Show Notes
Are you living out a name you didn't choose? What if the identity you’ve been carrying for years isn't actually yours? Most of us carry "labels,” names given to us by people in seasons of pain, by a past we can't change, or by a world that only sees our mistakes. In this episode of The Leader's Cut, we dive into the life-changing stories of Jacob and Benjamin to discover how God overrules the labels of the world to give us a new identity. In this episode, we’re uncovering:
The Ben-oni Trap: Why we often default to the labels given to us in our darkest moments, and the danger of letting your past define your future. The Father’s Overruling: When God steps into your story to change your name from "victim" to "victor." The Limp of Identity: Why Jacob had to lose a wrestle to gain a name—and why your greatest struggle might be the very thing that reveals who you truly are. The Final Word: How to stop answering to a name that God never called you. Your identity isn't something you create; it’s something you receive from the One who created you.
Are you ready to drop the labels? Join us as we explore how to step into the strength of who He says you are.
More from The Leader’s Cut with Preston Morrison
What would it look like to be so close to God that your own kids notice before anyone else does? Most of us treat intimacy with God like a discipline to maintain, something we fit in before the real work starts. Theo Koulianos flips that order. Before God ever gave Adam a job, He asked him to walk with Him. Everything else, the calling, the ministry, the family, is a byproduct of that walk, not a substitute for it. In this episode, Preston Morrison sits down with Theo Koulianos, husband, father, and co-leader with his wife Rachel of a ministry to marriages and families. Theo shares how a Greek Orthodox upbringing and a Holy Spirit who discipled him when no one else could built a foundation of first love, and how a knock on a dinner table changed his definition of success. In this episode:
Have you ever lost something you never let yourself grieve? Most of us think grief belongs at a funeral. But some of the deepest losses we carry are over a place we had to leave, a season that ended, or something we thought we’d have by now. And when grief has nowhere to go, it doesn’t disappear. It gets stored up, and it comes out somewhere else down the line. In this episode, Preston sits down with his best friend Tim Ross for a tender, honest conversation about what it looks like to grieve in a Godly way. Tim opens up about the four years he begged God to let him move back to California, and about losing his dad just days before his book tour began. Preston names the lie so many of us live under, “I have to be strong for my family,” and what it quietly teaches the people watching us. In this episode:
What's your part when God starts moving? Most of us think the answer is a plan. Lonnell Williams has the plan: he's the Executive Pastor of 2819 Church, the strategist in the room and sharpened in corporate America. And he'll tell you the plan isn't what's doing it. In this conversation, Preston sits down with Lonnell to talk about what it looks like to steward something only God can build, what it costs the people closest to it, and why consecration doesn't earn what God is doing; it just keeps you from getting in the way. In this episode:
Isolation isn't an assignment God gives. It's a choice we make, and it's costing you more than you think. You were never meant to carry the call of God by yourself. So why are you still trying? If you're carrying something heavy right now — a calling, a family, a business, a season you can't see the end of — and you've convinced yourself it's just supposed to be you and the Lord, this episode is for you Preston walks through what going it alone really reveals about us, what it quietly costs, and how to start leaning on the people God has already put around you. He speaks from experience, including the 40 days he shut everyone out and the two years it took to recover. In this episode…
What would you give up to keep God close? Preston has walked with Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe Carnes for more than 25 years, going back to the early youth ministry days. In this conversation, the three of them sit down to talk about Psalm 24, what it means to have clean hands and a pure heart, and what it has costs to protect that. Cody and Kari describe purity of heart as something closer to a garden, tended every day, one small weed at a time, because once you've felt God in the room, you never want to feel Him leave it. They're also honest that it costs you. The higher He takes you, the more it's going to cost. In this episode: