How God Prepared Me to Coach with Him

Following the Small Still Voice:

A Calling I Did Not Yet Understand

“And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
—1 Kings 19:12

Looking back, I can see that God was guiding me long before I understood where He was leading.

His direction did not arrive as a detailed plan. Instead, I sensed a still, small voice inviting me to take the next step—to become a professionally trained coach.

At the time, I believed I was beginning a new vocation that would help others move forward while bringing greater meaning and joy into my own life.

What I did not yet know was that God was preparing me for a calling:

Not simply to become a coach, but to Coach with God.

The Training—and Teacher—I Needed

In the fall of 2022, I discovered Coaching for Today’s Leaders, a coach-training program founded and taught by Val Hastings. It was exactly the training I needed, led by exactly the teacher I needed.

Val is an extraordinary listener. He listens so intently that his questions guide individuals and groups into new territory, uncovering truth, understanding, and clarity.

Through his example, I learned that effective coaching is not merely about helping someone feel more confident. It is about creating a safe, honest space where people can recognize what is true, discover what matters most, and move forward authentically.

Val taught me to listen—not to fix, direct, impress, or control, but to become fully present to another person.

I did not realize it then, but God would eventually show me that this kind of sacred listening is at the heart of Coaching with Him.

Becoming an ICF Coach

The training and credentialing process was rigorous. The International Coaching Federation examination was not easy, and completing the requirements demanded discipline, perseverance, study, practice, and humility.

I was blessed to travel that road with my coaching friends John, Joan, and Mark. We learned together, practiced together, encouraged one another, and helped each other reach the finish line.

In December 2024, I earned my Associate Certified Coach credential through the International Coaching Federation.

I brought my whole life to that accomplishment: the work ethic I developed in corporate America, the persistence I gained as an entrepreneur, the honesty and self-examination I learned through Twelve Step recovery, and my love of learning and helping others grow.

Now I also had the professional skills to coach people ethically and effectively.

I was grateful and proud—but I still could not see the whole picture.

Little did I know how carefully God was preparing me for what He would ask me to do next.

When Jesus Gave the Calling a Name

Then, in August 2025, everything changed.

Jesus found me, saved me, and became my Savior and Lord. The still, small voice I had followed toward coaching became the voice of the One I now knew.

Soon after I gave my life to Jesus, three words began returning to my mind:

Coaching with God.

I could not shake them. They felt less like a name I had invented and more like words I had been given. I sensed that Jesus was asking me to pay attention—and then asking me to act.

So I went to GoDaddy and purchased the domain CoachingWithGod.org.

I did not have a complete ministry plan or know everything Coaching with God would become. I simply believed Jesus was telling me to secure the name, and I wanted to obey Him.

Buying the domain was a small, practical step, but spiritually it meant much more. It was one of my first acts of obedience in my new life with Christ.

I was saying:

“Yes, Lord. I hear You. I do not know where this will lead, but I am willing to follow.”

The name revealed something important: God was not merely calling me to coach for Him. He was inviting me to coach with Him.

I would bring the training, experience, recovery wisdom, and professional skills He had helped me develop. He would bring the truth, wisdom, healing, direction, and transforming power.

Only then did the path behind me begin to make sense.

God had been preparing the coach before revealing the calling. Once I belonged to Jesus, He gave that calling its name:

Coaching with God.

Coaching with the Holy Spirit

Before, coaching was primarily a partnership between my client and me. I listened, asked thoughtful questions, and supported clients as they uncovered obstacles, identified goals, and moved toward meaningful change.

That work was valuable. It produced results for my clients and brought joy into my life.

But Coaching with God is so much more.

Now, I enter a coaching conversation knowing there are not merely two people present. God is with us, and the Holy Spirit is working in ways neither my client nor I could manufacture.

My responsibility is to listen in two directions: deeply to the person in front of me and humbly for God’s guidance.

That requires prayer, discernment, and the surrender of my own agenda. I do not have to provide all the answers because I am not the source of someone’s healing, wisdom, or transformation. God is.

My coaching skills still matter, but now they are instruments placed in His hands.

Watching God Work

Coaching with God often feels like being invited to witness one miracle after another.

A client recognizes a truth hidden beneath years of fear. Someone releases a burden they were never meant to carry. An old wound is brought into the light, where God can begin healing it. A person who has spent years striving begins to experience the freedom of surrender.

Sometimes God gives me a question to ask. Sometimes He gives my client the courage to tell the truth. Sometimes He brings a Scripture to mind. Sometimes His presence is experienced through silence, tears, relief, or sudden clarity.

These moments do not happen because I have created a perfect coaching plan. They happen because God loves the person sitting across from me and knows exactly what that person needs.

I have learned that coaching is not about directing someone toward the life I think they should have. Coaching with God is about helping people become attentive to the life He is inviting them to live.

A Better Journey with Him

One of the greatest privileges of Coaching with God is reminding people that their lives are part of a much larger, eternal story.

We can become consumed with earthly success, approval, security, relationships, achievements, failures, and fears. But God’s plans reach beyond the immediate outcomes we want.

What feels like delay may be preparation. What feels like loss may lead to surrender. What feels like the end of one identity may be the beginning of a calling we could not yet imagine.

The journey is so much better with God than against Him.

It is better when we stop asking Him to bless our plans and begin asking how we can participate in His. It is better when pleasing God becomes more important than pleasing people and when our choices flow from eternal purpose rather than temporary fear.

Jesus taught us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. That truth now shapes how I coach:

Am I loving the person in front of me as someone made in God’s image?

Am I helping them recognize truth, take responsibility for their choices, and respond faithfully to His invitation?

Am I surrendering my own need to be impressive, correct, or in control?

These questions keep bringing me back to the heart of my calling.

From Recovery to Christ. From Christ to Healing.

My hope is that people from both the recovery community and the Church will experience what it means to invite God into their healing, growth, decisions, relationships, and purpose.

People in Twelve Step recovery often understand surrender, honesty, accountability, inventory, amends, and daily dependence on a Power greater than themselves. I want them to discover that God is not distant or nameless. He has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ and desires a personal relationship with them.

People in the Church may sincerely love Jesus while still carrying unresolved wounds, fears, resentment, shame, control, or destructive patterns that interfere with their freedom. I want them to discover the healing that can happen when faith is joined with honest self-examination, accountability, healthy action, and daily surrender.

Coaching with God can create a sacred space for both—a place where faith and honesty meet, recovery wisdom supports Christian healing, and people become quiet enough to hear the still, small voice that may have been guiding them all along.

Answering God One Step at a Time

I once thought I was following a quiet inner prompting to become a coach.

Now I believe I was following God.

He led me to the right training and teacher. He surrounded me with the right coaching companions. He used my corporate career, entrepreneurial experience, recovery journey, work ethic, and love of learning.

He taught me to listen.

He found me and saved me through Jesus Christ.

He placed the words Coaching with God on my heart and prompted me to secure the domain before I understood what He was building.

God did not waste a single part of my story. He gathered the experiences of my life and transformed them into a calling that could serve others.

As I step into the world with a new vision and mission in Christ, my hope is simple: that I please God, love my neighbor as myself, faithfully answer His call, and remain humble enough to follow His guidance one step at a time.

I do not know everything this calling will require or everywhere it will lead. But I know the One who called me, and I trust the still, small voice that brought me here.

I thought God was teaching me how to coach.

All along, He was preparing me to Coach with Him.

And it is the most glorious adventure of my life.