Knowing The Season That You Are In

AI is here. It may be difficult to find the right balance between faith and technology. Where we start is knowing the season that we are in and being able to adapt our strategies accordingly.

I've been talking about this a lot lately. In Ecclesiastes, there's something like 26 or 27 seasons. And the key to walking in the fullness of God's power and plan is understanding what season we're in. The farmer could have the best team, they could have the best tools, they could have the best equipment, they could have the best seeds and they could have the best soil. But if they're sowing in winter, nothing's going to work. So, we need to understand what season we're in, that's the first thing.

The second thing is, that Proverbs talks about how God gives us witty inventions. And in Isaiah, he talks about that there's hidden riches found in secret places, okay? I'm talking about this because I don't want the Christian entrepreneur to think that AI is the devil. It's a software program. It's just an algorithm.

The third thing is, that the Bible says that God is the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the Lord of the Sabbath, which means this: The God who puts his armor on and goes to war with those who hold his treasure from his purpose. Then what that means is he lays up treasure and transfers, there's a transference of wealth from the unrighteous to the righteous, and he plucks the things that I believe were designed for his kids.

Then it bounces down to someone in the natural world. God is going to go to reallocate those treasures. Imagine Him putting on His armor, and He takes these ideas that His kids need, and He fights the battle for us. So, those are three big ideas that I think really frame this discussion on AI.

And here's the final one. Use your imagination with me and picture a diagram for system thinking 101. On the left, there's a square. On the right, horizontally, there is a triangle. And then on the right of that, there is a circle. So, you sequentially have a square triangle circle from left to right. Then you have an arrow from the circle back to the square. The square is the input, the triangle is the system, and the circle is the output. And then, of course, you have a feedback loop where you go from the circle (output) and follow the arrow back to the square (input). Very simple.

But here's where most people miss. Continue to imagine that on the top left, there is a little sun. Which for me is a circle with lines coming out as the rays. Every system operates within an environment or a season in this context. Here's how it affects the Christian entrepreneur.

As of now, we're heading into Q4. That's a big system that could operate perfectly well in Q1, Q2, and Q3, and it will change in Q4 because of the environment it's in, right? Brands are dumping a ton of money into the ad platforms because of Thanksgiving and the holidays. And then that same system, once it hits Q1 and all that money leaves the platforms, will not operate significantly better, potentially. Now there are ways to mitigate that, but that's one example.

Another example is we're heading into an election season. the likes of which humans have never seen before, because of AI. So, you're going to have a whole lot of potential issues. You’re going to have people trying to hack things, people doing deep fake things, people just slamming across the different advertising platforms. We're entering a season of a lot of volatility. But God put us here for this season. We are equipped for this season. We are empowered for this season. We just need to do our part and trust him to do his part.

And in order to gauge what season you're in, is through prayer in relationship with the Holy Coach. That's it. Because there are visible seasons, but do we work on a visible plane? No. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, the Christian entrepreneur can make a grave mistake by only operating on their eyeballs. There's an entire ecosystem in the unseen that we need to understand.

Any fool can say, Q4, advertisements are more expensive. The election - a lot of volatility. And again, the election cycle is going to massively impact paid platforms because of the political funds dumping in. A side note, if you're working with a coach, make sure you're working with somebody who's been around for more than a second.

I've been doing this for 25 years. That's how I know these seasons and these patterns. And certainly, there are other great people out there. I’m saying this to serve you, you've got to be with somebody who's been doing this for 15 years or more because they've gone through these seasons. You get a coach who does well during a year that is right after the election, and who's never faced volatility.

The other thing is that compliance turns up during political acceleration because people are dumping tons of ads in. An ad that may be compliant today may not be compliant in that season. So, again, make sure you're working with somebody that's been there, done that.

I had a call with one of my coaches the other day. He is a Christian multimillionaire, with tons of fruit, and tons of influence. He had asked me something one of his coaches had asked him. “With all the thinking that you are doing, do you realize how much you are leaving on the table?” I asked him what he meant by that. He replied with a laugh and said that his coach made him sit with it for a week before discussing it. Thankfully, he didn’t do the same with me.

The key is the Christian entrepreneur, our brains are like Ferrari engines, we're always going, going. We believe in alpha, we believe in hustle, we believe in grit, we believe in getting things done, we believe in harvest, we believe in attacking, we believe in pressing, we believe in work ethic, we believe in growth.

Sometimes with all of that thinking, we can squeeze out that still small voice. Thinking, my glass is filled with water, the Holy Spirit wants to pour in, how much am I leaving on the table? That's the secret to understanding what spiritual season we're in because entrepreneur A could be in a different spiritual season than entrepreneur B. Compared to God, we are small thinkers. We can't look and say that there are four seasons, or in Ecclesiastes, there are 26.

He is playing four-dimensional chess. And there are infinite seasons. We need to figure out where we're supposed to be. And for the Christian entrepreneur in this day and age, I believe, unlike anything I've ever believed before, that AI, chat GPT, is a tool designed for his people to be more productive and serve the market better and faster.

There are three critical things that I've learned over my twenty-plus years, of evaluating over one hundred and fifty different business models as a Christian entrepreneur.

I've put together my observations and these three keys (I learned the hard way) into a Christian Entrepreneur Manifesto, along with some step-by-step walk-throughs and demonstrations.

There is no opt-in required.

It walks through my favorite model, the Finders model.

It might be interesting for a Christian looking to start something new or for the first time to escape the "business running them vs. them running their business" or the nine to five and not to have to work for themselves or someone else until the age of eighty.

Check it out here:
https://christianentrepreneurinc.com/kingdomwealthstrategy

I hope it helps!

Blessings,
Paul

PS: God is a big God.

He gives us above and beyond what we can ask or think.

We must ask big.

We must think big.

And if we don't, it's not His fault if we live limited.

Work hard, pray harder, and never ever ever ever quit.

You've got this!

PPS: Whenever You’re Ready... Here's How I Can Help You Generate An Additional $5 to $10k Per Month Or More:

Check Out Our Christian Entrepreneurship Manifesto
Learn why some "make it" and others don't
Access More Articles Like This
Sharpen your Mindset, Model, and get Mentored
Watch Our Christian Business Incubator Training
Learn key lessons from analyzing over 150 different business models, launching ten virtual businesses in ten different markets with ten different models, and hitting six figures in four and seven figures
Schedule A Free Discovery Call
Make sure you read the Manifesto and review the Training first and then let's hop on a call and get all your questions answered about the Christian Startup Business Incubator