It’s not unusual to have doubts about your purpose in life, especially if you are a woman. However, God has a purpose for you and sees more in you than likely you do. 

When life gives you lemons, hold more faith and hope in God. He is preparing something better for you. You, being a woman leader, are more than what you see and think. You are a woman, ready to conceive a clear vision, and you will make a change in the world.  This is how God sees you.

Natasha Oquendo is an enthusiastic transformational speaker, author, mentor, and life coach and has been in the public speaking arena for many years. She inspires persons in areas of personal development, work-life balance, self-help, entrepreneurship, and spiritual empowerment. She is the CEO of Powerful Life Institute with a Bachelor’s Degree in Ministry. She pastors Flow of the Spirit International Ministries alongside her husband. Her ability to balance both her professional achievements and personal spiritual development has made her a subject matter expert regarding seeking, obtaining, and maintaining a satisfying holistic life.

In this episode, Natasha shares how God sees you and the power you hold as a businesswoman leader. She also talks about how trials and tribulations are God’s way of preparing you for something greater– achieving your life’s purpose.

What you will learn from this episode:

  • Discover the purpose God has given you as a woman through the application or work of your faith
  • Learn why is important to keep the faith and be empowered as a woman in life and in work
  • Understand how the trials and tribulations you’re enduring are God’s preparation for your assignment

 

“When a woman comes on the scene and puts her hands to work, it has the power to reproduce, it has the power to go to the next level, it has the power to be advanced. We are multipliers— that is in us to do.”

-Natasha Oquendo

 

Valuable Free Resource:

Topics Covered:

02:21- What Natasha does professionally aside from being a pastor

03:12 – Natasha shares why she decided to write her book, Invitation 2 Queendom: Seven Keys to Unlock Your God-given Superpower

04:42 – How does God view us, women, then and now?

06:58 – Natasha explains the limitations and restrictions on what women can do while being in God’s favor

08:26 – What are the God-given superpowers?

09:38 – What are the hints that God is giving you an assignment?

12:36 – Natasha explains what are the different ways you can hear God’s wisdom on the trials and tribulations you’re experiencing in life

14:00 – How can you be alert and know when will God entrust you with an assignment?

16:19 – Is women empowerment part of God’s plan for the time of women?

18:38 – Natasha’s heartfelt message for you: “I know as women we deal with a lot. We wear many hats. And sometimes we feel like we’re going under the radar or being overlooked. But I just want to speak life into the women on here, the women of faith that are listening and even those who may not feel like they have faith right now. No matter what’s going on in your life, I decree over your life, that you shall be empowered when you listen to this and that the Spirit of the Lord will give you clarity like never before.”

Key Takeaways:

“He gives us that power to accomplish different things while He’s walking with us that we could not accomplish maybe on our own without Him.” – Natasha Oquendo

“There is no limit on what you can accomplish, especially when God has given you the assignment and He gives you the grace to complete it.” – Natasha Oquendo

“I don’t believe that there is any limit on what we can achieve because God is with us. But I do believe that we need to respect maybe the limitations that will cause us because we are women, we’re more delicate.” – Natasha Oquendo

“Your assignment is not going to really be much different than what you’ve already been doing.” – Natasha Oquendo

“There’s somebody that God is raising you up, who’s going to see what you’re doing and see how you’re navigating. And it’s going to impact them. You will know them because you have been there.” – Natasha Oquendo“I declare that you will have ideas because you have a womb and therefore you can conceive, you will have a vision, and you will have ideas and plans and everything will be clear to you.” – Natasha Oquendo

Ways to Connect with Natasha Oquendo:

Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown:

 

Full Episode Transcript:

Natasha Oquendo  00:00  

There is no limit on what you can accomplish, especially when God has given you the assignment, and he gives you the grace to complete it. Oh, yes, I don’t believe there are any limitations on that part.

Sarah E. Brown  00:20  

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women, where we talk about the challenges senior female leaders face in being happy and successful at work. I’m your host, Dr. Sarah E. Brown. 

Sarah E. Brown  00:39  

So we’re going to talk about something different today. I’m a Christian. And I’m also a big advocate of women’s empowerment, at work and everywhere else in life. And so we’re going to explore today with the author, Natasha Oquendo, what God says about women’s empowerment. And so I’m really excited about this! Natasha is an enthusiastic transformational speaker, author, and mentor. She’s a life coach and has been in the public speaking arena for many years. She inspires persons in areas of personal development, work-life balance, self-help, entrepreneurship, and spiritual empowerment. She’s the CEO of Powerful Life Institute, and she has a bachelor’s degree in ministry, so she co-pastors a church with her husband, and the name of the church is Flow of the Spirit International Ministries. But she has also written a book, which is just being released this month, called, Invitation 2 Queendom: Seven Keys to Unlock your God-given Superpowers. So Natasha, welcome, and thanks for joining me today. 

Natasha Oquendo  02:05  

Oh, Sarah, how are you? 

Sarah E. Brown  02:08  

I am good. And I’m so excited to be having this conversation! So I read it in your bio, but just back up a minute and tell us a little bit more about what you’re doing professionally right now.

Natasha Oquendo  02:21  

Well, I’m in the speaking, of course, and then I’m doing coaching, and consulting. I help women who feel stuck, and unfulfilled in life. I help them to ignite their power, and to help them to reach their fullest potential. And this is in areas of ministry and areas of life, relationships, and even business. And so it has been amazing, just making an impact in the lives of women right now.

Sarah E. Brown  02:49  

So women being stuck, being stuck in their careers is what got me into my work, so this is pretty interesting. And you’re going at it from different dimensions than the way I typically approach it, so I’m excited about this. But you’ve also written a book! And I want to know, well, tell us a little bit about the book and why you decided to write it.

Natasha Oquendo  03:12  

Well, I knew that I had a powerful message, and I wanted it to get out, and the Lord actually gave me. He told me to write the book. I was getting ready to put on another conference, another Women’s Conference, and in the midst of trying to get that conference going, it seemed like everything was shutting down, and I didn’t understand. I said, “Well, Lord, why is it shutting down?” He said, “I need you to write this book first.” And so I shut my life down and really got focused to write the book. And I wanted to help women through the process with their faith, the different things that they will encounter, while they’re walking in their faith, the different things that will happen. And because I didn’t have anybody to really just take my hand and just really inform me, “This is going to happen. And when this happens, you should do this.” And to recognize these different keys, to recognize these different signs, to see where you are in your faith, to see where you need to go into your next level of faith– so it’s to take you from faith to faith, as the Bible says. I also wanted to help women know that there is somebody that knows what they have been through because I’m a woman, experienced all the things that we experienced being women, and to be able to share God’s perspective on how He views us, and where we need to be in Him.

Sarah E. Brown  04:40  

So how does He view us?

Natasha Oquendo  04:42  

Well, He doesn’t view us the way the world views us, I’ll say that, and He doesn’t handle us the way the world handles us. I don’t know about you, but sometimes even like you’re talking about in the business arena, ministry, and just life in general, it kind of feels like we’re at the bottom of the totem pole sometimes. And sometimes it feels like we’re overlooked. It feels like we’re underappreciated, maybe. And our value isn’t viewed as high as God has placed value on us. And so when God gives us this empowerment, which He has been doing all throughout the Bible– we saw it with Queen Esther, we saw it with Jesus’s Mother Mary, how he favored her– and so he has always been favoring, and empowering women, all throughout history. And so now when He gave me this message, He talked about it as we were in the time of the woman, and this was a few years ago. And he showed me signs with even President Obama, his wife, Michelle, how she was in the spotlight quite a bit. And she wasn’t just this silent first lady like we’re used to seeing, you know. She was more so outgoing, and she was very vocal about her role and her position. And also, with the woman becoming vice president. That was another sign, of how she was stepping into that position. We had never seen that before– seeing women become millionaires and billionaires like never before, having businesses starting from scratch and businesses being successful, being in position, high power positions, on their jobs, and being very successful at it. And so these different things are rising. And I believe it is because God has favored us in this hour. He is looking at us as women. He is putting the value and letting us put our value out there, so people can see, because I think a lot of times, as I say, we’ve been gone undervalued. We’ve been undervalued.

Sarah E. Brown  06:46  

Well, I certainly can resonate with that. I understand that. But do you think there are any limitations or restrictions on what women can or should do, and be in God’s favor at the same time?

Natasha Oquendo  06:58  

Well, when I think about the limitations, I think about, and I’m going to speak on it from two ways, limitations are good and bad– I’ll say that. From the bad perspective, we’ll put limitations on ourselves with the way we think and the way we view. I don’t believe that there is any limit to what we can achieve because God is with us. But I do believe that we need to respect maybe the limitations that will cause us because we are women, we’re more delicate. And those limitations that will cause us and that’s where we hear a lot of the self-care, and the self-love coming into play, and being able to say “no”, being able to put up boundaries, and things of that nature. So I believe when it comes to those things, limitations are fine. I know when I was going through this process, God let me know I could delegate things out. I didn’t have to know everything. I didn’t have to be able to do everything! And so getting in that position where you can delegate, where you don’t have to feel bad if you have a weakness or whatever the case, but there is no limit on what you can accomplish, especially when God has given you the assignment and He gives you the grace to complete it. Oh, yes! I don’t believe there are any limitations on that part.

Sarah E. Brown  08:20  

So you talk a lot, in your book, about God-given superpowers, what are they?

Natasha Oquendo  08:27  

Well, it really I talked about one. To me, it’s one main superpower, and that is “favor with God”. As a woman, when we yield ourselves, the women of faith, when we yield ourselves to God, and God is with us, and He grants us a favor, we get in that position of having favor with God, then there are no limits to what we can accomplish. There are no limits to– what is it? All things are possible to those who believe, right? And so at that place of favor, He gives us different assignments and different things that we need to accomplish. Right? And so in that is such a superpower. Think about this. God is, He has access to all over the world. We don’t at one time, but He does, so that makes him super. And the Bible says that He has all power. So He gives us that power to accomplish different things while He’s walking with us that we could not accomplish maybe on our own without Him if that makes sense. Right?

Sarah E. Brown  09:30  

So, how will I know that God’s giving me an assignment, for example?

Natasha Oquendo 09:38

Well see, this is the thing when he gives you an assignment, as you’re going through that process, and this is what I know to be true. He prepares you for it. Meaning you may experience some of the negativity that may come with that assignment, meaning the things that could hinder you. I know a lot of times when we were going through negativity, we don’t understand it, but it was to prepare us for the assignment. It makes me think about when Jesus said that He had already been tried and tested, right? And so God tries and tests us through a little bit of trials and a little bit of challenges, and a little bit of things that we may have to tweak and change concerning us to prepare us for the place. And so I knew that this was an assignment because I had been having experiences dealing with women— the good, the bad, and the ugly— in situations concerning them. And then getting over into things myself and dealing with myself as a woman. Different challenges, like being on platforms. I’ve been on platforms where I was the only woman on the platform before. I’ve been on a TV broadcast, where I was the only woman that preached, and I was the only woman on the roster. So I know what it feels like. I know the nervousness that comes. I know feeling less than or feeling, you know, or being handled a certain way. And so all of these things prepare us for the assignment. And it’s so weird how that happens, the very things that you experienced and that you’re going through will be the very things that you have the experience to help somebody else and impact their lives. And so I found it to be that way that I find my assignment.

Sarah E. Brown 11:27

Hi, this is Sarah Brown, again, the host of the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women. I hope you are enjoying this episode and gaining some tips and inspiration on how you can be happier, more successful, and experience less stress at work. If you would like to learn more about how you can take control of your career, and do it your way, visit sarahebrown.com. There you will be able to download a free chapter from my book, Let Your Personality Be Your Career Guide. It contains information and exercises on how you can identify your unique interests, strengths and needs, and translate that into career goals that are just right for you. Now back to this informative episode! Okay, so the trials and tribulations are, we can view as preparation for the actual assignment. But will we hear it as clearly as you heard it, that, “Go write a book”? Or are there other ways that we hear it?

Natasha Oquendo 12:36

Well, probably not right away, but there are other things that like, even my process, I remember I was 19 years old. And I used to my sister lived with me. I had a couple of young cousins live with me. They were young women, and they stayed with me for a time. I helped them. And, you know, nurtured them, taught them some things. And this went on and on. And then as I got into salvation and got into the church, the Lord had me to go to the prison, the women’s prison and I went out there and I volunteered, and I ministered and stuff like that. And so I did not know that I was called to help impact women, all of that time. And so when it came time for me, after being processed, and going through different things, it became really solid. It’s almost like He takes you on this journey to remember the different things that you’ve already done. Because your assignment is not going to really be much different than what you’ve already been doing. If that  makes sense. 

Sarah E. Brown 13:40

Okay. I get it. So for women in the business world, which is primarily my audience, and particularly women of faith in the business world, what should she think about to expand her faith journey and be on alert for that assignment?

Natasha Oquendo 14:00

Well, I think she should be thinking about it, because you know, how it is. We get into something and we think about the money aspect. And we think about legacy and all of that because that is the going thing, but there comes a time where all of that kind of- you get used to that and you kind of maneuver in that. And then now you have to think about, “Who am I called to? Who exactly am I called to impact? Who am I called to be this leader or example to?” Because if we are women of faith and God has allowed us access into the business world, well, it makes sense because He told us to what? Be fruitful, multiply, and take dominion, right? And so there has to be something specific, though, in your assignment that He’s giving you and somebody specifically, meaning a certain demographic of people. Who are you to impact? Who are you to be that leader to or that example that they can see, “Wow, if she’s doing it, I can do it. If she’s making a change, I can make a change.” And so-

Sarah E. Brown 15:08

So would it be fair to say, just to be on alert to who you can help? Is it?

Natasha Oquendo 15:14

Exactly!

Sarah E. Brown 15:15

Okay.

Natasha Oquendo 15:16

Who you can serve. There’s a demographic of people specifically, that you may be assigned to serve. No different than I. Didn’t you say you were serving women who were unfulfilled and stuck? Do you get what I’m saying? There’s somebody that God is raising you up who’s going to see what you’re doing and see how you’re navigating. And it’s going to impact them. Do you know what I’m saying? Then you have to find that specific thing, that niche, almost, of who you are called specifically to impact. And when you find it, you will know it, because you will know them. It’s almost like it will be prophetic. You will know them because you have been there.

Sarah E. Brown 16:00

Got it. Okay. All right. That’s pretty clear! So you talked about this being the time for women. Is what you called it?

Natasha Oquendo 16:11

I called it the time of the woman.

Sarah E. Brown 16:14

Time of the woman. So is women’s empowerment a part of that?

Natasha Oquendo 16:19

Oh, yes. Oh, yes, I’ve seen I’m watching God even. I don’t know if we’re looking at it. Even within the news. We’re seeing God go back. And they’re moving the statute of limitations for women who had been mishandled and abused, and things of that nature. And they’re going back and getting their cases and they’re being vindicated to some degree. So we see the woman being vindicated. We see the woman being raised up different women are rising up literally becoming millionaires, billionaires, becoming CEOs, and running businesses proficiently, and I believe God has empowered us because I want to say this, the Bible talks about this, and it’s in First Corinthians one, in 11. It’s in First Corinthians 11, when it says, “Neither is independent of the other. There is no woman independent of the man, and the man is not independent of the woman.” And the reason is that God has given us this ability to conceive. And when we think about conception, we think about getting pregnant. But when you look at the definition, it means to envision. It means to envision an ideal or a plan, right? And so not only did He give us that ability to conceive as women, but He gave us the ability to give birth. So when you call a woman, when a woman comes on the scene and puts her hands on a work, it has the power to reproduce. It has the power to go to the next level. It has the power to be advanced. We are multipliers— that is in us to do. And so anytime we’re involved, anytime you need a vision, even Jesus knew that with his ministry. He had women that were helping what? Advance His ministry? He had the woman at the well. She did what? Advanced his ministry. The apostle Paul, he had women who what? Help advance the ministry. So anytime it’s time to go to the next level. And I believe that’s why God says it is our time because it’s time for advancement.

Sarah E. Brown 18:28

Oh, very cool! So that’s an empowering concept right then and there. Natasha, what should I have asked you that I didn’t?

Natasha Oquendo 18:38

Well, I would say this, you should ask me to speak life into the listeners that are on here today.

Sarah E. Brown 18:47

Please do.

Natasha Oquendo 18:49

I just want to speak life. I know as women we deal with a lot. We wear many hats. And sometimes we feel like we’re going under the radar or being overlooked. But I just want to speak life into the women on here, the women of faith that are listening and even those who may not feel like they have faith right now. No matter what’s going on in your life, I decree over your life, that you shall be empowered when you listen to this and that the Spirit of the Lord will give you clarity like never before. Because you may say, “Okay, I have a vision but I don’t have clarity. I don’t know how to make this thing come to pass. I don’t know how to give birth to it.” Well, I declare that you will have ideas because you have a womb and therefore you can conceive. You will have a vision, and you will have ideas and plans and everything will be clear to you. Even in the workplace, you will be able to do it more proficiently even in whatever position you may be in, and you may maneuver in that position with opportunities like never before! I speak it, and I decree it, and I speak that you won’t be able to move anxiety, but that you will have peace. You will have peace as you maneuver in this season, that this season will be better and greater than any season you have ever experienced in your life. And I decree that over your life today.

Sarah E. Brown 20:21

And what can we say that’s better than that? Natasha, thank you so much for being with me. And for those of you listening, I want to commend her new book, Invitation 2 Queendom: Seven Keys to Unlock Your God-given Superpower. Natasha, thanks again.

Natasha Oquendo 20:39

Thank you so much for having me, Sarah!

Sarah E. Brown 20:42

Thanks for listening to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women. If you like what you’re hearing, please go to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave a review. And if you would like more information on how we can help women in your organization to thrive, then go to www.sarahebrown.com. You can sign up for our newsletter, read show notes and learn more about our podcast guests, read my blog, browse through the books, or contact us for a chat. Goodbye for now!

Sarah E. Brown
Sarah E. Brown

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