*This article may contain affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no cost to you.
As a believer in business, we have the opportunity to accomplish so much more in our lives and businesses through partnering with the Lord through prayer-led goal setting. If setting goals has ever left you feeling defeated and discouraged, rather than motivated and accomplished, you’re not alone.
The world’s way of setting goals is based off our limited understanding of our limited abilities. Prayer-led goal setting is a new and exciting way to partner with the Holy Spirit to move into new levels of impact and provision in your business like never before.
How to Set Prayer-Led Goals
How do we reframe goal setting as a believer in business you may ask? The Sunday School answer is pretty simple; “Pray about it.” When it comes to actuality though, there are a few simple things you can do to really open up the practice of goal setting and allow the Lord to transform it into something that has major Kingdom implications.
To get started setting prayer-led goals, it’s important to clarify the purpose of praying over our goals in the first place. If we are not careful, we will find ourselves asking the Lord to bless plans that were created from our own understanding, instead of seeking the perfect plans that the Lord has for us. While it is a great idea to ask the Lord to bless our plans, it is important to remember that we are asking him to bless the plans that came from Him and not the plans that we have created for ourselves.
This is admittedly a challenging distinction as we are given our minds as a powerful tool to do Kingdom work. In personal practice, this has looked like less of trying to “figure out how I’m going to accomplish the thing that I want to do next while asking the Lord to bless it,” and more like asking the Lord what His will for my business is and how He desires for me to accomplish it in order to bring Him glory.
This approach takes Proverbs 3:5-6; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” and turns it into a practice that will guide your business on paths that you could never make happen on your own strength or power. I just completed the book, “Friend of God” by Ray Stedman and highly recommend it as an incredible resource for digging deeper into this concept. You can check it out here.
Partner with the Lord to Accomplish His Will
You know what happens when we commit to partnering with the Lord to bring His will to completion on Earth? We will accomplish EVERYTHING that we are called to do for him. How is that for encouragement? When we partner with the Lord to do His will, He provides the specific and strategic plans, the provision, the people, and the circumstances into place that allow His will to be completed. Now that is some power-fueled goal setting right there!
Imagine how different it would be to set goals and KNOWING they were going to be completed. A quick disclaimer here; while they will be completed, they may not be completed in our lifetime. Hebrews Chapter 11 goes into great detail about the heroes of the faith that did not see the full completion of their promises in the land of the living, but they still came to completion!
By partnering with the Lord in completing His will in our businesses, we shift our focus away from income and into impact. We stop asking questions like “How much do I need to make this month?” to “How many people do I get to impact this month?” The important thing to remember here is that the Lord is our provider and income always follows impact.
When we shift our focus from a monetary goal to an impact or giving goal, we open ourselves up to allow the Lord to bless our finances in ways we may have never imagined through His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. There is nothing wrong with making money as a business owner, but making income our number one goal often limits our ability to fully trust the creative and unusual plans of the Lord to bring greater impact.
Remove All Limits from the Lord
One of the most exciting aspects of partnering with the Lord to bring His plans to completion here on Earth is the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than we could ever imagine on our own. Thankfully, His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, which means that when we seek His will and direction for our businesses, we are able to be a part of His bigger and greater ways!
The important thing to remember here is that we must have faith. If we attempt to partner with the Lord in His big plans and then start to doubt what’s possible, we are placing our limits on a limitless God. When we have faith that He will do what He says he will do through His strength, then we are able to see ‘miracles’ take place.
When we remove all of our preconceived notions, limits on what is possible, and understanding around how things are going to happen, we begin on a path of adventure like never before. This is the invitation open to each and every one of us. The Lord is gracious, kind, and loving. He desires to partner with his children and co-labor with us through the body of Christ. The choice is ours. We can stick with the world’s way of setting safe, “SMART” goals, or we can choose to step into new levels of setting goals by partnering with the Lord and his will and step into an adventure like we’ve never known. Choose wisely.
~Cassie Kitzmiller
To learn more about the Power we have to Plan with the Lord and how to set Godly Goals, I invite you to join us inside the GROW Community where we partner together as the body of Christ to build better businesses through LIVE weekly coaching, networking, and co-working sessions. Learn more HERE.
To link arms with a body of believers in our free Facebook Community, you can request to join Christian Women Business Builders Community HERE.
