Don’t Be Discouraged When God Says NO

by Dave Kahle

       How familiar does this sound? 

       You have an opportunity that looks like it could be huge for your personal life or your business.  You’ve studied it, done your homework, and are convinced that this would be the next major step for you.  You consult some Christian friends, and make it focus of intense prayers. It looks like an open door that you are eager to rush through.

       And then, the Lord says no, and slams the door shut.

       What was that?  Why did that happen?

       Before we dig into this, let me share a couple of these situations from my life where God said no to something I was enthusiastic about.

       The first was as a young man in my 30’s.  I had created a unique video training program, and ran into a person who had a great network, a sterling reputation, and a couple of retail stores that catered to the same market. He was a well-known preacher with this as a side business. We began to discuss merging the two businesses, and had a deal sketched out.  It would require me to move to Tulsa, OK. My wife and I stayed in his home there (his family was away on vacation) as we searched the real estate market for a home.  We put an offer on one, contingent on the sale of ours, and headed home.

       We never heard from him again.  He would not return phone calls and would not correspond with me.  It was as if he dropped off the earth. No explanation, no response to my calls.  Nothing. I was somehow expecting something more from him.  To this day, I have never heard from him. He was ghosting me before we had the term. 

       Clearly this deal was not going to happen.  While I was intensely disappointed, I later came to see that the Lord was in this, leading me in a different direction.

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       Later, as I was in the early stages of my consulting practice, I had a similar experience.  I met someone who had a compatible business serving the same market.  We had several meetings about working together and put together an agreement.  He and his wife treated my wife and to an  expensive dinner to celebrate the new deal.

       Then, he, like my previous proposed business partner, just disappeared.  No explanation, not even the courtesy of a phone call.  He would not take my calls, wouldn’t speak to me and just disappeared from my life. I would never hear from him again. No explanation, no response, no comment. He just disappeared.

       Again, I felt it was a major step backward and was very disappointed at the time.  Today I saw how the Lord saved me from a partnership that would have been toxic.

       Over the years I had several more of these – major potential movements that looked good from my perspective, but that never came to fruition.  At the time, they were incredibly disappointing, but from today’s perspective I saw that the Lord was preventing me from making a major mistake.

       Here’s the most recent. A few years ago, I began to de-emphasize my speaking practice as I was at the point where I didn’t want to travel as much.  As a result, I felt like I had extra time and energy to put into something else.

       I have been a home wine maker for 30 years, and at one point even had a small vineyard.  I’d always wanted to have a boutique winery, and it looked like this was the time.  I put together a business plan, created the list of the wines we would make, and identified the equipment and vendors we... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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