Patience, Trust and Belief: 3 Must Haves To Be An Effective Coach
Did you know, true coaches DON’T tell people what to do?
True coaches use active listening and powerful questions to help people engage with God toward the desires He has put in their hearts and the way God is leading them!
True coaching requires patience, trust, and belief.
These things take time and don’t come easy. Let's explain.
Patience
Coaching walks with a person while they are learning to hear God’s voice for themselves. It would be much easier for me to just tell them what to do!
BUT woah! What if I am wrong? …. That is a scary thought and dangerous. However, if I am right it can be equally not good, if I am right I am teaching them that they need to go to someone else to hear from God… How sad. God wants to talk to them personally, and I want to get in the middle for expediencies sake?!
Trust
If I am honest, really honest, sometimes I don’t trust the Holy Spirit. I hate even saying that out loud, but that is what happens when I feel like I need to get in the middle and help someone hear from God. I often feel like God is not as clear as I would like Him to be as He talks to me and as He guides others as well.
Sometimes I feel like I need to play the hero and intervene making things clearer for those who haven’t developed their sense of hearing yet.
Just being honest. Sad right?
Of course, the Holy Spirit loves them more than I do and I don’t need to step in and interpret for them, rather I want to help them develop their trust and their hearing.
May God help us all!
Belief
This one is kind of like trust but different in that it has to do with the new covenant that the New Testament is founded on. Here are some excerpts from Hebrews.
It starts with a picture of the old way – where priests needed to go to God for people and then moves on.
What is God’s plan for the church today? (I challenge you to read this with the question of “How does God want to interact with people today?” in mind)
Hebrews Chapter 8 says…6 the new agreement that Jesus brought from God to his people is much greater than the old one. And the new agreement is based on promises of better things.7 If there had been nothing wrong with the first agreement, there would have been no need for a second agreement.…10 This is the agreement I will make with the people of Israel at that time, says the Lord. I will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord, because all people will know me, from the least to the most important. 12 I will forgive them for the wicked things they did, and I will not remember their sins anymore.” 13 God called this a new agreement, so he has made the first agreement old. And anything that is old and worn out is ready to disappear.
Are we really able to go to God ourselves?
What if our primary role as believers is to help people learn to meet with God for themselves?
Don’t get me wrong I am not forwarding the idea of a new age theology- just pushing out the idea that God Himself is promoting the idea of all people entering the Holy of Holies and not just the priests.
What does this mean for the priests? What is their role in the NT? Perhaps they are supposed to be assisting people in their personal journeys of learning to hear God’s voice.
How about you?
If you are really honest, do you ever want to “help God” by just telling people what to do?