TDW #030: The Prayer That Led to My Business Breakthrough

Let’s wind back the clock a bit. The year is 2008. My wife and I are still newlyweds. And I was broke.

See, I was making a pastor’s salary — all $28,000 per year of it. Her income was almost double mine. We were thinking about starting a family. And the townhome we were in at the time was great—but definitely woulda felt cramped with a itty bitty baby romping around.

So we went looking for a house. With our combined salaries, we could’ve bought something nice in a great area of town. But we went out looking as if we only had my salary to live on.

Kerry (my wife) had always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. Some little girls had dreams of being a princess or a doctor. Not Kerry. She dreamed of staying home with her kids and being a kick-ass mom.

I knew this. She knew it. So we tried to make things work as single-salary household.

So we went looking… and looking… and looking. What we found in that price range was nothing less than horrific:

• One house had bats (literal BATS!) in the attic, just fluttering around.
• The realtor wouldn’t even let us go into a house after we got to the front door and it was already wide open...and no one had been living there for 6 months.
• One house was smaller than our townhome.
• Another house was super nice but in a horrible part of town (there was literally a drive-by shooting earlier in the week).
• And the last house we looked at had Interstate 80 as a backyard...with only a rickety chainlink fence separating us from cars going 70 mph.

To say we were disheartened was an understatement. We knew what we wanted. We just had no earthly idea how we were going to pay for it…

…and then God showed up.

I don’t mean this is a sweet, saccharine way, either. I mean, I started asking God for a strategy — for wisdom — on how to get from where we were to where we wanted to be. And, slowly, he began to speak. And I wrote down what he said. And prayed it back to him.

I won’t go into all the details, but within a very short amount of time, our lives matched almost word-for-word the vision I wrote down. A few items from that list included:

1. We’d find a perfect house (we did).
2. We’d be able to not just survive, but thrive on my salary alone (this happened in 2009 shortly after my son was born).
3. I’d be able to ‘retire’ my wife and have her stay home with the kids (10 years and 3 kids later she’s still, officially, retired).

How God Works (I Think)

It was all just kind of wild how the whole thing shook out. And, maybe this is just me, but this is how God seems to work when we partner with him to co-create our dreams:

• First, he awakens you to a dream or desire you didn’t even know you had.
• Second, he shows you how wide the gulf is between where you are now (’Point A’) and where you want to be (’Point B’).
• Third, he gives you a strategy by which to move from Point A to Point B.
• Fourth, he empowers you to execute the strategy and provides resources along the way.
• Fifth, you reach your destination and the process starts all over again (timelines and results will vary).

I don’t know if there’s a ‘formula’ when it comes to one’s relationship with God. But this is the closest I’ve found. If you want to try this out for yourself, let me share the process I used. Maybe it’ll help you get started.

Step 1: Sight Beyond Sight

So let me share the prayer I used that started everything for me. It goes like this:

Hey Lord, remember you said you'd guide me along the way and help me out with anything because nothing is impossible for you? You know where I'm at right now, and I'm pretty sure you put this dream in my heart. Can you help me get from where I am now to where I want to be? I need your help with the resources, favor, and wisdom to make this dream come to pass. Amen.

Now if you choose to use this prayer for your own situation, whatever it may be, there’s a few things to keep in mind:

1. Make this prayer your own. I’ve given you the words / phrases / vocab that I use. But feel free to make it your own—wrap it in your own language. Say it the way you’d say it.
2. This ain’t magic. It’s not a magic spell, right? It’s less about “saying the right words” and more about creating a dialogue with a God who desires to fill our lives with abundance and prosperity.
3. This is a partnership. We’re not marionette puppets or automatons. Just like any good relationship, partnering with God requires trust, communication, and honesty.

Step 2: Make the Vision Plain

The next step in this process is to write down what you’re seeing. I don’t mean what you’re seeing with your eyes—but what you’re “seeing” when you dream and vision with God. This is a super important piece of the process, as it bridges the two worlds we live in simultaneously (physical and spiritual).

Articulate what it looks, smells, and feels like when you walk into the fulfillment of everything you’re writing down.

Got it?

Step 3: Document, Document, Document

In Scripture, there’s a reason why God tells Habakkuk, “yo dude, write this down so you can remember it later!” We’re no better and no different. The process of birthing a God-sized dream will require patience, grit, and fortitude. We’ll need to go back to the vision over and over again to remind ourselves why we’re doing what we’re doing—and who we’re doing it for.

It can also be helpful to document signposts along the way. Little hints and nudges that you’re not, in fact, crazy.

For me, one of those nudges was when a good friend shared he’d been looking at a house in the same neighborhood we were interested in. Only thing… he didn’t know we’d been looking there. It was a gentle little reminder we were on the right track. (And, yes, we both ended up moving into the same ‘hood!)

Final Words

If that process was helpful to you, I’m ready to unpack everything I learned in what I'm calling The Spirit-Led Business Plan. Learn how to create a profitable kick-ass Christian business (without sacrificing your soul or sounding like a weirdo).

With a Spirit-Led Business Plan of your own, you'll discover…

1. How to confidently know whether you’re following God's true calling on your life...
2. How to ambitiously build your business AND stay grounded in your faith without sacrificing your values OR your profitability…
3. How to confidently pray for God’s increase, favor, and abundance in your business without feeling like a sleazy “prosperity Gospel” preacher…
4. The single biggest mistake faith-based business owners, entrepreneurs, and side hustlers make when growing their business… and what to do instead to fill your wallet AND your soul…

If you’re interested, you have just a few more days to get in on pre-sale pricing (we launch on Easter Sunday).

Go get ‘em,

Justin