Steven Furtick - The Truth About God's Promises
This is an excerpt from: The Pillow and The Promise
In every place there is a purpose, but before it is discovered it must be determined, and God will allow you to determine the purpose of the place you’re in. You can simply survive it or you can be strengthened by it. You can resent it or you can be like John, who on the island of Patmos, wrote the book of Revelation. You decide the purpose for the place. Is this going to be the place where you become bitter and lie down and die from your disappointment or is this going to be the place that you discover a deeper source to drink from? All the good grass is in the valley. You can only get strength from certain places. This is something Jacob could not get anywhere else but here. In this place. The Lord is in this place.
Remember, he still has 490 miles to go before he gets to his destination, but the Lord is in this place. It means he is with me on the way. Anytime I want to, I can open a gate to the revelation of his goodness. This is the gate. Difficult time with your teenagers? I get it. This is the gate. (It got quiet on that one. I must have hit a nerve.) Just walk around pointing to stuff, winking at stuff. «This is the gate». Make it a gate. «This season…this is a gate. I’m not waiting. This is the gate. I’m not waiting for a relationship before I feel significant. This is the gate. I’m made in the image of God all by myself. This is the gate. This is the season. This is the time. This is the year. Not when I’m 45, not when I get the debt paid down. This is the day. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Enter his gates with thanksgiving».
You hear this word God gave me? This is the gate. This is the gate, and it is determined before it is discovered. Jacob decides, «I guess this rock is as good as any. I’ll make it a monument». It was a very common practice. He said, «I’ll set this up to remember how God met with me here,» after he was sleeping on something he wasn’t supposed to sleep on. Wait a minute. Jesus did this. This is not just a Jacob thing. Let me see if I can find it. Mark 4:35, when Jesus was sleeping in something he wasn’t supposed to be sleeping in. There’s a commonality. There’s a common thread. I wonder, do you see it in verse 35? It says, «When evening came…» Jacob rested on the rock when the sun went down. Jesus is on a boat as evening approaches. «…he said to his disciples, 'Let us go over to the other side.'» Next verse. «Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall…»
Not a word we often use. Just a raging storm. «…came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped». Now we’re going to see a contrast between what Jesus did and what the disciples did, because Jesus, in the middle of a life-threatening storm where the survival of the mission was at stake, was in the stern sleeping in the storm. Jesus found a pillow. Somewhere in that boat he found a pillow, and he laid his head down and went to sleep. The disciples woke him… The disciples were awakened by their fear, and Jesus was asleep in his purpose. I’ll show you. They said to him, «Don’t you care if we drown? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you care»?
The only way for us to understand the meaning of this passage is to contrast what they thought with what he knew. First, watch what he did. He got up, rebuked the wind for disturbing his REM cycles, and said to the waves, «Shut up! Be still»! I think you need to say that sometimes to your thoughts. Hello! To your monkey mind, to your amygdala. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can say is, «Shut up». «The wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? ' They were terrified…» Like Jacob, because the flip side of faith is always fear. «They were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? '»
Oh, I thought you knew. No. It took an uncomfortable situation to show them the revelation of who was with them all along, and they were not aware. Do you see it? «Even the wind and the waves obey him! Who is this»? What started as a storm turned into a sermon. Jesus preached who he was not by what he said but by what he did. He took a pillow and laid his head down because he knew something they did not know: in every purpose there is a promise. «I will not leave you until I have accomplished everything I have created you for».
In every purpose there is a promise. In every place there is a purpose, but in every purpose there is a promise. This is Mark, chapter 4, and in Mark, chapter 5, Jesus is going to meet a man who was possessed with so many demons he simply calls himself Legion, which means many. So overcome by issues and oppression he doesn’t even know his identity anymore. He’ll meet the man and free the man and cast the demons out of the man and send the man back into the Decapolis, and when the man goes back into the Decapolis to tell the people (Mark 5:20) how much the Lord has done for him, the gospel enters a whole new region, and the mission is born that was pronounced in Genesis when God told Jacob, «I’m going to bless the whole earth through you».
That happened in Mark, chapter 5. What Jesus knew was, «I can’t drown in Mark, chapter 4, so I’m going to get a pillow, because I have a promise». When you have a promise from God, let me tell you what to do. When God gives you a promise… How many of you have a promise from God and you really believe that he will be with you? How many of you have a promise from God? How many of you have a promise from God that he will not fail you? When you have a promise, let me show you what to do. When you have a promise, sleep on it. I’m not going to stress about it. I’m not going to weep about it. I’m not going to expend any more energy trying to manipulate it. I’m going to do what Jesus did. I’m going to find a pillow, because I have a promise, and I’m about to sleep on it.
While I sleep, God is strategizing. While I sleep, the angels are coming. While I sleep, the provision is being made. While I rest, the promise of God is coming to pass in my situation. This is the gate. You have a promise? It’s your pillow. What good is the promise if you’re not going to believe it? When you have a promise from God, you can rest your soul and rest your head and rest assured that in every purpose there is a promise. When he said in Mark 4:35, «Let us go to the other side,» it was the proof that we cannot die in the storm, because there is a purpose on the other side.
How I make it through this season and this storm and this valley is that I know there’s something on the other side. Every valley is between two mountains. There is something on the other side. Sleep on it. Cast your cares upon him; he cares for you. Sleep on it. I feel so awkward up here showing how Jesus was the promise. The pillow and the promise. You know what? I just realized something. He wasn’t sleeping on a pillow; he was sleeping on purpose. He knew, «No matter what storm I go through, no matter what season I’m in, the purpose of God will prevail». Sleep on it.
Therefore, since we have this promise of entering into his rest, let us take heed that we do not fall short of it. There is a purpose that produces rest, and there is a promise that produces peace. Sleep on it. It was a rock; it became a pillow. It was a pillow; it became a pillar. What you’re going through right now is going to be the foundation of the revelation of who God really is. Sleep on it. «I’ll give you the ground you’re lying on, and I will not leave you nor forsake you until I have done everything I promised you». I can lay my head on that. I can bank my life on that. I can trust my children to God knowing that. «The Lord is in this place». The storm, the valley, the wilderness…this place. We all have those places in our lives where we’re passing through and we wonder, «What is the purpose of this»? But faith declares what Jacob declared. «Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware. But now I am. I see it now».