What would complete surrender in your business, look like?

If you gave God every product, every product line, every idea, every service, every single thing you sell in your business . . what would that look like?

If you gave God every pricing structure, every price, every subscription, every income stream, what would that look like?

And if you gave God every growth plan, every audience building plan, every advertising campaign, what would that look like?

So you lay it all down before Him and you say, God, it’s all yours.

Anything you want me to do.

Burn it.

Grow it.

Cut off the dead branches.

Burn the non-productive parts.

Get rid of what He doesn’t want.

Change topic.

Sell it.

Give it away.

It’s all Yours, God.

Total surrender.

What does that look like?

The first thing you might deal with is loss of control.

You are no longer in control of making decisions.

You no longer look at a sales report and see that sales are down for one product line, so you decide to increase advertising, or reduce prices.

Instead, you are no longer in control.

God decides what to do with the struggling product line.

The second thing you might deal with is the paring away of what used to fit.

You know how you go to the store and see a new coat (or swimsuit, this time of year!) and you think, I would feel really good in that new coat.

It feels so good, it looks so good.

So you buy it.

But in 5 years from now, it’s worn and shrunken, the color scheme is outdated, and it doesn’t fit right.

You used to love it.

But now it’s . . . just not right.

Maybe that happened 5 years ago.

You bought a piece of clothing and it was perfect at the time.

But now it’s tattered and worn and no longer fits.

Should you keep that piece of clothing just because it used to be a good fit?

Should you keep that piece of clothing just because it used to be perfect for you?

Of course not! 

We would get rid of something like clothing that used to fit, but no longer does.

But when it comes to our businesses . . . we created a product, we created a following, we immersed in a topic . . . 5 years ago.

It was a perfect fit . . . then.

But the fit isn’t right any more.

We don’t love the topic any more.

We don’t love the customers anymore.

We don’t look forward to our work anymore.

BUT . . . because we are attached to the idea, the feeling, the love that we had when we started that product or following or topic, we think we should hold onto it.

Even though we’ve outgrown it.

Even though it no longer fits.

Even though it’s no  longer right for us.

I think in life that we tend to believe that once God gives us something, we should keep it forever.

That it’s our responsibility to just keep it and grow it and grow it and grow it.

So if He gave us a product 5 years ago . . . we must keep it.

If God placed us in a church 5 years ago . . . we must stay until we are forced out.

If God gave us a friend 5 years ago . . . we must keep that friend forever.

But in reality, in life, there are seasons.

Maybe the thing you did for 5 years, when you were less experienced, when you were the BEST person on earth to teach that thing . . . is no longer for you.

God wants to replace you with a younger, faster, stronger version that is uniquely called for TODAY.

But it’s not because you are old and stale . . . it’s because He wants YOU to replace someone else who has gotten . . . tired and bored in THEIR assignment.

What if He wants to move YOU out of a position, so He can put someone else into that role?

And He’s actively moving someone else OUT of a position, so that He can put you IN that position.

BUT . . He can’t put YOU in the new position . . . until He gets you out of your current position.

But if you are holding onto your old position, your old calling, your old instructions, so tightly that you won’t let go, He has to keep the new position from you. Or He has to give your new position to someone else, who is His second choice . . .because you are so tightly holding onto the past.

I think we are conditioned to believe that the ideal life is to do the same thing for 80 years, just do it better and better and better.

Because we see that historically in some cultures.

Born a farmer, always a farmer.

Born to a blacksmith, always a blacksmith.

Went to college as a doctor, die as a doctor.

Climb the corporate ladder.

But is it possible that is the wrong frame?

So much of the time, when someone in the natural has the same work for 80 years, it’s because culturally and economically they are in a system that has trapped them.

They live somewhere where the ONLY work is farming.

Or an age where there was no upward mobility so if you started apprenticing at 15 to be a blacksmith, you couldn’t change jobs later and be a meat cutter.

Staying in the same thing forever feels like a system that, in general, is designed to hold people back.

Not to say that sometimes it’s the best route, God’s chosen route.

When I look at these situations, I think, those are controlled, weak, economically poor, or trapped types of environments.

If we look at some Biblical lives, we see that God changes their environment from time to time:

Moses: born in Egypt, trained in Egypt → ran to the wilderness for 40 years → spokesman against Pharoah to lead the people out → lead the people, through the wilderness for 40 years

Joseph: born a sheep guy → sent to be a high-regard servant → put in prison for a few years → 2nd in command in Egypt

David: Shepherd → Harpist to calm King Saul → Military Strategist, Overcoming enemy cities → King of Israel → Writer of many Psalms

Elisha: Plowing his father’s field → Servant to Elijah for years → a double potion of Elijah’s blessing

Jesus: born a humble beginning to a carpenter → studied in the temple → likely a carpenter → who knows in the middle years → Teacher and healer for 3 years → Sacrifice for all humanity

The more I contemplate this, I see that God doesn’t always hold us in our old calling.

I think of Elijah, who ran the prophet’s school and came against Jezebel and her false wicked prophets, and was able to be blessed by God to defeat their wicked prophets, then he ran from Jezebel, huddled in a cave for 30,40?? Days, then God commissioned him to do more miracles, to lay by the brook, to be fed by a raven.

His life was not just one straight line with one mission, one purpose.

As he completed each stage in the journey, each mission accomplished, God gave him something new.

Is it possible God is concluding your old season, not because you are failing, not because you aren’t qualified, not because He’s “taking something from you” but instead because He wants you to step into your NEXT assignment?

Let’s all be open to His guiding.

Guiding that isn’t tied to the old assignment.

Guiding that isn’t tied to our old calling.

Guiding that isn’t tied to what we think God qualified us for.

But instead, lean into your NEXT assignment.

Be open to Him breaking down your current assignment, giving it to someone else, giving you a new assignment.

And once you are open to Him taking away your current assignment, then does it matter to YOU how he does it?

If he tears it all apart . . .is that okay?

If He takes it from you . . .is that okay?

If He sells it to someone else . . is that okay?

If He gives it to someone else . . . is that okay?

If He takes it away, sends you to the brook to be fed by a raven for 40 days … or 40 months   .. .

While He reboots you, gets your old thinking out of you, fills you with new ideas and new thoughts . . would it be okay?

What if He knows you are 10x more capable in another position - but He has to get the old thinking, the old position, the old patterns, out of you first?

What if He knows exactly how you should lose or step away from your current position, and what if He knows exactly how long you need in the wilderness, what if I He knows exactly who you should learn from, exactly who you should listen to, exactly who you should stop listening to  . . . so that He can prepare you for your next assignment . . . would that be okay?

If that would be okay . . . why not just give Him full rein, let Him do what He wants to do, because He knows the beginning from the end, He knows what you need or don’t need for your next season.

Why not give Him complete control and simply accept every single step He does?

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