005 | Live By FAITH | Surrender Before Strategy

Speaker A: Welcome to Leadership by Faith, where we believe that leadership starts within and faith is the foundation we stand on. I'm your host, Miya Allen, executive leadership coach, speaker, founder of Lead in Life and fellow traveler on the journey to leadership excellence. Each week we'll explore explore how to live by faith, lead with excellence and love intentionally as we transform how we show up, uh, at home, at work and in our communities. Because when faith and service leads, leadership follows. Today we're going deeper into pillar one, which is live. We're talking about what it truly means to live by uh, faith. Not just believe in God, not just attend church and not just quoting scripture, but actually allow God to lead your decisions, your tone, your timing and your priorities. Because many high performing leaders, especially those that are disciplined and strategic, they are exceptional at planning. But what we are not exceptional at always doing is surrendering. If you ever led in your own strength, I have forced outcomes and relationships. I have prayed, uh, after you decided instead of before I've been there or confused confidence with control. This episode is for you. Let's talk about it. Surrender before strategy, obedience before clarity, and alignment before execution. Let's lean in. Welcome back to Leadership by Faith. I'm Mie and in this episode we have appropriately titled it Surrender before Strategy. So let's get to it. Surrender is the prerequisite of faith, in my opinion. And faith is the cornerstone of leadership excellence. It's the foundation, the highest principle priority. When you're trying to obtain anything, you gotta have faith. And that includes trying to attain leadership excellence. This is where everything begins. Surrendering your plans, aligning your purpose, and trusting God's direction over your own. Because let's face it, if God isn't leading you, who is? And if the answer is you, if you're leading you, you're leading on borrowed strength. And sooner or later it's going to run out. Now, before we said we're standing on the Word to lead with excellence. And so if you happen to have your Bibles, go ahead and open them. But if not, I'm going to read the Word to you, um, in Proverbs 3, 5, 6. And it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your paths straight. Trust not partial, trust not situational. Trust not trust in the numbers or when it makes sense. Trust with all your heart, A L l all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. I'm m going to pause right there. Take that in. You know because as leaders, especially those trained in structure like I was in the army, or those educated in the theory and the technical parts of things, like I was in engineering, we're taught in our training and in our education to analyze, to assess, to calculate, to forecast, and then we execute. Understanding is our strength. And some of us even believe it's our superpower because we've been educated so, so highly. But the scripture says, don't lean on that. Now, let me be clear. It doesn't say, don't use your training or education. It just says, don't lean on it. Don't have faith in your education. Don't have faith in your training. Don't have faith in the way you did something previously and it worked out then. So you know how it's going to work out. No, no, let's scratch that. Start with a clean slate. Have faith in God. Now, faith is not just belief alone. It's not just believing in God. Faith is trust expressed through obedience. And you're probably asking yourself, obedience in what? Obedience in the Word. That's why we're standing on the Word as we journey to leadership excellence. In practical terms, this is what faith would sound. Lord, I will move when you say move. Father God, I will wait when you say, wait, Lord Jesus, I'm going to pivot. Because you said pivot. And you might not be fully confident in saying those things right now, but that's what faith is. Faith is trusting without your confidence in place, expressed through obedience, even when it disrupts your own plan. And it doesn't line up with, guess what, your training and your education. Let's bring this into our leadership and talk about what it actually looks like to live by faith. What living by faith means, so for me is before you start your day, you thank God, you give him the glory for giving you a good night's sleep, for giving you rest through the evening, and then waking you up. You start your day literally inviting him into your day. You don't just open your laptop or sit down at your computer. You first open your spirit. You don't just review the numbers on that report I was looking at last night? No. Review your alignment with the Holy Spirit. You don't just ask, is this profitable? No, you ask, is this obedient? All of this requires that we have a daily surrender practice. We all have to. That's the only way that you can get closer and have a more intimate relationship with God. And here's what that can look like. Before a meeting, why don't you pause and pray before responding to conflict, maybe at home or in a community meeting, before you respond to that conflict, check your spirit, your motives, your intentions. Most of all, check your peace. Before making strategic decisions, Ask holy spirit, lead me and guide me. And you don't do this as a ritual. Like, okay, I'm, um, sitting down to eat. Let me say grace. Yes, you should say grace, but not as a ritual. You're saying this, and you're, uh, starting to do these daily surrender practices as an actual trust and faith in God. And you're expecting him to show up to speak to your heart. Because when you lead from ego, from within yourself, you force outcomes. And remember what we said. Ego is edging God out. And when you force outcomes is because your thought pattern is, surely, I know best. I'm educated, I'm trained. I've handled this type of thing before. But when you lead from surrender, you don't force outcomes. You steward outcomes. You become a caregiver. And your focus and your mindset is on what's the best outcome for everyone involved. And there is a difference. For instance, ego says, I must prove myself. I gotta prove myself to this person in this meeting or in this group of people. I've got to be the standout. That's what ego says. But surrender says, I know exactly who I am. I already know that I'm called. I am a child of the king of the universe. That's what surrender says. Ego, on the other hand, rushes. How many of you rush today to do something? Ego rushes. And what it says is, this thing has to happen quicker. It has to happen today, in this very moment. I need it now. That's what ego does when it rushes. But surrender, surrender waits, knowing God is always on time. His timing is always perfect. Another example is ego reacts. It doesn't think. It just reacts to situations and circumstances. Surrender, on the other hand, responds. Surrender responds. And it gains alignment before it takes action. So I ask you this question. Are you ready to surrender? Will you surrender before you create the strategy? Will you surrender before you make the plan? Will you surrender before and invite God into your day? Honestly, I haven't always surrendered. Honestly, I didn't even know what surrender meant. And you might not either. But in this season, when I'm not surrendered, I know immediately, and I run back to that posture as quickly as I can. Early in my corporate career, I carried military precision and engineering education into every meeting room. Structure, discipline, science, formulas. And for me, that equaled results. And it worked. But there were seasons where I was leading more from performance than from prayer. I was leading more from competence, my training and my education than from actual communion with God. I would build a strategy, and I'm going to plan. I'm a planner. I would build the plan, and then I might ask God to bless it. And usually I'm asking him to bless it because it's gone sideways instead of asking him, um, to help me build it. And here's what I learned when I lead in my own strength. Yes, I can achieve things, outcomes and results, but it's exhausting. But when I lead from surrender, I, uh, not only achieve outcomes, but I experience a spiritual alignment, A, uh, knowing deep within me there's an ease accompanied with peace. And in this season, I can tell you, alignment and peace are much higher metrics that I want to meet. You know, when I began pausing before major operational decisions, when I began asking God about timing in my conversations and in my actions at home and at work, when I stopped forcing what wasn't flowing, I noticed clarity came faster. Conflict de escalated. My tone softened, and my confidence deepened. My time was redeemed. I was actually able to do things in minutes that previously took me hours because now I wasn't carrying it alone. I was inviting the help of the Holy Spirit. Once you start inviting the Holy Spirit into your life, you begin to notice there's a, uh, tugging at your heart. Your ears become sensitive to the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Living by faith doesn't make you passive. It makes you powerful. It makes you aligned. Let me give you an example, a recent example of alignment with God and living by faith. So someone called me around 6:30am um, they were heading into work and they wanted to pray together before a major audit they were having. We prayed and I went on about my day, and I'm sure they went on into their audit. Then around 8:00am M, the Lord spoke to my heart to text this person. Like I said earlier, you will hear a knowing in your spirit. So the Lord spoke to my heart to text the word peace. Now, I'm going to be honest. I immediately said to myself, that doesn't make sense. But before I could finish that thought, the Lord dropped a second word into my spirit. It was faithfulness. Now he has my attention. And I know this is not random. I know this is not me. A this is God. And I need to be obedient. Remember, like I told you earlier in this podcast, you must be obedient to the word of God. Uh, if it's in the Bible or if it's in your spirit. Well, anyway, So I start texting and reminding myself, no, this doesn't make sense. But the word says in Proverbs 3, 5, 6, Lean not to your own understanding. That immediately came to my mind. And guess what? That can only come to my mind because it's already planted in my heart. So I started texting. I, uh, text the word peace. I send it afterwards, I text the word faithfulness. I send it, and I just put my phone down. Immediately I hear the alert, the person text me back, and this is what their message said. Amen. This message was right on time. God is showing up and showing out in this audit. Now, what if I, uh, had not been able to hear the nudging of the Holy Spirit speaking to me because I'm distracted, I'm in a hurry, or I'm frustrated, or guess what? I'm too busy. Or how about this? I don't hear the Holy Spirit because I don't even know the Holy Spirit exists. What if, yes, I heard the Holy Spirit, but I wasn't obedient because, like I said, that didn't make sense to me. Or here's another scenario. What if I heard the Holy Spirit but decided to add some words because guess what? I know best how to make this make sense. I'm glad I didn't do any of those things. I was obedient, and this is what I know. M2 things I know for sure. God will get his message to whomever he needs to get it to with or without me. With or without you. And if I had not listened, I missed an opportunity to partner with God, bringing heaven to earth. Let me ask you, where are you leaning on your own understanding? What decisions? And have you not fully surrendered to God? Are you asking God to bless your strategy, your plans, and your way? Or are you inviting him in to help you? Write that strategy, Write that plan. I have a challenge for you. For the next seven days, I'd like you to practice what I call checking before wrecking. Basically, it's checking in with God before you wreck your plans. So here's what I want you to do before major decisions. And that's any major decision. At home, at work, uh, with a friend, any major decision. What I want you to do is pause for 60 seconds, one minute. You can do anything for one minute. Just pause before a major decision and pray. I want you to pray. Lord, I, uh, welcome you into this decision. Align my intentions. Align my motives. Direct my steps. Guard my words and my tone. You can use that prayer or use your own prayer. The point is before the major decision, pause for 60 seconds and pray before you move. And then I want you. Let me back up. After you pray, I want you to pause again and listen. Allow God to speak to your heart and then move. So let me back up and make myself clear before major decisions this week. For the next seven days, I want you to pause for 60 seconds. After 60 seconds, then I want you to pray. After you've prayed, I want you to pause again and listen. Allow God to speak to your heart and then move. And if you're a journaling person like I am, m, I want you to go to your journal and answer this question. What changed when I paused before proceeding? And I want you to remember throughout this week, surrender is not weakness. It is discipline. Trust in God. And for those of you who like a stretch challenge, I want you to try this. I want you for the next seven days. And even if you can only do it a few days, try it for a few days. I want you to pray at the top of every hour from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go back to bed. Okay? And again in your journal, answer the question. What changed when I prayed at the top of every hour. I know you all are going to experience the miraculous power of God and the Holy Spirit speaking to you, and I can't wait to hear about it. So please send me a message. Go to my website and send me a message. Go to leadinlifellc.com and send me a message. I'll make sure I put the link in the, uh, podcast where all the notes are, but I can't wait to hear from you guys. Okay, let's wrap up. Today we went deeper into pillar one live. Because before you can lead others well, before you can love well and with intention, you must live by faith surrendered to God. Faith is not a compartment. It's our foundation to building aligned, faith driven leaders. And that's what we're building here on leadership by faith. One episode at a time. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for right now, this present moment. We thank you for allowing this podcast to be heard. And for everyone that's listening, Lord, teach us to live by faith, to trust you more than we trust ourselves, more than what we see and what we hear. Father. Arrest our souls. Make our spirits sensitive to the nudging of the Holy Spirit, that we might not lean to our own understanding. Slow us down when ego tries to rush us. Correct us, Father, when pride tries to lead us. Help us, Lord Jesus. Surrender before we strategize Align our thoughts, our decisions, our words, our tone, our intentions and our priorities to your will and your way. Make our path straight and successful. We choose to trust you alone today, Father. We recognize you as the King of the Universe. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. You're listening to Leadership by Faith with Miya Allen. Thank you for spending this time with me. In this episode, we went deeper into Pillar one live and how Living by faith starts with surrendering, inviting God into your plans and aligning with him before you take action. If this episode resonated with you, blessed and encouraged you, make sure you leave a review. Follow and subscribe. Share the episode with someone who's ready to grow in faith and leadership. In our next episode, we stopped stay in the live pillar. But we're talking about something practical and often neglected. Fitness. Why? Your energy is a leadership responsibility. You cannot lead well. Exhausted. I'll see you there. Remember, faith and service first. Leadership always. Because when faith and service leads, leadership follows. Until the next time, be blessed and keep leading by, uh, faith while we journey to leadership excellence together.