Steven Furtick - The Secret To Getting Through
This is an excerpt from: I'm Going Through But I'm Running Over.
When you go through certain things, you will discover a grace that you only get when you go through those things. Even though the thing is not what you would have chosen to go through, it is going to… I declare prophetically and biblically it is going to give you grace. So, that adversity is the access point by which the extra grace will be released by God. You will go through things in your life, and when you get through them, people will ask, "How did you get through that"? and you will only be able to say, "I don't know. God gave me a grace for it". Shout like you know the shepherd. Say, "I've got a grace for it".
Come on. Tell your neighbor, "I've got a grace for it. I'm going through it, but I've got a grace for it". If I've got to go through it, it is guaranteed grace. God will never make me go through what he will not give me grace for. So, if you're going through something you haven't been through before, you're about to get a grace you've never had before. You're about to receive an anointing, overflowing like you've never known it before. God will fill you for this.
"This is an event. I'm getting through this. This is an event. I'm not living here. Don't put this as my permanent mailing address, 301 Valley Road. Don't come visit me in the valley next December, because I'm going through this. Yea, though I walk…" I'm talking about the kind of grace that'll make you say, "Yea" as you go through the valley. Somebody shout, "Yea"! That'll preach, won't it? "Yea". Nobody says, "Yea" when the bill is overdue. "Yea". That's crazy. David said, "Yea…" I know he meant it a little differently. Let's have some fun. Come on. Say, "Yea". I wish you would confuse the Devil this week. He has you in the valley. When they call you and tell you the bad news, you just say, "Hang on a second". Mute. "Yea"! You know how she broke up with you in October, and you thought you'd spend the rest of your life alone?
I want you to go back to October in your mind, let God anoint your head with oil, change the way you think about that thing, and realize, "If that was meant for me, it would be meant to be. If it was meant for me, it would be, but if it went away, it couldn't stay". Somebody say, "Yea"! I feel Jesus on this! Jesus got to the tomb of Lazarus. He said, "He's dead, and I'm glad". Somebody shout, "Yea"! Well, why would you be glad? Because these are his friends, and he's about to show them something nobody else has ever seen. I need you to get happy, not about the valley you're going through but about the grace of God that is coming to you.
Somebody shout, "Yea"! I'm not afraid because yea! I'm telling you this message is real to me. I was shouting like this at 5:45 this morning. I was scared I was going to wake the dog up. Abbey said he peed on the couch. I think I made the dog pee his pants, because I was walking around my living room at 5:45 saying, "Yea! Yea! Yea"! Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. Yea! This is the day the Lord has made! He's my shepherd, so he enables me. "You can't minimize people's pain like this, Pastor Steven". I'm not minimizing anything. I'm just trying to reframe the way you see the rain. I'm trying to get you to rethink the leaves.
Did you have somebody leave you? What if that's nourishment for your next season in the soul of your life? I said, "I'm going through, but watch this. I'm going through. Don't let what I'm going through fool you. I'm going through, but I'm not dry inside. I'm going through, but I'm not without a witness. I'm going through, but God is speaking with me. I'm walking through this valley, but I'm not walking through it by myself. Yea, though I walk…" Did you notice in the text, in verse 5, it said something was running, and it was the cup? He said, "My cup runneth over". But in verse 4, something was walking, and that was you. "Yea, though I walk…" I walk, and the cup runs. I need y'all to help me today because my voice is a little bit weak.
I don't know what I was doing just now pushing it, because all week, every day, I was recording my book by audio, and I did not hold back. I did not put my late-night FM DJ voice on this thing. This was not Boyz II Men intro stuff, like tone level, voice level, "This has no bass in it". I preached that thing, all 70,000 words. Let me put an advertisement. My new book, Do the New You, February 13, everywhere books are sold. Preorder right now at dothenewyou.com. I did it all week, and one thing I noticed when I was doing it… When I would rush, I would mess up. You want to get done, because you get tired of hearing yourself talk. How many of you like to hear yourself talk? It's not fun. I do this out of love for you. I don't like to hear myself talk any more than you like to hear yourself talk.
So, I was sitting there listening to myself talk for, like, the second or third day, and I started trying to talk a little fast like that, and I'd make 10 mistakes. Every time it got hard, the secret to getting through was to slow down. That's why it said, "They that wait on the Lord will walk…" "Yea, though I walk…" Slow down. You're worried because you're trying to get there too fast. You're worried because you're trying to do it all in one day. You're worried because you're trying to keep up with people who are 10 years older than you. You're worried because you're trying to keep up with people who are more messed up than you are; they just hide it better. You're worried because you're trying to take in all the information in human history all in the same device at the same time. Slow down, shut down, and walk through the valley. You want to get out of the valley. I understand.
Well, the way through it is to walk. When you run to something else to escape it, you don't become stronger through it. You can't run over if you don't go through. That's the paradox of provision. You can't run over and have wisdom to give others if you do not go through the weakness with God for yourself. That's what this season has been about. The Enemy has been lying to you, telling you that the valley, the shadow, and the enemies at the table represent the end for you. They don't. None of those things do. You see, there's a cast of characters in Psalm 23, including a valley, a shadow, and enemies. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me".
Aren't you glad God has a rod? The staff is how he brings me back; the rod is how he keeps everything away that threatened to devour me. I need both of those. So, sometimes he'll use an event to bring me back to him. Sometimes he'll use an event to keep a wolf away from me, but his identity is the lens through which I view every event in my life, not the other way around. Once I've decided he's the shepherd, that means I'm settled in this and my cup is running over. Well, where is the cup? On the table. Where is the table? We have this misconception that when we get through stuff, it's going to get better. "I'm going through right now, but I can't wait for 2024. That's going to be my year".
You've been saying that since 1947. Elvis had a number one song on the chart the last time you said that. Then we have this misconception that the adversity we're going through will prevent us from being blessed right now. I think that's the thing I really wanted to put as the core of this message. It's one thing to say, "When I get through this, then I will be happy, whole, successful… When I get through this, I will be at peace. When I get that amount of money… I'll be secure". No, you won't, because it's never there. He said out of their trial, in the midst of it, welled up a rich generosity. David said, "My cup runs over at the table in the presence of my enemies in the shadow of the valley of death".
I want to walk through all three of those very quickly. There are three symbols in this text of adversity. Each of them represents adversity. First is the valley. You're in the valley. You're going through the valley. You are going through. You will not live there. You will not die there. You will not move your kids and grandkids into that spot in the valley. That's why you're going through it. They won't have to go through it quite like you do. I believe my dad broke the spirit of suicide off of my life by not killing himself, because his dad did. So, first, it's a valley, but I'm passing through.
My friend Brandon Lake was telling me a couple of years ago… He just wrote a song. I said, "Was it good"? He said, "It's just a song about the valley". I said, "A song about the valley"? He said, "Yeah, a valley. It represents hard things in our lives". I said, "Brandon Lake, you don't have to explain to me what a valley represents in the Bible. Do you think I'm an idiot? I went to cemetery…seminary. I know about the valley". "Well, a valley is a metaphor in the Bible, and it means anything we go through that we don't quite understand, the low moments". "Shut up, man. I know what the valley is. Sing me the song". I know what the valley is. Do I really? I haven't gone through what some of you have gone through. Do I really know the valley? Do I really know the shepherd until I've really known the valley? Can I really run over until I go through and walk through? You don't get the cup full lying down.
Did you notice? He said, "He makes me lie down in green pastures, but then I had to get up and walk, and then he filled my cup". You will go through this. You will go through seasons where you'll question your sanity. You will go through seasons where you "Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they're old they won't depart from it". You will go through seasons of thinking, "Well, they're not going to get old because I'm going to kill them before they get old, and then they're going to depart from the earth". And you will. He said there's a shadow in the valley. The valley of the shadow of death. You won't always see yourself correctly, Jesus correctly, or your situation or next step clearly. All of these people who always know everything God spoke all the time… Check their medicine cabinet. I'm going to say stuff now, because you know what?
When you're really in a valley and people are up on their mountain shouting cute stuff to you about it… You're in the shadows, and people are on there turning on their iPhone light, trying to tell you stuff. The valley has a shadow, and in that place… Listen to me, child of God. As you walk through that valley, as you move through that shadow… He said there's a table and there are enemies. At this point you want to turn around, but you shouldn't. That adversity (valley), that shadow (valley), those enemies (insecurities), and things you've been going through, whether they were launched from hell or whether they came from your own decisions… Those things represented in this passage, that valley, that shadow, those enemies… They all represent adversity, but the Lord showed me something. He said all of those adversities are advertisements. For there to be a valley, there have to be two mountains. For there to be a valley, there has to be the mountain I came from, which is the last time God did it for me, and the mountain he's taking me to, which is my next testimony and my next level of effectiveness.