Mike Signorelli - Why You Continue to Procrastinate Even Though it Hurts
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Summary:
Drawing from Genesis 11:31 where Terah settles in Harran instead of reaching Canaan, the preacher urges believers not to settle for partial obedience or comfort but to press all the way into God’s full promises, contrasting Harran (comfort) with Canaan (promise). He connects this to idolatry in Terah’s life (Joshua 24:2) and Abraham’s faith-filled obedience (Hebrews 11:8) to pursue a supernatural inheritance, warning that compromise affects generations exponentially. The core call is to reject mediocrity, dream bigger by faith, break generational curses, and go all the way like Abraham—provoking God’s glory, angelic help, and breakthrough for oneself and future generations.
Don’t Settle in Harran
Genesis, chapter 11, verse 31. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot—so you have three generations. Everybody say three generations. And his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
Tap your neighbor and say, «Don’t settle.» God is doing something, and I am showing up to you as an apostolic leader, if you’re a member and you’re in covenant with this house, to say, «Don’t settle; don’t go halfway on your journey.» God wants you to go all the way. If you’re here and you’re visiting and you’re a guest, can I just tell you—don’t get comfortable. Don’t exchange «free indeed» for just «freer than you used to be.» Oh, come on, somebody. You know I’m about to preach this thing. We’ll exchange, instead of God’s best, for just better.
It’s like, I don’t want a better marriage; I want the best marriage. I don’t want to just be free; I want to be free indeed. I don’t want to be freer than I used to be; I want to be completely free. I don’t want to just feel a little bit better in my body; I want complete and total healing in my body. Is there anybody who wants all of what God has for you? Come on. God is trying to provoke you.
Terah’s Halfway Journey
Now, when you look at Abram’s father, Terah, he originally set out to lead this large family from Ur to Canaan, and that was the journey they were going on. When they got about halfway to Canaan, Terah decided to settle in Harran instead of pressing in.
So Harran actually represents the land of comfort, but sometimes we can exchange Harran for Canaan. Canaan represents the land of promise. I came here to show you that you should not exchange comfort for the promise. See, these are two different things. A lot of you have gotten to this point in your Christianity where you’re like, «Thank God I’m not this weak, lukewarm, compromised Christian I used to be, » and you’re celebrating that you got halfway through the journey. But God is saying, «Don’t exchange comfort for the promise. We’ve got to go all the way in.»
Sometimes you’ll be like, «Well, I don’t club like I used to.» Yeah, because you’re older and you’re just tired. That’s not sanctification; you’re just worn out. So you’ll be like, «Well, I don’t party like I used to.» Yeah, because you’re old now. If you were young, you’d still be struggling with that sin. It’s like sometimes we try to justify this. God wants you to go all the way to Canaan. Don’t settle.
The Stakes for Generations
Let me tell you what’s at stake though. What you do incrementally, your children will do exponentially. So if you drink a little bit, they’ll drink a lot. If you cuss a little bit, they’ll cuss a lot. If you’re like, «Well, we go to church sometimes, » they’ll never go to church. Oh, come on, I’m speaking into something right now. Okay, now, do you love me? I’m your friend. I’m like a surgeon. I came here to cut out some cancer. But when you’re a surgeon, the goal is to kill the cancer, not the person. So if I made you laugh leading into this sermon, it was to anesthetize you enough to stab you. You’d be like, «Am I bleeding? Is Mike stabbing me?» Yes, I’m cutting the cancer out of you. Believe me, the only thing that’s gonna die is mediocrity after this. The only thing that’s gonna die is compromise after this.
I’m trying to cut it out because God wants to will; He’s given you an apostolic leader. You can take the Pacific Northwest. All the conditions are right. You have everything you need to rush out over the devil. But now it’s not the enemies in front of you; it’s the enemy inside of you. Some of you got delivered from a demonic enemy, but now it’s the enemy of «me.» What do you do when you get delivered from demons, and now you’re the problem? Oh, look, everyone’s like, «I don’t like him anymore. Don’t invite him back anymore.» What happens when it’s the enemy of «me»? What happens when you can’t blame a demon anymore? I believe like the first time I came to you, it was for deliverance and it was to agitate and it was revival. But now I feel like the Lord put me on an assignment to say, «Don’t block what He’s trying to do through you.» So I’m pushing you to the next level.
Why Terah Stopped
Biblically, I assume that Terah opted for the comfort of this new Mesopotamian home that he had. Why would you stop halfway? Maybe there were some unforeseen challenges. Maybe it was like that old school game, Oregon Trail; someone dies of dysentery, someone gets scarlet fever. The children of the '80s know what I’m talking about. This guy shouted more for Oregon Trail than Jesus. We’ll deal with that later. So when I’m looking at Terah, why would Terah stop halfway? But then when I read Abraham’s testimony from Joshua’s standpoint, it gives another perspective. So I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 24, verse 2. We have the same story from a different perspective. This is Joshua chapter 24, verse 2. Long ago, your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
If you get offended by messages about giving financially, it’s just because you worship the god of mammon. When you have accepted salvation and you have been freely forgiven of all your sins, you will live in a posture of, «God, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you—I’m recklessly abandoning.» I mean, how could I ever repay you? My life has been ransomed. Whatever God you serve is revealed in what you choose and what you do. When you look at this man, it said they worshiped other gods. Sometimes when there’s friction in your marriage, it’s because you worship this other god, this god of sensuality, this god of pleasure. It reveals the worship because we are all made and designed to worship. What is worship? It’s the direction of your affections. You never stop worshiping; you just change the direction. Is this helping anybody? We are all worshiping all the time—it’s just what are you worshiping?
So what it says is many gods. Yeah, you come to Sunday and you worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then you go back and then you bow down at the idol of self-pleasure on Monday morning, and then you go and worship this other. What I come here to do is push you past mediocrity, to destroy all the other idols once and for all, because here’s what’s at stake. It’s the generations. It’s the inheritance; it’s the lineage. There’s something that God’s trying to pass down through you. He’s trying to get it down. But I’m just here to tell you that a little bit of compromise in one generation and the whole next generation will be completely out of the game.
Abraham’s Faith Obedience
So can I go a little bit deeper? I took you on an Old Covenant, Old Testament journey. Let’s go to the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4. This is going to give you a profound understanding. I’m going somewhere; follow me. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8. Now, if you realize, if you were there last night, I’m giving you the part two to last night. It’s all connecting. By faith—everybody say by faith. Okay, you’re getting a deep revelation. Abraham. So he’s doing something his dad never did. I just showed you; his dad started the journey—oh, come on, Holy Ghost. His dad started the journey. He said, «We’re all going to Canaan, » but halfway to Canaan stopped because it was comfortable and because he worshiped other gods. God says, «Now it has to skip another generation.»
See, there are some of you; the generation before you, God designed for them to go all the way, but they compromise, and now God’s speaking this message to you and saying, «I want you to go all the way. I want to move you in.» But this is what is said: «By faith, when he was called, he obeyed.» Everybody say obeyed. And he went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. What in the world are you talking about? There are two kinds of inheritances: there is the biological, and then there is the supernatural.
See, when you talk about inheritance, you know you inherited your eye color from your parents; you inherited your height from your parents. Some of you are still mad about it. You inherited these things. There’s a biological inheritance. This doesn’t make any sense; it says Abraham, operating in faith, obeyed, and he went to a place that he did not know to receive an inheritance. He was after a godly inheritance.
Breaking Generational Curses
There’s a supernatural inheritance that says there’s what I have access to through my biological family, and some of you received generational curses of alcoholism. Some of you received generational curses of divorce. Some of you received generational curses—well, come on, let’s talk about it—premature death. And that was the inheritance on that side. But he said he went to another land, and he obeyed so he could receive another inheritance. See, let me just tell you, on both sides of my family, there’s premature death; on both sides of my family, the men went to prison; on both sides of my family, there’s divorce. So I had to make a decision that we were going to go into another land that I knew not, and I was going to obey. I wasn’t going to worship the gods of Playboy magazine. I wasn’t going to worship the god of Michelob and Miller Lite. Some of you are Bud Light drinkers—that’s a whole nother story. I wasn’t going to bow down to those gods, but I was going to go into another land that I did not know, and I was going to become a prophetic Abraham and a prophetic Sarai, my wife being Sarai.
But see, what happens is, you don’t know. This is what it says: «He went out not knowing where he was going.» You have to be willing to do something that you’ve never seen someone else do and to be something you’ve never seen someone else be. Some of you men have never seen your dad pray for your mom, and that’s why you were broken the way you were broken. Because a non-anxious presence of a man in a home is a healing force from God. When a man begins to pray for his wife and lay hands on her, that actually flows oil through the whole family. Right now, you go back to the 1940s; only four percent of all children were born to single mothers. In 2023, 40% of all births are to single mothers in this nation. So we are dealing with an epidemic, and it’s rooted in fatherlessness. In the absence of fathers, there’s every other problem that we have.
So I’m here to speak to some Abrahams. I’m here to speak to some people who will go a direction they’ve never seen and do something they’ve never seen. This is not me calling you out; this is me calling you up. It’s time to go higher.
Personal Testimony of Faith
This message is deep inside of me because I’ve had to live this message out. When I first got married to my wife, Julie, I had no idea how to be a husband. I had never seen it before. I was angry all the time about the injustices in the world, how hard it is to make money. My dad’s generation, you could get a job at McDonald’s, buy a house and a car, and pay for college in full after each semester. That was the economics of that time. It was very different.
Now here you’ve got three side hustles, four businesses. You work full-time, and you still don’t have medical benefits. I’m keeping it real. You live under that pressure; you’re angry all the time; you’re always frustrated. The Lord’s trying to raise you up.
It’s getting harder; the pressure is on. But let me just tell you, the same boiling hot water that softens a potato hardens an egg. So when you are under pressure, if you have the DNA of the kingdom inside you, oh, it will harden some resolve inside you, and you’ll say, «Oh, this thing, it’s not making me soft; it’s making me hard.» This same pressure that I’m under causes… And see, Abraham was under the same pressure his dad was, but he said, «I’m not going to worship those false gods; I’m going to worship the God of Israel.» He said, «I’m going to make a decision. I will be the one that obeys. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.»
I’m not going to bend my knee to this; I’m not going to fall prey to culture. I’m going to make a new way. I’m going to chart a new path. There’s something about this house, there’s something about this region that God is calling you out to get a godly inheritance. Somebody say the word inheritance.
See, when we talk about inheritance, we’re talking about God releasing properties; we’re talking about God releasing houses. When we talk about inheritance, we’re talking about dominion. See, God will set you up. When we talk about inheritance, we talk about you being the first in your family not to die young. When we talk about inheritance—because, see, you’re not inheriting biologically; you’re inheriting supernaturally.
What I’m speaking into right now is fear. Because fear tells you, «Why even try? It won’t work.» Fear tells you, «Why even go into this area? It won’t work.» But by faith, do you see what I’m saying? Faith says, «No, I can; I will; I shall.» Faith says, «I will go in; I will do it.» Faith says, «I’m not backing down; I’m going to continue to move in this direction.»
So Close to Breakthrough
But see, Terah didn’t go all the way into the promised land because—now, here’s what’s crazy—if you look at this historically, he traveled over 600 miles, and he only had 450 miles to go. Some of you are right at the edge of your breakthrough. You’ve already been 600 miles. Some of you have been through so much, and you’re right at that point of breakthrough, but you’re getting ready to settle. You’re getting ready to be offended over something stupid. You’re getting ready to be captivated by the thoughts of all the gossip around you and what other people are saying.
It’s like Terah came 600 miles, and he stopped. He only had 450 miles to go. He already proved he could go the rest of the distance. Some of you have gotten this far. But I came with good news—you did not get this far just to get this far. You did not get this free not to get free indeed. God didn’t—come on, I’m speaking to church. You didn’t get to this point just to have this location. God’s doubling your territory in Tacoma as well. You will have Tacoma, and there’s more. It’s like God didn’t get you this far just to get this far. You didn’t survive all the hell you went through just to live this kind of life.
There is something, and you know what I feel in the spirit right now? Deep calls to deep. You listen, you might not be real loud right now, but there’s something kicking on the inside of your belly because it’s deep calls to deep. God is trying to call you into this realm. I think Terah simply got comfortable in Harran because it was better than Ur.
Right now, I want you to think about what you’ve compromised because the Lord is calling you to this next season; He’s calling you to this next level. Harran, this place he settled, literally means in Hebrew «caravan route.» So even the name of the place he settled was called a caravan route; it was never supposed to be a destination. Oh, I’m going deep today.
This was located on the Euphrates River, and it was just a caravan route, but he made a route his home. Some of you are about to make a route your home. God’s saying, «You’re not staying here. I’ve got more.» I’m not talking about geographically; I’m talking about spiritually. He’s trying to break that scarcity off of your mind. He’s trying to break the limitations.
Dream Bigger Story
I want to tell you a story, and this just rocked me. When you see the movie, it’s going to make more sense. My mother was a single mother on welfare with five kids. My mother and I received the ministry of deliverance and prophecy at the same time, and we had never been taught it in our local church. We were reading all these books. There was a man in South Chicago named Apostle John Eckhart. We started having demons manifest like crazy when we were praying for people, and we didn’t know what to do with that. It was all the Puerto Ricans. I don’t know if there are any Puerto Ricans here, but we were in South Chicago and all these Puerto Ricans had come to South Chicago, and they had done all this witchcraft. When we would pray for them, they’d start manifesting demons, and we were like, «What do we do?»
At the time, there was this young man named John Eckhart on local access cable television. Some of the young people don’t even know what this is. We used to watch these things called TVs, and you couldn’t hold them in your hand; you had to actually turn the dial on them. However young you were was who the remote control was. The youngest person was the remote control. Some of you are getting flashbacks. So on local access cable television, there was this guy named John Eckhart who would teach about demons. We reached out to him and said, «We would love for you to come and train us because all these demons are manifesting in our church.» What we didn’t know was Apostle John Eckhart was going to eventually become one of the most prolific writers on the topic of demons and deliverance ever.
So that was in my DNA; that was who we were. We started learning to prophesy. The first person I ever prophesied over was my mom, and the first person my mom ever prophesied over was me, and we were co-laboring and ministering together in our home. See, listen, I’m preaching some of the biggest conferences in the United States now, but I was faithful in the living room before He put me on the stage. This is where it starts. It starts at home. Jesus had to be faithful in Bethlehem before He got released into Galilee. There’s something at home; you can’t skip the process. God’s bringing you through that process before you get the promise.
My mom and I were prophesying over each other and all that. Well, we started learning the power of decreeing. The oldest book of the Bible is not Genesis; it’s Job. In the oldest book of the Bible, Job, he says, «I will decree a thing, and it will be established unto me.» The power of life and death is in your tongue. You’ve got to learn how to speak those things that aren’t as though they are—the language of certainty. By faith, Abraham did these things—by faith; he was learning these ways.
One day, I was in my bedroom at the other end of the house, and I could hear this pounding. I could hear muffled yelling. I was like, «What is going on in my house?» As I walked down the hallway, it got louder and louder. I could hear this muffling, and as I got to the kitchen, I looked at my mom, and she was praying in the Spirit, pounding her fist on the table as hard as she could. Every time she hit the table, she went, «Dream bigger! Dream bigger! Dream bigger!» I mean, she’s slamming her hand on the table. I’m like, «My mom’s lost her mind. Dream bigger? Dream bigger?»
Now, this is welfare, five kids, no husband, poverty, mice-infested home, no carpet—"Dream bigger!» And she’s doing this over and over again. Finally, she’s done, and I’m like, «Mom, are you okay? What was that?» She said, «Dolittle, I don’t have time to explain that.» She said, «The Holy Spirit was trying to get me to dream bigger, and I wasn’t declaring it; I was repeating what He was telling me to repeat.»
She said, «The Holy Spirit—the spirit of Jesus through the Holy Spirit—was in this kitchen, and He kept saying, 'Sandra, keep saying it. Dream bigger! Dream bigger! ' And every time I would say, 'This is only how far me and my five kids can go, ' He said, 'No, dream bigger! ' And then I would have another dream of what we could do in our family, and the Holy Spirit would say, 'Sandra, dream bigger. Say it again.' And then I would dream a little bit bigger, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit would say, 'No, dream bigger! '»
And every time, she was slamming her fist, the Lord was saying, «Kick out the borders of your belief! Dream bigger! Believe more, Sandra; believe more!» And listen, she started declaring that. We were sitting in Toronto, and I was watching the movie, and it was the first time I was seeing it. At the very end of the movie, the scene came up of my mother, who now has full gray hair and is much older now, and she looks into the camera and says, «If you are a single mother and you’re watching this movie, dream bigger.»
I felt the anointing beginning. She was prophesying. Her son had the fastest-growing church in America for the last five years in a row. She’s in a major motion picture. But I know the secret. The secret is just like Abraham. She said, «I’m going into a place that I do not know, and I will not compromise. I’m not accepting best when God has greatness inside of me. I’m not going to back down.» Sometimes you’ve got to get a fire on the inside of you that says, «Dream bigger.» This isn’t my power; it’s His power. This is not my anointing; it’s His anointing. This is not my provision; it’s His provision.
You’re not dreaming with your resources; you’re dreaming with His. You can’t get it done with your bank account, but His bank account can get it done. You can’t get it done with your relationships, but He’s got the relationships to connect you. Dream bigger. Don’t get mad when you’re being pushed to Tacoma to double; God wants to triple, to multiply. Don’t be mad when I tell you to pray for your wife; God’s got something inside of you. You were destined for more, and I’m calling it forth today.
Provoking the Glory of God
Somebody stand to your feet real quick. I feel the power of God. Acts chapter 7, verses 2-4. It says, «To this he replied: Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appears to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia because he lived in Harran.» Now we have one more scripture that shows us what was happening when Abraham made the decision to move all the way into the land of Canaan. The Bible says the glory of the Lord began to come upon Abraham. Some of you don’t even realize that once you make up your mind, look what it says. «Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared.» You want to get a visitation from God? You want God to appear in your home, in your life? I dare you to go a direction no one else has gone. I dare you to step all the way in. I dare you to dream bigger because it provokes God for visitations.
Everybody’s like, «I want to get a visitation from an angel.» You get a visitation when there’s a big assignment. When you step into the big assignment, it provokes some big angels to start showing up.
Angelic Visitation Story
I remember that when I was in New York City trying to plant our church, I got arrested on the George Washington Bridge. That’s a whole other story; I shouldn’t have said it, but I was driving our box truck on the George Washington Bridge, and I got pulled over for a minor thing, and I found out that there was a ticket I got in New Jersey five years before for not having my headlights on during dusk. What a bonehead thing. They arrested me, and when they found out what it was for, they laughed; I paid $90, and they let me out.
So that’s the only time I’ve ever been arrested—for something stupid. But it was a great church planter story because my team was like, «Pastor’s in jail right now.» They’re like, «What for?» They said, «Well, he got a ticket in 2012 for not putting the headlights on during dusk.» And they’re like, «What? What kind of hardened criminal is that?»
Here’s what happened—I had to go through this bureaucratic process to get the box truck out, which if you know anything about New York City is all a whole bunch of games. Can I have the keys, maybe? Help me; thank you. We’re on tour together. All of a sudden, I was trying to get the box truck out, and all these hoops you have to jump through, and we were getting ready to have our first church service, and not only was the entire church’s stuff in this box truck, but also all of my family’s personal items because I had sold my home; I had given away a third of everything I own to launch this church in New York City.
So now here I am, completely—I’m like, «Lord, what did I do? I left normalcy. I cashed out my retirement. I literally did everything I could to get to this one moment, and I have hundreds of people that are coming for this first service in New York City, one of the most godless places in the nation. What do I do?» I can’t get this. Finally, I get all the paperwork in order, and I show up to get the box truck out, but it’s after hours because I’m fighting through traffic—it takes hours to go miles in New York City; pray for me. And all of a sudden, I finally get there. I show up; the guy’s like, «Listen, we’re supposed to be closed. I happen to be here doing other stuff; I’ll let you go in to get the box truck out.»
I show up there, and I have to screw these license plates on the front of the box truck in order to get it out. Because in New York, you have plates on the front and the back, and I have my screw gun with me, and I’m ready, and then as soon as I get to the box truck and church is the next day, all of a sudden, I go to screw the plate into the bumper because there was no mount, and I realize I forgot the screws.
You know how sometimes it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back? You know what I mean? It’s that one thing. They forget your fries in the drive-thru, and you’re like, «I’m about to rage against the machine right now.» You know how that is? So I’m thinking we now cannot have church tomorrow. I’m frustrated. I’m sitting there in the parking lot; I got this screw gun, and I’m like, «Lord, I got arrested on the way here; I finally got out, got all this stuff done, I got church tomorrow; I forgot the screws.»
Frustrated, I’m like, «Lord, I gave you my life for this thing; I went all the way east to do what you called me to do and all of a sudden I hear this voice behind me say, 'Hey, is this what you need? '» I turn around, and this man has his hand open, and there are two self-tapping screws. So all of a sudden, I grab the screws and I’ve got chills all over me. I’m like, «Yes, that’s exactly what I need.»
I go to screw it in, then I’m like, «Wait a second; that was rude of me. I’m going to turn around and thank him.» So I turn around; he’s gone. Then all of a sudden, I jump up because I got scared. I’m like, «What in the world? I’m in New York City alone, and it’s this huge parking lot, and it’s gated.» I jump up, and I’m running in every direction looking for this guy, and I don’t see him.
I go back to the front desk, and I’m like, «Hey, where’s the guy? He looked like this, this, and this. I just wanted to thank him for the screws he gave me.» The guy said, «Bro, are you out of your mind? You’re alone; we’re after hours; nobody’s been through here.» I realized that God sent an angel on assignment to give me the screws that I needed.
Now, you don’t have to believe that story. But when you go to great lengths to do something for God, you will begin to provoke the supernatural in your life. You will begin to provoke angelic visitation and the glory of God. So I screwed that plate in, I drove that out there; I started that church, and Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, and Jews have accepted Christ as Messiah because that church was started.
So God sent an angel. If you want to learn how to provoke the supernatural in your life, you’ve got to move out of comfort into what God has for you. Man, I feel such a burden being released right now.
Altar Call and Declaration
Can we have the prayer team come up front? I want the prayer team to come up because we’re going to pray for some of you. Wow.
Exodus chapter 20, verse 5. «You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.» Romans chapter 5, verse 18. «Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification for the life of all people.»
See, this is a shift. By your one decision right now, how many people in your bloodline—it changes everything. Some of you, if you would actually stop being lukewarm and say, «God, I want to be on fire for you, » your whole friends—everybody connected to you—would start getting free from drugs and opiates, start getting free from pornography and lust, and start getting free from a poverty mindset. You would shift everything just by you—one.
Right now, here’s what I want to do. I want to pray for all of you. We’ve got a little bit of time left. Some of you might want to double dip for the next service, and I’ll see you at night, and we’re going to continue ministering. We’ve already seen, last night, medically verifiable miracles. I’m still getting reports to my inbox; I woke up to them. We had multiple people surrender drugs; it was an incredible experience. We’re going to keep riding this thing through until God deposits everything He has for you. But here’s what I want to ask you right now, before we even pray for you individually:
Is there anybody here—just as a sign—say, «Pastor Mike, I want to be like Abraham and Sarai; I want to be like your mom who’s dreaming bigger. I want to be one of those people who goes all the way in.» Would you just lift your hands towards heaven if that’s you? Come on. We’re going to make a declaration together because this is for a region; this is for a city; this is for a family.
So I want everybody to boldly declare this with me. Say, «Heavenly Father, I commit to your will and your ways. I will go where you tell me to go. All false idols, I break them now. Every bit of vanity, every last bit of sin, I confess and repent. Break every band of wickedness, every remaining chain, every generational curse. It stops with me. In Jesus' name.» Come on, somebody shout amen.