Steven Furtick - Living In The Overflow
I've been doing things (this is important) in my life that support the flow of the Holy Spirit. When I'm not doing those things in my life, whether that's my relationships or whether that's serving or whether that's dealing with the weeds in the garden of the things I say and do that don't match up, which happen every day… When I'm not putting God's Word in my heart in a systematic way from a place of love, from a place of challenging myself, from a place of asking God to speak to me…reading it through his perspective, not just reading it to see what I already think it means… If I'm not doing those things, I'm not going to come from abundance, because, again, I'm coming from my own personal point of view, and I'm going to read into every text I read or every situation that happens, every experience I have.
I'm going to read into those things my own experience, prejudice, belief, and insecurity rather than drawing from those things what God wants me to receive so I can give it. That's just an example of how it happens in preaching to come from a place of abundance, that I've been reading, studying, listening, exposing myself to things that don't take away from the revelation God has given me by just interfering with noise or kind of perverting things. If I'm putting things in myself… Not just Bible verses, but thoughts, dwelling on things, discussing things, opening up. If those things are flowing in my life, I'm going to be coming from abundance. "I hear the sound of the abundance of rain," Elijah said.
Now, that's not necessarily what the situation looked like, but that's where he was coming from. He was coming from the sound he heard. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. I think we can say the words we put in our hearts that we allow to dominate, the words we put in our hearts, the words we allow to give wind, the words in the form of our thoughts, the words in the form of our meditation, the words in the form of what we say to ourselves, what we say about ourselves, what we think about others… All of those words work in the background of our lives so that they're either drawing away, creating a leak… Your internal language is either creating a leak, and everything God puts in you, you're going to just feel like, "Never enough. Man, I'm never enough. I was in bed eight hours, but I only slept three. I still didn't get enough sleep".
That's not necessarily because you're doing something wrong, but I am saying, a lot of times, if I don't pay attention to what goes in during the day, then when I lay down at night when the day is over, I'm not going to have any kind of peace. I'm not going to have any kind of real rest, and I'm going to wake up again in the cycle of "Not enough". Coming from abundance… What does that look like? It looks like believing when I wake up every morning that I have enough time today for what God has called me to do today. Jesus said, "Do not worry about tomorrow".
So, that's a misappropriation if I start going, "Yeah, but tomorrow…" Well, plan for it. Think about it. Give structure to it. Build around it. I do not believe it's wise for you to not have a retirement account and you're 53 years old. I do not believe it's wise for you to have all this empty space in your day or your week or your year where you have nothing to look forward to. I think that's a recipe for depression. I believe that's a recipe for a rut where you just automatically do things and kind of like, "What do you want to do? What do you want to do"? No. I'm not talking about that. What I'm saying is God gave me the space and grace I need for today, and that belief will bring me to a place of abundance, because I'm not going into the day going, "There's no way I'm going to get it all done".
Okay. I'm not going to get it all done today. I'm not going to get it all done tomorrow either. I'm not going to get it all done next week, but by sitting with God, sitting with my list, sitting with the people who are important in my life, figuring out what's important to us, really paying attention… "Okay. Last week I got off track with this. It wasn't fruitful. Now this week, I'm going to prune all that stuff that wasn't fruitful so I can bear the right fruit. These are the things that matter. This is what's important in this season. This is what I can't do anything about. Oh, this is the drama I'm getting drawn into". You come from abundance when you get clear in your heart with God in his presence about the priorities he has for you. "Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well".
So, the things that deplete you, the things that pull from you, the things that suck the blood out of your very being, suck the happiness, suck the energy out of your life… All of those things that make you feel like, "I can't do it…" They're not all bad. Sometimes you just haven't made the decisions in your daily life, in your weekly life, in the structure of your month, in the structure of your year… You haven't made the decision yet to prioritize God's presence and the purpose he put you here for. So, you can't come from abundance because… Let me say it one way that I said it in a sermon one time. It's not an issue of there not being enough resources; it's an issue of there not being clear enough priorities.
Sometimes we don't have enough resources, but sometimes we don't have enough priorities. Putting God first means the things he wants done. How do I know what he wants done? Well, if I spend time in his Word, if I spend time paying attention, if I spend time asking the Holy Spirit inside of me, "Let me see through your eyes," I'm going to know more times than not. If I pay attention to my last mistake, I'll go, "Ooh, correction". Boom. I'm going to get better at that as time goes on. When I fail at it, I'm going to pick myself up and go, "Okay. All right. Maybe I hit that a little different next time". You get this feeling from God when you're off track, don't you? It's like, "This is not getting you anywhere. Change approach. Change course".
I believe priorities are a huge part of coming from abundance. I believe presence is a huge part of coming from abundance, not only your presence in the moment but God's presence with you. I don't know if you understand what it means to have Christ in you. I don't know if you understand what that means, because I know I don't. I'm trying to find out what that means. The problem is I have so much on me sometimes, pressure on me, it keeps me from fully accessing, acknowledging, and acting in the power I have in me, the presence of God in me. Christ in you. I think a lot of us are messed up by the language we learn maybe as children or maybe later in life.
We say, "Ask Jesus into your heart". I think we have really gotten arrested development when it comes to what that means, because it's like, "Oh, ask Jesus to come into your heart. He'll save you". That's the way you explain it to a kid because they can't understand salvation. I don't think that is an elementary thing to ask God for. I just think we have an elementary understanding. When you ask Jesus into your heart, when you say, "Christ, be in me. You are in me. I thank you, Lord, for the Holy Spirit in me," that's powerful. That's not some playful little phrase that we teach a preschooler. That's powerful.
So, I want you to go from a preschool understanding of asking Jesus into your heart or having Jesus in your heart to a powerful understanding of that. Coming from abundance means I am not this needy person who needs to go around begging people for crumbs and scraps all day. I am someone who has great need, but I have a greater God who lives and flows through me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Why did Paul say it that way? Why didn't Paul just say, "Christ can do all things through you"? Because he wanted us to understand it will take our decision, our initiative, and… Watch this. This is the last one I want to give you for today: proactive.
So, priority, presence, which also goes along with power… How do I come from abundance? Priority (I decide what doesn't get my attention), presence (understanding God is with me in this moment), and then I have to be proactive. That means I have to call on Christ, like Samson called. Remember last week in the hollow place? Samson cried to the Lord, "God, are you going to give me the victory, but you're going to let me out here, with chapped lips and parched throat, die in this desert"? God is like, "I was just waiting on you to ask me". Boom! Water came from the hollow place. That's how the Holy Spirit works. Ask for the Holy Spirit. Ask your Father for more flow. Ask and he will give you your joy and make it complete. You have asked nothing in his name up until now. He's waiting on you to ask and act in what you've asked. What good is it to ask God for something and not act in your belief.