Show Notes
Most of us are trying to force a harvest in a season that was meant for pruning. We claim to want the Promised Land, but we’re doing everything in our power to skip the wilderness. We want the fruit, but we’re terrified of the shears. In this episode of The Leader’s Cut, Preston Morrison sits down with Jabin Chavez (Lead Pastor of City Light Church, Las Vegas) to discuss the divine mechanics of the wilderness. We have become experts at producing results faster than God intended, creating "Ishmaels" because we aren't patient enough to wait for an "Isaac." But the principles of God's process are clear: if your character doesn't grow at the same rate as your capacity, your calling will eventually crush you. In this conversation, we’re breaking down the anatomy of God's process:
The Worshiper vs. The Warrior: Why your public influence is only as sustainable as your private devotion. The "Arm of the Flesh" Trap: Understanding why the flesh is always faster, but only the Spirit produces a promise that lasts. Don’t Move Without a Word: Why you should never do anything until you have first have God's word for that season. Success vs. Survival: How to protect your soul when the world’s goalposts of success won't stop shifting. The Math of the Kingdom: Why "subtraction" is almost always the prerequisite for the multiplication you’ve been praying for.
If you feel like you’re stuck in a "slow" season or a dark valley, stop trying to find the exit. This is a deep-dive into the heart of being a living sacrifice. God isn't ignoring you—He's just making sure you're ready for what’s next.
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: