008: How to Seek God’s Voice and Will for Your Decisions with Life Coach, Megan Nilsen
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Show Notes
On today's episode, I chat with Megan Nilsen of Kingdom Life Coaching, about how to hear from God in your decisions. We both share stories of leaning into God's "nudges," and dive into some deep, hard questions like "how do you distinguish between coincidence or a sign from God." We discuss how Megan heard from God when making plans to adopt her younger children, diving into the Bible to get to know God's voice, following the light unto our path that God shines just on the step in front of us, and more!
Links Mentioned:
Megan’s books:
Megan’s website: www.meganbnilsen.com
5 Q’s to Discover Your God-Sized Dream: godsizedreams.com
Connect with Megan on social media:
www.instagram.com/megan_nilsen
www.facebook.com/MeganNilsenKingdomLifeCoach
Connect with Lauren on social media:
www.instagram.com/anchoreddecisions
www.facebook.com/anchoreddecisions
Check out my website and decision guide shop:
www.anchoreddecisions.com
www.anchoreddecisions.com/shop
Transcript
Lauren
Hey, Hey, on today's episode, I am so excited to chat with Megan Nilsen, who is a speaker, author, podcaster, all the things about hearing from God, leaning into those nudges, knowing the difference between coincidence and God and just how we can tune in to God's will, his ways his path, his purpose for us. And what to do when we're not quite sure.
Intro: Welcome to the Anchored Decision Show. I'm your host, Lauren Black, the world's biggest overthinker turned decision coach, all by the grace of God. Now I'm on a mission to help you make easier decisions, discover God's will, and live with purpose. Tune in weekly to hear real life decision stories, expert insights, and faith based strategies to help you navigate your decisions with confidence. So ditch your pros and cons list and learn to make better decisions without asking your mom or losing another night of sleep. Let's go.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Anchored Decisions podcast. I am so excited for today's guest, Megan Nilsen. Megan is a Kingdom Life coach, host of the Kingdom Life Coaching podcast, author and retreat speaker who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She offers Christ centered coaching for those seeking kingdom alignment and strategy during a transitional season in faith, relationships, or vocational calling. Megan loves discovering and extracting what God put in the hearts of women that will help them walk in greater confidence, fulfillment, and purpose. She launched her coaching business in 2020 and empowers women of all ages to listen to the voice of God and make big, bold moves for greater influence and impact. So welcome Megan. So excited to have you here.
Megan
Hey, thanks. I'm so glad to be here.
Lauren
Yeah. So I will introduce our topic. I wanted to talk to Megan about hearing God's voice and his perspective in our decision making.
So tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into your life coaching.
Megan
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, that's a big question and a lot of years. I spent a lot of decades on this planet and it's a convergence of a lot of things that I have been about, but I think the high level answer is that about 12 years ago, we adopted our youngest two kids from Ethiopia.
We had two biological kids, adopted two kids that were five and seven, listening to the Lord's voice, feeling called into that space by Him. And then when the kids came home, many of you are familiar with adoption and trauma and just the, the difficulty that comes in blending a family in that way.
And it did come in our, in our home. And I ended up, I, I was like, I need to go to counseling because there's a lot of brokenness and really tough stuff going on here and I'm not honestly sure if we heard the Lord right. I think maybe we didn't and we kind of ruined everybody's life. That's a very hurt way of saying it, but that's how it felt at the time.
And so when I went to counseling and my counselor said, you know, that motherhood is a noble profession, a great calling, but it's not your highest calling. I was completely floored and completely blindsided, like I didn't know this was not my highest calling. And this is what we've been doing. And we heard the Lord into this, and I don't know what to do now.
And she went on to say, your highest calling is to be connected to God, to be filled by Him, to be connected to the Lord in Christ. And get your soul and your mind and your heart filled up with him. And then everything else comes out of that space of fulfillment: your parenting, your marriage, your vocation.
And so it doesn't matter so much what everybody else is doing around you. You need to get right. You need to get aligned. And that's really what started my most recent journey of listening to the Lord, hearing his voice, because I felt in that season and in that moment, what she was describing to me was moving from flesh centered living, where I need to be in control of everything, and everybody needs to act a certain way, and life kind of needs to go in a certain way that feels smooth and not rough. And she was saying, if you're living by the Spirit, which is what Jesus invites us to do, it's a completely different way of being, and not so attached to the human beings and their behavior in your life. It's being attached to Jesus, letting Him fill you. And so, that's really what started my journey of listening to the Lord. Like, oh my gosh, this is a whole new way of living that I haven't truly experienced in all these years of being a Christian, because I've been a believer since I was young. And so then I was on my own spiritual formation journey, just began to write.
The Lord was showing me that I loved to write and people were responding to my writing. And then fast forward to 2020, I hired a business coach because I was getting restless in my own calling. My kids were finally in a place after, you know, a good decade of everybody's kind of smoothed out a little bit, kind of doing their thing, they don't need mom around so much anymore. And I hired a business coach, which felt like a huge just risk because I didn't have a business or really anything. I just knew that I love to communicate that the Lord was teaching me so much. How can I mentor and communicate and come alongside other people?
And when she hired me, you know, we were working together for a few months and then she said, I'd love for you to be my spiritual life coach. And I was like, what is that? That sounds incredible. And so since then, I've been doing that, obviously backfilling with lots of education, lots of mentoring and in my own space, but that's really how I got to where I am today and why I'm so passionate about listening to the Lord.
I think because the main point of my story is that we listened to the Lord to grow our family in this way, then it did not turn out in any way, shape or form the way I thought it would at the time. I began to really, dig in and, and I was confused as to whether we heard him correctly. And then over time, he's re, you know, kind of righted the ship and, and really evolved and matured my understanding of him and how he, and just life and how God works.
So hopefully that's not too long winded of an answer, but I'm passionate about it because it's nuanced and it's difficult, but it's really radically amazing when we listen to the Lord and take those bold steps. If we can kind of release what we're trying to hold on to very tightly which I was doing
Lauren
Yeah, definitely. I'll probably dive into this on another episode, but God, with this business of Anchored Decisions, He wanted me to serve Christian women. And I fought it for a little while thinking, you know "Oh, I can serve so many more people if I don't." And finally, after recording my my first guest episode and talking with her, I've realized that that God wasn't just calling me to serve Christian women for their sake, he was calling me to this topic for my sake. And so I think, you know, my faith is going to be sharpened by having a very Christian based podcast and business, and by focusing on Christian content. And so sometimes our perspective is off, right? We think God's calling us to something for one reason, and it's actually for a completely different reason.
Megan
Yes. Generally, his ways are higher than our ways, so I've heard,
Lauren
So what are some ways that you feel people can start to distinguish God's voice?
Megan
Oh my goodness, this is going to sound super churchy, but open the Bible. I mean, honestly, like if we want to know what does his voice sound like, who is he, what is his character, how does he speak?
The Bible scripture is full of all of that from page one all the way through. So I think that's first and foremost, the number one thing I could say. Unfortunately over time, and we don't need to get into this too much, but I feel like the scriptures have been twisted or there's a lack of understanding or we have all sorts of a concept of what the Bible means or what scripture is, but if you just open it and you begin to ask the Lord "Hey, show me who you are. Show me how I can see Jesus throughout all of scripture Show me how you speak to people and in my coaching business." You know one thing I really love to do and even on my podcast is take bits of scripture and begin to just say what do I see, what do I notice about the character of God? What are the writers telling us? And again, all within the context. I wasn't the original, you know, ideal customer, as they say. I wasn't the original avatar for who the Bible was written for, but I know that it spans all of time. And so I think really getting clear about getting into the Bible, and then listening to what he's saying through the scriptures and through other people that you trust, that you know are also seeking the Lord, they want to glorify the Lord with you, they want to honor God. So I listen to those people. And I also think he's speaking through dreams and visions, I mean, we could really go off on a tangent of all the ways that God speaks, all the ways.
And sometimes I think as human beings we think this is the one way that He speaks, and this is the one way I've experienced, or this is the one way I've heard about. And God is so big and beautiful and creative. He will speak to you in a ways that your heart and your mind are prepared to hear Him through music or art or nature.
Heavens! He talks through nature, but He's always pointing back to Himself. He's always pointing back to Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit. Amen. So what you're hearing, I have a lot of people in my coaching practice that are like, how do I know if what I'm hearing is my voice or God's voice? That's probably the number one question get asked.
And I mean, the first thing I'll be is like, well, I don't know, let's dive into that. And then secondarily, I think, okay, if you're following Jesus and the Holy Spirit is living in your heart, then doesn't it stand to reason that your thoughts, the thoughts that he's bringing you, if they are glorifying Him, if they're helping you love God and love people, which are the two greatest commandments, then I would encourage you to say, it's God's voice. Listen to it. If what you are hearing, if what you are prompted to do or say or think brings in light, love, the character of God, the fruit of the Spirit, then it's likely His voice. Go forth in it and see what happens. Trust it. If it's something that you are hearing, impression coming into your mind or your heart that is swinging away from the character of God, that is disconnecting you from God, disconnecting you from people, leading you into a dark and private and more deceptive space, then I would argue that's probably not God's voice. Could be coming from a number of different things, which we don't always have to get into that today, but it's tricky.
I mean you're asking the question that is the age old question that I don't know if we'll ever truly get to the bottom of, but I think that's what's helped me in my life and many people that I've worked with. Just like, open a scripture and then see if what you're hearing as you think, as you journal, as you pray is leading you toward God or away from God.
Yeah. Start there.
Lauren
Yeah. And I think the more we dive into the scripture, the more that we pray and feel God's presence and get to know what that looks like in our lives, the more we will distinguish that. Because if you look at Abraham, somebody recently pointed this out to me that the call for Abraham to go take his son, his only son and sacrifice him on the mountain seems like it would not be a call from God.
That seems like that would be straight from the devil. Go kill your son. Why would God call him to that? But he knew that God either could resurrect his son. Or that God had a different plan and he was willing to trust and follow through anyway until God stopped him in the moment, but he knew God's voice so well enough to do something very radical.
Megan
Yeah It's so fascinating that you would bring that up because I'm actually going to look this up I have wrote a book last year called "Untangled Faith" all about journaling with the Lord specifically. And I actually wrote about that story of Abraham, havinf to sacrifice his son.
And the one thing that stood out to me in that story that I literally it's never occurred to me before until I was studying this and I was talking to my husband about it. And he was reminding me that, That there had been a promise over Abraham's life that his descendants would be larger than the stars, basically, right?
And so there's this promise that he already received about Isaac, so, Isaac would have kids. So if he were to actually sacrifice Isaac, that line is cut off. Thereby, in effect, basically taking away the promise, stunting the promise. But it didn't. So I thought that was so interesting because I'm thinking what promises has God already given you over your life?
And so, it's very nuanced, but I had never really thought about it before, that Isaac really wasn't meant to die. But it was something else entirely. Did God really say? So I have this whole chapter called Did God Really Say? Because I think that's the story of my life. God, did you really say that?
So, I don't know if you've ever thought about it that way, but it was new to me.
Lauren
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've also, I saw in that same passage, when Abraham goes to break off with his servants and take just Isaac with him, he says, we will be back. And I'm pretty sure it's in three days. So he didn't say, I will be back in three days. He said, we will be back. So he knew, as you said, that Isaac was going to live, but he was still faithful in taking the steps towards what God had called him to do.
Megan
Yeah. Yeah. Dang. That's one of those passages of scripture that you're like, seriously, I do not know how to reconcile that in my human mind, but it's so beautiful to see how God did provide in a very, very amazing way at that bold act of faith that on a human level makes absolutely no sense. In fact, it's horrific on a human level to think about it that way and God had something else entirely. So yeah. Wow. That's good.
Lauren
Yeah. And thank goodness that he doesn't challenge me in that way because I don't think I have as strong of faith as Abraham and it's something that I strive for, but it is hard to distinguish his calling in just the little things sometimes and to be faithful with little so that he'll entrust us with more.
So what do you think are some steps people can take to ensure that they continue to follow God's will once they've been given a path or a calling, or once they've even, maybe they've chosen something to pursue for God?
Megan
I mean, the first thing that comes to my mind is just test it out. Try it out. Because I think a place where a lot of people get stuck, including myself, is having this stirring, this thought that's coming in your mind, and yet fear comes in the way because you don't know how it's going to turn out.
You don't know how it's going to feel. There's so many unknowns. And so human nature is to protect ourselves. And just not do it, like think about it a lot, think about it a lot, ruminate about it and then not do it. So why don't we do it? Why don't we walk out? Is because we're afraid. So I, again, this sounds so simple.
It's just hard in reality and execution is just test it out, try it out, tell somebody. Like you would not believe, or maybe you would believe the amount of people that have these thoughts about, "I think the Lord is saying this to me." And they've never told another human soul. It's sitting in the privacy of your own mind, secrecy of your own mind for years, but until you say it out loud, you don't know what God can do with that because you actually haven't released that to Him.
To test it out, to try it out, to take a step, knowing that this life of faith is not this linear, concrete journey, where if you misstep, you are now in this horrible place, and I now you're never going to get back on track. The grace is huge. The redirection is huge. So if you can understand that God does speak to you, he's inviting you to take some bold steps of faith that may feel uncomfortable and awkward and out of your comfort zone, and we see that all over the scriptures.
And yet his grace and mercy and love is so amazing that if we begin to get off track and we're paying attention, he will redirect us and bring us back. So I think we don't have to be so scared all the time of what is this actually going to look like. And I'm speaking to myself when I say this, cause that's been my journey, is I get worried about making a mistake or something like that, but just test it out, try it out.
And pay attention along the way. If it doesn't feel right, and it really is beginning to fracture your relationship with God, fracture your relationship with the most important people in your life, then maybe it's time to pull back and redirect. But if it's actually connecting you again to God and people, keep going. See what happens. Step outside your comfort zone. So easier said than done, I must admit.
Megan
Yeah, but I think the more that we do step out in faith, then we start to recognize, okay, God was faithful then, he'll be faithful again. Or yes, that was God's voice then, even when it was weird, even when it was awkward. In college I led a Bible study in my sorority and we met in the sorority house in one of the girls rooms. And at one point we were going through the Fruit of the Spirit study by Beth Moore and we were doing the videos in that study. Then with my church group, we were also doing the Fruit of the Spirit, but doing the workbook. And in the workbook study, I was one week ahead of the video study. And there was a week that we started Bible study, and I sat down, ready to turn on the video, and I felt God saying, "Don't do the video today. Go through the workbook." Which would mean we'd be skipping a week. And I leaned into that nudging and said, Okay. And I didn't know why. So we started doing this study on peace and in walks a girl looking for the girls who lived in the room. And she's like, what's going on here? I'm like, Oh, we're doing Bible study, do you want to join us? And she goes, okay. So she sits down and we're talking about peace and she just starts breaking down crying because something that we said resonated with her so strongly and she goes, "I needed to hear this today. I need to get reconnected to God and going to church again."
And she did all because I leaned in to a nudge from God that seemed a little weird. Like, why would I just skip the video and go to the workbook and skip a week? But that was exactly what God wanted for that moment. And after that, it makes it easier to lead into those nudges saying, Oh, God was faithful then. He showed up. What can he do this time?
Megan
Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, listening to those nudges, that's amazing. And really something to be paying attention to and really, really cool when you see that immediate connection and you're like, okay, God, I know exactly why you did that. You asked me to do that.
And so I remember when we were going through our adoption process, we weren't even quite in the process yet. We were just thinking about it and praying about it. And I had dropped my older two kids off at elementary school, and I remember leaving the parking lot and thinking I had a list of things to do that day. And all of a sudden I felt this nudge. The Holy spirit was like, let go of your to do list, clear your calendar. Don't do any of that stuff. Instead of turning left to go run all your errands, turn right and go home, and spend this day fasting and praying about this decision to adopt, because it was all I could think about.
I had no idea. Are we supposed to do this? This is a huge decision. I have no idea. I'm like, all right, Lord. So I went home, turned off my phone and all, you know, social media and things like that, and, just sat down with my Bible. Speaking of scripture, I'm like, well, okay, where do I start? So I opened up the concordance and I was like, let me look up every scripture passage that has to do with adoption or orphan, and it turns out there's a lot in there about that particular subject.
And so I was writing and journaling all the verses that I could find about that, really dedicating the day to the Lord and saying, what is your heart for adoption and for our family and for the orphan? And as I always do with my journals, I date it at the top and I wrote August 23rd. So fast forward a couple of months, we felt the green light. We're taking this real tentative step. I think we're going to go ahead and adopt and my husband had had this vision that we were going to adopt two kids instead of one. And I was emailing our adoption agency saying, okay, we're open to two kids. And they said, amazing, we've got sibling sets, here's their pictures, et cetera.
And we were like, okay, we have a boy and a girl, our hearts are really drawn to a boy and a girl. So when they sent me all these pictures of these children, immediately my eyes and heart were drawn to this one sibling set of boy and a girl. And I was looking at them and the picture was there of them being relinquished, dropped off with their mother.
And I was like, Oh my gosh, Lord, how do I know? Like, how do you "pick children?" it's just so jarring and I, it's way beyond what I could understand. And I looked at the date of the top of the page when they were relinquished, their first intake picture at the orphanage. And it was August 23rd, the exact same day.
So in that moment, I was like, okay, I had a Holy Spirit connection of, okay, the day that I was fasting and praying at home was August 23rd. Several months later, I'm seeing a picture of them. When are they dropped off at this orphanage, relinquished from their mother, August 23rd. And I was like, okay, so even that is still so powerful to me today, because had I not done that, I don't know, I think God would have confirmed another way. That is his heart. That is my desire. But that's how he did it. And it was super powerful. So speaking of listening to those nudges, like that kept me going in so many difficult times. Cause I'm like, okay, Lord, you confirmed this and it's hard. So I'm trusting that you're here with us, but yeah, it's really cool.
So I tell everybody, you better write things down and you better date it because you never know when God's going to confirm. And he's done that multiple times in my life, but we probably don't have time to tell all the stories.
Lauren
Right. Yeah. Well, one thing you said is just, you made space for it. You had errands to run on that day and things to do. And often I think we don't hear from God because we fill up our lives with too much. Even our Bible study time, our devotional time. Sometimes I'll find myself wanting to "get through" my devotional passage or in the Bible just to get through it so I could almost check it off for the day rather than saying, God might have just one verse for me today to focus on and to stop and listen instead of just pushing through to try to accomplish something. It's better for us to take that time to hear from him and make sure we're clearing our head for that and listening and stopping and be still and know that I'm God.
Megan
Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking about the nature of your podcast, Anchored Decisions and for me, I think where I get stuck the most is in my head. So, when you're describing, hey, here's my quiet time, let's check it off, I'm supposed to read this passage, da da da, I mean, I definitely have lived that a lot of my life, but my decisions feel tangled up and they feel confusing when I'm just so much in my head that I need to get it right, that it has to be a certain way.
There's this very, fleshly, worldly, concrete, I don't know, analytical sort of chronological "the right decision" and yet what God shows me over and over and over again to the point of what you're saying is like it could just be a verse, a word, a song, a meditation that comes into my heart. So for me, a lot of the journey in decision making has been get out of my head less I'm there plenty.
I don't need more of that. I actually need more of His Spirit in my heart and really calibrating those two things and bringing those two things together. I think He does give us wisdom and a sound mind and intelligence. He tells us that in Scripture. And He's speaking to us at a heart level, at a spiritual level, that our brains sometimes would rather just — Silence or shut down or we don't give it access.
So I've been learning that too.
Lauren
Yeah, and I think that journaling is a good way to be more present to get those thoughts out of your head and just see where God guides you in that.
Megan
Yeah. I'm, I'm a big journaler girl. That's my whole, my whole last book is about journaling with God, so you're preaching to the choir on that one.
Lauren
Yeah.
So what would you say to someone who felt that God was calling them to something and it didn't work out the way that they thought? You had even mentioned that with, it didn't look the way you thought, but I know someone who thought God was telling her she was going to have a baby girl and her next baby was a boy or someone who thought God was calling her out of teaching to go into real estate and it just didn't work out for her and she went back to teaching. What about those circumstances?
Megan
Well, first of all, I just acknowledge the pain of that because in both of those instances that you just described, there's a level of excitement. Oh my gosh, I'm going to have a girl or, Oh my goodness, I'm starting a new business in real estate. And life is different than what you envisioned.
And so the first thing that I would suggest is just, naming the pain, understanding that it is nuanced and it's painful and go into the Psalms. I mean, David is all over the Psalms writing about the pain of being a human being and living in a life that is hard and oppressive and not turning out the way that you thought it was going to turn out.
And then secondarily, just ask the Lord, like, what are you doing here, God? I mean, I am all about having honest conversations with God. Amen. So if it's, if it's like, man, I really thought it was going to be like this and I'm sad about it. And I know you see my heart. And the reality is it's not this real estate business. It's not this baby girl that I thought we were going to have. So Lord speak to me, like, what do you want me to know? What are you doing in this? How can I see your hand at work back in the classroom and with my son and all of the other stories that we could tell. And so for me, it's a lot about just releasing the desire and naming the pain and then asking God, okay, what are you doing here? Because the reality now is this and I want to see you here with me. So I don't think that's a super tidy answer, but that's just how I've learned to navigate those disappointments and then trusting okay God if it is in your future for me to have another baby or to start a new business, speak to me about that. Bring those connections my way and until then, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and honor you where I am with who I have and those types of things. Does that make sense? I don't know how that feels as I say it.
Lauren
Well, and one verse that I really like is, "thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path". He doesn't promise us a spotlight down the road. He promises us to just see what's right in front of us step by step. And sometimes we don't know where that stepping stone is leading to.
And he might be just asking us to be faithful even if it's not what we expected in the end, you know maybe that was okay step out and do real estate for a semester just to prove that they're willing to trust God and maybe they made a connection there that down the line is going to be something that God uses.
And maybe we'll never know. I think sometimes God uses us for other people's sake, that we might not know what the repercussions are and what comes out of that, but if we're faithful in that, it's for their sake and for God's kingdom and his glory.
Megan
Yeah, I mean, the other thought that occurs to me is, just because something doesn't "work out," in a certain time frame or certain season, doesn't mean that it's not ever going to work out. So even this teacher, I would wonder, well, maybe that's not the season or for many, many reasons maybe she needs to be in that school and with that income and with that schedule for whatever reason. Because if she's back in the classroom, I'm assuming it's a woman based in man, if this person is back in the classroom and really still dreaming about real estate, ask God about the timing, ask God about the connections and when and what that could look like and should you give it another go. Because it's hard to give things another go when we feel like we've been disappointed or burned the first time around. And if your friend thought she was going to have a baby girl and had a baby boy, either you say, Hey, thanks God for this beautiful family and we are done.
Or you think, okay, maybe she's supposed to come into my life in another way. Do we want to explore that? Do we want to pray about that through adoption or whatever else? So I just think it's not a binary sort of black and white situation. It can be timing and season is huge in God's economy as well.
Lauren
Yeah. Yeah. And side note, she did have a fourth baby and it was a girl. So even though she thought that she was, she thought that baby number three was going to be the girl and it was baby number four. So yeah, God's ways are not our ways and we don't always know what his timing is.
So how do you think we can tell the difference though, between signs from God And just coincidences? Or a lot of times I know there's the frequency illusion where my friend recently bought a Hyundai Palisade. And so now that I know she's driving this black Hyundai Palisade, I see those all over town because I'm kind of looking for her and I would have never noticed those cars ever before that. And so now that it's recently been introduced to me, I'm constantly looking for it.
I start seeing them more and more. So what about a situation where you feel God is calling you to something because you keep seeing something surface over and over. Is that God? Is that just coincidence? Is that that frequency illusion?
Megan
That's right. If I see all of my friends going to Italy over and over again, I think it means that I need to go to Italy.
That is probably God telling me I need a fancy vacation. Um, you know, it, we laugh about it. I don't know the difference between coincidence and God's signs. But again, I mean, what is the nature of what you're seeing? Is it a material temporary thing where it is this car that we're joking about? I mean, that's fun. That's cool. Maybe he wants to speak to you more metaphorically through that. I don't know. But if it's something that it's more at a deeper level it's spiritual, it's scripture, it's, again, I don't think I can overstate the fact that if what you are seeing and feeling is bringing you closer to God and His presence in your life and closer to connecting to other people, deeper in love and relationship, then, by all means, pay attention to it, no matter what it is. I mean, he gave me this sign of a hot air balloon back when I was a young kid at camp.
I wrote about this in my first book and my camp counselor was talking all about the horrible season that she was in and all these terrible things that were going wrong. And she was driving her car down the road one day and saw a hot air balloon in front of her over the horizon and felt the spirit of God say, "you see this hot air balloon, this is how I am with you right now. I'm holding you up even though you can't see me. And you're in a safe place up here and I'm holding you up. And so I took that as my, like that story spoke to me, spoke to my heart. So ever since then, whenever I see a hot air balloon, I think, it's a God wink, right?
These are human phrases that we have, but what it does is it resets in my mind and renews my mind to think God is with me, he's bringing his truth into it. So if what you're seeing, or if you're running into the same person, then push into that and say, God, what do you want me to know here? Am I supposed to be connecting with this person, having a conversation with this person, take that thread as far as you can take it — again, as long as it's connecting you to God and others. Great. But if it's something that is way more temporary and fleeting, then I don't think it's probably our best interest to pay too much attention to that, unless it's of course a vacation in Italy, in which case we're going back to that one and we should pay attention to that and go.
Lauren
I will take that one, God. Give me that sign.
So, do you have any personal stories or anything else to share about your adoption story of hearing from God?
Megan
I do. I have a lot. So if anybody wants to go buy "A Beautiful Exchange", that's my first book, responding to God's invitation for more, that entire book is really about listening to the Lord's voice.
And he gave me this phrase "a beautiful exchange" because I felt like the overarching theme of what I was understanding and what he was bringing to me in that season was: when I release my flesh and my desire for control and my agenda and all the things that I'm holding on to, when I release that, to Him, give it to Him, submit it to Him and say, "Hey, this is what I'm struggling with. You take it." Then he promises to exchange that for His Spirit and His ways. And so this beautiful exchange is something that he's brought over and over again to me as like release the flesh, bring in the spirit, that has been huge in my life.
And he just continues to talk to me over and over again. We have all kinds of stories about my husband switching jobs and the most recent one where I started a neighborhood Bible study. So if anybody wants to hear some of those stories, they're all on my podcast. But yeah, it's everything from the little, minute, daily things where you wake up in the morning and you're like, man, I can't stop thinking about so and so. If you can't stop thinking about so and so, reach out and send a text or a phone call because even if they aren't "going through something", it's going to bless them.
So why do we not pay attention to those things? Well, I know the answer. That was kind of rhetorical. It's because it costs us time. It costs us money. It costs us moving our agenda, switching around my day so I can take time to get ahold of somebody. It's because it ruins my day. It shifts my day. But when I can take the lens off of myself and go back to God and others, then that's a whole different way of living than just paying attention to what I want.
Even though self care is good, boundaries are good, so please don't mishear me, but I think more often than not, we use boundaries as a really convenient excuse to not reach out to someone.
Lauren
Right. Though I do have to say, sometimes it is all in God's timing. My neighbor felt God asking her to talk to me about something and she waited and waited maybe like six weeks until she finally kind of had that courage to step up and say, okay, I need to mention something to Lauren. And when she mentioned it to me was so timely because earlier that week, my husband and I had been talking about something very related. And I had told her if you had brought this up six weeks ago, it would have been a no, but because we were just talking about it this week, it's a yes.
Megan
Yeah.
That's great. So can I ask you, when is the most recent decision that you felt you've made because God spoke to you about it?
Lauren
Yeah, I think for me was deciding this week to go up on spring break, take a random vacation.
We weren't planning on going anywhere for spring break. And Thursday before, I had kind of been mentioning to my husband for a few weeks, like, Oh, should we go visit your family up in Georgia? And we just kind of put it off. My husband was scheduled to work, so we weren't going to go up. And then just two days before, my husband came up to me again and said, “Hey, should we go visit my family in Georgia?”
And that same day we got a call from one of his family members saying she was potentially going to have heart surgery and some medical stuff going on. And I was like, I need to pray about this. And then immediately it was like, no, you don't. Go see family. Like this is not even a question that you have to spend time debating.
It was just that peace in my heart that knew that was the right thing to do.
Megan
Yeah, that's really beautiful. And you're connected to other people, right? You're connected to God, connecting to people. And he was saying, no, push into this, go see family. Yeah, that's amazing.
Lauren
Yeah, and I wanted to be lazy and say, I don't want to pack in two days and time up there.
Megan
Yeah, ain't nobody got time for that.
That's right..
Lauren
All right. Well, let me end with our rapid fire decision questions. So just tell me which one you choose out of all these.
So Marvel or X Men? Oh, Marvel.
Ice cream or frozen yogurt? Ice cream.
Morning person or night owl? Oh, I'm kind of in between. Super in between. I guess I'll go with morning? Question mark?
All right. And summer Olympics or winter Olympics? Ah, Summer Olympics. I love gymnastics.
Alright, great. So, Megan, tell everyone where they can find you online and your books and all of that.
Megan
Okay. The easiest thing to do is just go to my website, Meganbnilsen.com. You can find everything about my podcasts on there, my book's on there, Kkingdom Coaching on there.
So that's the best place to be. If you're on social media. I'm on Instagram and Facebook, just under my name. And yeah, the Kingdom Life Coaching Podcast, so that's on Apple, Spotify, and I'm having a lot of fun just like you kind of creating content every week and connecting with people. It's amazing to work it out, see what God has to say and really, it's mostly for me. And if you get blessed, awesome.
Oh, lastly, I have a free offering. So one of the things I'm really passionate about is helping women uncover the dreams on their hearts. I see so many women that say, "Oh man, I wish I could start a business or I always thought about writing a book or launching a podcast or you name it."
And then they don't do it for all these reasons that we've just discussed. And so I have, if you go to godsizedreams.com, it's also connected to my website, but there's five questions that you can ask yourself to just even think, what is my God sized dream? Do I have one? How do I know what to do next?
So I love to help people uncover some deeper things that God is bringing to their heart that they're super excited about but potentially nervous about, confused, overwhelmed and see what God's got for them. What kind of strategy they could implement to get there because it's pretty cool on the other side as you know, you launched your podcast.
Lauren
Yes. I love that. It's definitely a passion of mine. And so I love seeing other people discover their path and purpose and passions as well. So, I will drop all of the links to everything Megan mentioned into the show notes so you can grab that in, whatever podcast player or on my decision website, anchoreddecisions.com.
Megan
Well, thanks. You made me work for it today, Lauren.
Lauren
All right. Well, thank you so much. This was so great.
Megan
Thank you.
Lauren — Outro
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