In “God’s Hand Is On You,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church reveals that our shame doesn’t disqualify us from being used, it gives God the opportunity to do something mighty through us.
What you face is no match for our God who
fights for you.
In “God’s Hand Is On You,” Pastor Steven
Furtick of Elevation Church reveals that our
shame doesn’t disqualify us from being used,
it gives God the opportunity to do something
mighty through us.
TRANSCRIPT
I learned a few things about God’s hand.
I learned that God’s hand is provision.
I learned that God’s hand is protection.
But I also learned that God’s hand is power.
He said, “I know that he will not let you
go unless a mighty hand compels him.”
A mighty hand, and the mighty hand of God
in the judgment of the 10 plagues against
Egypt was what God used to release his people
into ultimate freedom.
A mighty hand.
The Lord tells Moses, “It’s not going to happen
in your own strength.
It’s not going to happen in your own intellect.
It’s not going to happen in your own ability
or your strategy.
It’s not going to happen even in the leadership
gifts I’ve given you.
It is going to take another hand.”
The thing about it is this is what God showed
me.
I was looking at the passage, and I looked
at it again a few times after I preached it
the other night, and the Lord said, “You missed
something.”
I said, “What did I miss?”
He said, “You missed the other hand.”
I said, “What’s the other hand?”
Look at verse 19.
He said, “I know that the king of Egypt…”
That’s Pharaoh. “…will not let you go…”
Do you see it?
I didn’t see it either.
“He won’t let you go.”
That means your enemy thinks he has you so
strong in his grip, and he won’t let go unless
there is another hand that is stronger than
his hand.
So while you feel like the Devil has you like
this…
You know, let’s be honest, a lot of the chains
in this room are 42 years old.
These are not saplings anymore.
These are oak trees that go down deep.
I mean there’s some real deep stuff that’s
holding you in here.
It’s got you like this.
I mean, by the throat.
I mean, it’s got you.
It won’t let you breathe.
You try to move, you can’t move.
You try to move up, you can’t move up.
You try to step into a new opportunity, you
can’t do it with a free heart.
It’s got you like this.
It’s got you so strong.
But God said to tell you about the other hand,
and this is what Moses needed to know.
It’s no different for everybody in the room
today, that your Father is stronger than your
Pharaoh.
So like with Graham…
He wrestles me.
In fact, since you’re here, do you want to
do it really quick just to illustrate it?
Come here really quick.
Come here.
I’m going to show you, He hates when I do
this because he’s strong.
Graham is so strong.
He’s 13.
He won the state championship for freestyle
wrestling.
It was a small tournament, but it was still
a state championship.
I won a state championship when I was in eighth
grade too, but there was nobody else in the
weight class, so I won the state championship.
So we’ll have battles, and I’ll say, “Old
man versus young man.
South Carolina versus North Carolina state
champions.”
He’s so quick, and he’s so good, but what
I do is…
I’ve got old man moves.
I’ve got old man moves.
I got pressure points.
I can do…
Right here.
See right there.
Right there.
That spot right there.
Right there.
In my hands, I can stop him.
All I need is this anointed 41-year-old thumb,
and all of a sudden…
Watch this.
It doesn’t matter how much youth you have;
I will put my thumb in his pecs right there.
Now, I’ll let him wrestle me, but if it gets
too rough…
Because he’s getting too strong for me to
play with him.
I can’t play with him anymore.
He’ll get on my legs so quick.
I’m not going to go out like that.
I don’t know who’s videoing this.
I don’t know if this is Instagram Live.
So sometimes I have to just…pop!
Put him right there.
All right.
You’re done.
Go back down there.
He wants to fight right now.
I saw it.
I saw him getting in his stance.
I’m not getting taken down in front of the
world.
God said, “I know where to put the pressure.
See, that’s why I’m God.
I’ve been doing this a long time, and I see
your enemy shooting in on you.
But when I use my hand…
I have a mighty hand.
I have a strong hand.
I don’t even have to flex.
I’m God.”
So Pastor Mickey didn’t tell me that part.
He told me God’s hand was on me.
I thought it meant God is my provider.
I didn’t know that the same hand that brings
provision also brings pressure and how God
will use the pressure of life to bring me
into freedom.
I know it won’t let you go unless a mighty
hand…
Twenty-five years later, I can tell you that
God has a mighty hand.
Ten plagues later, Moses and Pharaoh knew
it was a mighty hand.
It’s a mighty hand.
It’s a mighty hand.
It’s a mighty hand.
It is a hand that you can’t always feel it.
You can’t always see it.
But see, Moses was well acquainted with this
hand whether he knew it or not, because when
he was a baby, all the little Hebrew boys
were getting killed by Pharaoh, not him.
His mom made a basket and put him in the Nile
River.
This is Exodus, chapter 2.
The Bible says that that basket floated to
the daughter of Pharaoh, and she saw the basket,
and she drew it out.
She felt sorry for Moses because he was crying,
and she took him, and God raised him.
As a matter of fact, as I thought about that
basket floating down the Nile River, I thought
about your life and my life, because what
are the chances that a basket would float
down the Nile River and miss all of the alligators
unless there was a hand?
I’m grateful for God saying how he guided
me past certain attacks.
You know, the same hand that did this sometimes
does that.
Sometimes God just did that with his hand.
Anybody grateful for the times God did that.
An anxiety came for your life.
You’ve thought about ending your life, and
the gators almost got you, but God’s hand
did that.
We don’t really even know how to praise God.
When I say, “Praise God,” and I say, “What
do you have to be thankful for?” you don’t
even know the things that God did this, and
if he didn’t do this, you wouldn’t be here.
I’m thankful that he provided.
I’m thankful that he pruned, took some things
out.
I’m thankful that he protected with his mighty
hand and an outstretched arm.
God said, “I see your struggle, and I know
that it won’t let you go easily.
So since you’ve been doing it in your own
strength, making bricks without straw, doing
everything that you know to do to be free,
but never finding freedom, it’s time for my
hand to work in your life.”
In fact, the Scripture says something powerful
in Peter.
He says, “Humble yourself.”
What a thing for Peter to say.
He’s not exactly Mr. Humility in the senior
superlatives if you read the yearbook.
But he’s learned now.
“Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand.”
Say that phrase: God’s mighty hand.
How is Pharaoh going to let you go?
God’s mighty hand.
“How in the world is it going to happen this
time?
You don’t even know the mess I’m in.”
I know you feel like Moses right now, but
God came to reveal to you that his hand…
What is it?
It’s a mighty hand, God’s mighty hand.
Pharaoh has a strong hand; God’s is stronger.
God’s mighty hand.
How many praise God for His mighty hand?
God doesn’t try to do anything.
God does not intend to do anything he can’t
do.
God’s mighty hand.
But that’s not what I came to preach about
today.
I want to preach about the other hand.
See, it seems like Moses didn’t have a lot
of trouble believing that God was mighty.
He didn’t argue with God at all.
God said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God
of Jacob,” and all Moses wanted to know is,
“What’s your name?”
God said, “I am.”
I’m sure Moses waited around for a little
bit more detail.
But God said, “You better leave it blank because
I’m going to do so much that you will not
be able to quantify me by one word.
Not an adjective, not a verb, not an adverb,
not a…”
So the Lord, the very essence of true presence
and being, says, “I am.”
After he gets done telling Moses what he’s
going to do and how he’s going to set the
people free and the mighty hand and all of
that, Moses doesn’t argue with God about what
God can’t do.
Now here’s where I need to just talk to you.
Can we just talk like we’ve known each other
all our lives?
How many of y’all feel sometimes when I’m
preaching like we know each other?
I feel that too.
So I was praying about this message, and God
said, “It’s not me they doubt most of the
time.
They believe I’m big.
They believe I’m powerful.
They believe I can do great things through
others.”
Moses didn’t say, “How will I know your hand
is strong?
How will I know you’re great?
How will I know you’re stronger?
How will I know?”
No, he didn’t doubt God at all, and that’s
what I want to preach to you about.
Because after God told Moses what he would
do, Moses answered…
I’m only sharing this with you because I relate
to Moses.
Not in the sense that I can deliver a nation
or anything like that.
I don’t want to change jobs with Moses.
I’m just saying how he feels, I’ve felt.
Because you can know that God’s hand is mighty,
but watch this.
He answered (Exodus 4, verse 1), “What if
they do not believe me or listen to me?
And what if they say, ‘The Lord did not appear
to you?'”
Let me give you a hint.
When he’s talking about they, it’s not really
their doubt he’s dealing with.
A lot of times when we try to identify what
the obstacles are of us being who God called
us to be, because look what the Lord asked
in verse 2.
The Lord said to him, “What is that in your
hand?”
Whose hand?
We talked about God’s hand.
We shout about God’s hand.
We need God’s hand; it’s a mighty hand.
See, for me, it’s not that hand that gets
me in trouble; it’s the other hand.
My hand.
The mighty hand?
I like that one.
My hand?
That’s a different story.
Because watch this.
Moses said, “How are we going to do this?”
And God said, “What is that in your hand?”
So now after God tells him what he’s going
to do with his hand, he points to Moses’ hand.
I think this is where we should spend a little
time today talking about the other hand.
“Oh, God is awesome, and he’s so great, and
how great is our God.
Sing with me, how great is our God.
And all will see how great, how great is our
God.”
That’s not the part I have a problem with.
Because 25 years ago, when Pastor Mickey said
that God’s hand was on me, he only told me
half of it.
You know, God’s hand can be on you in a great
way, but if you don’t believe it, if you don’t
receive it…
You know, God can put you in position.
That’s one thing about his hand.
The Bible says if you humble yourself under
the mighty hand of God, he will lift you up
in due time.
You don’t have to do it yourself.
You don’t have to position yourself.
You don’t have to show off what you can do.
God will do amazing things through your life
if you stay under his hand.
Yet the hard thing for me has not been God’s
hand.
I can trust his hand.
I can believe in his hand.
I can see the evidence of his hand.
Listen to me.
I’m from Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
The things God has done for me in my life,
the places he has taken me, are so far from
where I started, I know it had to be him.
In fact, even the people who mistreated me,
they didn’t know it, but God was using their
hands to get me where I needed to be.
Y’all don’t believe me?
Joseph told his brothers, “You intended to
harm me, but God meant it for good.
You sold me, but God sent me.”
How is that possible?
Even what their hand did, even what they did
to you or did not do for you has to pass through
God’s hand by the time it’s over.
It’s not his hand I struggle with; it’s the
other hand.
Are y’all really, on my second week back from
vacation of the summer, going to look at me
like you don’t have another hand?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about here,
Pastor.
For me, it’s pretty like, just, you know,
I am called, I am chosen, I am anointed, I
am blessed and highly favored.”
You’ve got another hand.
You’ve got it in your pocket right now.
Jesus went to church one day.
You all know this.
Matthew, chapter 12.
Jesus went to church one day, and while he
was there, he noticed something nobody else
saw.
This is an amazing Scripture.
I’m bringing it right now because I think
that represents how a lot of us came to church
or logged on this morning.
It says, “Going on from that place, he went
into their synagogue.”
Next verse, please.
“And a man with a shriveled…”
Some versions say withered.
“…hand was there, and looking for a reason
to bring charges against Jesus, they asked
him, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?'”
“He said to them, ‘If any of you has a sheep,
and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will
you not take hold of it and lift it out?'”
So Jesus is saying that just like you would
take your hand and something that was valuable,
you would pull it out, that’s what he wants
to do for this man.
He wants to take you where you are, in the
place that nobody else can see that you struggle…
Because here’s the problem: All of us have
one hand that looks just fine.
All of us have one hand…
It’s an amazing miracle because Jesus skips
over the hand that’s working to get to the
one that won’t work.
He said to the man…
This is such a crazy thing to say to somebody.
“‘Stretch out your hand.’
So he stretched it out, and it was completely
restored, just as sound as the other.”
The Lord showed me something in this sermon.
It’s kind of warm to wear a jacket, but I
needed it to show you this.
A lot of us walk around showing people the
hand we want them to see.
I am coming for your other hand today, the
one that won’t work.
And don’t feel bad about it, because everybody
you’re sitting next to has another hand.
There’s the one they show you, and there’s
the one they know about and God knows about,
but they learned how to keep it very carefully
contained so nobody other than the ones who
live with them know about their anger issue
because they’re nice to the server at the
restaurant.
The other hand.
Nobody knows about the thing they struggle
with in their own emotions because they make
a lot of money.
Nobody knows about the tears they cry over
the things they can’t get straight in their
mind.
because in their life, everything looks fine.
But Jesus didn’t want that hand; he wanted
the other hand.
When the man stretched his hand out, the Bible
says that it was completely restored.
This hand has always been on you.
It was his hand.
How you just all of a sudden felt like you
could stand after thinking you had collapsed,
and something picked you up.
It was his hand.
That was his hand.
It was his hand.
But now it’s time to stretch your hand, but
you still don’t believe it.
You still don’t believe that you’re the one
he chose for that situation.
You still don’t believe you have what it takes.
You still don’t believe that he in you is
more than enough.
You still don’t believe that you have a spirit
without measure.
You still don’t believe that the gifts you
have are the ones you’re meant to have, and
if you will grow and develop those, you will
be able to accomplish everything God has called
you to accomplish.
You still don’t believe that.
You’re still looking at the other people’s
hands, but you’re looking at their good hand
and comparing it to your bad hand.
The way this works in Scripture is that Jesus
is healing a man (on the Sabbath, which is
work) who has a condition that renders him
unable to work.
His entire identity has been consumed by this
one issue, and God did a miracle for him.
Can’t he do the same thing for me?
The other hand.
Hey there, normally are not you too great? The writing widens my knowledge. Say thanks to you.
Wohh just what I was looking for, appreciate it for putting up.Take a look at my blog post – holiday diet