Believing When You Can’t See the Promises Yet
Believing even when you can’t see the promises yet w/ Heather Shriver Burns. This is episode 2 of 4 of the Faith-filled Business Series.
I am so honored to welcome Heather Shriver Burns as a guest again, this time for the Faith-filled Business Series.
Who is Heather Burns?
Heather is a mom of three, married to her best friend almost 10 years now and a multi-passionate entrepreneur. She has done a lot of things as an entrepreneur, but currently has landed in the zone of coaching. She focuses on helping women with their mindset and heart set. Heather is a certified life coach & neuroscience coach. She loves digging into the brain, and helping women see what’s actually keeping them stuck from all the things that they that they know that God’s put on their heart.
Believing even when you can’t see the promises yet
Heather: As ambitious, goal driven, go-getters willing to do the hard work, not afraid to dig in while being servant hearted and wanting to do good things for people. There can be a delay in timing, as if you’re simply planting the seed…
What are you doing between the planting of the seed and the promise?
Oftentimes on this entrepreneurial journey, we get so discouraged and feel defeated, because we don’t see the fruits of our labor. It feels like we’re in lack or we have thoughts of, “maybe this isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing”. The enemy uses discouragement in many ways to get us off course.
God’s put the dream on your heart to grow this business, to use it in a way, that’s not just to make money, but to make an impact, support your family, help people and to do something good. Along the way, we don’t always see the promise, though.
Encouraging your heart
I want to encourage your heart to believe what he said is true, to believe what he said. Period. We put a lot of question marks around it, because we think, “maybe not, maybe this wasn’t for me, maybe I shouldn’t do that”. And because of that I can imagine some of you listening to this are contemplating whether you should quit. So, I want to encourage you “blessed is she who has believed that the Lord will fulfill his promises to her”. I’m going to add this, too; it’s not promise, it’s promises.
What are the promises that God has given you that you’re still waiting on? The one you’re still wondering and questioning God, “is it ever going to happen”? I encourage you today that will, and you will be blessed if you continue to believe what God has already said.
How can someone journey through believing even when the promises can’t be seen yet?
Brooke: That is so good. It’s no longer a question of am I supposed to be doing this? It’s a question of do I believe in myself to carry this out through Christ, through his strength and his provision? The answer is yes. Part two is you have to believe it. You have to get over all the crap in your head, the lies, and start leaning into the truth. We’re going to be in the season of stuck, and that’s because you don’t believe in themselves.
How can someone journey through believing what God says?
Heather: The Bible has a verse about our vision, and it says, “where there is no vision, the people will perish, or a lack of hope, hope deferred makes the heart sick”. God gives us hope, but then the enemy wants to steal it, because that’s what he does, he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
When God gives us this vision of this image, we have to really engrave that into our minds and into our hearts so that that’s the natural fuel to keep us going.
Make it 3D
This is an exercise that I do a lot with people, and I encourage you, if you’ve never done this, the promise that God’s given you about your business, or the vision that God’s given you about this, Habakkuk 2:2 says, “to write it on the tablet and make it plain, so that somebody else could see it and run with it”. So, what I, from a neurological perspective and from the brain and understanding how it works, you can’t become what you can’t see. Keeping that vision in front of you and getting a clear vision on that. I encourage you to use your senses. make it 3D, right; make it come to life.
Let’s say you want to create a 6-figure business, okay…
- What does that look like?
- Sound like?
- Feel like?
- Taste like?
- Smell like?
- How does this change your life?
Getting a good image of that when we have that vision before us, gives us something to continue to believe in. The more that you can get your brain to see it, the more that the chances are you’re going to walk toward it and you’re going to become that.
You can’t become what you can’t see
Brooke: Such a good exercise! I’m big on vision casting and, it’s one thing to cast vision for yourself, obviously take it to the Lord and surrender to the Lord, but once your vision is God breathed and you’re on the right track. You can’t leave all that in your thoughts even if it’s good; leaving it up there, never writing it down, never telling anybody, never finding a support system to help you walk it out, those are the key elements of why some people do see success in their businesses and others do not.
Heather: You can’t become what you can’t see, your brain doesn’t know the difference between true or false, all it knows is what you tell it. Your brain is also wired to keep you safe, comfortable and familiar. So, if this vision, this promise that God’s given you isn’t comfortable, isn’t familiar, you’ll see yourself away from it. Then of course, the enemy comes in plants the lies, the weeds, and before you know it, you’re like, “wait, I know one day, I got that dream and that vision and that thing in my heart that I was like, yes”. The enemy wants to continue to discourage us. The definition of discouraged is lack of courage. We have to have courage to keep going toward this thing. You gotta think about Noah, like, “hey, build this ark, it’s never rained, you don’t even know what an ark is, but keep doing this”.
We sometimes feel silly because of the dreams that we have, but “blessed is she who has believed that the Lord will fulfill his promises to her”.
Seasons of struggle will happen even in the believing even when you can’t see the promises yet
Brooke: We struggle with that on a daily basis, we go through seasons where we feel like we’re doing amazing, and then we always seem to hit a roadblock? How do we keep going? How do we begin to scale the mountains?
Heather: That’s part of the enemy’s tactics, right? To discourage you, to disappoint you, to make you doubt. All these D words, I have a list of seven (or so) of them. That’s where the vision is so important; looking toward the top of the mountain:
- What does that mountain peak look like?
Keeping your eyes focused on that. It’s going to be uncomfortable; roadblocks are going to happen, there are going to be things thrown your way to get you off course. Keep that vision and keep it plain; write it down, read it to yourself, share it with your spouse, or a best friend or a business partner, a business coach or someone that is actually locking arms with you as you do this.
Brooke: I love that you said that Heather. For me, that paints a picture of what my blueprint student community does. Yes, it’s a paid program, but inside of there, those people are so invested not only in themselves, but in others. And it’s because they have shared their vision, they believe it, they have that support.
What does it look like to partner with God in your business?
Brooke: What does it look like for you to partner with God in your business? What does that look like for you?
Heather: We’re flesh, soul and spirit, right? So, one of the most practical things that I do is I have a regular business meeting with heaven. In this meeting, I’m coming to him giving him thanks; thanking him for what’s going well, asking him questions about what’s not, praying for my clients, for my people, the people that God is gonna bring in, praying on finances. It’s literally a business meeting with Heaven.
How you hear from God? The more you learn who God is and his character, the more that the confirmations become easier to see. It’s the thoughts that kind of come out of nowhere, and you’re like, “oh, wait, was that me or was that God”, but you’ll have a feeling.
I think trusting, believing and faith is hard. It’s an up and down journey because we are human. We need clarity, we need the concrete details. And I’m here to confirm that we don’t always get that on this side of heaven, we have to learn to be okay with that. That’s what trust and faith is all about. It is a journey; you will have ups and you will have downs.
Want to dive deeper into believing even when you can’t see the promises yet, tune into the Faith-filled Business Series on the Book More Clients Photography Podcast.
Connecting with Heather Shriver Burns
Facebook Group: Seek First CEO: Mindset & Heartset for Christian Female Entrepreneurs
Instagram: @seekfirstceo
