Steven Furtick - Releasing Your Fear
This is an excerpt from: From What If To What Is
What if God is bigger than any of the things you just listed? What if Moses, the man who God called to deliver his people, is a murderer who has been a fugitive for 40 years? What if God picks that guy? You know how you can tell if you have what it takes to do what God called you to do? If he called you to do it, you have what it takes! "I don't know. It's kind of iffy". It's not iffy! You're iffy. God is not iffy. Let me tell you why God chose you. He had no other options. Yeah, God was scraping the bottom of the barrel. He said, "Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us? I guess Eric will do". You are shrinking God to the size of the scenario you can understand. Watch God. Moses says, "What if they won't listen to me"? and God says, "What is that in your hand"?
Now, this is what got my attention in the text. Moses says, "What if…"? God doesn't answer him, because they're not going to listen to him, because they're rebellious, because they're stubborn. Now, here's what God will not do when you start worrying. He will not calm you down by saying, "Oh, nothing bad is ever going to happen. That's not going to happen. Just trust in me. Nothing bad is ever going to happen. You're going to go to the right place. You're going to meet the right people. You're never going to get it wrong. You're never going to make any bad decisions. There are always going to be angels clearing out a parking space so that you will never have to walk, even when you go to the gym to exercise". God is good. This is the lesson. Moses said, "What if they don't believe me or listen to me?" and then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand"?
So, here's what the Lord will do to help you break this cycle, if you will let him. If you want to stay in what if, you will wander in the wilderness. If you want to say, "What if…"? hypothetical scenarios will have hypothetical baby scenarios, and you'll have hypothetical baby, grandbaby, grandbaby, grandbaby, grandchildren scenarios. But God moves Moses from what if to what is. Isn't that good? God gave it to me just that simple this week. He said, "I want to move you from what if to what is". None of your stress is in the present moment. Moses is having a conversation with God, and he's thinking about people. He's already playing out why this is not going to work.
Some of you are in church already thinking about what comes after this today. It's fine. I'm not here to rebuke you for that. I'd be doing the same thing. I already told you I'd be wondering, "Is that his color? Does that really match his skin tone"? I'd be thinking a thousand things if I were you. But you are not going to receive what you could receive if you will not be fully where you are. Moses is in Midian. He is in Midian because he made a mistake. He made a mistake by killing an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew. It was an honest mistake. He had a passion in his heart. He had a calling in his life, but he had to flee when he was found out. He has been hiding for 40 years, and God shows up one day and tells him, "You're going to do something great now. It's time. I want to use you now. It's you". Moses said, "What if they…?" and God said, "What is that"?
I love it. It's two mentalities contrasted: your mentality (what if) and God's mentality (what is). God will bring you back to what is when you find yourself lost in what if. A couple of months ago, my nephews and nieces came over, and they taught me a game. We were swimming in the pool, and they took a watermelon, and they put Vaseline all over the watermelon. They said, "The object of the game is to get the watermelon with Vaseline on it from one end of the pool to the other. We're going to do it in the deep end, and everybody in the pool can try to stop you on the other team, and then you can pass it to your teammate". That's about what it feels like to try to get a word from God about your life and then navigate the deep waters of your real-life experience.
Have you ever felt like you're holding on to something that's slippery by design? Look. The watermelon was already heavy when I was trying to swim with it. I don't need it to be heavy and slippery, and I certainly don't need people clawing and scratching and climbing on my back, trying to drown me. This is not a game anymore. This is a lawsuit. I think like that too. I know they're my relatives, but that doesn't mean they won't sue me. "I need y'all to sign a waiver before we play". I mean, there's more to worry about now, especially with cancel culture. Do you know how much I think about "When is going to be the day I'm going to say something in this pulpit and everybody is going to be like, 'All right. We're out. You shouldn't have said that'"? Yet, at the same time, it is not you or them I really need to fear.
The fact of the matter is… Receive this for yourself. If God be for you, who can be against you? If it really came from him, if this is really God speaking to Moses, that question is irrelevant. What does it matter what they say when the Great I Am is the one speaking to you? What does it matter what they think about it? God said, "What they say is not the important issue. I'm not even going to answer about what they say, because it is not about what they say". It's not about the problem you're up against. It's not about the age or the stage of life. It's not about any of that. It's about…What is that in your hand? What is the thing God has given you right now, and will you trust that when you get to the next challenge of your life it will be enough because he is enough?
God said, "I know you have some doubts, so let me do a little product demonstration. You have been seeing this stick as a staff to shepherd sheep, and that's what it has been up until now, but throw it down on the ground and watch it change into something else. The moment you let go of it, it's going to transform. The moment you release it, it's going to become something you've never seen before. The moment you take it out of your hand, I'm going to turn it into something".
God is doing a product demonstration, you see. Moses doesn't even know who he is yet. Moses doesn't even know what he can do yet. You haven't even seen what God put inside of you yet. You haven't even met your gifted self yet. You haven't even met your free self yet. You haven't even met the leader inside of you yet, because you've been wandering in the wilderness of what if. "What if they leave me"? So, now you won't love anybody, because "What if they leave me"? So I'll withdraw my love from them before they can take their love from me. So, I'm living in what if, and I'm lonely in what if, and I'm dying of thirst in what if. I'd rather be in chains in what if because that's comfortable.
As long as you're worrying, you're still the one controlling it. You think you can plan enough and do enough and fix enough, but the real things that hit your life you won't even see coming. The moment Moses focuses on what is in his hand, God starts dealing with what's not in his hands. Here's the word: Give it to God, and he will give it to you. Give it to God…that situation. Give it to God…that issue. Give it to God, and he will give it to you. The strength you need, the direction you need, that next step you're asking him about… Give it to God, and he will give it to you. I'll tell you where you won't find your strength: in the wilderness of what if. That staff… Man, if Moses only knew. That staff was something else.
I want to preach this to you, but I want to prophesy it to you, so let me just say it. Your staff is something else. Common object, but put it down, and God will show you something else. Pick it up, and God will show you something else. I almost wish God would have done it like they do… When we bought the Rainbow vacuum cleaner, when we bought the knives that time, they'd bring it in and show you everything it could do. This man came into my house to sell me some cookware. He did a whole demonstration. He was cooking stuff. God only showed Moses one thing his staff could do. God didn't even tell him about, "Oh, yeah, once you get the people out of Egypt, they're going to have to cross the Red Sea, but what is that in your hand? See, when you need it to be something else, it'll be something else, because I Am That I Am. So, when I need that staff to part water, it'll part water, because I Am That I Am". Moses said, "What if they…? What if it…? What if I can't? What if? What if? What if"? God said, "What is".
Now, what it is right now is not all it's going to be. Stop measuring your future problems by your present strength. When you get to that stage, you'll have strength for it. When you get to that challenge, you'll have strength for it. God didn't make the staff part waters. Moses didn't need it to part waters yet. If it hasn't happened yet, it doesn't have to happen yet. You have to get out of the future and get into his presence and say, "God, what is in my hand"? This is the same stick that's going to make water come from a rock. This is the same stick that's going to hydrate a nation. This is the same stick that's going to be something else when you get to the next stage. From what if to what is. And if all of that fails you and what is isn't enough, remember who is.