Steven Furtick - God's Hand Is Over Your Life
This is an excerpt from: The Other Hand
I want you to go back in your mind. You're 16 years old. Close your eyes. You're 16. I do this when I'm preaching to the youth. Before I preach to the youth, I always put on the music I listened to when I was 16. Pearl Jam, No Code. Okay, so now open your eyes. So 16 years old. You're 16 years old. I like to tell this story when I speak to the students about one of the most significant things that was spoken to me when I was that age.
Now the coolest thing that ever happened to me when I was a teenager is when Billy Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day, called me on stage to play his guitar at the North Charleston Coliseum. My best friend is here to verify that that really happened. That was the coolest thing, George. Your dad was freaking out. But the most important/significant thing that happened to me (at least this would be in the top three) was… Well, it's been 25 years, and I'm still telling you about it. This is how big of a deal this is, is that somebody saw something in me.
Pastor Mickey White. I called him the other day, and I said, "I'm still telling this story of when you came over to our house 25 years ago when I was 16". Because Pastor Mickey had just taken the job as the pastor of Santee Circle Baptist Mission, and they needed a youth pastor. He asked me to come work with his youth. I think my mom kind of thought that Pastor Mickey's church might be a cult. Oh, y'all have thought the same thing about Elevation. You're sitting right in a church you used to think that about, so don't even look at me like that. Pastor Mickey said, "Well, I'll come over and talk to your mom". He used to be in the auto parts business, so he was a good salesman.
So he has to convince my mom for me to leave the Methodist church and come over to the Baptist church and be his youth pastor at this little church that was meeting in a Woodmen of the World building. What made it more dramatic is this big guy… Pastor Mickey is what…6'6" or 6'7"? He's in his seventies now, but he sat down on the middle of the floor.
There's like plenty of seats open in the house, so I guess he got a Gandhi flow going on on the floor. He sits down, big old guy, and he tells my mom, "I've worked with youth. I've worked with kids for 20 years, and God has his hand on Steven". That was 25 years ago; I can see it. Can you? I can see him sitting on the floor saying, "God has his hand on Steven in a way I've never seen his hand on any of the kids that I've ever worked with". It did the trick. My mom let me do it, and I served as this youth pastor. I'm thinking at the time, like, "This is a little thick. You're laying it on a little thick right now. Does it really take all that"?
But what I felt when he said that… I mean, on one hand, that felt cool, but on the other hand, it was kind of scary. It felt like, maybe like I'm special, like, "Oh, God's hand is on your son". But on the other hand, I'm like, "What exactly does that mean"? And yet, when he said it, y'all, I can't exactly explain this to you, but inside, I thought, "Oh, that's what I'm feeling. That's what I'm feeling". Because I had made my personal commitment to Christ. Not the one where your parents make a commitment to raise you so that you can meet Christ but where you decide to follow Jesus for yourself. I had to make that commitment, and I sensed something was different.
So here's this man who has been in ministry for many years, and he says something like, "God's hand is on Steven," and when I told this story to the young people Tuesday, I looked right at them, as many of them as I could, in the eyes, and I said, "God has his hand on you". Because a lot of them, never had Pastor Mickey sit on the floor criss-cross applesauce and say that when they were 16, and maybe a lot of them never even had anybody say something like, "I believe in you," you know?
I think what a difference would it make if they get the revelation right now. Not that they're going to be a preacher or a pastor one day. That's not what Pastor Mickey meant. That that was a part of my path, but he meant something different when he said, "God has his hand on Steven". I want you to say that out loud or put it in the chat, whatever the case may be, but say, "God…" Hold on. Don't say my name. Say your name. "God has his hand on…" Y'all said that so quietly. It was terribly unconvincing how you said it. You said it with the wrong voice inflection. Say it again. "God has his hand on…" God has his hand on Graham.
One more time. This time get the name of the person next to you. This might be good for like little Starbucks after church if you're single or whatever, but I'm not using it for that; I'm using it for illustration. Get their name really quick. Now say their name. Look them right in the eyes and say, "God has his hand on…" You needed to hear that. You hadn't been feeling like that lately. I know. You hadn't been feeling that lately. It doesn't make it any less true. He wasn't talking about a feeling. He wasn't talking about something that necessarily has a physical sensation. I'm seeing it in the chat.
"God has his hand on Don". "God has his hand on Leanna". "God has his hand on Esther". "God has his hand on Sage". "God has his hand on Adam". "God has his hand on Peter". God has his hand on me. It's his hand on me. It's his hand on me. I'm glad Pastor Mickey took time out of his very busy life to sit down on my floor and say something that bold. I wonder where I would be if I didn't believe that God had his hand on me. And now, I know he was right because now I know that the things that I've seen God do through me had nothing to do with me.
So I don't mean to preach this early, and I plan to pace myself, but I'm excited to have some of y'all back in the room with me. My testimony that it was his hand. I didn't know what he meant. It sounded good. It sounded profound. "God has his hand on Steven". I thought that meant he just wanted me to come over and talk to the youth and work with the youth, but 25 years later, I don't have to just believe it; I've seen it. I've seen it. Sometimes it was confusing because God's hand didn't always feel like a Swedish massage. Do you understand what I'm saying? God's hand didn't always feel like… You know, I've experienced God's hand in so many different ways. Like the hymn we sang growing up, "Great is thy faithfulness, O God, my father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. All I have needed thy hand has provided…"
So many times, I've seen God's hand like this, offering me what I needed in the moment. "All I have needed". Y'all know I'm going to come out of retirement and do a hymns project one day. "Great is thy faithfulness…" I know all four verses of every hymn. Zeke, you can sing harmony; I'm going to take the lead on those. "Great is thy faithfulness. All I have needed…" Not, "All I have wanted or asked for". Thank God. One of the things I've become grateful for in the last 25 years when he said "God's hand is on you" is for what he withheld. You know, you start off thanking God for when his hand does this, and then you live a little while, and you learn to trust in him with all your heart, so you learn to appreciate when he does this too. I'm talking about his hand. Because, yes, he's provided for me.
I can tell you days (and I bet you've had them too) where down to the dollar God came through for me. Down to the dollar. I'm talking God didn't even round down. It was down to the dollar, down to the decimal. There have been times in this ministry where down to the decimal, God has provided. It's not just money, and it's not just stuff. If you still think it's about bags and sneakers, you need to be back at YTHX, because you haven't grown up enough yet to realize that some of the greatest things God will give you in your life… Y'all better not preach me on this front row.
Some of the greatest things now… We're talking about God's hand, and sometimes it's like this, and he'll bring the right person into your life at the right time. You'll think, "How did God know that that's who I needed to meet at this point in my life"? Yet the same hand that did this will sometimes do this. It's the same hand. Like Job said, "He gives and he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord".
Have you realized that God's hand that does this is just as capable when he's doing this? I was on the front row, and the Lord told me, "Make sure you tell them I'm a gardener and that the same hand that plants also prunes. Make sure you tell them that the same hand that plants the seed of all that you're meant to be and all that your life is meant to contain and do is for his glory". That's why Pastor Mickey said, "God has his hand on you". Don't think that God gave you a gift so that you could use it for your glory. It's God's hand on you, so it's God's glory through you, and it's God's purpose. But the same hand that plants…
Do y'all know the Scripture, John 15? It says that every branch that bears fruit, he prunes. Same hand. The same hand. His hand does this; his hand sometimes does this. Taking opportunities that you thought, "Well, that's it right there". Then God goes, "Nah, I know stuff". All right. So praise him how you praise him when he does this, when he gives you an opportunity. Now, come on and lift your hands like you lifted your hands earlier. Can you lift them when he does this? God's hand. Say it again. "God's hand is on…" Say your name. God's hand.