Steven Furtick - What You Need to Break Up With
This is an excerpt from: Breaking the Bondage of Wrong Belief
When I say there may be a breakup with Baal that needs to happen, what I actually picture in my spirit is a kid going back to school this week, and there are things you believed last year, but God has been working on your heart, not only in this message but in this season. When you go back to your school in a few days or, if you’ve already gone back to school, when you walk in tomorrow… You walk in, and after a while, people notice you are not as easily drawn to and seduced by the things you were drawn by, seduced by, duped by, and destroyed by in a previous season, and they begin to say things to you, like, «You’ve changed. You’re different». Maybe they even make it a little bit meaner, and they start calling you names because you won’t have sex. They start leaving you out because you won’t go places. You have the audacity, Gideon, to look at them and say, «Yeah. I know I look a little different, and I know I act a little different. It’s not that I’m better than you, but it’s just that something happened to me over the summer.
I don’t know if I told you about this, but I’ve been through a breakup. Me and Baal broke up. I decided he wasn’t doing it for me. I decided that living to be popular was costing me too much peace. I decided that living for pleasure costs me too much pain on the other side. I decided that not having God’s priorities meant I can’t have God’s peace. So, y’all be anxious if you’ve got to be anxious. Y’all be crazy if you’ve got to be crazy. Y’all be hateful if you’ve got to be hateful. Y’all call me what y’all have to call me, but the one who called me is more important than you».
So, I might not look the same next time you see me, because I’m going to be going through a breakup. It might be a painful breakup. I may have to relearn some things, I may have to be alone sometimes, and I might have to cry some nights, but I’m determined to see this through. Why? Because after the breakup, there will be a breakthrough. I’m going to cry for a little while. Weeping may endure for a night, but after the breakup… When the sun came up, there it was, the altar of Baal demolished to pieces, broken to pieces, smashed to pieces by the power of God! I’m on 10 right now. «I thought you were 2». I was, but me and God got back together. Oh! That’s why I’m praising him. «I thought you were falling apart».
I was, but me and God… In fact, I’m not even telling Baal myself. I’m just going to send him a message. «Why are you breaking up with me»? Because you’re not God. Stop thinking this is a marriage seminar. I’m not talking about a divorce from your spouse. I’m talking about a divorce from your belief system that is keeping you stuck. You might have a better spouse if you had a different belief system about marriage, and it might not even be a different one. So, before you take the bat to the marriage, take the bat to Baal. All of that I was going to preach to you, and then I realized it wasn’t about that altar; it was about what was on it.
Read it with me. He said, «I want you to tear down your father’s altar, the one to Baal, the cultural crap you keep doing». «I want you to clear your algorithm this week for what you think is a normal attitude. I want you to smash that so I can do something amazing through you». That’s what this is about in your life. You think every season of breaking is contrary to the season of blessing, but after the breakup there’s always breakthrough. No breakup, no breakthrough. You will keep going back to Baal, and you will blame it on Midian. You will keep thinking the problem is what is against you that you can see.
The problem isn’t what I can see that’s against me; it’s what I keep abandoning that is within me, because greater is he… It is not the Midianites who keep defeating you. It is not the addiction itself. It is the altar to Baal that keeps you believing you need something other than God. The Lord challenged me to read this Scripture again and again. I said, «Okay, God». He got up, he built a new altar, and he tore down the altar to Baal. I began to study about the altar, because in verse 26 it says, «Build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God».
What is the proper altar that you would build? Well, it was uncut stones so that no human hand could defile it. It was piled up and made ready for the sacrifice because the altar was a place to die. Then I realized there was one altar that was smashed the next morning, and there was one altar that was standing. But the thing that made the altar proper was not what it was made of as much as what was on it. The Lord told Gideon, «Get a bull from your father’s herd». A bull was a common sacrifice. So far, we see no real revelation as to what needs to happen next, but there is significance in this detail. «The second bull, the one seven years old». «Smash the altar to Baal, build the altar to God, and after you have taken the Asherah pole (which was an idol) and put the second bull as a burnt offering…»
Wait a minute. The bull is not random in this passage. The bull represents Baal, not just because they sound alike. All of the false gods of the Canaanites had mascots. For Asherah, who was their sex god, the mascot was a pole, but for Baal, who was the weather and fertility god, the mascot was a bull. So, when the Lord told Gideon, «I want you to take the bull on the altar that you build to God and smash the altar your father built to Baal,» what God was saying was, «I want you to believe me more than you believe Baal». It is very simple to say but very hard to apply, because the Enemy will lie to you and lie to you and lie to you and feed you with beliefs about the way things are, about what is important, about what really matters. He will feed you as much bull as you will listen to, but the Lord said today is the day for you to put the bull on the altar.
Every lie you’ve believed, every stronghold you’ve accepted, every false god you’ve worshiped… Put the bull on the altar. As long as we keep building altars to things we ought to let die, we will be in covenant with God but be in captivity in life. You have to put the bull on the altar. Every time the Devil lies to you, put that bull on the altar. Every time he tells you you’re insignificant because you’re not famous, put that bull on the altar. Every time he starts trying to tell you an addict is all you’ll ever be, put that bull on the altar. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Put that bull on the altar!
I heard about a basketball game where Michael Jordan scored 69 points in the game. There was a rookie who was interviewed after the game. It was his first game in the NBA. This was in 1990. They asked, «What are your comments on your first game in the NBA»? and he said boldly, «I’ll always remember this as the night Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points». He said that because when you’re connected to the right one… I’m not talking about a bull now. I’m talking about the spotless, perfect Lamb of God slain from the foundation… The Lord said to Gideon, «You are not going to die,» but there are some lies you have believed that must die so you can live. Put that bull on the altar. Stop thinking there’s something that will fulfill you or complete you outside of God.
There is nothing. It’s nobody else’s job to complete you. It’s nobody else’s job to fulfill you. It’s nobody else’s job to make you happy. That’s God’s job. Let him do it. Build a proper altar. Let God fill those deep places in your life, and remember there is nothing you can do that would separate him from you. Every time the Devil tells you you’re too far gone now, remember you serve a God who can make a 2 a 10 by his blood. Michael Jordan and I can score 70 points together on a single night. God can use you to deliver, God can use you to be a blessing, God can use you to give wisdom, God can use you to build it up, and God can use you to tear it down, but it’s going to be because of him.
When they investigated in the daylight to see who had done it in the night, they said, «Gideon did it». «Gideon? Isn’t he the one who was hiding in the winepress»? I like to imagine at that moment Gideon said, «Yeah. I was, but me and God got back together, and we have this ministry of reconciliation». I know what you’ve done alone. I know what you’ve done in your own strength, and so do you. I know Baal has failed you. He fails all of us. I know how your false beliefs have led you to a place of codependency with substance. Baal always does that. I know how thinking somebody needs to approve you before you can be worthy of love has left you running, drinking salt water in an ocean you were already drowning in.
That’s what Baal always does. Break that altar. Delete every opinion that tells you what a young lady is supposed to be like. Ask your Father what a woman of God looks like, put your virtue on, and wear your values proudly. When they say, «You don’t post no more,» tell them, «Yeah. Me and Baal broke up, and me and God got back together. That altar is gone. I won’t worship at it another day». I want you to grab the hand of the person next to you, because they’re in a battle right now. They’re in a breakup right now. Squeeze their hand right now because they’re in a battle. I want you to squeeze their hand to let them know, «You didn’t die».
That’s how you know the covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is with you too. Even though it was seven years of sin… Isn’t it weird that the Bible said it was a seven-year-old bull? That was the exact length of time they had been in captivity. It was the bull that kept them in bondage. You can be free the moment you come into agreement with God on what he says about you. You can be free from the moment you decide there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. You don’t have to stay in this another seven years. You can be free the moment you believe. Put that bull on the altar. I’m talking about a new bull. Believe. If you believe in him, you will be saved.
Right now, there’s somebody in this room who needs this message as a matter of life and death. You’re not going to die. The psalmist said, «I would have despaired unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living». You’re going to see it, but there are some altars you’ve been running to in the land you’ve been occupying that have been keeping you from being the person God sees. You’re a warrior in this winepress. You always have been. He knows there’s a better you. He loved me like I was, but he didn’t leave me like I was.
Lord, I thank you that you loved me like I was. You didn’t see me as a 2. You turned me to a 10. I get grateful when I think about your grace. I don’t have to think about my car (I appreciate it) or my house (I love it). I don’t have to think about any of these things just to say, «Thank you for your grace, Lord». I thank you that all I have to do to be closer to you is believe that you’re already here. Like that angel was staring at Gideon and Gideon finally realized it, maybe today is the day we finally realize the lies belong on the altar. Before your presence, God, I ask you to set your people free today.