Graced to Lead
The Graced to Lead Podcast is an empowering space dedicated to women, designed to inspire, equip, and nurture their leadership abilities in every aspect of life. We are here to remind you of the extraordinary God-grace you possess to lead with confidence and Biblical wisdom, whether in your professional endeavors, at home, in your business, or within your ministry.
Join us weekly for a journey of personal growth and empowerment. Each episode and post is crafted to challenge and inspire you, providing insights and tools that propel you forward in your leadership path. Graced to Lead is more than a podcast; it's a call to embrace God's grace to lead, even if you feel unqualified. Here, we believe in your power to gracefully, boldly, and effectively lead God’s way!
What to expect: solo episodes, conversations with guests, and even a few giveaways.
Graced to Lead
S2/E15-When Vision Outruns Obedience: Learning Not to Get Ahead of God
Ever caught yourself running full speed with a God-given vision, only to realize you've left God behind in the planning process? That's exactly where I found myself with Grace to Lead, and this raw, unfiltered episode pulls back the curtain on my personal struggle with spiritual obedience in leadership.
When God first gave me the vision for Grace to Lead, He provided clear initial steps: start a podcast and write a book. I followed through faithfully, and both initiatives began bearing fruit. That's when something subtle happened – success made me believe in my own abilities more than God's continued guidance. I joined mastermind groups, implemented marketing strategies, and created elaborate growth plans without once returning to ask, "God, what's next?" I was still praying, but my prayers had shifted from seeking direction to merely asking for blessings on plans I'd already made.
The dangerous part? This form of disobedience doesn't look like rebellion – it looks like initiative, enthusiasm, and good stewardship. I was working hard, investing resources, and pursuing growth, but I had substituted worldly business tactics for divine strategy. Despite all my efforts, I felt frustrated that results weren't matching the vision God had originally shown me. The disconnect wasn't in my work ethic but in my failure to continue seeking specific direction.
For leaders carrying God-given assignments, this serves as a crucial reminder: our obedience isn't just personal – it demonstrates a lifestyle of faith to everyone under our influence. When we get ahead of God's timing or substitute our plans for His, we model self-reliance rather than God-dependence. If you're feeling stuck with a vision that once seemed crystal clear, perhaps it's time to pause and honestly assess: are you still following God's specific instructions, or have you veered into implementing your own strategy?
Take a moment this week to surrender your plans back to God and ask Him if you've gotten off track. Remember, it's not about doing less – it's about doing exactly what He's called you to do, nothing more and nothing less.
Mentioned during the show:
Chatty Hosting- Building high-quality websites, offering reliable hosting, and securing your perfect domain. https://blinq.me/ulxW2yyRMRkP?bs=db
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Listen, today's episode is all about my big mess up with Graced to Lead, and I'm telling you it's a mess up right now I am. I've talked about this, but I had a God idea with Graced to Lead and I think it's been going well, but the reality, the truth of it is, is that I haven't been fully obedient. I'm a little ahead of God here here and I'm doing all these things and not getting the results that I thought, and I know for a fact it's because I'm not doing what God said to do. So we're going to talk about that today and if you want to keep hearing more, keep listening, let's get into it. Welcome to the Graced to lead podcast. I am belinda gaston, your host, and listen. Today I'm going to talk to you about my big mess up, right, and so listen. If you have been following Graced to Lead, you know that Graced to Lead is a God vision, it's a God idea, and so I have been in a place where I heard God gave me this vision of Graced to Lead and I thought, okay, I now have this vision. I wrote the vision down. I wrote down what the components were of Graced to Lead Graced to Lead the podcast and what the components were of Graced to Lead Graced to Lead, the podcast and all the other components of Graced to Lead. And then I did what every good Christian leader would do, right, I prayed about it. I prayed over it. God is this? You Am I hearing this correctly? I got clarity. I clearly heard God say start the podcast, which I did. And then, about a year later, I heard God say OK, finish the book, which I did. So Graced to Lead podcast was born. We're in season two, we're actually preparing for season three. And then I wrote and got the book published, equipped by God. Graced to Lead. That's all great, right.
Belinda Gaston:And listen, as I was praying about this thing, god even sent some people, some men and women of God, to confirm what he said. And that always happens. I don't know if you heard something from God, or you feel like something's from God, and then you find yourself, maybe in a grocery store. Some stranger comes up and says I don't know if this means anything to you, but you know God says or I don't know why I'm drawing to tell you this, but you should do X, y and Z, and that's how God works. He does send us confirmation of his word. And so I had the vision, I had the confirmation, I had the steps, and so I did it. That was great.
Belinda Gaston:I did it and, as a result of that, I had some success. The podcast began to grow and I was really excited about that. People were giving me great feedback from the podcast. I was excited about that. And then a few months ago, the book came out and now I'm hearing from people who finally read it. It's a short read, but it's really taking people a minute to get through it because of the content, but I'm getting some great feedback from the book. It's like, yeah, this is great.
Belinda Gaston:And so I had the success and I went back to the vision and I remember that oh wait, god said that there was these other components. Right, there is going to be all these other pieces to Graced to lead. And so what did I do? As the smart leader I am, I created a strategy. I created an implementation strategy and a business plan for how to grow Graced to Lead from what it is to what God had shown me in the vision. There's nothing wrong with that right. I started joining groups of how to grow your podcast numbers and how to monetize your podcast and I went to. I joined leadership circles because, listen, we are in community, right, leaders are supposed to be in community, we've talked about that. But I joined groups where you know, grow your coaching business, do this, do that, all these things right.
Belinda Gaston:But here's where I messed up. Not once in this process did I go back to God and say God, what would you have me to do next? Remember, god gave me the vision, but he only gave me two steps Start the podcast and write the book. Those were the only two instructions I had. Those were the only two instructions I had. And so, once I did that, what I should have done was gone back to God and said, ok, I've done these two things, they're up and running. I'm continuing to podcast because God hasn't said to stop. What should I do next? That is not what I did, y'all.
Belinda Gaston:What I did was I built this plan, I got strategy. I even went to God. Listen, I went to God not for strategy, I went to God for help. Lord, send me the people to help me with this vision. And what did he do? He sent me a couple people Shout out to Mill and Kamari. Kamari owns Chatty Hosting. He helps with the website. Mill is an amazing business implementation strategist, helps with social media and newsletter, all kinds of things. So I had the help. I went and prayed for the help, but I didn't pray for what was next. And God is so gracious with us. God was so gracious to send me the people to help me, right, but I never asked what was next and so I messed up. And so here's where I found myself.
Belinda Gaston:Recently. I found myself looking at what I think is a beautiful social media feed, thanks to my help, a wonderful website, again thanks to my help, all of these things that I've put in place. Thinking, well, why isn't this aligning with the vision that God gave me? Well, the reason it's not aligning with the vision that God gave me is because I didn't ask God for the next steps. I took God's vision, did the one or two things right that he told me to do, and then I put my own strategy and my own implementation and my own planning behind what he gave. That does not work. If God gives you a God idea, god gives you a God vision, then God has the implementation, god has the strategy behind it, because God is responsible for the success.
Belinda Gaston:But I got caught up In real talk. Let me tell you some of the ways, some of the reasons I think I got caught up. One is I was excited. I was excited because what God said to do was actually working. Isn't that funny? I mean, god said to do was actually working Isn't that funny? I mean, if we believe what God tells us to do, why are we surprised, when we do it, that it works out? That's the craziest thing.
Belinda Gaston:But I was excited and so in my excitement and my enthusiasm, I began to lean on myself and my skills and my abilities and my know-how and the people that I know to make things happen. The other thing is I started to believe my own hype. Y'all People would come up and say, oh my goodness, I love Graced to Lead, I'm so proud of you, and you start to believe your own hype. Listen, it's not me, it's the Lord. And even if only 10 people were to have listened to the Graced to Lead podcast, if those 10 people were impacted in some way, then that's the purpose, that's the job done.
Belinda Gaston:I honestly don't know why God is doing what he's doing through me with the Graced to Lead, but I know what the vision said, and so that would be. So I started to believe my own self, and we have to be careful with that, especially as leaders. Leave my own self, and we have to be careful with that, especially as leaders. If you are a leader and you are leading well, that means that you're going to have a certain level of success, and it's really easy, when you have that level of success, to begin to believe your own hype, to think that you're doing stuff on your own. It's easy to do that. We have to be careful, especially as leaders of faith, to remember that it's our faith that helped us get to where we are right. We didn't get there by ourselves. We didn't create those winning teams or that winning business or that winning strategy or winning project by ourselves. It's our faith that carried us to. It's the Graced of God to get those things done, and so carried us to. It's the Graced of God to get those things done.
Belinda Gaston:And so I got excited. I started believing my own hype, and then the other thing that I started doing is I started implementing other people's strategies. Listen, there are some successful people out there, some of whom I call friend, some of whom I call colleague that are doing amazing things If something works for you know, joanne, it doesn't mean that it's meant for me to go that same path, but it's so easy to say, okay, well, joanne did X, y and Z and she got these results. And Bob did X, y and Z and he got these results, and so I'm just going to apply their strategies and it's going to work for me. And that may not be what God had intended, but you can find yourself caught up in the latest strategy and it's so easy to find somebody's class course coaching program to help you get from point A to point B. And I strongly y'all know because of my guests I strongly believe that people need coaches.
Belinda Gaston:I strongly believe that if people have expertise, they can help you get through what you're going through because of their expertise. I believe in systems, I believe in best practices. I believe in all of those things. What I'm saying is that when you have a God idea, then God gives you the strategy and can point you to the right systems, the right coaches, the right programs. And if you're not focused on that, what begins to happen is you just go from group to group, from program to program, from coach to coach, and you never end up getting to the successful vision that God gave you in the start.
Belinda Gaston:And so I found myself in lots of groups with lots of masterminds and group programs and four weeks to this and all of that and all it did I mean again, the information was great and sound, but I never asked God which of these should I be connected to. And the funny thing is I haven't done this with Graced to Lead, but I do this in my life all the time. God, who should I be connected to God? What's this person's relationship with me? Are they a friend? Are they a colleague? Is this someone that I should connect with? Is this an assignment for me? I do that in almost every other aspect of my life, but when it came to Graced to Lead real talk when it came to Graced to lead, which was God's idea in the first place, I found myself not even consulting him, not even asking. I was praying. So let me talk about this for a second. So when I say consulting, I mean asking God what should I do? And waiting for God to give me an answer. I was praying for success of Graced to Lead. I believe in prayer. I pray often, every day, I pray multiple times a day. I'm in communication with God all the time, but I never asked God about Graced to Lead.
Belinda Gaston:What I said was Lord, help this episode make a difference. Lord, help my podcast reach more people. God, help me get new coaching clients. Like all of these things were tied to Graced to lead, but it wasn't tied to the steps. I wasn't seeking direction from God. I was seeking a give me. God, give me this, god, give me that, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. Thank you, lord, because I'm Graced to lead. It sounds ridiculous even saying this, right, but I'm being transparent because I'm hoping that this will help somebody and because God told me to say it.
Belinda Gaston:God said this was the episode. This is what you're going to do. I even did a live about this on Facebook and YouTube, because that's what God said, and I don't like to be live. I don't mind talking behind the camera, but I definitely don't. I mean talking behind a microphone, but I definitely don't want to be in front of the camera, but what happened is it was a give. It was give me prayers, lord, give me this, give me that. Or it was give me or don't let let me. God, don't let me fail. God don't let this happen. God don't let that happen. Not once did I say God, what do you want from me today?
Belinda Gaston:Again, as it related to Graced to lead, I would do that in my everyday, though. This is how wild and how subtle it is to become disobedient to God. It is so subtle If I had to teach something like, let's say, bible study or something like that. I pray God. What would you like me to say If I am encountering someone and God has put someone on my heart to pray God? What would you like me to pray If I, when I wake up on a Saturday morning and I'm like I've got a lot of things on my list to do, god, what would you have me do today? So this was not like I was unfamiliar with seeking direction from God, but when it came to Graced Delete, because of the success and because of the vision, I easily felt out of the habit of giving it all back to God continuously, and so I fell into the trap. I messed up. And the last thing is comparison. Again, we talked about comparison on this show, but I had.
Belinda Gaston:There were people, there are other people doing podcasts. There are other coaches. There are other ministries. There are other leadership gurus. I have friends in my circle who have PhDs in some form of leadership right, phds in leadership. And it's really easy to say well, we have similar audiences. I'm talking to women who lead, they're talking to women who lead, or they're talking to groups of leaders and so I should be doing what they're doing. No, that's not what God said. I messed up y'all with this here Graced to lead, and so now I'm correcting it right, and I'm sharing it, because you may have found yourself with a God idea.
Belinda Gaston:You may have a vision or an idea from God where you know for sure you're supposed to write a book, or you know for sure you're supposed to start a business. You know for sure that you are going to get a specific role at work, you're gonna be promoted and you have seen yourself doing it. You know that you're supposed to start that organization. You know you're supposed to be speaking or writing or teaching or whatever it is, because God put that in your heart, and God may have even said this is how you start You're going to go back to school, or you're going to start writing a book, or you're going to start going to this course, or you're going to start going to these meetings or you're going to attach yourself to this particular group.
Belinda Gaston:You may have had that and you've taken the first step, and then you get a little bit of success, because God rewards obedience. Obedience is worship unto the Lord, and when you worship God, god is pleased. And so then that thing begins to happen. And then you're like, okay, let's go, and you're doing all the things I mean all the things and you're frustrated because it's not matching up with the vision. And I'm here to say that perhaps it's because you didn't get direction from God and somehow you've managed to find yourself, like I did, ahead of God. And again, it's not like it's not sound strategy that you're doing. It's not that the things that you're doing is wrong, it's just not what God told you to do. And so that's where I find myself in this very moment. I am going through this as I am recording this. So now I have to change.
Belinda Gaston:So the first thing I did was I went to God and I repented, and that's what I tell you is. One of the first steps is just repenting to God. Listen, god, I'm sorry. I messed up. I took you out of my plans. These are not. So that's the thing I had to surrender my plans to God. It's not my plans, it's God's plan, and if I trust God as a leader, I follow his plan, because as I follow his plan, it helps those who follow me, who I have influence over, to also follow God. As a leader, your obedience to God is not just about you being obedient to God. You are demonstrating to those who you have influence over as a leader a lifestyle of faith.
Belinda Gaston:And so I repented, I prayed and God told me stop. And so then I had to say, oh boy, you mean I, I have this help, but I've got to tell them all of their hard work. They've got to just pause for a minute. How is that going to go over? I sent the email to them saying this is what we're going to do, and I didn't go into a lot of detail and they were like oh, okay, so that's the other thing. We think that when we want to get back on track, like the whole world's going to end because we're going to stop doing all these things, and when you stop doing all the things, it's going to be devastating. But it's not. I still have a podcast episode this week, but it's not. I still have a podcast episode this week.
Belinda Gaston:The team understood. So I repented, I prayed to God, like, okay, lord, what would you have me to do? And then I began to listen. And so that's what I'm doing right now listening for instruction. And for me to listen, I had to dedicate time specifically for this, so not just any of my prayer time. Remember, I told you, I pray throughout the day. I have dedicated time with God in the morning, but I had to set time aside just to pray and to listen about Graced, to lead specifically, and so that's what I've been doing.
Belinda Gaston:And then I had to silence some of the other things. So, remember all those groups and things I had, I had to remove myself. I had to silence them. I can't be a part of all that while God is trying to download strategy. For me, that meant I had to pause some subscriptions, right, I had to get out of the chats. And then I began to do what I heard, and the first thing that I heard this week was to do this podcast episode. And the second thing I heard was to go live on social media and share. And so the podcast episode is easy, because that's what I do every week, right, but social media live is not something I'm excited about, but I did it Now.
Belinda Gaston:If you were to ask me right now OK, what's next, I will tell you that in this very moment I have no idea, and so that's the other part of this is, you're listening for instructions, you're doing what you're told, but also you have to be comfortable in the wait. If God tells me not to do anything else for the next three days, I have to be comfortable with that. Even though I've got a posting schedule for Instagram and I've got content that I can put out for my website, unless God says it, I can't do it. The one thing that I do have permission to keep putting on my website right now and updating is the blog posts, so those will be updated, but I have to be comfortable waiting. Oh my gosh, and it's not easy, let me tell you, because I want to do stuff right now, because I can see it, I can see the vision, but my waiting tells God I trust you, and so the other thing that I have to do while I wait is ask God also is there anything I should be doing while I wait For me? What I know for sure is that I should continue to pray and to continue my Bible study and continue making the podcast episodes for season two. I only have one more episode for season two and then the rest is going to be preparing for season three, and I know that he's already given me those guests, because that that's something that hasn't stopped, and so I'll focus on what I know that he told me to do. The last thing I'll share with you is that in my prayer time, as I took this pause and I did the things right, I contacted the team, I did the live, I did this recording.
Belinda Gaston:Right now got brought back to my memory three names of people. These are not podcast guests. These are people I'm going to reach out to and connect with. Do I know what I'm going to say to these people when I reach out? You know one of them I know well and we've talked about getting together so that one's a little bit easier. The other people I don't really know well. I mean, I think we know of each other but we don't know each other well. But God said to reach out and so I will. What am I going to say? I have no idea. I might look strange. They might think what in the world, they may even talk about me. But I have to be obedient and I trust that as we speak, god will reveal. If he doesn't reveal before, I make the contact right, so I have to be comfortable in the wait. I make the contact right, so I have to be comfortable in the wait. But I also have to be comfortable doing things that don't seem like what the strategy is of the world.
Belinda Gaston:Calling somebody you don't know Because God told you to. It is not really in the business books, is not in the how to grow your podcast books, how to grow your coaching business book, how to get speaking engagements book. It's just not. But it's what God said for me to do, and so I just want to encourage you if you're in this spot, because, listen, I'm transparent. I just want to encourage you if you're in this spot because, listen, I'm transparent, that's all. If you've read my book or if you've listened to these episodes or you've even heard me teach or minister, you know that transparency, that's what I do.
Belinda Gaston:But if you are in a place where perhaps you are feeling discouraged or you're feeling frustrated, or you have a God idea or a God vision and you started it and it's like well, it's not looking like what God said. I encourage you this week to pray to God and say am I doing what you told me to do? Have I gotten off track? Have I mixed my own plans in with your plans for me? I would encourage you to do some assessment Am I doing what God told me to do? And listen, I feel this one, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it.
Belinda Gaston:Some of us in ministry are even in roles and positions where God didn't tell us to be there. God may have said this is what you're doing in this particular season, and then he's waiting to give you more instruction, but you're all in doing this thing and you're out of sync, out of position. Every aspect of our lives is guided by God If we are believers, by God, if we are believers, and so I encourage you to assess am I doing something I wasn't even supposed to be doing? Maybe that's part of your stress, maybe that's part of your frustration. Maybe you can free yourself from the tension, the stress, the frustration, whatever it is, by simply getting back in alignment with what God told you to do, so what to expect from Graced, to Lead, going forward, whatever God says Graced to Lead will do.
Belinda Gaston:The podcast is continuing. We will finish up season two shortly. I'm already planning for season three and already getting those invitations out for speakers, so I know that will happen. But however else you hear from me, or whatever else I do, it's totally up to God and I encourage you to do the same. So that's all I have this week and I encourage you to do the same. So that's all I have this week.
Belinda Gaston:If you found that you related to this and you go through this assessment, I'd love to hear about it. You can, if you're listening on Buzzsprout, you can actually text me and I'll get it. You can text me directly through the, send a text message and just let me know you can contact me. You can go to my website, belindagastoncom, and you can contact me there. There is a contact form where you can get information on how to contact me, but I'd love to hear it. If you are listening to this via YouTube, you can actually put the comments in the comment box and if you do respond, I always particularly if you do the text feature I always respond back and for some of you I'm still praying those of you who've reached out.
Belinda Gaston:I'm still praying for you, I still intercede for you. I am an intercessor, so I want to encourage you to take a moment to pause. It's not the end of the year, so you still have time, but everything happens in God's timing, but everything happens in God's timing. So that is the show for today. As always, I appreciate you listening. I don't take your listening, your subscribing, your sharing for granted. I appreciate that more than you know For those of you who are new welcome and for those of you who are returning. I appreciate you and until we talk again, remember you are indeed Graced to lead Bye-bye.
