Steven Furtick - God Is Doing a New Thing
This is an excerpt from: The God Of A Way
What I'm trying to say to you today is if you are in a muddy situation, if you are in the muddy middle of a transition in your life, if you are in the muddy middle of beginning a recovery process, if you are in the muddy middle of trying to figure out "Who am I now in my life…"? If you are in the muddy middle of sending your kid off or having your kid back or trying to have a kid but can't have a kid or trying to raise a kid and not kill a kid or trying to finish a degree or trying to start a degree or trying to go back or trying to get away… If you have some mud, I have a word for you: mud means miracle! Come on, this is for the muddy ones! This is for the ones who say, "I see it kind of fuzzy, but I'm trying to have faith".
Check your neighbor's shoes and say, "You've got mud"? We'd better tell the team they're going to have to clean the church a little extra today. Today is not a day for you to walk into church and walk out unchanged. Today is the day you can come into the presence of the Lord, mud and all, hurt and all, brokenness and all, doubts and all, questions and all, failures and all, mistakes and all, and this is a miracle moment! Give him 30 seconds of crazy praise, muddy, messy, ridiculous praise, way-maker praise! Are you ready? When I say this, shout. Repeat after me. Say, "It's muddy, but I'll make it"! Give him praise if you know you're going to! Yeah, it's muddy. Yeah, it's confusing. Yeah, I'm kind of unsure, but I know one thing. He makes a way!
What's his name? Yahweh! "Thus says the Lord…" So, when the Devil says, "No way," you say, "Yahweh"! Oh, it's going to catch on in a minute. You don't get it yet. When the Devil says, "No way you're ever going to pay off this debt. No way you're ever going to shake off this burden. No way you're ever going to make it through this lonely season…" When the Devil says, "No way," we say, "Yahweh"! When the Devil says, "No way," you say, "Yahweh"! Give him praise! I feel that. When the Devil says, "No way," we say, "Yahweh". Let's make a live recording right now. Let's put this on TikTok to let every chariot know, to let every Babylonian know, to let every disease know, to let every bad report know, to let that Devil… When the Devil says, "No way," we say, "Yahweh". I love it. "Thus says the Lord…
Give me verse 19 and I'll shut up. I'm on fire on the inside. I'm going to bring a busload of Pentecostals to help me preach part 2 of this next week. "Behold, I am doing a new thing…" He's going to do a new thing. So, tap into the past, but don't be trapped in that. He said, "I am the God of also. I am the God of again. I am the God of already. I am the God of after". After all the hell you've been through, you mean you don't want to stick around and see what God can do through you? You want to go through all that suffering for nothing? Not me, Devil. You want to stand in front of this Goliath with nothing? Not me, Devil, because I say, "Yahweh". "Behold, I am doing a new thing…"
Is this word for you or just for me? I'm talking to 43-year-old Steven. I'm talking to 18-year-old you. I'm talking to 67-year-old you. I'm talking to broke you, discouraged you, down you, anxious you, panic attack you. I'm talking to all of them. I'm giving you an instruction you can carry in your heart by the Holy Spirit this week. When the Devil says, "No way," you say, "Yahweh". He's the God of a way. That might mean some of the things from your past aren't going to happen again, but look at this. He said, "I'm doing a new thing…" Shout the next word. Now. A new thing now. For you to stay trapped in your past would be like you trying to send a fax when you have an iPhone. God has given you new tools. God has given you new opportunities. God has given you new wisdom. God has given you new strength. God has given you new experience. God has given you new know-how.
So, when the Devil says, "No way," you say, "Yahweh". I think this is the part that makes us really want to scream, where he says, "Do you not perceive it"? A lot of us want to say, "No, I don't. I don't know what I'm doing". I think that's what Moses would say standing in the mud in the middle of the Red Sea. You know, there's an interesting verse about Moses in Psalm 103:7. It says, "God made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel". What does that mean? That means Moses, who led them through the Red Sea, got to know God in a way that none of them did, in a way that you can only know God when you have to move through the muddiness of not knowing how to manage your own self.
Can we be honest? We're going to eGroups this week. Marriage is muddy. All of the men make some noise. Holly was having the women shout earlier for Reflect. All the men make some noise. Manhood is muddy. You're supposed to be some tender warrior. What? Left foot, right foot… It's muddy. It's muddy, man. I get it. I have mud on my white shoes too. I should have worn different shoes today. I shouldn't have worn the white ones because I got mud all over my shoes. Money is muddy, trying to figure out how to trust God with your stuff. "Well, you don't need money; you just need God". Okay. Take me to Cracker Barrel on a praise song. You can't do it. You can't sing for your supper at Cracker Barrel. But I want to say this to a lot of you, and the Lord wants me to encourage you. It's muddy, but you're making it.
He said he made his ways known to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. Now watch this. Israel saw everything God did. Moses was the one who had to stand there in the muddiness and wonder, "Will this really work? Will I really have what it takes? Did I really do it right? Did I really get it right? Am I getting it right"? It's muddy in the middle. That doesn't mean there's no miracle. As a matter of fact, the more mud you walked in here with, the more miracles you're a candidate for, because that means you're walking through stuff, praying through stuff, pressing through stuff. I don't mean we continue in sin that grace may abound and just start celebrating our shame. What I do mean by that is that gives God something to show you through the mud that he can't always show you if you just stand on this side of it.
He made known his ways to Moses. Yahweh. Maybe it's not going to happen your way. Maybe you need to say, "Yahweh, how do you want to do this? I'm trying to do this on my own. I'm trying to figure this out on my own. I'm trying to do this in my own strength. I'm trying to calculate it with human reasoning. Lord, I don't want to get stuck in the way I thought it was supposed to be done". He said, "Behold, I'm doing a new thing". Look at verse 19. "Now it springs forth". No way to now way.
Do you know what's beautiful about the picture? I see the Lord all over this message today. If a spring comes forth from the desert, what does it make? It makes mud at first. Every change God makes in your life will be muddy at first. Everything he accomplishes through your life will be muddy at first. Every miracle starts with mud. It springs forth now from the desert. Do you not perceive it? Sometimes we miss what God is doing because it's muddy, and we don't see it. That doesn't mean he's not doing it.