My Personal Walk With God & How I’ve Grown In Relationship With Him- Interview From The Prophetic Listening Podcast

Hey Friend!

Come join me as Michele Onuorah from The Prophetic Listening Podcast interviews me on this popular topic of my walk with God.

I pray that my sharing my story will help unlock or help provide insight for you because there is always a next level with God. He will surprise you and show up in places that you never expected.

Stef’s Walk With God As A Podcast and Business Coach

Michelle: Thanks Stef for being here and sharing on this episode.

Stef: Thanks so much for the kind words and I’m so excited to be here.

Michelle: Typically with my guest I’m doing prophetic listening sessions, but with your experience as a successful entrepreneur and a woman of faith I thought it would be fun to ask you a few questions about how hearing God’s voice and following His directive have been crucial in your business and your personal walk with God. How did you learn to hear God’s voice?

Hearing God’s Voice

Stef: I was saved at 9. My mom and I went to a large Easter service at one of the football stadiums. Before that, we had gone to church here and there. As a child, I had gone through a lot of spiritual warfare (even demonic attacks at night that I experienced for years). I went to therapy and they would tell me that I just had separation anxiety and no one could explain it otherwise. This went on for a while before this Easter service. They did an altar call and I felt like I heard this voice say “go.” There was this new intuition even at 9 that I was safe because Jesus was with me. Then I didn’t have any more of these attacks at night.

I went on to be a rebellious teenager and tried to find my identity and worth in all the wrong places like partying and drinking. I knew I was a Christian this whole time, but I pushed away this relationship with Christ and felt like I was in charge of my wholeness.

After I got married my husband and I started going to church here and there, but then I got pregnant and decided I’ve got to figure out my walk with God. I had just gone through a business failure which was my whole identity. Drinking led me to have these huge anxiety attacks and I would pray to God to show me why this was happening but wouldn’t accept that it was the alcohol. I was turning to God because things in my life were not feeling right, but I wasn’t surrendering yet.

A pivotal moment came when my business fully fell apart. I was 60 pounds overweight because I had just had my second child. I was leaning into the Lord but still gripping so tightly to myself. My worthiness was truly in the trash at this point in my life. We went to a church service and I was standing in this worship moment and I dropped into that 9-year-old girl where I felt like God was saying ” I’m here and everything is going to be taken care of.” I had my hands up and was just sobbing.

I went home and I was so hungry for Him and wanted to get to know Him. Now I know that moment is the point where my walk with God started to intentionally grow deeper. There’s always another level of listening and growing with God.

Michelle: That’s beautiful and totally resonates. Like you said there is always more. You don’t ever arrive in this Christian journey until we get to the pearly gates. That’s a beautiful testimonial of total surrender and it’s so hard to get to that point.

Stef: It’s easy to lean into what has brought us comfort in the past as opposed to what will bring us true comfort in the future. We have to remind ourselves as Christians that what is comfortable is not always His way.

Michelle: I agree! I would even say if it’s comfortable it’s not His way. He’s always stretching us. I’m glad that you mentioned that you had faced a business failure because often people can see a successful businesswoman like you and think “Well she did it why can’t I do it? What’s wrong with me?” And failure is just a part of being and the question is just if you fail forward or not. As we fast forward to where you are now, have there been times when you moved forward ahead of God in a decision rather than being led by His spirit?

Staying Aligned with God In Business

Stef: Yes! I feel like there are two sides of this coin and you’ll find yourself on one or the other where you are a massive action taker and then have to remember to check with God OR you think ” I didn’t hear from Him. I cannot move my feet.” I’m the first and so I often take big audacious action and it’s been a learned practice to pause which is actually part of my 4 P process. Pause, pray, people (wise council), and plan. I’ve had to learn in my walk with God that whenever I take action without doing my 4 P’s it’s chaotic and not fruitful or it doesn’t feel right.

I did that a lot more in the past than I do now because I’ve learned those hard lessons. It’s been proven to me that God’s way is scary but also very peaceful. I’ve learned that you have to just lean in and let God lead you.

Michelle: That’s so good. As a recovering striver myself, I can totally relate to learning the hard way and that I just need to check in with Him. It’s so easy for us go-getters to just say “ok you gave me the next step I’m just going to go for it.” I received 2 or 3 prophetic words about starting a podcast. The first one was right before the pandemic in 2020. I was thinking to myself that I needed to do it. I started other podcasts and they just didn’t work and I think what it comes down to is timing. Just because God says a thing, doesn’t mean it’s supposed to happen right at this moment. There was this moment for me when it became very apparent that this was the time and then He showed me Podcast Pro University to equip me to do it.

Now that you are in that healthier place in your walk with God, how do you balance being a goal-oriented entrepreneur with trusting and resting in God’s favor and doing things from a spirit-led place? What does your business walk look like?

“Am I fully trusting?”

Stef: I find that it comes down to the question “Am I fully trusting?” Am I fully trusting in this thing I’m doing? If we are struggling with something we are doing, it always comes down to trust. I can be called to business and great at growing a company because that’s what God has called me to do, but I can end up making it an idol in my life and become sinfully obsessed. That’s what the enemy wants you to do is cross that line.

I’m constantly checking in with God. Hearing from God is not one-dimensional. It doesn’t mean I have to do the same thing every day to hear from Him. I’ll pray for each thing in my life that needs His input. It’s the constant invitation of more of Him and less of me. Every time I follow his call, I’m deeply blessed. That “call” might be a whisper, a scripture, a word from someone in your life, or another beautiful way God uses to communicate.

God has already taken care of all the stuff you think you need to obsess over.

Michelle: You just took us to church! That was powerful. I’m so glad you mentioned the listening styles like

• telepathically- a thought that’s not your own
• feeling/inner knowing- emotion
• audible- out loud voice
• someone else- speaks directly to you through someone else
• images- we see things in our mind’s eye
• music- lyrics in songs

I also love that you mentioned being a mom and what a high calling that is and how God is giving you the capacity to navigate that. In your bio, you mention that you are a “boundary queen.” How has that process been with you over the years?

Stef: Being the personality that I am, I’ve always been the leader. I’m bossy and a big presence and I’ve been that way since I was little. We always have natural anointings and it’s always been that I was going to be a leader and speaker from the beginning. When we get into those spaces it’s going to feel good because it’s what God has called us and blessed us in BUT it’s not all that He’s called us to. We have to be aware that we can thrive in our calling, but not become it. I don’t want to become the call because I would miss the other things God has for me like being a mom, wife, and being a good friend. These other things have to happen for purpose and fulfillment. It’s balance in the things He’s gifted me and then creating boundaries to protect them.

I had guilt because I wanted to stay in the calling. The guilt is what I call discernment alarms and God telling me I got it wrong. You’ll feel the guilt because your boundaries are off. I started paying really close attention to these things and when I would feel these discernment alarms I would pray ” God what do you want for this situation and I’ll do it.” He makes himself very clear. So I drew boundaries like putting my laptop up at 4:00 or whatever He has called me to do.

Michelle: That was so good! As we come to the end of our time where can people go to learn more about how to navigate their walk with God as an entrepreneur?

Resource For Your Own Walk With God

Stef: You can find weekly episodes on my podcast at Online Business for Christian Women. I also have a free resource called The 7-Step Biblical Battle Plan which is a Psalm 18 guide on how to approach spiritual warfare with God. It would be an excellent source for entrepreneurs growing in their relationship with God!

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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