When God Says Let Go: Trusting the Pivot Before You See the Path

What if the unease you feel isn’t failure, but a holy nudge to move? Coach Tara opens a candid, faith-forward conversation about letting go when God signals a new season. We unpack the difference between quitting and obeying, why your peace is a reliable “umpire,” and how to recognize when the grace has lifted from a relationship, job, or strategy that once worked. With warmth and clarity, we name the tension between comfort and calling—and how obedience can outrun understanding without denying your real emotions.

We walk through five practical signs it’s time to release the old: lifted grace, stalled fruit, lost peace, repeated closed doors, and persistent Holy Spirit nudges that show up in sermons, conversations, and midnight wake-ups. Tara weaves in Abraham’s costly yes in Genesis 22 and shares her own story of closing a beloved salon during chemotherapy, a surrender that opened new doors to writing, coaching, ministry, and unexpected provision. These moments reveal a consistent pattern: God creates opportunities and divine disruptions, but transformation requires our response.

You’ll hear actionable guidance to stop clinging to outcomes and start following instruction. We revisit Jeremiah 29:11 and Proverbs 3:5–6 to frame plans in the plural and trust that direction comes when we stop leaning on our own understanding. If you’ve been asking for change yet resisting disruption, this is your invitation to reframe your inner language—“I’m not stuck, I’m being stretched”—and take one step forward without seeing the whole staircase. By the end, you’ll have language, signs, and courage to pivot with peace, plus a prayer over your next move.

If this conversation stirred you, share it with someone who needs a nudge, leave a rating and review, and hit follow so you don’t miss new episodes. Ready to identify the pattern keeping you stuck? Take the Break the Pattern quiz at breakthepatternquiz.com, and consider supporting the show to keep these spirit-led conversations going.

Chapters

• 0:00 Faith, Comfort, And The Call To Pivot
• 2:01 Quitting Versus Obeying
• 4:50 When Grace Lifts And Striving Begins
• 8:20 Plans, Assignments, And Holy Disruption
• 12:04 Abraham, Isaac, And Costly Yeses
• 18:10 Doors, Convictions, And Your Response
• 22:30 Five Signs It’s Time To Let Go
• 28:05 Release Outcomes, Follow Instructions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey hey, it's your favorite shift for story coach, Coach Tara, and you're listening to the Her Authentic Voice podcast. This is where faith meets real life, where shame gets silenced, and where your story becomes your strategy. God will not compete with your comfort. If you're stuck, it's not always the enemy. Sometimes it's resistance to obedience. There's a moment that comes in every woman's journey where you hear that still small voice, that voice of the Lord that disrupts everything you've been building. It's the voice that tells you this season is over. It can be a business model that's no longer working, or you can have a job change. It could be a friendship that's run its course. And we often hear that people are around for a season, right? But I'm saying that sometimes people are there for a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, or they may be around for the entire book. But what I do know is that God will allow circumstances to come upon you to shift you. But what do we do? We tend to get complacent in comfortability in our comfort zone when God is impressing upon us to let something go. And the hard part of this is that he often asks you to release something before he shows you what's next. So he gives you an invitation to pivot, but the path is not always as clear as you'd like it to be. And see, that's the scary part. So today we're talking about letting go. We're talking about how to discern when God is doing something new, how to recognize when your peace has left, and how to trust him in that pivot, how to trust him when he course corrects you, even when your feelings don't agree, because a lot of times they're not going to agree. And there's some tension there. There's a difference between quitting and obeying. Amen. See, quitting is giving up because something is hard, but obeying is releasing because God said so. Quitting is reactionary, it's fear or fatigue or a feeling that you failed. It's also a way of self-protection, but obeying is spirit-led. Obeying is moving by faith, it's discernment. Obeying is releasing the outcome or relinquishing the outcome to the Lord. And sometimes, well, a lot of times, you won't even know which was which until everything is said and done. I've seen women cling to people. I've seen them cling to strategies, assignments, just things that are no longer working. I've seen them just try to hold on when God has removed his grace from that place. As a coach, I see this. I talk to women all the time, and I've been this woman. I've been her too. But God will move, he will remove his grace from a place, and you'll find yourself striving. And things are not gonna flow like they did before. And even with relationships, sometimes you're with people who may be more of a hindrance to you than a help. You can be misaligned on your journey. And per the word of God, how can two walk together unless they agree? Amen. I thank God for the shifts. They're uncomfortable, they hurt, but I thank him. See, often we cling, we cling to people, we cling to a mindset, we cling to our way of doing things because we are familiar with them. Regardless of the outcomes we're getting, they may not even be positive, they may not even be fruitful, they could be downright toxic, but because they're familiar, because we're used to doing it, we're used to working here, we're used to doing things this way, we're used to being with this person. Familiarity. But clinging to what God has said to let go of or what he has released could delay or cost you what he's prepared for you because you're not even in a position to receive the new. Amen. And Jeremiah, this is one of my favorite scriptures. Jeremiah 29, 11 says, For I know the plans I have for you. He declares that. He says there are plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. So these are good plans. But it says plans, plural. Have you ever thought about that? That is not plan. That means he's not limited to this version of your life that you've got so comfortable with, this job or this career or this business that you've gotten so comfortable with. He's not limited to that. He says he knows the plans he has for you. Amen. We have one call, but we have multiple assignments here on earth. So expect plans in the plural. And the best way to navigate this is to wear this world as a loose garment. Continue to give God a yes and reconcile the fact that growth comes from the uncomfortable place. Yes, pivots can be uncomfortable, but it's a part of your story, and all of it matters. Absolutely nothing is wasted. Even when the Lord tells you to let go of someone, to leave a job, to close a business, start a new one, let go of your way, relinquish the outcome and yield and submit to his. Amen. Let me share a quick story. You know about Abraham and Isaac. This story is found in Genesis 22. And you want to talk about letting go of something. Abraham was asked to lay down his son. This is a son he waited 25 years for. His miracle child, the promised child. And Abraham still got up. He got up early. And the Bible doesn't tell us that he debated with the Lord. But I tell you what, I can't imagine the heartache and the pain and even the confusion that Abraham must have had. Because he wasn't some superhuman or otherworldly being. He was a human being like us. So think about that. That had to hurt him. When the Lord asks you to do something, let go of something that you love and you obey, even as Abraham obeyed, it doesn't take away the feeling, the pain, the confusion. That is valid. You know, it's like when I told you last week when God told me to shut down my salon in the middle of chemotherapy. Everything in me was like, what? And I wanted to resist that. I wanted to say no because Lord, what am I gonna do? I had a full clientele. This was my dream career. I had plans and it was my identity for so long. But I obeyed. I said, okay, Lord. And that yes, costly as it was, because it did cost in more ways than one. But my obedience, my yes, and letting go of all of that became the door to everything that I'm doing now: writing and publishing, coaching, ministry, mentoring. I'm selling merchandise. I have a store and podcasting. That yes and letting my salon go, and even struggling because that income left open the door to so much more. So obedience doesn't always look logical, but if it's something that the Lord is telling you to do, believe me, it's always with purpose. Amen. He is not gonna steer you wrong. He said plans, they're good plans to give you a future and a hope. You don't need to understand to obey. You think I understood when God told me to close my salon? I didn't, but I obeyed. You think Abraham understood when God promised him a son, he got a son, and then he said to give him back to me, to sacrifice him to me. There's no way. You don't have to even like it to obey. You don't have to like the instructions to obey God. But what you need to do is trust that he knows the plans he has for you. Seeing as how he created you, and you didn't create yourself. I want you to remember, I'm back in Abraham now. Remember that Abraham laid his son down, and he was literally had the knife and everything. He was literally about to sacrifice his child, and God stepped in and provided a ram in the bush for Abraham. That was a test that Abraham passed. And what did Abraham do? He named that place Jehovah Jirah, which means the Lord will provide, not the Lord did provide. Future, the Lord will provide. That's a future tense. So Abraham didn't wait to see the ram before he named the place. He didn't even know God was going to give him a ram. He named it in faith before the ram and the bush even showed up, before the provision showed up. Because the ram was a provision and he named the place first. Abraham's obedience went ahead of his understanding. My obedience went ahead of my understanding. Again, you don't need to understand God to obey him. Okay, amen. Now, God will open doors for you. But what he is not about to do is come down and push you through the door. He's not about to make you go through the door, none of that. But what he will do is create opportunities for you, conversations for you. He will convict your heart. You'll have divine connections. He will cause divine disruptions. These things, these connections, these convictions, these disruptions, they are to provoke us to self-reflect. They are to provoke a response. They demand a response from us. You're asking for change. You're like, Lord, do this and change that, and why is this like that? But you're despising the very thing that he is allowing to provoke, said change. You're asking for confirmation, but he's literally convicting your heart and you're ignoring the conviction. He's creating moments in your life, he's giving you pauses and crossroads where you have to pause and think and consider him. And in that moment, he's saying to you, I've opened the door, but what are you gonna do? Are you willing to walk through that door? Or are you gonna allow your fear, your uncertainty, or your needing all the steps and the answers to stop you? It's the principle of call and response. Call and response. I mentor youth in schools and I teach Bible study at my church. And one thing that we often use as teachers is call and response. It gets the students' attention, it engages them. But here's the thing: the power, for lack of a better word, isn't just in the call, it's really in the response. And it's the same with God. God calls, but you've got to respond. And if you don't, you're just gonna stay in this loop. You're gonna stay emotionally stuck, you're gonna stay spiritually immature and relationally confused. You're gonna be confused. You're gonna say, I'm waiting on God, I'm waiting on God. When God is actually waiting on you, God will provide. Amen. He will. So you walk in faith because he's calling. I remember writing in my memoir that God called me and I didn't send him the voicemail. I actually answered. So are you sending him the voicemail or are you answering? How are you responding? Or are you even responding? I just want you to think about that. And I also want to give you five signs so that you can kind of use it as a gauge or barometer to know when God is saying to let something go. These are signs I found in my life. Number one, the grace lifts. So what used to flow effortlessly and kind of guide, you know, not feeling forced, now it feels forced. It's like God is saying, I've moved on from there, I'm not there anymore. So the grace lifts. And number two, the fruit stops. So you're sowing, you're showing up, you're doing all the things, but nothing is growing. You're no longer seeing the manifestation like you used to. God may be shifting you. You're like, what's going on? Number three, the peace leaves. So let me tell you something. My daddy, which is my stepdad, he used to watch baseball and he loved baseball. And I would sometimes look at it, I didn't really care for it, but I would I would look at it. And I noticed that the umpire had authority in the game. He'll call safe or strike, and I think of it as our peace. Peace being our umpire. Right? So when peace exits the situation, I mean godly peace. There's a peace that God gives. It's a peace that surpasses our understanding. That peace that you have when you were in that place that his grace was on, or with that person, that relationship that his grace was on. When peace exits the situation, you need to stop and pay attention. Number four is when doors keep closing. Everything you try, every angle, it just seems like you're hitting a wall. It's like nothing is working. In those instances, I found that God was protecting me. So God might be protecting you from what you're praying for and what you think you need. Because his answers are yes, no, and wait. Number five, when you can't let it go, when your spirit won't let it go, or even the Holy Spirit would keep highlighting it to you. You're waking up in the middle of the night, you're thinking about it, you hear a sermon, and it feels like the pastor's talking like right to you. You may have have a conversation with someone, and they they bring it up even though they don't even know that's on your mind, or that's something you're wrestling with. You hear a sound bite, or you see a video out of nowhere, and you just get all these confirmations and these tugs, and it's like the Holy Spirit is nudging you, and he refuses to release it, release you, you know. God's calling you. That's a call. This is when you have to respond. It's a call, and he is waiting and expecting you to respond. One hard truth that I find that many people struggle with is not having control of how something ends up. You know, we get so emotionally attached to things or to people. And that first version of the vision God shows us, it's like, okay, this is what it's gonna be. You know, but sometimes the assignment changes or the steps, the vision is still the same, but sometimes you'll go a different route to get there, and you must be flexible as you walk this walk. And your job isn't to protect or control the outcome of anything, it's literally to obey the instruction. In Proverbs 3, 5, 6, it says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. So if you're so stuck in how you think the outcome should be, you are going to miss the instructions. Because Proverbs says, He shall direct your paths. How are you gonna get the direction? How are you gonna get the instruction? How are you gonna know? You're too busy leaning on your own understanding, you're not even gonna be able to receive any instructions, you're gonna dismiss them or try to explain them away because they don't align with the conclusion or the outcome that you're married to. I just encourage you to walk. Just walk, just keep walking. Just like that graphic showing someone walking up the staircase, you know how they're walking and you can't see the next step. Faith doesn't require full visibility, it requires motion, it requires movement. Even with the unseen, you just have to move. Even before Abraham, back to Abraham now, even before Abraham was about to sacrifice his son. When God first called Abraham, he called him out from among his family and told him to go to a place that he would show him. What? Like, I don't even know where I'm going. What do you mean, leave? But Abraham did it. Abraham literally walked before he even knew where he was going. He just started walking. And often, God, like I said earlier, he doesn't reveal the new to you until you release the old. You can't keep having a hand back here holding on to the old and have one hand in front of you, like, okay, Lord, give me the new. But I but I don't really trust what you're gonna give me yet. I don't know what you're gonna do, so I'm just gonna hold on to this just in case. It doesn't work that way, it doesn't work that way. So release the old and embrace the new. God is not gonna compete with this comfort zone of yours. You're not gonna be comfortable all the time. And if you're feeling stuck right now, don't necessarily credit that to the enemy. Because sometimes it could just be your resistance to obeying God. It could just be you, your emotions. It can be you grieving things that haven't even happened yet. Like, what if this happened? What you know, you're grieving what hasn't even happened, causing yourself anxiety, or you're in the past ruminating about something that happened already. It's over. You know, mourning something that's closed, a door that's closed, and there is a time to mourn. There's also a time to move on. Maybe God never even told you to open that door in the first place. So I want you to stay in the now, be present, don't be in fantasy world, don't sit in fear, don't be so consumed with what was or what will be or or would have, should have, could have. Be present so you can discern what's really going on. I want you to start reframing how you're looking at the situation. Whatever situation you're in, from a cognitive behavior perspective, how you interpret a situation determines how you feel and respond. It has nothing to do with the situation itself. It's all about your interpretation of, say, a situation. And I want you to start reframing. These are just examples I'm gonna give you, but I want you to repeat them. I'm not stuck, I'm being stretched. I'm not stuck, I'm being stretched. I'm not behind, I'm in preparation. I'm not being ignored, I'm being rerouted. I'm not being punished, God is protecting me. I'm not being denied, I'm being developed for what's next. Amen. I don't want you to miss what God's doing right now by being in your head, by being fearful, by speaking negative, by not speaking life over your situation, but being present by reframing the narrative. In Isaiah 40, it says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. So wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Amen. And before we close, I want to just say a short prayer over you. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I just thank you, oh God. I bless your holy name, and I thank you for my sister who is listening. I thank you. And I just ask that you bless her. She may find herself in a confused place, oh God. She may be in a place of tension because she may not know what to do. She may have to let something go or let someone go. And I want you to give her some comfort, oh God. I pray, oh God, that you increase her discernment so that she knows what you're releasing in her life, that she knows how to move, where to go, what to do. I pray, oh God, that with that knowing that you give her your shalom, your peace, oh God. I pray, oh God, that you give her courage to obey even when it's inconvenient for her, even when she doesn't understand, oh God. I pray that you bless her with the right people around her, oh God. I pray that she gives you permission to shift her circle, Lord. I pray, oh God, that you remind her that you're not punishing her, that you're actually repositioning her, oh God. And I pray that you teach her to trust you, trust your voice in all circumstances. I pray that you make her bold enough, oh God, to pivot or or course correct, oh God. And I pray that you make her wise enough to just stay, oh God, when you say stay, to go when you say go, just to be obedient, to listen to you, Lord. And I thank you for her life. I thank you for the call on her life. I thank you for her voice. I thank you for her journey because it matters. And I pray that you continue to bless her and bless her family and keep her in all her ways, oh God. And I ask this in Jesus' mighty, mighty name. Amen, amen, and amen. So listen, reflect, take a moment to reflect, okay. What is God asking you to release? What is he asking you to release? What opportunities have you already ignored? And what if what's next for you? You're asking, what's next? What's next? What if what's next can't come until you let go of something right now? That's for you. That's for you to think about. That's for you to think about. All right. This is Coach Tara, your favorite shifty story coach. And if this episode blessed you, share it with someone you love. Leave a review, leave a rating for me, and subscribe. And if you're ready to get clear on the pattern that's keeping you stuck, I invite you to take the Break the Pattern quiz. It's at breakthepatternquiz.com. And also, guess what? You can now support the show for as little as$3 a month to help me keep these spirit-led, bold conversations going. Every seed matters. And I thank you and I bless you. And I will have all the links in the show notes. All right, is that alright? Thank you for listening to another episode. I am so grateful. I do not take it lightly. So leave me some comments, and until next time, remember to live, love, and be.