June 2, 2025 • 18 mins
Episode Overview:
We’ve all heard the phrase, “follow the open doors,” but what does it really mean for your faith and business? In this episode, Jim invites you to rethink open doors as invitations—not guarantees—and reveals how true success in entrepreneurship is about character, calling, and spiritual discernment more than just chasing opportunities.
You’ll discover why closed doors can be just as important as open ones and how trusting God’s timing builds resilience and prepares you for lasting impact. This episode is for every Christian creative feeling uncertain about which path to take next.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to see open doors as invitations to deepen your relationship with God—not just chances for success
- Why focusing on character and calling matters more than chasing every opportunity
- The role of spiritual discernment in making wise decisions
- How to embrace closed doors as God’s protection and preparation
- Practical steps to steward your opportunities with faithfulness and responsibility
Reflection Questions:
- What open doors are you currently facing, and how are you discerning which to walk through?
- How has a closed door turned out to be a blessing or redirection in your journey?
- In what ways can you cultivate character and calling while navigating your business opportunities?
📱 Connect With Us
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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.
There's a common phrase thatgoes around in Christianity, in entrepreneurship
or just in life in generalthat says, follow the open doors
or God's going to open a doorfor you.
And so today I want to giveyou a fresh perspective as well as
some practical tips on how toreally judge and see doors for what
(00:42):
they are and to change thatinto how do we truly access these
doors so that we can buildrelationship and build our calling.
So let me give you a breakdownof about six different things on
to reframe what open doorsreally are and why they're important
and why the common terminologyand what we use may be hurting our
(01:05):
understanding of what doorswere meant for.
And with that being said,we're going to talk about the first
thing, the highly firstpractical thing which says open doors
are invitations, not guarantees.
Now, we have to understandthey're an invitation to explore
there.
They're not guarantees to walkthrough, right?
Because here's what it is.
(01:26):
Anytime God opens somethingup, calls us to something, it's an
invitation to deepen our relationship.
It's an invitation toexperience him in a greater way.
It's an invitation to be ableto communicate him to others in a
greater way.
They're always invitations.
They're not always guarantees.
So when we get to an opendoor, we have to understand that
(01:48):
maybe that by the time we getthere, the door, the Lord may shut
that door.
We look at that in Scripture,we with Paul, Paul's like he wanted
to go to one place, butbecause he had a dream and he was
redirected to another place.
So we have to understand thatGod is doing the leading, but they're
always invitations tosomething deeper with Him.
Not something deeper in ourempires, our entrepreneurial journeys,
(02:11):
our ministries, but a deeperrelationship with Him.
And in order to understandthis, we have to get deeper in prayer
in Bible.
We have to understand what ourBible is.
Not just Bible reading, butBible literacy.
Understand that.
And we have to havediscernment before actually stepping
through the door.
Because if they areinvitations to relationships and
(02:33):
not opera, just opportunitiesto chase, then the discernment is
going to help you at whatlevel and what position that relationship
is going to look like.
Because God may open manydoors to A single destination.
But all of those doors thatare being open are not all of doors
that you're going to need towalk through.
So we have to seek hisguidance which is going to align
(02:53):
with his plan in this seasonand realize that every season may
shift, but your season rightnow is our invitation to deeper relationship.
The second reframe and that wehave to really get into is that doors
are part of a larger journey.
See, we like to think hyperfocused in this area of our life,
(03:14):
in this specific time of ourlife, instead of the greater journey
of how are we becoming morelike Jesus?
Even in what we're building asa business, how are we becoming more
like Jesus?
Because that's ultimately the goal.
It's to develop the fruit,it's to develop the relationship,
it's to build the businessthat creates kingdom opportunities.
And so we have to understandthat each door, we have to look at
(03:36):
it from a differentperspective, that there are moments
or seasons, not destinations.
Our destination, our finaldestination is to live eternity with
Christ.
So every assignment we have isnot our final destination, but an
opportunity or a part of alarger story to get to our final
destination, which is withJesus in eternity.
(03:57):
So everything we likeEcclesiastes says we have eternity
in our hearts.
So every door is that eternitymarker that we're walking through
to drive us to the final destination.
So we understand thatsometimes doors teach, sometimes
doors refine, sometimes doorstest readiness, but always opens
(04:18):
a deeper connections andrelationship with him.
Because ultimately old opendoors don't mean instant blessing.
Now we've got to get that outof our heads because we have been
taught in Christianity thatGod's going to open doors and you're
going to be blessed and.
But it doesn't always meaninstant blessings.
Let's go back to the testings.
There are some times where therefinement and testing that we have
(04:38):
has to happen so that you canbe a person that can carry the blessing
and not just be a person who's blessed.
Because here's the difference.
If you're a person who's justblessed, there'll come a point where
it's going to test yourcharacter and you may lose the blessing
that you've obtained from God.
However, if you are somebodywho is being refined by the Lord
and your character is beingbuilt, you, you can now carry the
(05:01):
blessing into the season andnot risk losing it because your character
will pass that refinement test.
So we look for open doors as alarger communication point to the
greater story, which is beingwith Jesus Christ.
And everything leads up to that.
The next point we want to getinto, which is getting down to focus
on character and calling, notjust opportunity.
(05:23):
And I think there's such athere when we talk about open doors
and open door theology and allthis stuff where God's gonna open
a door and if he doesn't openthe door, he's opening a window.
And you've said it, I've said it.
But here's the challenge.
When we focus so much on thedoor and the opportunity, we miss
Jesus because we becomeopportunist, not relational, not
(05:44):
relation seeking.
We become opportunist.
We're more interested inbuilding our empire than we are building
the kingdom.
And so we have to be verycareful because we have to focus
on character and, and callingand not just the opportunity, because
opportunities come and go.
Character is with you forlife, calling is on your life, for
(06:04):
your life, right?
And so we have to challengeeach other to think in alignment
with the door, this door thatGod is calling me into, that he show
me, does it develop character?
Does it develop values?
Does it develop fruit?
And now a big business is not fruit.
Love, joy, patience is fruit.
So running your big businesswith love, joy and patience is the
(06:26):
evidence of fruit, not justhaving a big business.
Although we don't mind big business.
But God cares about who youare becoming more than what you're
doing.
God cares about how you actand represent him more than what
your business's bottom line isgoing to make God.
Because why?
Because the Bible tells us youare a living epistle, you are the
living letter to this world.
(06:48):
So what does that letter say?
And if you're not developing character?
We understand through proverbsthat there's a.
There are times where ourgifting will make room for us, but
our character keeps us.
And we see this played out in culture.
That's why you see a lot ofsingers get up into these mega star
statuses and then fall,whether it be through drugs or through
something.
Why?
(07:08):
Because their character cannever sustain what their gifting
was able to obtain.
And so if we're going to lookat this, we focus on character and
calling, not just opportunity.
Because if you focus oncharacter, calling, building it with
the Lord, the opportunitieswill constantly show up.
That's what favor of God isreally opening up opportunities.
But it's requirement of thecharacter and the calling which is
(07:32):
evident in the fruit.
So you got to ask yourself, asyou practically go through this,
does what I'm doing is and whoI'm becoming reflect the fruit of
The Spirit, is it consistentwith my calling?
And because we are buildingGod's kingdom and we're becoming
more like Jesus Christ and we're.
And it's not about our empires.
It's not about what we'redoing in the world.
(07:54):
Now, is what we're doing inthe world important?
Yes, it's absolutely important.
God's called you to that for a reason.
You have an impact, a kingdomimpact for a reason in that area.
But it first and foremostcomes away.
When all of that is strippedaway, you're left with your calling
and, and you're left with your character.
Are you constantly focusing onit to build it, or are you in a place
of constantly chasing opportunity?
(08:16):
If you are, let's repent onfocusing on opportunity and reshift
back to focusing on Christ andbuilding that calling and character.
The next one is understanding.
We have to have discernment.
And discernment is aboutbalancing spiritual listening and
wisdom.
Now I have to really dive intothis because I think we've got discernment
wrong in the Christian faith,in the entrepreneurial space, it
(08:38):
really comes down todiscernment is not a radar for you
to find bad things.
I think we've really divedinto this where we said, oh, I have
discernment.
That's a bad person, that hasa bad spirit, that's a demon.
And we really relegated ourdiscernment to say, here are the
bad stuff.
But if we understandScripture, if we have that I mentioned
(09:00):
earlier that Bible literacy,we realize that discernment is more
about seeing God in the thingand as opposed to seeing the enemy
in the thing.
So we need to reshift this andunderstanding through listening and
wisdom.
Now we're supposed toconstantly chase after wisdom.
There are books of the Bible,Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and all this
(09:20):
is talks about wisdom.
James says, if you're withoutwisdom, go chase it, ask and God
will give it liberally.
So we have to chase wisdom.
We have to have spiritual listening.
Proverbs again goes.
And now I'm going to tell you Proverbs.
Proverbs is one of the bestbooks for biblical entrepreneurs.
Got so much racked up, goodstuff in there.
But it talks about the.
When we knowledge,understanding and wisdom comes from
(09:41):
the fear of God.
So the greater we have fear orreverence in God, the more our spiritual
ears are attuned.
And we hear this, we hear andwe know where God is working.
So let me ask you this question.
Wouldn't you love to knowwhere God is working in your business?
Or where he's working throughyour business as opposed to what's
(10:02):
coming against.
Because I promise you, if youfocus on where God is taking you,
what's coming against youwon't matter as much.
And we, and I had a theologyteacher say that to me one time when
I was in my undergraduate andhe said it to the class and at the
time I was like, wow, this is,blew my mind.
And he said we as Christiansfocus too much on demonology and
not enough on Christology.
(10:23):
He said more people can tellyou about what demons do than what
Christ is doing.
And I think that's the big problem.
And if we're going to bespiritual entrepreneurs that have
impact, that produce calling,that carry anointing, we've got to
move it more into a Christcentered entrepreneurship as opposed
to a demon finding or a faultfinding or a bad thing.
(10:45):
Because quite frankly, a lotof what we call discernment is really
our critical trauma, ourtrauma and our criticisms masked
as discernment.
And so we're being criticaland we're being, and we're allowing
our trauma to inform things sothat we can say, hey, this person's
not good for us, instead ofsaying, hey, what does Christ want
in this thing?
So let, so we have to assessthe risk, sure.
(11:06):
But we have to understand thatthe doors are open and that God is
all calling us into thatinvitation, into relationship so
that we can see where he'sworking and how we can partner with
that.
And now this brings back tothe last two points, and one of them
is closed doors are just asimportant as open ones.
Now I know we don't think likethis because we oftentimes will think.
(11:27):
The fact is we always look foropen doors.
We got to go open door, got togo open door, door, got to go open
door.
But what if we normalizeclosed doors?
What if we normalize closeddoors as a symbol of God's protection,
as God's preparation, as God's redirection.
Did you ever think of it like that?
What if a closed door waspreparing you for that door to open
later, that the door closednow was not meant to open now.
(11:49):
And we want to force God'shand to open it now.
And it's meant for you downthe road when your character's big
enough to sustain you in theplace of that door when you walk
through it.
So let's give God glory, let'sthank God, let's find gratitude in
the fact that the closed doorsare God protecting, redirecting,
preparing us so that we can beat a place to either a walk through
(12:12):
it at the right time or keepon going and never go back to it
because it was never meant for us.
And we've got to settle intothe place that we trust God, not
trust our thoughts as much.
Right?
And so we got to embrace thedoors at this place of trust.
Now what is really trust?
Because we have trust issues.
So let's get to the point.
We have trauma, we have thislots of challenges.
(12:34):
So we have trust issues and wedon't trust God as much as we say
we trust God.
How do I know is the anxietyyou get when you're not given what
you want, when you want is anindication that there's a trust issue.
So trusting is the key to relationships.
So if you have a relationshipwith God, you've got to work on the
trust.
So trust is saying, Lord, andI had a pastor once said this to
(12:57):
me, he says, he said, lord,I'm going to trust you with where
I can right now in the midstof all of my junk.
But help me trust you more asI heal with you from my junk.
So just continue.
Understand that we can buildtrust, but trust starts somewhere
with trust.
Because we've got to see aredirect not as failure or rejection,
(13:18):
but it's God's love and God'spreparation and God saying, hey,
I want to show you somethingin a different way or prepare you
for something that you haveyet to encounter.
Which brings us to the last thing.
Because this is something thatI think we're missing in inside the
Christian church.
Especially now I speak toChristian entrepreneurs.
So everything I talk about isgoing to be really focused around
(13:38):
the Christian entrepreneur.
But as when I was a pastor, itreally comes down to we miss out
on stewardship andresponsibility like the ownership
of things and the stewardshipof things.
We're called to be stewards,we not owners.
Right?
Which means the even opendoors are still belonging to God.
They're not our opportunities,they're God given opportunities that
(14:01):
we have to steward properly beprepared to walk through, to be prepared
to hold and to own if we mess up.
Right?
And when we mess up, evenlet's talk about messing up, like
we'll go, we're going to makemistakes, but we have to own that.
Repent of whatever we need torepent of and, and really show and
encourage ourselves infaithfulness and stewardship of every
(14:23):
opportunity, big or small.
Remember, Bible says don'thate small beginnings.
And because we have to bereminded that God is working all
things together and ourresponsibility is to take initiative,
make wise choices, work withthe Holy Spirit, and do the work
that he's asking us to do.
Remember, you're not called tosit, you're called to work.
(14:44):
Right.
And everybody's work is different.
And I heard Chuck Swindoll saythis once, is that when we're saved,
we don't work to be saved, butwhen we're saved, we're called to
work.
So with that being said, wehave a stewardship of the opportunity.
And if we're going to stewardthe opportunity correctly, we've
got to get deeper inrelationship with God, deeper in
relationship with the HolySpirit, and then we've got to learn
(15:05):
and study the opportunity.
Don't just think it's going tocome to you because you have some
sort of, like, precognition.
No, get out there.
If whatever your opportunityis, and there's too many opportunities
to name, but whatever youropportunity is, become a student
of the opportunity.
First and foremost, find.
What does the word say aboutyour opportunity?
Second, what does the actualopportunity mean?
(15:27):
So if you're called to learnAI, get in there and learn AI, Learn
how to be a power user.
If you're called to write, notonly just write, but get in there
and learn the craft of writing.
You see how we can dive into deeper?
So first and foremost, wecheck the Bible, we read the Bible,
we work with the Holy Spirit,and then we get into learning the
craft and developing thecraft, and then we do.
(15:48):
And we all execute this at thesame time.
It doesn't mean you have to do1, then 2, then 3.
1, 2, 3 and 4 can be all done together.
But we have to steward theresponsibility because we are given
that responsibility.
And that opportunity is goingto be called back and God's going
to say, what did you do withthe opportunity I gave you?
I steward it because it's your thing.
So here's how I managed itwhile you had it in my hands.
(16:11):
So all of that leads to thefact that we open doors need to be
reframed.
Open doors need.
They're really invitations.
Their discernment is going tobe vital.
It's character that's beingdeveloped and it matters the most.
Closed doors have value and weneed to steward.
Well, that's the recap of thewhole thing we were just talking
(16:31):
about.
So I want to, I want toencourage you guys to pause, take
a moment, rest, pause and pray.
Reflect on the opportunitiesthat you have right now, the potential
opportunities, because it'snot just one door.
Stop being hyper fixated onone door.
God opens many doors and theBible tells us the God that Jesus
is the door.
So follow the Holy Spiritthrough Jesus to the right door.
(16:54):
But there's many doors openand so pray and discern and reflect
and say, okay God, whatopportunities do you have you put
before me, what, which one doyou want me to take and what am I
developing in the midst of it?
And so if you have anyquestions, if you thoughts you want
to add to this episode, dropthem in the comments.
If you are listening to thison one of the podcasts, Apple Iradio,
(17:17):
things like that, send me amessage jim leadwith jim.com and
just let me know what is your thoughts.
And then with that being said,I want to encourage you guys to just
go chase God for theopportunity, wherever the door opens,
whatever the door leads you to.
Because the opportunity is notonly an opportunity for a greater
relationship with him, it's anopportunity to impact this world.
(17:40):
And that's ultimately what youwant, is to make a difference.
And so with all that beingsaid, wherever you're watching, I
want to thank you from thebottom of my heart.
I thank God for you.
If you want to help out thisshow, do the thing.
If you're on, if you're onApple Iradio, Spotify or any podcast,
hit me up with a review.
Share the episode with someonewho you think needs to hear this.
(18:00):
If you're over there listeningto me here on YouTube, then subscribe.
Follow me for more contentlike this.
You're going to see a lot moredifferent things come out and comment.
Let's have a conversation.
I'm going to see you on alater episode and if there's ever
any topics you want me tocover, send me a Message jim@leadwithjim.com
Send me a message on sometopic ideas and let's see, let me
(18:22):
pray about them and see whereGod will leave.
With that being said, I'mgrateful for you to be here.
We'll see you on a future episode.
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.
There's a common phrase thatgoes around in Christianity, in entrepreneurship
or just in life in generalthat says, follow the open doors
or God's going to open a doorfor you.
And so today I want to giveyou a fresh perspective as well as
some practical tips on how toreally judge and see doors for what
(00:42):
they are and to change thatinto how do we truly access these
doors so that we can buildrelationship and build our calling.
So let me give you a breakdownof about six different things on
to reframe what open doorsreally are and why they're important
and why the common terminologyand what we use may be hurting our
(01:05):
understanding of what doorswere meant for.
And with that being said,we're going to talk about the first
thing, the highly firstpractical thing which says open doors
are invitations, not guarantees.
Now, we have to understandthey're an invitation to explore
there.
They're not guarantees to walkthrough, right?
Because here's what it is.
(01:26):
Anytime God opens somethingup, calls us to something, it's an
invitation to deepen our relationship.
It's an invitation toexperience him in a greater way.
It's an invitation to be ableto communicate him to others in a
greater way.
They're always invitations.
They're not always guarantees.
So when we get to an opendoor, we have to understand that
(01:48):
maybe that by the time we getthere, the door, the Lord may shut
that door.
We look at that in Scripture,we with Paul, Paul's like he wanted
to go to one place, butbecause he had a dream and he was
redirected to another place.
So we have to understand thatGod is doing the leading, but they're
always invitations tosomething deeper with Him.
Not something deeper in ourempires, our entrepreneurial journeys,
(02:11):
our ministries, but a deeperrelationship with Him.
And in order to understandthis, we have to get deeper in prayer
in Bible.
We have to understand what ourBible is.
Not just Bible reading, butBible literacy.
Understand that.
And we have to havediscernment before actually stepping
through the door.
Because if they areinvitations to relationships and
(02:33):
not opera, just opportunitiesto chase, then the discernment is
going to help you at whatlevel and what position that relationship
is going to look like.
Because God may open manydoors to A single destination.
But all of those doors thatare being open are not all of doors
that you're going to need towalk through.
So we have to seek hisguidance which is going to align
(02:53):
with his plan in this seasonand realize that every season may
shift, but your season rightnow is our invitation to deeper relationship.
The second reframe and that wehave to really get into is that doors
are part of a larger journey.
See, we like to think hyperfocused in this area of our life,
(03:14):
in this specific time of ourlife, instead of the greater journey
of how are we becoming morelike Jesus?
Even in what we're building asa business, how are we becoming more
like Jesus?
Because that's ultimately the goal.
It's to develop the fruit,it's to develop the relationship,
it's to build the businessthat creates kingdom opportunities.
And so we have to understandthat each door, we have to look at
(03:36):
it from a differentperspective, that there are moments
or seasons, not destinations.
Our destination, our finaldestination is to live eternity with
Christ.
So every assignment we have isnot our final destination, but an
opportunity or a part of alarger story to get to our final
destination, which is withJesus in eternity.
(03:57):
So everything we likeEcclesiastes says we have eternity
in our hearts.
So every door is that eternitymarker that we're walking through
to drive us to the final destination.
So we understand thatsometimes doors teach, sometimes
doors refine, sometimes doorstest readiness, but always opens
(04:18):
a deeper connections andrelationship with him.
Because ultimately old opendoors don't mean instant blessing.
Now we've got to get that outof our heads because we have been
taught in Christianity thatGod's going to open doors and you're
going to be blessed and.
But it doesn't always meaninstant blessings.
Let's go back to the testings.
There are some times where therefinement and testing that we have
(04:38):
has to happen so that you canbe a person that can carry the blessing
and not just be a person who's blessed.
Because here's the difference.
If you're a person who's justblessed, there'll come a point where
it's going to test yourcharacter and you may lose the blessing
that you've obtained from God.
However, if you are somebodywho is being refined by the Lord
and your character is beingbuilt, you, you can now carry the
(05:01):
blessing into the season andnot risk losing it because your character
will pass that refinement test.
So we look for open doors as alarger communication point to the
greater story, which is beingwith Jesus Christ.
And everything leads up to that.
The next point we want to getinto, which is getting down to focus
on character and calling, notjust opportunity.
(05:23):
And I think there's such athere when we talk about open doors
and open door theology and allthis stuff where God's gonna open
a door and if he doesn't openthe door, he's opening a window.
And you've said it, I've said it.
But here's the challenge.
When we focus so much on thedoor and the opportunity, we miss
Jesus because we becomeopportunist, not relational, not
(05:44):
relation seeking.
We become opportunist.
We're more interested inbuilding our empire than we are building
the kingdom.
And so we have to be verycareful because we have to focus
on character and, and callingand not just the opportunity, because
opportunities come and go.
Character is with you forlife, calling is on your life, for
(06:04):
your life, right?
And so we have to challengeeach other to think in alignment
with the door, this door thatGod is calling me into, that he show
me, does it develop character?
Does it develop values?
Does it develop fruit?
And now a big business is not fruit.
Love, joy, patience is fruit.
So running your big businesswith love, joy and patience is the
(06:26):
evidence of fruit, not justhaving a big business.
Although we don't mind big business.
But God cares about who youare becoming more than what you're
doing.
God cares about how you actand represent him more than what
your business's bottom line isgoing to make God.
Because why?
Because the Bible tells us youare a living epistle, you are the
living letter to this world.
(06:48):
So what does that letter say?
And if you're not developing character?
We understand through proverbsthat there's a.
There are times where ourgifting will make room for us, but
our character keeps us.
And we see this played out in culture.
That's why you see a lot ofsingers get up into these mega star
statuses and then fall,whether it be through drugs or through
something.
Why?
(07:08):
Because their character cannever sustain what their gifting
was able to obtain.
And so if we're going to lookat this, we focus on character and
calling, not just opportunity.
Because if you focus oncharacter, calling, building it with
the Lord, the opportunitieswill constantly show up.
That's what favor of God isreally opening up opportunities.
But it's requirement of thecharacter and the calling which is
(07:32):
evident in the fruit.
So you got to ask yourself, asyou practically go through this,
does what I'm doing is and whoI'm becoming reflect the fruit of
The Spirit, is it consistentwith my calling?
And because we are buildingGod's kingdom and we're becoming
more like Jesus Christ and we're.
And it's not about our empires.
It's not about what we'redoing in the world.
(07:54):
Now, is what we're doing inthe world important?
Yes, it's absolutely important.
God's called you to that for a reason.
You have an impact, a kingdomimpact for a reason in that area.
But it first and foremostcomes away.
When all of that is strippedaway, you're left with your calling
and, and you're left with your character.
Are you constantly focusing onit to build it, or are you in a place
of constantly chasing opportunity?
(08:16):
If you are, let's repent onfocusing on opportunity and reshift
back to focusing on Christ andbuilding that calling and character.
The next one is understanding.
We have to have discernment.
And discernment is aboutbalancing spiritual listening and
wisdom.
Now I have to really dive intothis because I think we've got discernment
wrong in the Christian faith,in the entrepreneurial space, it
(08:38):
really comes down todiscernment is not a radar for you
to find bad things.
I think we've really divedinto this where we said, oh, I have
discernment.
That's a bad person, that hasa bad spirit, that's a demon.
And we really relegated ourdiscernment to say, here are the
bad stuff.
But if we understandScripture, if we have that I mentioned
(09:00):
earlier that Bible literacy,we realize that discernment is more
about seeing God in the thingand as opposed to seeing the enemy
in the thing.
So we need to reshift this andunderstanding through listening and
wisdom.
Now we're supposed toconstantly chase after wisdom.
There are books of the Bible,Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and all this
(09:20):
is talks about wisdom.
James says, if you're withoutwisdom, go chase it, ask and God
will give it liberally.
So we have to chase wisdom.
We have to have spiritual listening.
Proverbs again goes.
And now I'm going to tell you Proverbs.
Proverbs is one of the bestbooks for biblical entrepreneurs.
Got so much racked up, goodstuff in there.
But it talks about the.
When we knowledge,understanding and wisdom comes from
(09:41):
the fear of God.
So the greater we have fear orreverence in God, the more our spiritual
ears are attuned.
And we hear this, we hear andwe know where God is working.
So let me ask you this question.
Wouldn't you love to knowwhere God is working in your business?
Or where he's working throughyour business as opposed to what's
(10:02):
coming against.
Because I promise you, if youfocus on where God is taking you,
what's coming against youwon't matter as much.
And we, and I had a theologyteacher say that to me one time when
I was in my undergraduate andhe said it to the class and at the
time I was like, wow, this is,blew my mind.
And he said we as Christiansfocus too much on demonology and
not enough on Christology.
(10:23):
He said more people can tellyou about what demons do than what
Christ is doing.
And I think that's the big problem.
And if we're going to bespiritual entrepreneurs that have
impact, that produce calling,that carry anointing, we've got to
move it more into a Christcentered entrepreneurship as opposed
to a demon finding or a faultfinding or a bad thing.
(10:45):
Because quite frankly, a lotof what we call discernment is really
our critical trauma, ourtrauma and our criticisms masked
as discernment.
And so we're being criticaland we're being, and we're allowing
our trauma to inform things sothat we can say, hey, this person's
not good for us, instead ofsaying, hey, what does Christ want
in this thing?
So let, so we have to assessthe risk, sure.
(11:06):
But we have to understand thatthe doors are open and that God is
all calling us into thatinvitation, into relationship so
that we can see where he'sworking and how we can partner with
that.
And now this brings back tothe last two points, and one of them
is closed doors are just asimportant as open ones.
Now I know we don't think likethis because we oftentimes will think.
(11:27):
The fact is we always look foropen doors.
We got to go open door, got togo open door, door, got to go open
door.
But what if we normalizeclosed doors?
What if we normalize closeddoors as a symbol of God's protection,
as God's preparation, as God's redirection.
Did you ever think of it like that?
What if a closed door waspreparing you for that door to open
later, that the door closednow was not meant to open now.
(11:49):
And we want to force God'shand to open it now.
And it's meant for you downthe road when your character's big
enough to sustain you in theplace of that door when you walk
through it.
So let's give God glory, let'sthank God, let's find gratitude in
the fact that the closed doorsare God protecting, redirecting,
preparing us so that we can beat a place to either a walk through
(12:12):
it at the right time or keepon going and never go back to it
because it was never meant for us.
And we've got to settle intothe place that we trust God, not
trust our thoughts as much.
Right?
And so we got to embrace thedoors at this place of trust.
Now what is really trust?
Because we have trust issues.
So let's get to the point.
We have trauma, we have thislots of challenges.
(12:34):
So we have trust issues and wedon't trust God as much as we say
we trust God.
How do I know is the anxietyyou get when you're not given what
you want, when you want is anindication that there's a trust issue.
So trusting is the key to relationships.
So if you have a relationshipwith God, you've got to work on the
trust.
So trust is saying, Lord, andI had a pastor once said this to
(12:57):
me, he says, he said, lord,I'm going to trust you with where
I can right now in the midstof all of my junk.
But help me trust you more asI heal with you from my junk.
So just continue.
Understand that we can buildtrust, but trust starts somewhere
with trust.
Because we've got to see aredirect not as failure or rejection,
(13:18):
but it's God's love and God'spreparation and God saying, hey,
I want to show you somethingin a different way or prepare you
for something that you haveyet to encounter.
Which brings us to the last thing.
Because this is something thatI think we're missing in inside the
Christian church.
Especially now I speak toChristian entrepreneurs.
So everything I talk about isgoing to be really focused around
(13:38):
the Christian entrepreneur.
But as when I was a pastor, itreally comes down to we miss out
on stewardship andresponsibility like the ownership
of things and the stewardshipof things.
We're called to be stewards,we not owners.
Right?
Which means the even opendoors are still belonging to God.
They're not our opportunities,they're God given opportunities that
(14:01):
we have to steward properly beprepared to walk through, to be prepared
to hold and to own if we mess up.
Right?
And when we mess up, evenlet's talk about messing up, like
we'll go, we're going to makemistakes, but we have to own that.
Repent of whatever we need torepent of and, and really show and
encourage ourselves infaithfulness and stewardship of every
(14:23):
opportunity, big or small.
Remember, Bible says don'thate small beginnings.
And because we have to bereminded that God is working all
things together and ourresponsibility is to take initiative,
make wise choices, work withthe Holy Spirit, and do the work
that he's asking us to do.
Remember, you're not called tosit, you're called to work.
(14:44):
Right.
And everybody's work is different.
And I heard Chuck Swindoll saythis once, is that when we're saved,
we don't work to be saved, butwhen we're saved, we're called to
work.
So with that being said, wehave a stewardship of the opportunity.
And if we're going to stewardthe opportunity correctly, we've
got to get deeper inrelationship with God, deeper in
relationship with the HolySpirit, and then we've got to learn
(15:05):
and study the opportunity.
Don't just think it's going tocome to you because you have some
sort of, like, precognition.
No, get out there.
If whatever your opportunityis, and there's too many opportunities
to name, but whatever youropportunity is, become a student
of the opportunity.
First and foremost, find.
What does the word say aboutyour opportunity?
Second, what does the actualopportunity mean?
(15:27):
So if you're called to learnAI, get in there and learn AI, Learn
how to be a power user.
If you're called to write, notonly just write, but get in there
and learn the craft of writing.
You see how we can dive into deeper?
So first and foremost, wecheck the Bible, we read the Bible,
we work with the Holy Spirit,and then we get into learning the
craft and developing thecraft, and then we do.
(15:48):
And we all execute this at thesame time.
It doesn't mean you have to do1, then 2, then 3.
1, 2, 3 and 4 can be all done together.
But we have to steward theresponsibility because we are given
that responsibility.
And that opportunity is goingto be called back and God's going
to say, what did you do withthe opportunity I gave you?
I steward it because it's your thing.
So here's how I managed itwhile you had it in my hands.
(16:11):
So all of that leads to thefact that we open doors need to be
reframed.
Open doors need.
They're really invitations.
Their discernment is going tobe vital.
It's character that's beingdeveloped and it matters the most.
Closed doors have value and weneed to steward.
Well, that's the recap of thewhole thing we were just talking
(16:31):
about.
So I want to, I want toencourage you guys to pause, take
a moment, rest, pause and pray.
Reflect on the opportunitiesthat you have right now, the potential
opportunities, because it'snot just one door.
Stop being hyper fixated onone door.
God opens many doors and theBible tells us the God that Jesus
is the door.
So follow the Holy Spiritthrough Jesus to the right door.
(16:54):
But there's many doors openand so pray and discern and reflect
and say, okay God, whatopportunities do you have you put
before me, what, which one doyou want me to take and what am I
developing in the midst of it?
And so if you have anyquestions, if you thoughts you want
to add to this episode, dropthem in the comments.
If you are listening to thison one of the podcasts, Apple Iradio,
(17:17):
things like that, send me amessage jim leadwith jim.com and
just let me know what is your thoughts.
And then with that being said,I want to encourage you guys to just
go chase God for theopportunity, wherever the door opens,
whatever the door leads you to.
Because the opportunity is notonly an opportunity for a greater
relationship with him, it's anopportunity to impact this world.
(17:40):
And that's ultimately what youwant, is to make a difference.
And so with all that beingsaid, wherever you're watching, I
want to thank you from thebottom of my heart.
I thank God for you.
If you want to help out thisshow, do the thing.
If you're on, if you're onApple Iradio, Spotify or any podcast,
hit me up with a review.
Share the episode with someonewho you think needs to hear this.
(18:00):
If you're over there listeningto me here on YouTube, then subscribe.
Follow me for more contentlike this.
You're going to see a lot moredifferent things come out and comment.
Let's have a conversation.
I'm going to see you on alater episode and if there's ever
any topics you want me tocover, send me a Message jim@leadwithjim.com
Send me a message on sometopic ideas and let's see, let me
(18:22):
pray about them and see whereGod will leave.
With that being said, I'mgrateful for you to be here.
We'll see you on a future episode.
Host
Jim Burgoon
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