Story of Unity Set to Publish Out of Grander Vision Ignited at the GLS

The Global Leadership Network’s premier two-day leadership event of the year has been held annually in August for the last 25+ years. Recognized as one of the largest leadership events of its kind, The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) brings leaders and aspiring leaders together from around the world. Through the GLS, many of these leaders gain something far more than leadership insights—they gain a new understanding for what God is inviting them to do through their lives—they discover the spark within them waiting to be fanned to flame.

This is what happened when N. Ford attended the GLS for the first time with her dad and brother. “Although I’ve always had an interest and curiosity around transformative leadership, being the young female of the group, I wasn’t sure the GLS was targeted for me,” said N. Ford. “But it didn’t take long to realize the Summit is for everyone—even me.”

A Journey Toward a Grander Vision

Yet, while the event was inspirational and moving, what happened through N. Ford’s experience led her on a journey of discovering the grander vision God already sparked within her, one she didn’t even fully recognize at first. “I left my first Summit with a notebook full of scribbled ideals I wanted to remember and leverage over the coming year,” said N. Ford. “What happened though, is what happens to many of us when we hear from highly successful, high-achieving, greatly inspirational people—we get overwhelmed. Ideas, inspiration, and vision turn into paralysis and eventually fizzle out. And although all that happened, it didn’t stop me from attending the GLS the following year, or the one after that.”

With faithful persistence and openness to what God had in store, N. Ford kept exploring. “In August of 2015, I had a relationship end, a job end, and I was out of resources,” said N. Ford. “It was in that mess that the Lord asked me to write, and He gave me a story. I was faithful to start it, but when it got hard, I quit. I started again, but that time I didn’t get much encouragement from others. I tried again and couldn’t maintain the grit it took to keep at it.”

A Dangerous Prayer

At her wits end, N. Ford had an experience at the Summit in 2019 that changed the trajectory of her journey. “The overall theme of the GLS that year held a consistent tone for vision,” said N. Ford. “‘Leaders need vision,’ I wrote down several times in my notebook. I kept pacing back and forth, praying. I kept saying, ‘Lord, I don’t have vision. How can I lead well if I don’t have vision? I’ll do anything you want me to do. Take my life. Give me vision.’ That’s a dangerous prayer!”

It was never about writing a book, it was about the consistent, gritty, broken road to perpetual obedience.

This is the part of the story where you would think God gave N. Ford a grander vision. But it’s not. In fact, it’s the moment where God reminded N. Ford of the vision she already had. “I didn’t get a vision from the Lord after I prayed that prayer,” said N. Ford. “I got a word of conviction. ‘You don’t need vision, child. I already gave you a vision. You just haven’t done it.’

Conviction to Press On

These words humbled N. Ford. “At the moment in which I received those convicting words, I considered my failure to meet His vision. Instead of having written what He gave me in 2015, I had 13 writing projects open, not one of them complete,” said N. Ford. “More than anything, He was calling me to obedience. Most painfully, the story He had given me and asked me to write in 2015 had been sitting unattended the longest. That year, at the Summit in 2019, I committed to have that one story completed by the time I returned to the Summit in 2020.”

In August of 2020, N. Ford finished the first book in what has become a fiction trilogy! By the Summit in 2021, she had a signed a contract to publish the first book. In February 2022, while sitting at the GLS: Special Edition, N. Ford was weeks away from having her debut fiction novel, The Refuge, published!

God’s Perfect Timing

Back in in 2015, when N. Ford first felt called to write about division, reconciliation, racial relationships and unity, hierarchal authority, and the value of human life, she never could have planned for God’s perfect timing in the publishing of her first book. “As the pandemic and the last few years of great conflict have transpired, I have been in awe at the relevance of the story He wrote long before it ever came upon my heart,” said N. Ford. “I don’t know if anyone will like it. And I don’t know if anyone will buy it, but honestly, I don’t care. It was never about writing a book, it was about the consistent, gritty, broken road to perpetual obedience. He sanctified me in the process of un-applauded, unseen obedience to His vision.

You don’t have to cross the ocean to do God’s work. Sometimes you just have to cross the street. – Bob Goff

“Oswald Chambers writes that we pray for a call on our lives from the moment we know we can, and then when we receive it, it becomes a haunting ghost until it’s attended. That is the truth of this story. Sometimes He doesn’t give us a new, grand vision. Sometimes we must open our eyes, ears, hearts, and wills to the one He’s already spoken to us. It may not be the one we thought. And it most certainly will not be easy. But it’s His.”

“Bob Goff says you don’t have to cross the ocean to do God’s work. Sometimes you just have to cross the street. I just had to open a laptop. The road of obedience is not easy, and it’s usually unseen and un-applauded. It took me longer than it should have to obey the vision He gave me, but the GLS helped me have the clarity and the courage to commit to it.”

What vision lives within you, waiting for your voice? Join us at The Global Leadership Summit on August 4-5, 2022, to discover how to voice your vision for a better future. Get Tickets >>