Steven Furtick - Stop Giving Into Fear
This is an excerpt from: I’m Not Stuck Unless I Stop
God doesn't have to shout when he's close to you. So, if you can't hear him right now, if you can't feel him right now, if you can't see him right now, maybe you will hear the still, small voice and feel a touch. All of a sudden, what the crowd told them had no power over the Savior who touched them. When God touches you, no matter what fear tells you, no matter what the Enemy tells you… When God touches you and says, "I don't care what they've told you. I don't care what they've called you. I don't care how they've labeled you. I don't care if they said it's a learning disability…" No.
When this ability meets the disability, God will raise up something that is absolutely grace-compounding amazing. It's amazing grace. He did it for people who couldn't see it, and he did it for people who couldn't do it for themselves. He called them, and they followed. I was reading this passage over and over again, and I realized that he did not come to them; he called them. When he found them, they were sitting, but he didn't want to leave them sitting in Jericho; he wanted to get them stepping toward Jerusalem. This is why God doesn't always make it easy for you. This is why even in the moments where he has compassion… Sometimes in his compassion he'll tell you, "Come". It does not say Jesus went to them.
As a matter of fact, what it says is absolutely amazing. I want y'all to love this Bible. I want y'all to get a highlighter, a blue one, a yellow one, a pink one, a raspberry one, and a scented one. I want you to sniff that raspberry in the morning and start looking for the righteousness of God in the Word of God and the revelation of God with your raspberry highlighter and start circling stuff God speaks to you so you can get a better word over your family. Everybody shout, "Lord"! Now be the crowd. Say, "Stop". Say, "Lord"! Now be the crowd. Say, "Stop". This side say, "Lord"! Say it loudly. Oh, by the way, I want to show you something. I love these guys. It says when the crowd told them to be quiet, they shouted all the louder. So let's practice. Everybody say, "Stop"! on this side. Now say, "Lord"! Now say, "Stop". Louder, louder.
Now watch this. The crowd says, "Stop". Fear says, "Stop". Insecurity says, "Stop". Past says, "Stop". Addiction says, "Stop". Depression says, "Stop". Anxiety says, "Stop". Because they didn't stop… Put it back on the screen, tech team. I've got to show this to my eFam. I've got to show this to somebody who has made up their mind. "I'm not going to stop following Jesus. I'm not going to stop praying about it. I'm not going to stop seeking him. I'm not going to stop encouraging. I'm not going to stop using my gift. I'm not going to stop using this anointing. I'm not going to stop speaking life. I'm not going to stop praising him. I'm not going to stop trusting him. I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to stop". Because they didn't stop, Jesus did. He did, because they didn't stop. They just shouted louder. I love them. Not only did they not stop; they took it to another level. Not only did they get healed; they followed Jesus, and they didn't go back to Jericho. All of this started with a shout. I'm not going back to Jericho, and it started with a shout.
Now, I seem to remember something in the Bible about a shout in Jericho. I seem to remember something… Can we find it in the Bible? Come on. Everybody who wants this good part of the word, shout right now. Shout louder! Everybody who wants God to give you an update and make you a disciple and purge you and purify you and get your mind right and bring his Spirit to break chains, make some noise right now! This is not the first shout in Jericho. The Bible says in Joshua 6:1, "Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred…" You remember Jericho. It was the first city God called his people to take over after 40 years of stuck in the wilderness. After 40 years of going in circles, after 40 years of saying, "Those giants are bigger than us," after a whole generation complained and wasted away and waged not a war against their enemies but a war against their own destiny, now Jericho was securely barred up. Talk about stuck. You're standing at the edge of something.
How many feel like this? "I'm at the edge of something, and I can't get in. I'm at the edge of joy, but I can't keep it. I'm at the edge of a blessing, but I keep messing it up. I get a little bit, and I spend more. I get a little bit, and I eat more. I stuff and I numb, and I don't understand why". "Now Jericho was securely barred because of the Israelites". Remember, the Enemy is intimidated by you, because he knows who's fighting for you. "No one went out and no one came in". They are stuck, but where the previous generation stopped, they didn't. The Bible says in verse 2, "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once…'" "Oh, cool. Okay. I can do that. Yeah, I'll march around the city once. You're going to give me the victory if I just march around the city once? Yeah, sign me up. I'm going to do it". "I'm going to absolutely do it. I'm going to join a gym, and I'm going to get a meditation app on my phone as well, and a Bible plan. I've got a Bible plan. I'm going to read it in The Message Bible. I really like The Message Bible".
That's great, but nothing happened once. "March around the city once" is what God told Joshua. This is what God tells you. "March around once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day…" Take a few deep breaths, because you're about to shout again. Tell the people in your apartment, "Don't get nervous. I'm about to shout again". Just tell them, "Hey, you're going to hear me holler, but don't call 911. Just call Joshua 6, because I'm shouting about something I can't see right now. I'm shouting about something I can't feel. I'm shouting about something I don't have the factual backing for right now. Yeah, I'm shouting about something you can't see right now". "Have them march around seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets".
Remember, every day they marched and nothing happened took faith. Every day you pray and believe and nothing comes back in the form of love toward your life is a day that takes faith. Every day that the desire doesn't leave you but you commit to get back up even though you slipped takes faith. So you're waiting for the walls to fall. You're waiting for the pain to go away. You're waiting for it to get easier. You're waiting for the right pill to fix it. You're waiting for the right key to break it and unlock it forever. But the Bible says it took six days of "stuck," and on the seventh day… I preached a message one time called Don't Stop On Six. I preached that message when I was going through hell. I preached that message when the media was saying I was a liar and a hypocrite and that I was buying my way onto a bestseller list with my book that I never did and that we were faking baptisms. I preached that message Don't Stop On Six, and I walked around the podium and got down on my face. (I'm 44 now, so I'm not going to do that part anymore, because getting up is different.)
I got down on my face, and I talked about the laps where you have to crawl. I talked about the nights where you have to fake it. I talked about the days where you have to go into the bathroom at work and cry and go, "I can't even get through the day, and it's 9:45 in the morning. The Bible is just hieroglyphics to me right now, and the impulse is stronger than my integrity right now". I preached, and I said, "Don't stop on six," because on the seventh day…you never know…this might be the one. I mean, this might be the time. This might be the day. This might be the seed. This might be the season. This might be the moment, and you might be the one to break it off of everybody with your last name who is yet to be born. So don't stop. The Bible says when you march around the city seven times… Everybody shout, "Seven"! That's the number of completion.
Now, high-five seven people and say, "I'm getting this done". What did you say? Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Yeah, I stumbled. Yeah, I slipped. Yeah, I did it. Yeah, I struggle with it, but I'm not it! No, I'm not it! I've got a new name! I'm not a blind man; I'm a bold man! I'm not the old man; I'm a new man! Watch this. Verse 5 is my verse. Somebody shout, "Don't stop"! They didn't stop shouting, and Jesus stopped in the middle of the street on the way to the cross to save the world. He's calling you right now. He stopped this moment in time. For some of you, God stopped a relationship you were addicted to so he could open your eyes to who you really are. For some of you, God stopped a job you were greater than so you would develop your skill in humility to go to the next level and learn from the mistake. When you don't stop, God does. I silence accusation. I silence condemnation. I silence what the crowd says. I silence what your Instagram feed says. I silence what your negative result says.
Now that the crowd has to be quiet and the Christ has called you, let's look at this Jericho shout. I didn't realize when I read about the blind man that the shout they released in Jericho was an echo. It was the echo in Jericho. If you know anything about what happens next in this passage, in Joshua 6:5… Now we're ready. The Bible says, "When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout…" What are you going to do? You mean I preached an hour in this heavy sweater and you still don't know what to do? Are you kidding me? You mean I wrote a whole book, I've been pastoring a whole church, and you still…? Eighteen years and we still don't know what to do with a wall? What's a wall to a way maker? What's a chain to a chain breaker? Here it is. The Bible says, "When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout…"
Watch this! No, no, no. Stop. Stop. If you shout, you might get joy. If you shout, you might get an answer. If you shout, you might get out of your self-consciousness and get Christ conscious. Don't shout now! "Have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall will collapse…" Watch this. Not shout when the wall collapses. Shout… What are you shouting about? Something I can't see, but he spoke it and it's got to come down! It's got to come down! Say it. "It's got to come down"! I praise when outnumbered, I praise when surrounded, 'Cause praise is the waters my enemies drown in. I praise when I feel it, I praise when I don't, I praise 'cause I know you're still in control. I praise 'cause you're faithful, I praise 'cause you're true, I praise 'cause there's nobody greater than you. My praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound, My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down!