Faithful Shift Podcast

Sometimes the problem isn't that we don't know what God's asking of us — it's that we don't like the answer. In this Season 3 opener, Kendall walks through Jonah, the rich young ruler, and James 1 to draw the line between genuinely not knowing and dressing disobedience up as discernment. If something's been surfacing for months and you keep praying for more clarity instead of taking the next step, this one's for you. Four questions to help you sort it out, and the courage to actually move.

Scriptures Referenced:

• Jonah 4 (Jonah quoting God's words back at Him)
• Exodus 34:6 — "gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love"
• Mark 10:17–22 — The Rich Young Ruler ("Jesus looked at him and loved him," v. 21)
• James 1:22–24 — "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves"

Questions From the Episode:

The Four Questions to Sort It Out:

1. Has Scripture already spoken clearly on this?
2. Does the same conviction keep coming back?
3. Am I genuinely seeking wisdom, or hoping someone hands me permission to do what I already wanted?
4. If I couldn't get one more piece of information — ever — what would I already know to do?

The core question of the season: What would faithfulness look like here?

The main challenge question: What's the shift you already know you need to make?

Links:

• Join The Shift Collective: www.faithfulshift.com
• The Wellness Store: https://mymelaleuca.com/KendallAppleton

This is it — the last episode of this season, and I've been sitting on this news for weeks.

In this episode, I share:

• Two new callings I've stepped into: Kansas State Representative for Celebrate Recovery, and Campus Discipleship Leader at my church
• Why Faithful Shift is taking a two-month break — and why it's not a goodbye, it's a pruning season (I'll be writing and recording behind the scenes so we come back strong)
• Two things launching from Faithful Shift: a Designed on Purpose 1:1 coaching session, and The Shift Collective — a membership community for women done trying to grow alone, opening September 1 with a founding-member rate
• A quick overview of the Whole-Life Stewardship framework — the wheel with Christ at the center and seven areas we're called to steward around it
• A deep dive into Philippians 1:3-11 — Paul's prayer for the Philippian church, written from a prison cell, and the promise that carried me into this whole season: "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion."

If you only take one thing from this episode: the good work in your life isn't yours to finish. God began it, God carries it, God completes it — which means you're free to rest.

Thank you for an incredible season. I love you guys. I'm rooting for you.

Show notes / links

• 🌳 The free Whole-Life Check-In, The Shift Collective founding-member rate, and the Designed on Purpose coaching session — everything's linked at www.faithfulshift.com
• 📖 Scripture referenced: Philippians 1:3-11

"God is not asking you to become a different person. He's asking you to become a more surrendered version of the person He created you to be."

We made it to the final episode of Designed on Purpose — and this week we answer the question the whole series has been building toward: Now what?

You know your strengths. You've stared down some blind spots. You understand your wiring better than you did three weeks ago. So what do you actually do with all of it?

The answer is stewardship — and stewardship changes everything. This week we talk about what it looks like to appreciate your design without worshiping it, develop your strengths without depending on them, and grow toward Christlikeness without losing what makes you uniquely you.

Plus, the Designed on Purpose Coaching Session is officially open. Details below!

In this episode:

• Why comparing your wiring to someone else's makes you ineffective, not just miserable (Romans 12)
• Why Jesus doesn't fit into any personality framework — and what that reveals about who we're actually becoming like (Romans 8:29, Galatians 5)
• The difference between stewarding a weakness and excusing it
• Why your strengths aren't something to downplay (Romans 12:6, 1 Corinthians 12)
• The Parable of the Talents — and the quiet danger of playing it safe (Matthew 25)
• The Four Postures of Faithful Stewardship: Appreciate it. Develop it. Stretch it. Surrender it.
• What it means to be God's workmanship — His poem — created on purpose, for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10)

A question to sit with this week:
What has God entrusted to me that I'm not yet stewarding faithfully?

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Designed on Purpose Coaching Session — a 90-minute, one-on-one session covering your Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, APEST, and Working Genius, with a named growth edge, a 30-day action plan, and a personal written summary after the session. Sessions open August 1st — grab your spot now.
• Free Energy + Wiring Guide — yours when you join the newsletter, and a great starting point before your coaching session.

👉 Sign up for the Designed on Purpose Coaching Session or the newsletter at www.faithfulshift.com

The most dangerous blind spot isn't the one you have. It's the one you're unwilling to look at.

Here's what makes blind spots so sneaky: they almost never hide in your weaknesses. They hide right next to your greatest strengths. Confidence tips into arrogance. Discernment sharpens into criticism. Drive curdles into performance. The very thing God uses most in you becomes the very thing that trips you — and you're the last one to see it.

In Episode 2 of Designed on Purpose, I'm telling on myself: the pattern someone named in my leadership that I had a full defense ready for before they finished the sentence, the blind spot underneath my Enneagram 3 that took me years to face, and why feedback so often feels like an attack. We'll sit with Peter, Jonah, Martha, and Moses, ask the one question that changed how I think about growth — where am I least like Jesus? — and land on the most courageous prayer you can pray: God, show me what I can't see.

If someone's ever told you something about yourself that you swore wasn't true, and two years later realized they were right — this one's for you.

🎁 Free Energy + Wiring Guide: Small Faithful Shifts Can Change Your Life. Sign up for The Shift newsletter and it comes straight to your inbox — check your email and click confirm so it doesn't land in junk.

Jesus didn't die so you could become the healthiest version of your Enneagram type. He died so you could become more like Him.

I love personality assessments. The Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, Working Genius, APEST, StrengthsFinder, spiritual gifts inventories — I've taken all of them, probably twice. But somewhere between "this helps me understand myself" and "this explains why I don't have to change," we cross a line. A tool becomes a label. A label becomes an identity. And an identity becomes a cage.

In Episode 1 of the Designed on Purpose series, I'm getting honest about the low APEST score I used to dodge obedience, the Enneagram 3 tendencies I called "just how I am," and the Working Genius moment that changed how I see people. We'll talk about what assessments can actually do, what they can't, and the difference between self-awareness that ends in self-protection and self-awareness that ends in surrender.

If you've ever used a personality type to explain away something God might be asking you to change — this one's for you. Grab your coffee.

🎁 Free Energy + Wiring Guide: Small Faithful Shifts Can Change Your Life. Sign up for The Shift newsletter and it lands in your inbox — just check your email and click confirm so it doesn't get stuck in junk.

Some of the best leadership lessons don't come from a conference stage. They come from sitting in circles with people honest enough to tell the truth.

This week on Faithful Shift, Kendall makes the case that recovery isn't really about addiction — it's about transformation. And the same principles that free people from destructive cycles will free leaders from pride, isolation, performance, and burnout.

Whether you lead a team, a ministry, a family, a business, or just yourself, these five principles — inventory, humility, accountability, amends, and ongoing growth — will change how you lead. Grab your coffee, bring your notebook, and maybe prepare to be a little uncomfortable. That's where growth lives.

Get your free Weekly Reset Guide here: https://faithful-shift.kit.com/home 

Get your free 'Faithful Shift Weekly Reset' here: https://faithful-shift.kit.com/home

You've been showing up. You've been doing the work. So why don't you feel anything yet?

Part Two of this series picks up right where we left off — and gets into the questions nobody wants to sit with. What do you do when the dry season lasts longer than expected? What happens when your emotions are telling you one thing and God is asking something else? And why might "follow your heart" be some of the most dangerous advice you've ever been given?

In this episode, Kendall walks through what dry seasons are actually doing in you, why an untrained heart is not a reliable narrator, and what it really means to abide when abiding feels like absolutely nothing.

Because discipline doesn't just lead to desire. Over time, with faithfulness, it leads somewhere even better.

Delight was always the destination. And it's closer than you think.

"The things that once felt like effort eventually feel like home."

Scriptures Referenced in This Episode:

• Hebrews 12:11 — No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but later yields fruit
• Jeremiah 17:9 — The heart is deceitful above all things
• John 15:4 — Remain in Me, and I in you
• Psalm 37:4 — Take delight in the Lord

Get your free 'Faithful Shift Weekly Reset' here: https://faithful-shift.kit.com/home

You've been waiting to want it. But what if the wanting was never supposed to come first?

In this episode of Faithful Shift — inspired by a conversation in Kendall's Wednesday morning Coffee with Christ group — we're talking about one of the most misunderstood truths in the spiritual life: desire doesn't lead discipline. Discipline leads desire.

If you've been waiting to feel motivated before you pray, waiting to feel ready before you lead, waiting to feel healed enough before you start — this episode is your permission slip to stop waiting and start anyway.

We're digging into why nearly half of your daily life is already on autopilot and what that means for your growth, why the word "discipline" already told you exactly what it would cost you, and why the fruit you're desperate for is directly connected to where you're planted — not how hard you're trying.

This is Part One of a two-part series. And it starts with the thing nobody wants to hear:

You don't drift into depth. You dig.

Scriptures Referenced in This Episode:

• 1 Timothy 4:7-8 — Train yourself for godliness
• Galatians 6:9 — We will reap at the proper time if we don't give up
• Psalm 1:1-3 — The blessed person is like a tree planted by flowing streams

Get your free 'Faithful Shift Weekly Reset' here: https://faithful-shift.kit.com/home

You've been waiting on God. But what if God has been waiting on you?

In this episode of Faithful Shift, Kendall gets honest about one of the sneakiest ways fear keeps women stuck — and why we keep calling it wisdom. If you've been "almost ready" for three years, have seventeen browser tabs open about a dream you haven't started, or have ever asked God for just one more sign before you'll move — this one is for you.

We're talking about the danger of always needing clarity before you'll obey. The difference between Spirit-led waiting and spiritually-worded avoidance. And why God is far less interested in giving you a five-year plan than He is in teaching you to walk with Him one step at a time.

Because clarity is not a prerequisite for obedience. And the life you've been waiting to start? God already said yes.

"God is not withholding the plan. He's developing the person."

Scriptures Referenced in This Episode:

• Proverbs 3:5-6 — Trust in the Lord with all your heart
• Genesis 12:1 — God calls Abram to go to an unknown land
• Hebrews 11:8 — Abraham obeyed without knowing where he was going
• Exodus 4:11 — God's response to Moses: "Now go"
• 2 Corinthians 5:7 — We walk by faith, not by sight
• Isaiah 43:19 — God doing a new thing in the wilderness
• Psalm 119:105 — Your word is a lamp to my feet

Your feelings are real. But real isn't the same as reliable.

In this episode, we're digging into emotional reasoning, mood-driven spirituality, and what it actually looks like to be emotionally mature as a follower of Jesus. Because the goal was never to feel less — it's to feel deeply without letting your emotions run the show.

If you've ever quit something, sent that text, assumed the worst, or pulled away from God because of how you felt — this one's for you.

Key Scriptures: Jeremiah 17:9 | Psalm 42 | Galatians 5:16-25 | James 1:19-20 | Proverbs 25:28