Steven Furtick - Release That Mistake
This is an excerpt from: The Other Hand
You're holding on to stuff so tight. Some of you have such a death grip; your knuckles are white holding on to your staff, holding on to your identity. You've told yourself, "This is who I am. This is who I'm going to be. This is what I did". Yeah, you did it. Nobody's hands are clean in here. None is righteous. No, not one. Nobody lifted their hands because they don't have any blood on them. I lifted my hands because his blood will cleanse me of all unrighteousness if I confess it and own it and give it to him.
So it's not about God's hand. You've got more than enough aptitude. You've got more than enough experience. You've got more than enough height. You got the right feet, the right inches. You got the right genetics. It's all right there. It's never been about his hand. Before you were born, he knit you together. Before you were conceived, he set you apart. It's never been about his hand. God said, "What's in yours"? Before God could use him (I really wanted to use him), he had to do what we all have to do. He had to take what was in his hand. Not God's hand. God's hand is already cocked. He's already got the plagues loaded. He's already ready to unleash. That's not the question anymore. But when Moses said it was a staff, God told him what to do. "Throw it on the ground". He threw it, and it became a snake, and he ran from it because he wasn't an idiot.
I've heard preachers here say, "And Moses ran because he still had not recognized the sovereignty of God". No, he ran because it's a snake. You run from snakes. How stupid do we have to be to think that? Now this makes it even more powerful with what God tells him to do next, right? So he has to release what's familiar, and then he has to (watch this) reach out. Whose hand? Come on, y'all. I put it on the screen. "Reach out your hand". I know you're praying about God's hand, but God is saying, "Reach out your hand". Do you know there's nothing God's hand can't do, but there are some things God's hand won't do? God did not pry Moses' fingers from the stick. He didn't do it. He won't do it. It's in your hand now. There are some things that need deliverance. There are some things that need discipline. God will let you use your hand to lift a spoon with ice cream on it, or you can curl a dumbbell. It's in your hand at that point.
There are some things God will not, "Come on Moses! Ahhhhhh"! No. He throws it down, and then after he releases what's familiar… This is the process for me, for me, because God has his hand on me, and I know that. That's not the question. It's a mighty hand, but my hand, sometimes what's in my hand… Now you have to release what's familiar. He has to reach for what he's afraid of. And then in whose hand (Moses' hand) a miracle happens. "So what are you telling me, Preacher? You said the other hand. You said God's hand, then you said my hand". All right. Well, the Lord said everybody in here is going to need both hands in order to move forward, but the problem is you won't bring God what's really wrong with you. You keep stretching out that good hand.
You know what I never noticed? After Moses' stick became a serpent, and then the serpent became a stick, and all these awesome things that happen when we let go and God transforms our greatest fears into instruments of faith, that he would go on to part the Red Sea with that staff. I know all that. I've preached that before. But watch what God told him to do next, because he's saying, "What if they don't believe me? What if I don't believe me, God? I believe you. What if I don't believe me? What if they don't believe me"? Look what the Lord said in verse 6. Watch this. Moses was holding the staff. Remember, it was a snake a minute ago. It's a staff now; it's going to part waters. Wow. Watch what God can do. He can change your greatest mistake into the instrument of your greatest miracle.
"I know, Pastor. I've heard these cliches before. Your setback is a setup for… All this stuff". No. I'm telling you what daily I have to experience in my life is picking up the thing I was afraid of after releasing the thing I was familiar with. "What is in your hand"? But then he tells Moses, "Put your hand inside your cloak". So how's he going to do this? He's got the staff in his hand. How's he going to…? Oh. The other hand. The staff represented what he did, but the other hand represents who you think you are. "Put your hand in your cloak," he said. "Moses put his hand in his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous". What do you know about leprosy? If you isolate it, it makes you ashamed. Just like Moses has been for these 40 years because of what he did. The other hand.
Nobody touches lepers. Remember the leper in Scripture? Everybody would tell him, "Six feet back, six feet back, six feet back". But one day when Jesus walked up, it was the first time that he saw this. See, because nobody touches lepers. That's what I see God doing. We're all standing at a distance from what God gave us to do. I don't know if it's raising your kids. I don't know if it's fully entering into the life God has given you right now or being content, but God said, "'Put your hand back in your cloak and pull it out.' And when he pulled his hand out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh".
God wants to restore your other hand. Your other hand. You know the one? Nod at me if you know the hand and hope I don't mention your specific issue in front of this whole august body of believers. You know the one. Stretch that one forth. I see God restoring your hand today, because his hand has always been on you. Holly preached an amazing message about the voice of God last night to our youth. But let me tell you something that she said that I really believe. I wrote a song about it when I was 16. It was the first Christian song I ever wrote. Before that, I was writing some songs that… Well, let's just say we won't be singing in the arena tour and putting it on a project on Spotify. It was some songs that never need to be heard by anybody. But I wrote one that said out of Psalm 139, "If I take the wings of morning or dwell within the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me fast". Who is it for today, that the Lord said, "I want to restore your hand, and I see what you're grabbing onto that you identify yourself with"?
The signs that God gave Moses were for God's glory, not for Moses. But before God's glory could be revealed, Moses had to release something, and so do you. "And when he brought his hand back out, it was restored". God wants to give you your hand back today. God wants to give you your hand back today. God wants to enable you to do by faith what you can't do in your own effort. God's hand is still on your life. And in case you have something in here that is bigger than you, I want you to know that is a job for God's hand. But God has given you a hand, and symbolically right now I want you to see the hand of God that has always been on your life in your hand that is holding on to what if you don't let go of it, you are never going to receive what you need for the season you're in.
All over this auditorium, I want you to lift your hands to God. Both of them. In fact, stand up on your feet.
We started this way; we're going to end this way. "What is that in your hand"? We could stand here the rest of our lives on the far side of the desert, Lord, or clutching onto mistakes we made and things we did, but like you did for that man who was mentioned in Matthew, chapter 12, I believe you want to do it for men and women under the sound of my voice today and restore their hand just like the other one. I thank you for the signs of your provision and faithfulness and protection on my life today. But I believe God, that there are some people who, because of shame, are hiding in isolation. They feel like a leper themself. They don't feel like they can do it. In fact, they've considered giving up. Today you sent your Word to heal them and restore their hand.
With your hands lifted, just pray it out loud:
God, restore my hand, restore my hand. I'm stretching it out now. I'm stretching it to you. No other help I know. I need your hand, God, for what has me in its grip. I need your hand, God, for what I can't get away from. From the memories and the thoughts and the fears. God, you know what they are, but I need your hand. Here's my hand. Here's the one I don't show anybody else. Here's the resentment I can't let go of. Here's the thing I can't forgive. Here's the thing for which I can't forgive myself. That hand.
Stretch it out right now in God's presence. I believe God is restoring hands. He's going to give you the ability to take hold of your calling again. It looks like a snake right now, but it's going to turn back into a staff in your hand. I'm telling you, man, I'm telling you, if you reach out and take that by the tail and you trust him, and you're going to watch it transform in your hand. The miracle is in your hand. Not the good hand. Not the "Look how great I am, how smart I am, how together I am" hand. That other hand. That weak hand. The one that hasn't been able to do it. God said, "Today I'm touching that hand. That hand".
Thank You, Lord. When you showed me this message, I cried, God, because you showed me that somebody is going home with the other hand working. I don't know who it is, but you do. You brought them here today. You wanted them to know they don't have to hide their hand. You wanted them to know your hand is still on them; you're not afraid to touch them. You wanted them to remember that you have a mighty hand, and that even if their hand is withered, if they will stretch it out, it'll be made whole. Oh God, I feel so stupid crying in front of these people right now. Oh God, I know what it feels like to believe that your hand is strong but to know that my hand is weak. And yet you've taught me that what Pastor Mickey told me is true: God's hand is on my life.