Feeling God calling you to something BIG but you just aren’t sure of the HOW? 

Are you staying at a job you hate? Or maybe you have a checkered past like me and you feel disqualified. 

What if instead, you knew God could qualify you? 

If God can use me then He can use YOU too!  In this episode I share my Signature Talk, my testimony, my story of how God is using a wretch like me. 

If you’re like most Christians, you want a deeper relationship with Christ. 

In today’s episode, I’m going to give you the exact step to move forward in your Calling. 

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• The difference between unqualified and disqualified
• What you need to say and do for God to use you

Listen To The Full Episode:

Full Episode Transcript:

A Unique Calling

Have you ever been in a deep dark depression so deep that you felt even God couldn’t find you?

When I gave birth to my second child. After 29 hours or so of labor the nurse came in and told me I was dilated to a 10 and it was time to start pushing that the doctor was on her way. 

So, I did what any woman in labor would do. I started pushing. I wanted that baby out of me!

With each push it felt like the muscles in my legs were being ripped apart, but I kept pushing. When my doctor arrived, she checked me and authorized me to immediately stop pushing!

I was only dilated to a six.

Even though I wanted that baby out of me I was relieved because if I wasn’t pushing then my legs didn’t feel like they were being ripped apart.

I could hear the nurse and my doctor in the hallway bickering back and forth about who was right. Seriously, it was like a presidential debate happening right there in the delivery room.

Finally, my doctor brought another nurse in to give a third opinion on my dilation. 

They concluded I was in fact only dilated to a six. Of which took every bit of 29 hours to get to.

She gave me two options. I could either wait until I dilated to a 10 and risk my son being born with cerebral palsy or I could go back for an emergency cesarean.

Without any hesitation I chose the emergency cesarean. Pretty sure all the moms in here would have done the same, right?

My doctor then asked me “Before we take you back do you have questions?”

I did. I had just one question. “What is the chance of death?” 

I could tell by the expression on her face she had never been asked anything like that before.

Once she gained her composure she answered with a very confident “oh, 1% and that is if you are under which you will be awake.”

Nodding my head, I replied with a simple okay and a smile. I don’t even think she made it out of the room, and I was praying.

God please be with me. Jesus, please forgive me for my sins. Please come into my heart and save me.  Lord, if you get me through this, I will do anything you ask.

I prayed over and over all the way to the operating room and through the entire procedure or at least until my son was born.

The nurse allowed me to kiss him on the forehead and of course I asked that they count all his fingers and toes. As any mom would do.

The next thing I remember is being woken up by my doctor asking what year it was. Then she was waking me up again asking me who the president was.

I remember being so tired. I had never experienced that type of exhaustion before.

Why won’t she let me sleep? And what was all this nonsense about the president or what year it was? She’s the doctor, shouldn’t she know these things?

The third time she woke me up she told me I had hemorrhaged and that I lost a lot of blood. 

She went on to explain that if she didn’t do an emergency hysterectomy, I would die but she also needed me to understand I wouldn’t be able to have any more children.

Wanting her to leave me alone so I could sleep I remember agreeing to the hysterectomy as I began to slip away once again. This time, however, I slipped a little further.

You know those stories of near-death experiences that involve bright lights, a brief meeting with Jesus, or sometimes people get a glimpse of heaven?

Well, I didn’t experience any of that. In fact, I experienced the exact opposite.

As I slipped away that final time, a little bit further. The darkness got darker.

I was somewhere but it wasn’t the operating room.

It was pitch black. There was no sound, nothing, just complete darkness like I have never seen or experienced before.

It was so dark and thick you could probably cut it with a knife.

Oddly enough I wasn’t scared, in fact I don’t remember feeling anything at all, but do I remember searching for a wall.

As I was feeling for a wall or anything at all, back in the operating room I must have been moving my hand.

Because as I continued to reach through the thick blackness that engulfed me, I heard a stern voice in the far distance that said “Shauna, I need you to stop moving your hand.”

In that same moment I opened my eyes just enough to see that I was back in the operating room and the nurse was attempting to put what looked like an IV in my hand.”

The next time I woke up it was two days later, and I was in ICU on life support.

After a couple more days the tubes were removed, and the ICU doctor came in to do his routine check up and see how I was improving. 

As he turned to leave, he paused, and I remember thinking “Ugh, here comes the bad news.”

He turns around, looks at me, smiles and says  “You should not be alive”  and then he leaves. 

A little while later, my OB comes in. She pulls a chair up next to my bed and sits down. 

She says “I’ve been bringing your baby to your room, I wanted him to see you, I wanted to inspire you to wake up. You’ve been in and out for two days. Shauna, you lost 7 liters of blood and our bodies only hold 8. You are a miracle.The only explanation is that God saved you.”

Then she had this funny look on her face like she wanted to ask me a question but didn’t want to ask me a question and I thought “Okay here comes the bad news!” 

And then she just asked “What made you ask about the chances of death?”

And I said “I don’t know, I just had a feeling something was going to go wrong. Honestly, before I got to the hospital I felt like I might not make it home and when I hugged my daughter goodbye I held on just a little longer because I truly believed that would be the last time I would see her.”

And she said “Well that was an accurate feeling. God saved you. No one loses that much blood and lives through it.” 

(BIG PAUSE) So now I gotta figure out why God saved me. I mean who am I that He would save me, I’m married to a non-believer that I don’t even like, a daughter at home, now a newborn, no job, and a very checkered past. 

It sent me into a tailspin of depression for seven years crying out to God  “Why? Why God? Why did you save me? Why me?”

Have you ever wondered Why? Why is this happening? Or why am I here? Why me?

There were a lot of days that I wished He would have let me die on that table. Days when nothing seemed to go right.

Days when it felt like the entire world was out to get me.

Have you ever felt like that? Like the world was out to get you?

By my son’s fourth birthday I was a single mom with two kids, and I felt so alone and because I felt like no one was hearing me I dug a little deeper into my cushion of depression.

Which wasn’t very hard to do since I’m introverted and to be honest I think I liked being depressed, to an extent.

You’re probably thinking “She liked being depressed?”

I liked being depressed. Because being depressed meant I didn’t have to face my adult problems.

If I didn’t feel like working, I would make an excuse. If I didn’t feel like cooking dinner I didn’t.

If I wanted to sleep a little longer, I did that too.

Being depressed has its advantages but it also has its cons. Because I didn’t often feel like doing much, I had a lot of time to think.

I would think about things like Why did God save me. What is my calling? Do I even have a calling?

Mostly, I wanted to be happy. So, I searched for happiness in all the wrong places.

I wanted to be happy so bad that one time I watched The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith 17 times in one week.

Anyone remember that movie?

Great movie. But it didn’t help me find happiness.

Because I didn’t find the key to happiness in that movie I would go to the library and check out more movies.

They were usually movies that would involve someone going from rags to riches. And when that didn’t work, I would check out stacks of self-help books.

Some of which I read multiple times. All I wanted to know was how to be happy but nothing I watched and nothing I read seemed to help.

When I said being depressed has its cons, well it nearly destroyed my life.

Because I was on a mission to find happiness, I allowed my adult duties to slide.

By 2016 I was basically homeless with two kids. I had to sell nearly everything I owned including our cell phones and we were forced to move back in with my parents.

Although my parents’ house was not ideal, they still took us in.

I shared a twin mattress on my parents’ spare bedroom floor with my then 7-year-old son while my teenage daughter slept on the couch.

After a few months of living like that I sat on that twin mattress on the floor, and I made the decision not to be depressed anymore.

I told God I don’t know why you saved but I know it was for a reason. And that is when I made the decision to step out in faith and fully trust Him.

Ephesian 2:10 – For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Often Christians find themselves wondering “What is my purpose?”

Just as Ephesians 2:10 states you are God’s handiwork. Each one of you was created in Christ Jesus to do good works!

And the best part is God already prepared those good works in advance.

Everything you have been through, or you’re going through is God’s way of molding you into the person He created you to be.

Just as God called Moses from the burning bush to free the Israelites, He is calling you too.

He called me out of the darkness to encourage and inspire each one of you to embrace your own unique Calling.

All you have to say is “Here I am, Lord.”

And you may think “Well that sounds simple. Here I am, Lord?”

When God called to Moses from the burning bush Moses replied “Here I am.”

After deciding I didn’t want to be depressed anymore God blessed me with an amazing husband who I actually like and a really good job.

In 2020 I was laid off from that job. Then the following month the world was on lockdown, and no one was hiring.

Anyone remember that? Fun times, right?

Because I knew in advance, I would be laid off, I already knew I didn’t necessarily want to work for someone else again.

See I have always had a bit of an entrepreneur’s heart.

The company I worked for graciously gave us a severance and a retention bonus for staying until the end.

I had planned to use my bonus as downpayment to buy the company my husband worked for.

After applying for the loan three different times and doing everything we were told to do, we was turned down.

We eventually took it as it just wasn’t meant to be, and God had other plans in mind.

That was the moment I knew it was time that I said, “Here I am, Lord.”

 Exodus 4:17  ^“But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

No matter who you are or what your background is, God has a unique calling for you, just as He had a unique calling for Moses. 

And just in case you forgot, Moses murdered a man. 

Moses knew what God was asking him to do, which was to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, but the one thing Moses struggled with most was HOW.

Here’s the thing. When God calls you to something He already has the HOW planned out.

Just like Moses no matter how many times you try to get out of it, God will always have an answer to keep you in it.

Ask me how I know….

In Exodus chapter 4 Moses asked God “What if they don’t believe me or listen to me? What if they call me a liar?”

I remember thinking these exact things.

God being God asked Moses “What do you have in your hand?” Moses said “a staff.”

If you know the story, then you know God asked him to throw it down and it turned into a snake.

God told Moses this is so that they will know that I appeared to you.

When Moses returned to Egypt the Bible says he took with him the staff of God in his hand. The staff was his HOW.

The staff is how he got the people to listen to him but more importantly how he got Pharaoh to eventually let the people go.

After I had lost the job, I thought I would retire from, I knew it was time to embrace my calling.

A calling to encourage, inspire, and motivate other Christians, just like you, to step out in faith and embrace your unique calling, but I too wasn’t quite sure HOW.

So, I took a lot of assessments, quizzes, and personality tests.

The one thing I got from all those assessments and tests was that I am most like Moses. More on that in a moment.

I also learned that I would make a great coach. So, I found a Christian based coaching company and I got certified.

Coaching became my HOW. How I encourage and inspire other Christians, like you, to embrace your own unique calling using your spiritual gifts.

It was my very first day of class and our instructor was telling us her story of how she became an instructor.

As she was telling her story I had this thought in the back of my mind and that thought was, “You will be an instructor too…” HA I quickly replaced that thought with “No, I’m no teacher! I’m a coach.”

Never thought about it again. Well at least not for two and half years.

And then one day God said it was time and opened the door for me to become a Life Coach Instructor for Life Breakthrough Academy teaching other Christians, just like you, how to use coaching as their HOW.

Standing here speaking to you is my HOW. 

You can have one HOW or you can have many HOW’s but you will only have one unique calling.

I have an entire workshop on helping Christians discover their unique Calling through five core components: spiritual gift(s), love language, passion-driven pursuits, aspirational goals, and heartfelt concerns.

But you will have to have me back for that.

Your HOW can be anything such as coaching, fostering children, accepting a promotion, running for office, or even speaking on stages.

When you embrace your unique calling God already has the HOW planned out. Just as He prepared Moses with the staff, He is preparing you for your unique calling.

However, there is a high chance that the majority here today will never embrace your calling because you either feel Unqualified / Disqualified.

Romans 11:29, NIV – “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” 

Did you know there is a difference between Unqualified and Disqualified? 

Unqualified is when you feel unworthy due to your past failures, poor education, low self-worth, family history, etc. This means you have an “Identity Disorder.”

Your identity is in Christ, not your past mistakes.

Disqualified is when you feel unworthy due to your past sin, your past disobedience, unforgiveness, etc. Simply put you’re not understanding God’s grace and mercy.

That was my story. I felt disqualified because of my past which is why I didn’t understad WHY or HOW God could use someone like me.

Did you know you can never be disqualified for something if you were never qualified in the first place.

Moses clearly wasn’t qualified but by the grace of God he became qualified.  

In fact, Moses’ story didn’t end in Moab.

It is so easy to look at his story and think about all he did and all he went through and yet he still didn’t get to experience the promised land.

Sometimes you will make a choice that tanks you, like Moses did when he chose not to trust God and uphold Him as holy in the eyes of the Isrealites. 

And sometimes someone’s else’s free will will fall on you and it will feel unfair. 

I want you to remember as a baby, Moses’ life was threatened, his mom had to give him up. 

He lived within spitting distance of his natural family, never being able to see them or be with them, raised in a different culture and a different world. 

There are a lot of us that have had circumstances thrust upon us that we didn’t want. 

I know I have. 

Although Moses made some bad choices, God was still pleased with him, and continued to use him even after his death.

We know this because in Matthew 17:3 the Bible says “Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I seriously doubt they were talking about how unqualified or disqualified Moses and Elijah were.

Imagine for a moment that when you get to heaven you have a similar meeting with Jesus, only your meeting is Jesus asking you Why didn’t you do what I asked?

I prepared you with the HOW just as my father prepared Moses with the staff. Yet you did nothing with what I provided you with.

Remember how I said earlier that I learned I’m a lot like Moses?

Just like Moses I’m a “Do it right” kind of gal that must have all the details before proceeding forward.

This kept me stuck for a very long time and a little depressed.

Just like Moses I struggled my entire life with my purpose and felt that my spiritual gifts didn’t really matter.

Who was I to encourage anyone? Seriously. If only you knew my past.

True, I didn’t murder anyone but drugs, alcohol, and even sex were a big part of my past.

This might be surprising to you, but I often keep to myself and get trapped in my own thoughts of negative thinking.

Just as Moses did, I have a great heart for people but often wonder why I can’t express myself as well as others.

Believe it or not I get tongue tied when trying to have small talk with a stranger. You would think I was trying to speak in tongues or something. It’s a total mess.

I am organized and structured, but I struggle with perfectionism just as Moses did.

Eventually I figured out, done is better than perfect. 

I have BIG dreams and often feel as if I’m not living up to my full potential.

Just like Moses I can become rebellious against anyone who tells me what to do unless I have respect for them.

Sometimes I spend way too much time in my head dwelling on the “What if’s…” instead of taking action.

Remember when Moses did this?

Finally, just as Moses feared failure, I too fear failure and anything that doesn’t meet my high standards… is simply unsuccessful.

That was tough to hear.

Your unique calling is the reason God created you. Your passions, strengths, gifts, and that one thing that bothers you to your core all reveal and support your unique calling.

There is a song by Matthew West called Do Something.

And there is are specific lyrics that stuck with me when I first heard that song.

They go like this, and no I’m not going to sing for you, I may have been born and raised on a church pew, but the good Lord did not bless me with a singing voice.

Hence, don’t stand next to me during worship.

Here is how the lyrics go….

“Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of people living in poverty, children sold into slavery. The thought disgusted me. So, I shook my fist at Heaven, I said, “God, why don’t You do something?” He said, “I did.” Yeah. “I created you.”

What did God create you to do? What is that one thing that has you bothered to your core?

Whatever it is that God is calling you to He will show you the HOW and EQUIP you as you go.

Just as He did for me, Moses, and so many others.

Remember earlier when I shared that I was searching for happiness? 

Well, as it turns out JOY is a lot better than happiness.

True JOY comes from helping others.

If you believe God has a unique calling on your life then raise your hand.

If you have your hand raised and you’re ready to commit to stepping out in faith, then I ask you boldly to stand and repeat these words…  “Here I am, Lord.”

Before you go, be sure to take the Quiz!

Discover If You Are in Alignment with Your Calling

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