Holly Furtick (Elevation Church) teaches that God is constantly near and speaks in ordinary, everyday moments rather than only through dramatic signs. She uses personal testimony (Psalm 23 during the COVID-19 quarantine) and scripture (Proverbs 15:23, Jeremiah 15:16, Isaiah 43:18–19) to argue believers should expect, recognize, and respond to God’s "word in season," practicing attentive habits to hear Him and accept God’s new work in their lives. The talk ends with practical examples (hearing God through family, memory, gratitude) and a short encouragement to subscribe.
Chapters
The presence of God. He's near. He's here. He's in your home. He's in your hospital room. He's in your car. The problem is you aren't always listening. When you know Jesus, you know that he speaks right now to your situation. Sometimes he only gives you enough to sustain you for a moment. Sometimes, sometimes for a day. The Bible tells us that his mercies are new every morning because they aren't meant to last forever. They're meant to make you coming back to him for more and for more. What if you had a relationship with someone that you never spoke to? That wouldn't be much of a relationship. God has a fresh word that can sustain you moment to moment. It's now he gives you a word in season. Proverbs 15:23 says a word spoken in due season. How good it is. It is. Back in March, God led me to Psalm 23. I didn't know why. I just started reading it. And then coronavirus came and it became my anthem. For the next several months, I read it over and over again. I read it in different versions. I shared it with everyone because it was getting me through all of the emotions and the uncertainties of quarantine. It was a word in season for me. Jeremiah 15:16 says this. Let me find it. When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy and my heart's delight. You don't need signs anymore. Maybe a sign or a miracle brought you to Christ, but mature faith doesn't need constant signs and wonders. Sometimes God doesn't get you out of a situation because he wants you to go through, but he is going to everything that you need to push through. And he's going to go through it with you, and you're gonna come out on the other side stronger. Mature faith knows that the bread is right there in front of them. Right now, in this moment, right now, I just have to access it. I just have to open my eyes. His bread is also normal. So often we think that coming to God means that he has to always speak to us in this big, thunderous cl. Like the writing on the wall. I think that's a Bible verse somewhere. Like, I don't know, God wrote on a wall. People use that phrase a lot. Or maybe. Maybe we think, oh, I don't need writing on the wall. But God mostly speaks to me at church. Look, don't get me wrong. God speaks to me at church. God speaks to me through the songs and the sermons that come out of Elevation Church. No doubt about that. But God is not limited to songs and sermons. And I wonder if one of the main reasons that we hear God speak to us when we're at church is because we come expecting it. We come looking for it there. But what if I woke up in the morning expecting God to speak to me? What if I expected God to speak to me through every mundane moment? God can speak. Speak words of encouragement to you the moment that you open your eyes in the morning. God can whisper words of peace to you while you lie awake at night. God can speak directly to you when you open up his Word. You know you can read the Bible when you're not at church, right? And you don't have to start in a weird place. Start with what you know. Start with Psalm 23. Start with the Lord's Prayer. Start where you know what God will speak. Right there. Remember a few weeks ago when Pastor Stephen told us, faith is not a lever that you pull. I will never forget that. He said, we don't worship jackpot Jesus. Faith is a lens. And when I decide to open my eyes and see God at work all around me, my perspective changes. And all of a sudden I see him showing up in all the small moments of life. It's normal. It's now. And you know what else? It's near. God is constantly speaking to you. He's close. The problem is you aren't always listening. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come to open blind eyes and unstopped deaf ears. Did you know that you don't have to kneel down and close your eyes and fold your hands to hear God speak? In the Old Testament, the bread represented the presence of God. He's near. He's here. He's in your home. He's in your hospital room. He's in your car. If we haven't Learned anything from 2020, I hope to God that we can learn that he will speak to us everywhere, even in our own home. Even when we're walking through our neighborhood, even when we're alone. I think a lot of times I'm not listening because I don't want to hear what God is speaking to me. Have you ever felt like God is speaking to you? Something and you're like, mm, I don't want to hear that. But I think also sometimes I'm just too busy to be present in a moment long enough for God to speak to me. God can speak through your children. God can speak through your spouse. Yes, he can. God can speak through your friends. He can speak through a memory. He can. He can Speak through a moment of gratitude. He can speak in a thunderstorm. He's always speaking. He's constantly trying to remind you of his great love for you. But I have to learn to incline my ear to the Lord. I have to train my eyes to see Him. And the more I see him, and the more I hear him, the more I see Him. And the more I hear him, and the more I see him, the more I hear Him. It's about getting in a rhythm of seeing, seeing and hearing God. Because he's all around and he's speaking to you. And that's the beautiful thing about knowing God, is that he's always speaking to us, all around us. And finally, God's bread is new. God loves to work in new ways. Isaiah 43:18, 19 says, forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing now. It springs up. Do you not perceive it? Do you not see it? I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. This is not one of my favorite passages in the Bible. And if I'm honest, I don't want God to do a new thing. I want him to fix an old thing. I want a better marriage, but I don't want to change anything about my habits to make it better. I want a less hectic life, but I'm not willing to say no to any additional social commitments or activities that my kids want to do. And I think about going out of quarantine. I don't want this hectic pace of life anymore, but I haven't said no to anything yet. I want to lose weight, but I don't want to make any changes to my health and my habits. I want God to use me, but I can't seem to move on from. From my past. There are new steps that God wants me to take in order to make progress in my life. But if I'm unwilling to accept the new, I'm always gonna feel stuck. Hey, thanks for watching. I hope that that encouraged you today. Make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss out on other videos like this, and I'll see you back here. Sam.
