Steven Furtick - God, How Do I Deal With This?
This is an excerpt from: A Steady Hand For A Sudden Blessing
How many are standing looking at a need right now that you didn't see coming in your life? Even if it's just the surgery you might have to have, but it's freaking you out, raise your hand. Even if it's just the challenge you feel emotionally, but everything is good in your life, raise your hand right now. I was with some pastors this week, and what they said helped them the most… I was imparting to them and teaching them and helping them, and they said, "It was just good to hear from you that there's nothing wrong with us. It was good for us to hear from you, because there's a part of us that thinks, 'I'm not supposed to be angry. I'm supposed to be grateful.' But I find myself getting angry, and I don't know why. So, when you told us how you get angry, it helped us, because it let us know that sometimes on your way to war, you run out of water too".
What do you do when the fight is right now but the knowledge isn't coming and the feeling isn't coming? Elisha knew what to do. He said, "Get me a musician," and when the musician began to play, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha. How? Suddenly. Does it say when the musician started practicing the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha? Here's what I'm wondering. How long did that musician have to practice? How many hours of practice does it take that if they come recruit you and say, "Hey, we need you in the wilderness really quick. We're running out of water. I need you to play something snappy for Elisha. It's his first chance to prophesy. He has an audience with three kings, and if he doesn't do it right, they die. Come play…" That is not the time to work on your scales. So, if I bust into "Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. All I have needed thy hand hath provided…"
His hands started playing all of a sudden. We did not talk about that hymn. I did not prepare him for that hymn. I did not say, "LJ, at moment number [blah, blah, blah] in the sermon, after I say this, get ready to play 'Great is Thy Faithfulness.'" I need them to know that it's "Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness…" Whose hand? "All I have needed thy hand hath provided…" His hand. But whose hand had to practice? Ya'll give me that holiday energy, and I have that Holy Ghost anointing. Your hands had better be busy. You'd better get your hands busy, because when God gets ready to do what he wants to do, he's going to be looking for some hands that know where to go.
That's why I'm praising him. I'm getting my hands ready. That's why I'm forgiving them. I have to let it go. When he comes suddenly, I can't be bound by bitterness. I can't be flat. I can't be weak. I can't be stagnant. Clap those hands and get them ready! "Why are you clapping"? "I don't have the victory. I'm getting my hands ready. I'm praising him not because I can see it. I'm praising him because my spirit shows me I'm a free woman. I'm a free man. I'm a blessed man. I'm a blessed woman. I'm a running over kind of vessel. I'm ready"!
Get your hands ready. Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it might surprise you what he has already done. I'm getting my hands ready! Oh, here comes Goliath. Here comes the bear. Here comes Goliath. It doesn't matter. My hands are ready. My spirit is ready. My heart is ready. I'm ready. He's steady; I'm ready. He didn't put me in it if he didn't put it in me. He's steady; I'm ready. He's not an "overnight sensation" God. He's not a God who blows you up. He's a God who will dig your roots down deep. I came to announce to your storm, "You'd better pick on a different Christian, because this one is ready. She's ready. She knows how to pray in a storm. She knows how to sing at midnight. She knows how to work through a panic attack. She's ready"!
Elisha said, "I don't need anything to do what God called me to do," but somebody with a steady hand… God is looking for a steady hand. Not you joined the gym in January…a steady hand. I read my Bible today. "What did you get out of it"? Nothing. I'm in steadiness school. I study when I don't see anything in the Scripture. I study when it looks like pig Latin. I study when it looks like Japanese characters and I speak English. I study because I'm steady. God, help me. Y'all shouldn't have let me preach on Pentecost Sunday. I knew God was going to do this. This is point number one. It's just coming, man. It's coming suddenly because he was working steadily. I'll know when I need to. When I get my mind made up that I want to be set free from this addiction, God will send keys. I'll know when I need to. You tried it before. Hey, look at me, Dove's Nest. It's going to be different this time.
"But this is my fourth time. I'm 47 years old". I didn't ask you about your age. Stop giving me information I didn't ask you for. I asked "Are you ready"? Are you ready to experience the person who is beneath those patterns that keep pulling you back down? Because if you're ready, God has a steady hand. Even if you fall again, that's what the steady hand is for. So, let's go forward and let's flow in it. You'll know when you need to. This is the other thing God gave me. We might need a part 2 of this sermon, but the Lord told me to tell you one more thing before I get off this stage. The prophet looked at the musician. He said, "Play". Then it happened when the musician played. That's a steady hand. That's a man who has practiced his scales. That's a man who has learned his chords. That's a man who has learned his character. That is a woman who has learned how to apologize, a man who has learned how to say, "I'm sorry".
That is a trained player who knows how to get back up again. That's why Ella got that scholarship. You didn't expect it. That's why she was practicing since she was 8. That's why she got the scholarship. A steady hand, a sudden scholarship. Then somebody will have the nerve to say, "Wasn't she lucky". No. She was steady. "But I'm not. You're not talking to me, because I'm not stable. I'm that other person you're talking about". That's why I'm not talking just about your hand. I'm talking about his. Do you remember who was in the upper room in Acts 2:2, the first verse I read you? It doesn't say in the verse. I don't know if you remember. I had to think about it for a moment myself. Acts 2:2. It's going to come up suddenly. I promise it is. It's going to be slow then sudden. Ooh, that's the word of the Lord.
A businessman in my church… I don't even know how many millions of dollars of business he has done. He said, "Make sure you tell the church it was slow, steady, sudden. We saved for years. We tithed for years. We lived beneath our means for years. We went through cycles". He's a home builder. "We went through the 2008 crisis, and it was slow, but we were steady, and then it was sudden". Then he used a word. I want you to hear this. He said, "And now God has us stewarding more than we could have ever imagined". I don't know if I remind you of this enough, because I'm telling you, "Do the work. Do the work. Do the work". And I want you to, but what I need you to know is that God can do stuff suddenly that you had given up on. Receive it if it's your word. Put it in your phone if it's not. It will be one day, and when you need that word for your life, it will be there for you. This is how God works. He plants things we need based on things only he sees. Every experience I've been through, I can look back on it…
See, I'm not just looking back on things I've been through and saying, "That was the hand of God". I'm needing to believe forward into what I don't know that about yet so it's not just 20 years later where I say, "Well, I guess it was God who sent me to that college," but it's me saying while I'm wondering, "Does anybody see me? Does anybody know me? Does anybody care that I'm doing this"? So, back in that upper room… Jesus has been gone 10 days. He rose 40 days before that. It has been 50 days since the resurrection. The Bible Bible says in Acts 2:2, "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting". There's a whole sermon in that they, because sitting in that house was a guy named Simon Peter. He wasn't very steady 50 days earlier. He fell down pretty badly 50 days earlier.
I don't know who I'm preaching to, but you stumbled pretty badly in this last season. The Lord said you need to know that he's steady when you stumble. They. Peter? What's Peter going to do? He already made a fool of himself. Nothing but preach on the day of Pentecost Pentecost and see 3,000 converts. Are you telling me God can't still use you in this season because you have bursitis? Are you telling me that credit card debt is too big for God? "God, you can do all things. You're the master, unless it's Mastercard. Then you can't…" No, no, no. God said, "I'm going to help you pay it off steadily, and then suddenly. One day there is going to come a moment where you will be able to not only feel your own freedom, but I'm going to use you as a vessel to bring others to freedom in that very same path that you struggled".
You'll be able to tell them, "You can flush the pills". You'll be able to tell them, "You can beat this disorder". You'll be able to tell them, "You can get set free from this pattern". You'll be able to tell them, "The curse can be reversed, and he can do it all of a sudden". Sudden blessings come, sudden winds come, sudden rains come, sudden floods come…sudden love, sudden healing, sudden breakthrough, sudden second chances, sudden new beginnings. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind will fill the room, and even Peter gets to preach, and even you get to go forward. Get your hands ready. Get your heart ready. We're not thinking about those toxic things this week. This is the Lord's day. This is the Lord's holy home. This is his habitation. You are his chosen instrument.