peace that
passes all understanding.
And that kind of peace theworld can't fake.
We have so many people who arenavigating anxieties both on a mental
health level and just thestuff that we, we do to ourselves
because we live in vain imaginations.
And all of them need to bedealt with compassion, with reality,
(07:53):
with just we need to hugpeople who have anxiety, not judge
them kind of thing.
I deal with some anxiety, youdeal with anxiety.
And so this is also havingcompassion on ourselves and pulling
us back to the place ofsaying, can I anchor myself in God?
Because God and Jesus, becausethat is where the reality is.
If I can anchor myself in thereality, I take myself out of the
place of this vain imagination.
(08:15):
And we come in the midst ofthe warfare having complete confidence
that Christ is going to doexactly what he said.
And if you want to look atthis, Philippians 4, 7, 1st Corinthians
14:33, both talk about God'speace, I will tell you, I'll link
them both in the show notes.
You can go check them out foryourself and I highly recommend that
you do.
I'm actually going to beposting a YouTube episode this week
(08:36):
in conjunction with this onhow to use chat GPT in order to do
a deep in depth Bible study.
That link's going to be in theshow notes and subscribe to the channel
where we're going to divedeeper for things that aren't on
the podcast.
And also you can watch thepodcast visually video wise on YouTube
as well.
So check number three, what'sreally driving you?
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This is an agenda.
So we went from Bible, is it biblical?
Is it God's character?
We moved into more of do wehave peace?
You know that feeling side of it.
Because God is the God ofholistically all of us.
So we got to dive in it.
So now we're going deeper intothe heart, which is what is your
agenda?
What's driving you now?
This is one that's going tomake us all uncomfortable because
(09:17):
we got to ask some hard questions.
And the hard questions is doesit glorify God, or does it glorify
you?
Who are you glorifying?
What is your agenda?
Like, what is your real purpose?
And not the agenda that you'vetold yourself and convinced yourself
in a Christian language thatthis is okay, but the true agenda
underneath of what that we maybe afraid to admit that we often
(09:38):
hide what is really driving you.
And in this, and for you guyswho are listening to this, if you
hear some thunder, lightning,it just started pouring and my dog
decided to come under the seatwith me.
So if you hear a littlecommotion, it's because the dog got
spooked and the lightning'spretty hard.
But let's continue the episode.
But here's the thing.
So is it what's driving underneath?
Are you trying to provesomething to yourself because you've
(10:01):
been through so much trauma,or are you serving someone in your
content?
When you're content creating,when you're podcasting, when you're
YouTubing, when you'recoaching, when you're speaking, are
you serving or are you tryingto prove yourself?
Because anointing doesn't needto prove itself.
It just needs to walk into the room.
That's it.
So here's the thing.
Remember, if you're looking topartner with God, then we have to
(10:23):
come into alignment with theheart of God through the word of
God.
And if you're somebody whosays, I don't need the Word, you
already missed the plot.
We have to come back to theword of God to discover the heart
of God.
And then we have to partnerwith the heart of God and move off
of our agenda onto God'sagenda so that we're going to what?
Do what he's called us to inthe way that he's called us to.
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And this takes some reallyhard conversations with yourself,
challenging those parts of youthat you've hidden, the part of you
that is trying to prove, thepart of you that's overthinking,
the part of you that's afraidof rejection, the part of you that's
afraid of success, and thepart of you that's afraid to be seen,
all of that has to bechallenged in light of what is God's
(11:06):
heart in the matter.
And here's a great anchorscripture for you.
I'm going to read this onebecause this is going to hit the
heart of this point that we'retalking about.
And that is Psalm 139, 23, 24.
And it says, search me, O God.
David is search me, O God, andknow my heart.
Now, we know in Samuel ThatGod says, I see the heart where God's,
(11:28):
where man sees the outside, Isee the heart, right?
But he says, search me andknow me, oh God, know my heart and
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
It's not saying we're going tobe apart and never have anxiety,
we're never going to have allthis stuff, we're never going to
have negative thoughts.
It's not what it is, but whatit is.
It says, God, search me andhelp me find the thoughts and the
roots of the thoughts so thatwhen I have them, I can put them
(11:49):
before you and we can dealwith them.
That's the essence of what alot of the Bible teaches.
And as a Christian contentcreator, podcast or YouTube, if you
create content in any formatfrom any stage, you're going to deal
with overthinking, you'regoing to deal with these places of
challenge.
But search me, oh God, andknow me.
Let me know the agendas that Ihave versus the agendas that you
want me to have and let mecome into alignment as you heal those
(12:12):
agendas that were caused fromunhealed hurt, un unrealized expectations
and just trauma that I neverlet go of.
So we've done three, threepoints and I'm going to bring into
a fourth point and our fourthpoint is, what's the size of your
faith?
Is it a God sized faith or isit just your grind?
I think this is over underemphasized in Christianity a lot
(12:33):
of time because you see somany Christians out there and you
don't know like they don'tlook different from the world.
You see the people out therehustle and grind, go get your bag.
And then you hear Christianswho shroud the same thing in Christian
language and they're like,let's get out into the holy hustle.
Let's get out into the grindand get the things that God has promised
us.
And you know what you ask?
You've got to ask the honestquestion, how does that differ?
(12:54):
And it doesn't.
Because if you are somebodywho is going to live a God sized
faith, then you're then whatGod's asking you to do should scare
you.
What God is asking you to dois going to not just be in your lifetime,
but pass down to your children.
We look at that in Solomon andDavid, we look at that in Jacob,
Isaac and Abraham.
(13:15):
We see that God is agenerational God and whatever he's
birthing in your heart is agenerational business.
It's a generational thing.
And so we have to acknowledgethat if we can do it in our time,
at our pace, in our lifetime,it may not be God because it requires
no faith.
It just requires us to hustleand grind.
And if it's human sized, thencontrol, pride, predictability come
(13:38):
in.
If it's God's size, this is limitless.
So let's get back to theplaces that says God, if my vision
or actually if this is myvision, let's talk about that first
and say God, my vision.
Is this truly my vision, Lord?
Or help me have your visionand in the midst of that expand the
vision that you've given me tomake it to where it scares me.
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So I have to take each step byfaith because I don't know how it's
going to go.
Now we do understand that ifyou can do it all, it's not God.
So let's ask God to expandthat, let's ask God to increase that.
Let's ask God to do the thingsthat only God can do in our lifetime
so that we can do the thingsthat he's calling to, calling us
(14:19):
to because he's empowered us.
And I want to take a minute here.
We just did four checkpointsand I want to take a minute and I've
got a full eight pointchecklist that I would love to give
to you.
It's going to be on mynewsletter called the Wisdom Dispatch
and it's atwww.leadwithjim.com forward/nl for
newsletter.
Go figure.
So with that being said, it'sin the show notes.
(14:41):
Go ahead and click it.
The Wisdoms Dispatch is aweekly newsletter that is behind
the scenes, some extrathoughts, some bible study stuff,
things that you're not goingto find on the episode or on the
YouTube channel.
It's only contentsubscriptions or subscribers only.
It's a free newsletter so goahead and sign up.
But it's only going to beinformation given to you guys who
(15:02):
are on the Dispatch list and Iwill have a 8 point PDF for you to
have those things to gothrough as an entrepreneur every
time you want to check is thisa good idea or is this a God idea?
And these are things, like Isaid, that you won't find in the
episode.
But with that being said, letme tell you one of my own stories
because I have plenty of timeswhere I have messed up and missed
(15:25):
God and I probably have morestories than I like to tell.
But I'm going to tell you this one.
So let's get pull back thecurtain a little bit and let's be
real on where God's brought me from.
And I remember when I wasgoing into the John Maxwell team
because I'm a certifiedleadership development coach, certified
disc personality profilerthrough the John Maxwell team.
But when I joined the JohnMaxwell team, I wanted to be a speaker.
By the way, I feel that God'sgifted me as a speaker.
(15:48):
I've been on stages for 15 to20 years.
A communicator.
Not just a speaker, but a communicator.
And that goes into writing andeverything else I do.
And here's the thing.
So I call them up and I'm excited.
I'm like, yeah, this is cool.
I've got my master's degree,leadership development.
I'm a leadership coach, beenthis way for 20 years, and now I'm
going to get certified.
You ever have those reallycool excitement moments?
And so I call them up and say,hey, listen, I want to do your speaking
(16:10):
track.
I want to be part of thespeakers because that's what I love.
It's a gift.
Let me do that.
And they said to me, and thisis where it's going to be on me for
not going through my own checklist.
And a lot.
Where a lot of this came from.
And they said, you shouldprobably do the coaching route because
the coaching is where all themoney is.
And in the.
(16:30):
At the time, this was a whileago, so at the time, my wife was
in a fit of depression.
My wife deals with mentalhealth issues we've talked about
on multiple podcasts.
Podcast.
We will talk about it on thispodcast at some point.
But she was in a really tough place.
I was in a real tough place physically.
And a lot of things were goingon and it was like life was hot.
Was lifeing really hard?
(16:50):
Did you ever get into thosepoints where it's lifeing so hard
you just say, okay, this is agreat idea.
Let me make some money.
Let's go.
And so I joined the coachingprogram and not the speaking program
because I'm like, I'm a good coach.
I'm a prior pastor.
I taught middle school, highschool, so I could coach, I could
do this.
And I made money.
I made money as a coach.
But 18 months into it, thecoaching started drying up.
(17:11):
And I was like, God, what.
What's going on?
And this is where the HolySpirit spoke to my heart, put it
on my heart.
And he said to me this, hesaid, Jim, 18 months ago, when you
signed up to be a coach, hesays, you never bothered to ask me.
You thought it was a greatidea because of everything you were
going through, and this was away out of what you were going through.
But you never asked me.
So you spent 18 monthsbuilding the wrong business.
(17:34):
And I was like, oh.
And I was like, oh, God, youknow, and I wanted to cry and wanted.
But I repented and I'm so sorry.
He's.
Yeah.
He says you're a great coach,but you're anointed speaker.
He says they're not the same.
He says, I was going to fillyour coaching through your speaking.
He says there was going to bedoors open for you speaking and getting
on stages, and your coachingprogram would have never run dry.
(17:56):
He says, but your coachingprogram is dry because you built
the wrong business because younever bothered to ask me in the first
place.
And if you could be one ofthose moments where you're like,
oh, my gosh, that was that moment.
It was where I followed thegood idea instead of checking if
this was a God idea.
And because of life lifing,instead of going after what God wanted
for me, I spent almost twoyears of my life building the wrong
(18:20):
things that eventually dried up.
And me at that time trying tobuild something else and really trying
to dive deep into what God hadfor me.
And it was like.
It was a hard place to recover from.
Recover I did, but it was ahard place to recover from.
So don't do that.
Don't do what I did.
Follow the checklist.
Let me just give you a quickoverview of the checklist real quick.
Four points.
Scripture and character.
(18:41):
Number two, Peace and strivingmotives and faith, dependency.
Get those in line and then geton the newsletter and get all eight
of them.
But you get those in line, atleast those four.
And I will tell you, it willput you on the right path.
And you can evaluate everyidea that you have and say, God,
is this a God idea or is thisa good idea?
And so what I want you to doas a challenge for this week, pull
out your journals.
Because we believe in journalson the show.
(19:02):
Take 30 minutes with God this week.
Just any 30 minutes.
You can do five a day, or youcan do 30 all at once and journal
through those four checkpoints.
To start with that the ideasthat you have are that you're sitting
on, that you have books of.
Are.
Are they God ideas?
Ask them.
Highlight for me which onesare from you.
God, and what is justdistraction, because if the devil
(19:25):
can't take you out, he's goingto distract you and derail you.
So we understand God.
What are these?
What of these are distractions?
And what are these of you gothrough each idea individually and
ask the Holy Spirit toilluminate, give you revelation on
each one.
Do that for 30 minutes.
And I and then what I want youto do is hit me an email, go on my
newsletter, hit reply and tellme you did that and then tell me
(19:45):
how it turned out, because Iwant to hear some testimonies, but
because I truly believe God isgoing to speak to you on deeper levels
and you're going to findyou're going to be in such a more
fulfilled place doing whatGod's called you to do.
This message actually came to me.
This whole thing came for mein a season where I was imploding
internally, looking forexternal things like that coaching.
(20:06):
And so I was willing to notask God because I asked for forgiveness
and permission.
You ever do those things?
I was willing to forego askingGod for the lore of making sure that
I was comfortable taking careof my family, was taken care of,
we were able to pay themedical bills and all that stuff.
And ultimately I ended up in aworse place.
And this is where thischecklist started coming and birthing
(20:26):
in as we go through.
And we said, hey God, this youor is not you?
And this is and actually itwas during this time where my wife
and I started saying one ofthe four or five mantras in our house
is whatever God wants, God gets.
So we started asking first,God, what do you want in this?
And then we say, okay, let'sgive it to him.
(20:47):
And that we don't always do that.
Like we, we try to do it asmuch as we can, we miss the bar.
But every time we try to putGod first and say, God, whatever
you want, you get, tell uswhat you want.
Then it comes into prayer andwe do miss it, but more often than
not we get it.
So with that being said, as weshut down this episode, I just, as
(21:07):
I always already said, if youwant to hit up on the Wisdom dispatch
www.leadwithjim.com forward/nlfor newsletter and this is where
we're going to go into thosebehind the stories in depth things
to help you grow in wisdom andstature with God and with men so
that you can get out there anddo all God's called you to.
And if you feel so inclinedand you want to support this show,
(21:29):
there's a couple ways tosupport the show.
Whatever platform you'relistening on, go ahead and hit the
subscribe, send a comment,write a review, do the things.
And then here's what I here'sthe last thing.
If there's a person in yourlife that you say this guy or this
woman or this kid or whoevercould benefit from this episode,
go ahead and share the sharethat with them.
(21:50):
Because here's the deal.
This is about serving you andpushing forward the Kingdom of God.
So if we can make sure thiswords and stuff like this get inside
the hearts of people and letthem see what God is doing and how
God can change their life andbuild the calling that God has put
on their life, then it's a winwin for every single person.
And with that being said, Isaid I'm just going to say go and
(22:10):
blessing of the Lord.
May the Holy Spirit give yourevelation, knowledge and wisdom.
May he reveal to you thethings that you're supposed to be
doing while also revealing thedistractions the enemy has placed
there.
And then I would also praythat the Lord give you time, a timetable
on when to do it, also how todo it and when to step in all of
(22:31):
those things that he's doingfor you.
And I'll just pray that inJesus name.
And with that being said,thanks for listening in on the episode,
thanks for hanging out andthanks for having the conversation.
Host
Jim Burgoon
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