Hey, what's up, Champion?

This is your host, Neal, and I want to welcome you back to another podcast episode today.

I think this is going to be fire because I'm going to be talking to you about something that I believe will resonate with you, and it's what I refer to as the window of grace.

This is the period that God gives you within your life where you have moments to make decisions on the things he's called you to do.

We've all been given opportunities in life, some of us bigger than others.

But as you step out and show you're faithful with the little things, he'll continue to show up and give you the big things.

And your opportunities begin to grow and grow and grow as they scale up.

But in order for you to capitalize on this, you must understand your window of grace.

Guys, I'm fired up for today, and I hope you are, too.

Get ready.

This is your captain speaking.

We want to let you know we've.

Been cleared for takeoff.

We have clear skies today with no winds, so we are expecting a smooth and highly enjoyable flight.

However, should you experience some personal turbulence, don't worry as you've chosen the right airline.

As we are trained in navigating unexpected bumps, our destination today is high performance and success.

Sit back, relax, get hyped, or do whatever you do.

As we too are pumped for today's flight, we understand you have options when you fly, and we are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us today.

We recognize by choosing to fly nil Reyes, you are committed to growing personal development and reaching higher than you ever have before.

Enjoy today's flight.

Be blessed, and remember, the best is yet to come.

What's up, champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and.

I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective.

For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living?

Why?

Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing.

I'm an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership, and technology.

I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm.

My number one passion is people, and I receive significant gratitude in life from sowing into others and encouraging them as they grow to achieve their fullest potential.

If you're a high performance individual like me, or you're simply ready to take your business, leadership or inner potential to the next level, then strap in because I'm locked in and all in.

This is the Executive Perspective.

Hey, what's up, champions?

This is your host, Neal Reyes.

And I want to welcome you back to the Executive Perspective.

Today, I want to talk with you about a topic that I refer to as the window of grace.

If I was going to make this just a little more personal, I would actually call it your window of grace.

What is the window of grace?

Well, I've come to believe in my time, and I've seen this over and over, that everybody has a certain window of grace within their life to make certain decisions.

I believe that there's prudence and going before God and seeking him and listening.

I believe that there's wisdom and sometimes going before people trusted confidants that you trust and listening to them and hearing their reflections or their opinions on things whenever you have a major decision to make.

But at the same time, I believe that all people have what I refer to as a window of grace.

It's a period that I refer to as God's window of grace upon your life when he has asked or instructed you to do something.

And you have this window, a window of opportunity, if you would, to act on that thing.

Now, I want to remind you that here at the Executive Perspective, this podcast focuses on three main areas.

We focus on leadership, business strategy, and personal development.

And the window of grace, I believe, is something that's very timely, that can be applied to every one of those areas.

In fact, I believe, and I know this from experience, this is something that can be applied to every area of your life.

It can be applied to every area of your leadership, every area of your business, every area of your personal development.

This is such a personal and deep subject, but I also recognize that not everyone quite understands that, you know, sometimes people have sayings that, you know, it is what it is, or if it's meant to be, it'll happen.

But is that really the truth?

I mean, you may feel it is, and I'm not here to upend your beliefs, but let me challenge you with that for a minute, because remember, after all, I'm an advanced mindset coach.

And here on the Executive Perspective, we have one direction that we move.

We strive to move forward and upward.

That's right, Champion.

We move forward and upward.

And so today, I'm going to endeavor to help you move forward and upward in your mindset in the area of your window of grace.

You know, if you live by the philosophy of it is what it is.

And I will tell you that that's kind of a catchy saying.

It feels kind of, you know, deep.

It feels like it's kind of a prominent saying.

But really, what you're saying is that you don't have any control over your life.

And it is what it is.

Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and whatever will be, and if it's meant to be, it'll happen.

And while that may sound profound, that's not always accurate, especially not as a high performer.

Now, what I want to do is I want to help you understand why this is important.

You know, there are times within our life that God will give us an instruction of something he has called us to do.

He's given you instruction that something that you just know in leadership you're supposed to do, or as a leader you know you're supposed to do, or within your business.

Or maybe he's called you to start a business.

Maybe you're kind of confused because you're not sure whether if you're supposed to leave the job you're in to start the business all the way, or maybe he's been working this thing in you for a while and you're kind of struggling a little bit of what that next step is.

Maybe it scares you, you know, sometimes, and I heard this years ago, but sometimes when opportunities show up, they show up wearing overalls.

What do I mean by that?

Well, when an opportunity shows up and it's wearing overalls, that means that that opportunity shows up looking like work.

And sometimes people love to have good opportunities, but they want opportunities that require minimal effort.

They want opportunities that require minimal work.

They want things that require minimal focus.

And the reason why is because they want to escape by easy.

But I will tell you that when meaningful opportunities show up, usually they're accompanied in overalls because they're going to show up with meaningful work that needs to take place to achieve it.

You know, if it were easy, everybody would have it.

If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.

There's a reason why, when you go down the road or when you look at certain commercials or movies or things, you see certain people who have prominent things, whether if it's really nice vehicles or if it's they live in the really nice neighborhoods or they dress really nice or can take the extravagant vacations.

Now, certainly there's a lot of people out there who want to look rich or look prominent, but they're living credit card to credit card or paycheck to paycheck, because they're living on the outside by show, but they're really not making that much money to support all that.

So they're in debt up to their eyeballs.

But then you have another set of people that it looks like it just comes so effortlessly and so easy to.

And those, my friends, are the ones who are your highest performers.

Those are the people who have learned to figure out a system of how to advance and do more and be more.

But these are also the people that sometimes often understand their window of grace.

I'm telling you, this is a prominent thing that we're talking about today.

When you understand your window of grace, you understand that when God gives you an opportunity to do something, and if you're like, well, I don't really believe in God.

All right, Whenever you have any kind of an opportunity to do something, you have this window of when you can act and make that thing happen, or you can delay and watch it go by.

You know, I think of the adage or the story, and you've probably heard it before, but there was this person living in a home, and they got a really, really bad torrential rainfall, and a flood occurred.

And so this person goes up and they crawl up on their roof, and they're waiting.

And, you know, at first what happens is, you know, you have someone go by, and they're kind of all, like, on a.

Like a canoe, a kayak, but they have an extra space.

And as they're going by, they holler at the neighbor and they say, hey, hey, I've got room for you here.

Come here.

Jump on.

They're like, no, no, no, I got you.

I'm good.

God's going to save me.

Keep on going.

So then they're there, and that water is still rising and still rising, but they're still sitting on the roof.

And then a few minutes later, a boat goes by.

And when the boat comes by, that water's now at their feet, and they're no longer sitting on the roof.

They're standing on the roof.

And the boat says, hey, jump in.

Jump in.

We got you.

We'll take you to safety.

No, no, no, that's okay.

I got it.

God's going to rescue me.

And then a little bit later, a helicopter comes by, and they.

They think they see something in the water, and they hover back by, and they do.

There's this person with a head sticking out of the water, not waving arms or anything, but just a head sticking out of the water.

In other words, the water's risen so much, it's now up to the person's neck as they're standing on the roof.

And as the helicopter goes by, they manage to shout with the microphone, grab the ladder.

They drop a ladder, grab the ladder.

We'll save you.

And they hear the person shout back, that's okay, God's going to save me.

Keep on going.

Well, what happens at the end of this story?

Well, the person drowns.

Why?

Because they didn't recognize the help that they had.

They didn't recognize their multiple windows of opportunity.

And really it was one window of opportunity.

But within that one window of opportunity, they had multiple chances to be able to be rescued and taken to dry land.

Land.

First they had the kayak that came by, then they had the boat that came by, then they had the helicopter.

But each time they were unable to understand the opportunity before them because they were waiting out on something different that they were expecting within their mind.

You know, oftentimes in life we'll pray for opportunities, or we'll pray for God to show up and do something big in our life to give us the new job, to give us the promotion, give us the business idea.

Sometimes you might pray and ask God for a million dollar idea.

Sometimes it's bigger than that.

It's the hundred million dollar idea, whatever it is for you.

But then when the opportunity shows up, sometimes it's hard to recognize because you were expecting it to come dressed different.

You know, when the opportunities show up and they show up wearing overalls, if you're expecting it to show up in a tuxedo or an evening gown, well, guess what?

You're not going to recognize what that opportunity looks like or that window of grace looks like because you were expecting something different in your mind.

In other words, with your mind.

You put conditions on this thing.

And as you put conditions on it, you had preformed notions, you had preformed thoughts of what this thing was going to have to look like, of what it would feel like, what it would make me taste like, what the experience would be like.

You had different expectations of what it would look like.

You know, in your mind.

Maybe you're saying, God, I want you to give me a million dollar idea.

And what happens if he turns around and gives you a business of nothing but dirty, dingy laundromats?

Well, if you know anything about business, those can be highly successful businesses.

But if that's not what you were wanting and what you really wanted was some type of elaborate company with fancy offices and fancy clientele, well, it's not that he can't give you that, but if what his purpose and plan for you, at least to get the first million was to turn around and start with the laundromat, but that shows up looking like it's wearing overalls and you were expecting the tuxedo or you were expecting the evening gown, then you're never going to step out and do that.

And as you say no with your actions, now listen up because this is important.

There's a way that you can say no with your words, but there's a different way where you can say no with your actions.

If even in your words you use the word yes, but your actions say no, meaning you don't do what it takes to seize that opportunity.

If you don't do what it takes to seize that moment, then what happens in that case is you will miss your window of grace.

You know, I can think of a while back, and that's actually a minister that I'm aware of, where he had actually was called by God to start this television network.

And it's actually a television station that he started.

I won't tell you what state or city, but he started a television station.

And when God spoke to him and he stepped out to do this thing that God had called him, God had a heart to heart, candid conversation with him one day.

And the heart to heart, candid conversation.

And he was inquiring of God about why he had chose him out of all the different people, why he could choose him to go and start this television network.

And what God ended up telling that person, I think was surprising for them.

God said, I want you to understand, you actually weren't my first choice for this.

In fact, you weren't my second or my third or my fourth.

In fact, you were my sixth choice for this situation.

But the five that I talked to previously, not one of them listened to me.

But this is something that I wanted done and this was something that I needed done.

And even when I went to each one of those people, when I went to the first one and he didn't listen, so I then had to go to the second one and the third one and the fourth one.

It doesn't mean that you're not called and that I'm not going to qualify you by calling you.

But you weren't my first choice for this thing because I had another chosen.

But I went through five.

Not just one, but I went through five.

Count that.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I went through five different people before I came to you and finally found the one who would say, yes, man, that's a profound, profound statement.

And what I will tell you is that this person has a very successful television station.

Now.

Has it been easy?

Don't know.

You'd have to ask them.

I would imagine that has probably shown up looking like overalls, like it was wearing overalls.

And it's been a lot of work for that individual.

But I also know that it's probably been very rewarding for them as well.

But to start a television station, I mean, this person had no idea or concept of what it would take to start a station.

And from what I understand, it was never in their heart.

But God talked to five different people before he finally talked to this one.

And the one said a simple word.

Yes.

Or maybe it's a simple phrase.

Yes, Lord.

Did it mean that he wasn't afraid?

Not necessarily.

But sometimes when you're scared, it means doing it even though you're scared.

That's what courage really is.

Doing it even when you're scared, doing it even when you're intimidated, doing it even when you don't quite know where that thing's going to go or how it's going to end up.

But just knowing because you know that you know that you know inside of you that this is something you're supposed to do, it means stepping out and doing it anyway.

Stepping out in courage.

Think about that for a second.

Five people the Lord went to before this individual.

Man, I'm going to tell you that I don't want that to be the case with my life.

I can think of things that God has told me to do in the past, and some of them I jumped on and did right away.

But others I delayed, I took my time and sometimes I even ran from for a little while.

But it was just by his grace that I was finally able to connect with it and just step out, encourage and do the thing.

If there's something that you're running from in your life right now, whether that be a decision you need to make in leadership or an opportunity in leadership that's staring you in the face, if it's something with your business, something that you're supposed to be doing either in the business you work in or in the business you own, or God's calling you to step out and do a business, you got to step out and do that thing.

Or if it's something in your personal development, maybe he's instructing you to go back to school or get the certification.

Or maybe he's telling you he wants you to do the thing for your personal development, get in the gym, start a new workout routine, lose some weight, build some muscle, go enter and run a marathon, something.

But whatever it is he's calling you to do, stop running and start running towards it.

Stop running away from it and start running towards it.

Because if you don't, you may miss your window of grace.

Now, I want to talk to you about why it's so important to catch your window of grace.

You know, this isn't a Bible study by any means, but I do give biblical references because that's what my leadership knowledge is based on.

It's based on.

Now, I have a lot of experience in leadership.

I have over 28 years of management experience and over 15 years at the executive level.

And what I will tell you is that I've learned a lot of things in the world and not everything was biblically based on my leadership, but everything I've ever learned in leadership that's been true.

I've been able to go back and find in God's word and pull principles in there that actually showed me how to do it even better.

And so I would tell you that if you study Moses, when he was leading the Hebrews out of captivity from the Egyptians, you know, when Pharaoh finally softened his heart and Moses was leading them out, what happened was Pharaoh and the Egyptians changed their mind and then went after to pursue the Hebrews to get them to come back and be their slaves.

But God had rescued them from captivity.

And so what happened is God had raised this cloud.

It was a pillar.

And this cloud they weren't able to enter.

It was a cloud that separated them.

It separated the Hebrew camp from the Egyptian camp.

And if you know the story, the Hebrews look like to be trapped on land because their backs were to the Red Sea.

And if you know the story, the sea parted and they made it safely through to the other side.

But here's what I want you to hear about the story.

In this story, God formed this cloud.

And here's how the Hebrews knew when it was time to move.

When the cloud stopped, the Hebrews stopped.

It was time to rest.

But when the cloud moved, the Hebrews had to move.

When you have your window of grace within your life, when you have God speaking to you within your life, and he's given you this window of grace, if you're just starting to learn how to hear his voice, or you're just starting to learn like, what exactly does this mean?

Here's your simple thing to follow.

When the cloud moves, you move.

And when it stops, you stop.

Another way to say it's when it stops, don't keep going, rest.

But when that cloud starts moving, rest time's over, you better get up and move.

Even if you don't feel like it, even if it means you went to bed later than you should have, and now you got to get up early and you got to work.

What doesn't matter, because when the cloud moves, it's not always going to move based on your convenience or based on your schedule.

The cloud will move based on the window of opportunity that God knows is right for you.

And the window that he knows will lead to your success.

And what your job to do in those moments is to listen, to watch, to follow, and to move.

I'm going to say that again.

To listen, to watch, to follow and to move.

You have to become sensitive to those leadings and guidings of the Holy Spirit.

And as you do that, you look for your windows.

And that's what it means to watch for your window of grace.

How many opportunities maybe have already passed you by?

I hope that's not the case, but is there a business, maybe an awesome business that God gave you that you could have done or you should be doing, but perhaps it went to someone else?

You know, I will tell you that back when I was going to college and for my technology degree, because I went to college more than once, but for my technology degree, I remember I had a school assignment that we had to do.

And in it we had to come up with the paper we had to write, but we had to come up with a technology invention that if we were to contribute to the world and create a technology invention at that exact point, what would it be?

What would we contribute?

Well, what I happened to do in this paper is I wrote this paper that I said, man, I had prayed about this thing and this thing came on me so strong.

And what I had wrote about was I said what I would do to make a cool technology type invention or something awesome is.

And I wrote this whole paper and drew this story up of how when people would travel and they liked going to another city to go visit, that when they were in that other city driving around in their rental car or if they drove their vehicle over there, what the first thing that people did was they would go to the radio station and they would go look for whatever radio station was in that area.

And for whatever reason, especially when you come from a small town, it always seemed like the best radio stations were in the big towns.

It just seemed like, and it's probably part of it was your hype for being on the vacation, but it just seemed like the music was so good, the DJs were better, the music was better.

And so I said what I would do is I would Create a technology where you could turn around and put it in your car.

But that technology would have the ability to connect to any radio station that existed anywhere in the world.

And that what you'd be able to do is you'd be able to.

While you're driving down your road, let's say you lived in Chicago, you could be listening to a station based out of Houston, Texas.

Or if you're driving in Los Angeles, you could be listening to a station out of Miami or out of Texas.

Or if you're in Nebraska, you could be listening to something out of, you know, San Diego or something.

But you'd be able to listen to any station you wanted at any time.

And I'm giving you the 10,000 foot view of this thing, maybe 30,000 foot view.

But I wrote this whole paper out with the business plan with it, man.

My instructor was like, man, that sounds awesome.

I would love that, man.

I'm not going to tell you how many years that goes ago that was.

But that was before XM or Sirius Radio came out.

And that was long before something like Tunein Radio or iheartradio came out.

I had that thought that was probably a hundred million dollar idea, probably more than that.

And I even had it on paper where I was able to write it out.

This thing was so strong that when I wrote this, I felt like I was vibrating when I was writing this plan out and I submitted it and I got the A, praise God.

But you know what I didn't get?

I didn't get off of that idea, the hundred million, because I didn't do anything with it other than generate a great idea.

Now what if that was something that God had given me while I was going to school?

How many great software inventions or technology inventions or something were done while students were going to school?

I had this epiphany of what I could do and I never did anything with it.

I will tell you that at that time I thought about it quite a bit, but part of it was I couldn't see doing it because I didn't have the means to physically do it.

Whether it be because I was still learning things and didn't have all the knowledge at the time, or because I didn't have the finances at the time.

But those are the easy parts.

God would have brought me the people I needed if I just would have stepped out.

Now fast forward about a year later and I'm still in school, but I'm working on my degree, getting ready to finish.

And I remember I'm at the Gym one day.

And this was around the time that the little MP3 players came out, and they were real popular.

And way back then, you know, you kind of clip them on your arm, or if, you know, you could put them on your waist or something, clip them on your pocket or something.

But I'd wear mine on an armband around my arm, and I'd go work out.

And I remember having this idea one day.

You know what would be a really, really cool idea is if you were able to take.

And I pulled out my flip phone, cell phone.

But if you were able to take your.

And if you were somehow able to connect that, combine that with the MP3 player, or instead of having to carry multiple devices, you could have one device that you can make your phone calls from and you can listen to your MP3s.

But I'll take it a step forward.

You know what I would do to even make that even better?

I would put a camera on it.

That way you could always all take pictures if you wanted to.

Gosh, I got to tell you, at this time, this early, early, early stage, this is right around the time that blackberries were barely starting to come out.

This is how long ago this was.

And this was long before the first iPhone or Samsung phone came out.

Smartphones came out.

And I remember later on, after those MP3s were coming out, then came out the ipod.

And I remember that's when I had the idea.

I was holding my ipod in my hand, and I'm thinking, man, if I could combine this with the phone and stick a camera on this, this would just change the world.

You want to know what I'm holding in my pocket today?

Well, now, not right now, but when I walk around in my pocket, I walk around with my invention every single day, and I use it all day long.

But you want to know whose name's on the patent?

It's not, Neil.

Because I didn't go build this amazing idea that God had for me.

You know, if my family's listening to this, you know, my mom likes to listen to my podcast.

Thank you, mom.

My mom and my dad do.

Thank you, parents.

But when they listen to this, they probably don't even know the story because I've never told it to them.

These are things that God gave me in my heart.

Now, I would tell you that if I get an idea like that today, well, I'm in a different place today.

I actually have the knowledge now to understand how to bring some of those things to pass.

I have the understanding in the network.

And if I don't have it.

I know how to go get it.

But one of the biggest things I have is the understanding of how the window of grace operates.

You know, I'm going to tell you that those are still amazing ideas, the ideas that God gave me for those things, for those inventions way back in the day.

They were just as amazing then as they are today.

The only difference between then and now is that someone's already invented them now.

But the idea is just as profound today as it was way back then.

But the difference is that someone's already done it.

And if I were to go do those things now, the impact is not the same because it already exists in the world.

Now, yes, sometimes you can take an idea and figure out how to make it even better and go do that.

But for ideas like that, think of how late to the market I would be if I come out with that today.

You know, these were amazing ideas that God gave me, but I just didn't act on them, man.

These are profound things.

But here's the biggest thing I have now.

Over all of that, I now have a clearer understanding of how a window of grace operates.

I now have a better understanding of what a window of grace means, not just to me and in my life, but what it means to God.

And I'm transferring that knowledge to you in this podcast.

I'm trying to help convey that knowledge of what a window of grace is and means to you.

Man, I'm telling you, that's powerful.

You know, I don't regret not doing those things.

There was a period where I did for a while, but I don't regret not doing those things.

But you know what I do regret?

I regret not acting when God gave me a thing to act on.

And when I say I regret it, it's not something that bothers me.

I've already repented for those things.

I'm freed from that.

I have forgiveness over it.

But the reason why I have regret over it, and I say regret, I should correct my words because it's not something I'm living in regret.

But the reason why that doesn't set right with me, even though I have forgiveness over it, is because by not listening in some way, I showed God that what he thought was important enough to care about me, to show me I didn't esteem highly enough to seek him for the wisdom to know how to do.

You know, if you're facing something in your life today, it may be something that God's calling you to step out and do, but that thing scares you and kind of shakes you a little bit because it seems way too big for you to do on your own.

That's how you know it's a God thing.

That's how you know it's a God idea or a dream from God.

Because he rarely gives you things that are easy that you can do on your own.

The things that he gives you, the dreams and ideas he gives you, there's no way to complete those without his divine help because it keeps you relying on him, which means it keeps you centered with knowing he's the Master and he's the source.

If there's something that you know you're supposed to do today, or if there's something you've been dragging your feet on, then I want to encourage you, Champion, to get up and go get it.

I believe in you.

I believe that you have greatness on the inside of you.

You just need to cultivate it so that it can be seen by others on the outside.

You wouldn't be listening to podcasts like this, even if it's by accident, but you wouldn't be listening to podcasts like this.

Personal development and growth weren't important to you.

You wouldn't be listening to podcasts like this if touching and connecting with greatness, your greatness for your life wasn't important to you.

It resonates with people like you.

It resonates deep on the inside that you know you've been called for something more.

You know you've been called to do something great.

I believe in you, Champion.

All you got to do is step out and trust God with that thing.

And even if you're scared, do it anyways.

You got to step out and smash that thing and understand you have greatness inside of you.

You just need to cultivate it so that those on the outside can see it as well.

Guys, I want to and and we're going to stop today's podcast on that, but I want to invite you to swing by our website@neal Reyes.com.

this is the best place I can direct you to where you can find all of our teaching material to help you grow and build yourself up.

In addition to that, if you're liking this podcast, then I want to encourage you to leave us a review to share it, to like it, leave it a rating, share it with someone else so that you that you believe it'll help and benefit, but it will also open up windows of conversation for you guys to speak about the things that mean something to you and mean something to them.

Guys, I want to thank you for taking time to stop by and grow with us today.

As always, I want to remind you that I believe in you and I want to encourage you to go out and smash it today.

Thank you and have a blessed day.