Sometimes the only way to hear from God is to sit still. We spend most of our lives running and striving and trying to prove to ourselves that we are good. Prove to ourselves that we are making the right decisions for our journey. But what does God say? Have you stopped to listen for Him in those moments where you feel like you are on your breaking point? “Stay plugged into the Woman Evolve community: www.womanevolve.com www.womanevolve.tv download the app from any mobile device’s app store, first 7 days are FREE! Want to support this ministry? Text GIVE to (833) 611-9066 or click here FOLLOW US ON THE SOCIALS: Instagram: Women Evolve and Sarah Jakes Roberts Twitter: Woman Evolve and SJakesRoberts Facebook: Woman Evolve and Sarah Jakes RobertsWoman Evolve TV app! ”
in 2013 I had just gone through a
divorce
and moved back home to my parents house
with now my two children
and I was going through some boxes and
my parents garage
and I see this Bible
and I just figured it’s just another one
of these random Bibles that were laying
around my parents house
and I opened the Bible up and they are
written by Sister Cheryl tignor who’s
from West Virginia
was written to Sarah Jakes
Vacation Bible School
spelling bee first place
and I think it meant so much to me that
I found it at that stage in my life
because I wasn’t exactly sure
that God had a plan for my life anymore
by this time when I found it I was
already
Breaking All the church rules I was
doing all of the things that they said
you can’t do and still experience the
presence of God I figured that I was
just one of those ones who would be
discarded and right in this moment where
it felt like I was at my breaking point
it’s like this Bible it’s like goodness
and mercy was following me all the days
of my life I wasn’t even looking for
this Bible I wasn’t sure God had
anything to say to me but this Bible
that had survived move after move and
the disconnect after the disconnect this
Bible was like I’m still here I’m still
available I’m still open I’m still ready
whenever you’re ready and let me tell
you how good God is is that he front
loaded me with something before I knew
that I would need it so that when it
came to the point where I actually
needed it that Bible was already there
waiting for me see most of us are
waiting for God to bring something to us
and God is mostly saying to us I wish
you would discover that our already
front loaded this moment with what you
needed for your breakthrough you don’t
need anything to come for your
breakthrough you just need to take
better inventory of what’s already in
your world because what’s in your world
has the key to the Breakthrough that
you’re looking for stop looking around
you and stop looking at what’s in you
the Breakthrough is already there
[Applause]
and so what most people call the
breaking point
is what I actually call the listening
point
because when you’re at your Breaking
Point a lot of people think that that is
the moment where everything shifts
that’s not necessarily the moment
some people go through a Breaking Point
and they stay shattered
some people go through a Breaking Point
and they never pick their pieces back up
again or they only pick up the pieces
that they can bear to look at because
everything else has so much shame
connected to it but something powerful
occurs when you see your Breaking Point
as your listening point that breaking
point that becomes a listening point is
actually where God begins to download
his perspective his wisdom his vision
for what can happen from here some of us
need our breaking point because it
actually gets us to our listening point
I’m reminded of Hannah in the Bible who
kept getting provoked over and over
again by a woman who could bear children
even though she couldn’t and the woman
kept provoking her and making her feel
insecure until all of a sudden she got
up from the table and it looked like
maybe she had reached her breaking point
but instead she went to the temple
because she understood that if I am at
my breaking point I have one or two
options I can let this thing win or I
could get into the Press of God and say
God I need you to speak a word to me at
this breaking point that changes the way
I see everything that’s happening in my
life I’m thinking about Jacob who
started wrestling with God and he said I
will not let you go until you bless me
it looks like a Breaking Point from the
outside looking in but it’s actually the
moment in which I insist on hearing from
God it’s not my breaking point it’s my
listening point I don’t know who you are
in this room but you feel like life is
trying to break you but I want you to
understand life is just trying to get
your attention because God’s trying to
whisper something in your ear that can
only be whispered if you break it down
out of your ego and out of your pride
and out of your shame and out of your
insecurity there is something that
happens when we get desperate to hear
from God and most of the time it only
happens in our breaking point and that
transformation that takes place is when
I say this Breaking Point cannot break
what God put on inside of me you start
praying stuff like God if you really
hear me God if you really see me God if
you really got a plan for my life I’m
ready to listen I’m ready to listen I’m
ready to obey I’m ready to grow I’m
ready to move past this point you can
call it a breaking point but I hear God
saying that’s when the tomb becomes a
womb that’s when the breaking becomes
the blessing that’s when what you went
through becomes the weapon that’s when
the breaking point builds you up
you looking at other people’s lives
thinking that they were built into this
moment no baby I wasn’t built into this
moment I was broken into this moment I
got broke down and I started listening
and anytime I started building and it
was office filter I’d get broken down
again so that God can show me what did I
do wrong there’s something powerful
about somebody who keeps listening even
when I keep getting broken because I’m
crazy enough to believe that if God
allows it to break down it’s because he
wants me to rebuild it stronger than it
was before
breaking is not the end
breaking is the point of transformation
breaking is not the end it is the point
in which you must become an active
participant in the blessing connected to
your life is when you stop hustling and
stop doing and stop creating and stop
manipulating and stop hustling and stop
talking about other people and stop
gossiping I used to gossip but then I
hit my breaking point and I realize
hearing my story was more important than
hearing somebody else’s story I used to
talk behind people’s back until I
realized I got a knife in my own back
and because I got a knife in my own bed
now I start listening for who I should
be connected to and who I need to walk
away from and it happened at the
breaking point that became the listening
point that changed the way that I see
everything I’m listening again I’m
listening I’m listening I’m doing what’s
talking so that I can do more listening
I’m doing less celebrating so I could do
more listen and I’m doing less writing
because I I need to do some more listen
and I know you’re used to counting on me
but right now I’m in my listening season
this is
this is my listening season
this isn’t my speaking season this isn’t
my being there for everyone else season
this is my listening season because life
is trying to prank me and my back is
against the wall but I also believe that
God is trying to make me while life is
trying to break me and if I don’t listen
life might win I might allow the
depression to be the end but if I listen
I believe that the weapon formed against
me will pass me if I listen I believe
that though he save me that I
trusted him in there listen
[Music]
but listen
touch us
touches
break through the noise if I just
I’m listening
I’m listening cause my family’s
depending on it
I’m listening because I can’t break a
generational curse not by might nor by
power but by your spirit lord I can’t
hear your spirit unless I get to my
listening point I can’t talk and listen
at the same time
God what are you
saying
about this what are you saying about my
call what are you saying about my
identity what are you saying
you think you came to be preached at no
you came to listen
we didn’t get dressed up to come to
church
so we could check it off our list
somebody’s in this room listening for
something I’m listening everybody else
can come in here and be cute but I came
in here because I got to hear from God
God I need you to speak a word God I
need you to give me confirmation that
I’m on the right track God I need you to
pull me back God I need you to change my
position that I don’t know how to raise
this child God I don’t know how to build
this business God I don’t know how to be
a partner God I don’t know how to be a
grandchild what am I going to do after
retirement God I need you to
I need direction
some of us
start resenting the fact that we can’t
move
but God says you can’t move yet
cause you need to create space to listen
man
and you can’t just put noise on top of
noise
one thing I love about God
sometimes he
will break through the noise
but then there are other moments
where he will not compete with your
pride
I’m not going to get in a screaming
match
with your plans
so when you’re ready to listen
God says I’ve got something to say
[Music]
man
my favorite part of the message
is when the silence hits the room
because that’s when you know it just got
personal for somebody
that’s the moment when they realize
that I’m getting what I
came for
the heart posture
of a listener
makes all the difference
I often wondered to myself
why is it
that though I was raised in church
and raised here I mean here right here
where you stand in this church raised me
why did I still feel that distance from
God
especially when we hear that scripture
that faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God and surely the word
of God was being preached here
but then I realized that they’re using
hearing in that context in the purest
definition
really it’s faith comes by listening
and listening by the word of God
that means that you can be immersed in a
room
where the word of God is being preached
but if you are not postured
to really come in as a listener
if you came in to judge whether or not
something’s really anointed you came in
to make commentary you’ll miss out on
Revelation if you came in to make a
judgment you’ll miss out on Revelation
but when you came in and you say I don’t
really care who’s preaching I don’t
really care who’s singing I don’t really
care what’s happening in the room all I
know is that I came in to listen I may
get my word in the parking lot I may get
my word when I go to the restroom but
what I know is that my heart is going to
be positioned to listen I want to hear
what God is saying to me in this season
and so if your prayer life
is nothing but where you go when you
make requests
and not the space where you are
intentional about listening
you will think that God does not answer
prayers
where most of us have had to learn that
God does answer prayers but he doesn’t
talk on top of us
God answered my prayers when I stopped
talking over him God answered my prayers
when I stopped insisting that it had to
be my way God started answering my
prayers when I started silencing the
voices of everyone else and who they
thought I should be and what they
thought I should do that’s when I
cleared when I broke through the noise
when I turned the volume down on them
and created a space where I said God if
you want to speak to me if I’m Liz I’m
listening if you want to speak a word
here I am
you got to create space
and your prayer life
for God to talk back to you
where you can receive God’s Vision God’s
wisdom God’s heart posture
towards this situation
at the end of the day Jesus said
nevertheless not my will but your will
be done
period
which means that from here God whatever
you tell me to do
I’m listening
I’m listening
unless the
steps between
watching
and doing is listening
I’ll prove it to you
in Acts 1.
Jesus gives the disciples
the Great Commission
he tells them to go into all of the
Earth
to Judea to submarine to all of the
earth and spread the gospel
and right when I’m sure they were ready
to take off and do exactly what Jesus
told them to do he says but don’t go yet
you’ve watched me now I’ve told you what
you can do
but the in between stage between
watching and doing requires that you
wait for the promise of the Lord
and so he sends the disciples into a
waiting posture
but he doesn’t tell them exactly what
they’re waiting for
he doesn’t tell them to wait until the
Angels come wait until someone else he
doesn’t give them specifics on what
they’re waiting for that just he just
says wait for the promises of the Lord
so they stay in the upper room
and they’re praying
and they’re waiting
and they’re listening
they’re listening for the moment where
the promise of the father is revealed
and what I loved about when the
disciples are in the upper room and
they’re waiting for the promise of the
Lord to be revealed
is that they had to be sensitive enough
to listen for something that could only
sound like God
hmm
that’s why the bible really will always
be relevant because it is the only full
book that gives us insight into the
heart posture of God
when we see the way God has shown up in
the lives of other people throughout
history literally thousands and
thousands of years ago and we realize
that he is the same yesterday today and
forevermore I recognize that when that
same heart is turned towards me I can
expect the same level of covering I can
expect the same level of results I can
expect the same level of strength I can
expect the same level of PCS the same
yesterday today and forevermore that’s
why a Shepherd boy thought he could take
on Goliath and you think you could take
down the criminal justice system it’s
the same God that whispered in his ear
that is telling you couldn’t break that
generational curse it is the same God
that Rose Jesus from the dead that says
I can raise you up out of the death of
what you’re going through I can raise
that child up out of the death of what
they’re going through that same God
and so they’re waiting in the upper room
for the promises of the Lord to be
revealed and they’re waiting for that
moment and they knew that moment had
come because there came a sound like a
mighty rushing wind
it was a sound
that broke through the atmosphere
it was a sound they knew it was God
because the sound disrupted the
atmosphere that’s how you know it’s God
because when God sends you a word it
disrupts the atmosphere they were
waiting in the upper room and they were
listening for something they didn’t know
what they were listening for but they
knew that it was the moment that they
were waiting for because it disrupted
their atmosphere you see there’s going
to come a moment at some point in this
service where somebody gets breakthrough
and it’ll be because they received a
sound that disrupted the atmosphere I
was feeling depression hazy but all of a
sudden there was one word that disrupted
the atmosphere you want to talk about
disruptive thinking that disruptive
thinking started with God the disruptive
thinking that said I know what the enemy
is trying to do in the world but because
I will not let the enemy have to say the
final say I’m going to disrupt the
atmosphere of doubt I’m going to disrupt
the atmosphere of anger I’m going to
disrupt the atmosphere of Pride and when
I disrupt the atmosphere you’ll know
it’s me because all of a sudden you will
receive power when the atmosphere is
disrupted I don’t know whose word this
is but I feel like the wind is about to
blow in this place I feel like God is
about to release a sound in this room
that disrupts the atmosphere that has
been disrupting your peace that disrupts
the atmosphere that has been disrupting
your confidence that disrupts the
atmosphere that has been disrupting your
ability to move in the things of God and
I hear God saying I need you to listen
for the sound because all of a sudden
there’s going to be a sound like a
mighty rushing wind and it’s going to
change everything that you’ve been
thinking you better listen for it you
better listen for it if you’re listening
to the rumors you may miss the sound if
you’re listening to the he say she say
you may miss the sound if you’re
listening to the news you may miss the
sound if you’re listening to your pastor
me miss the sound but I dare you to get
quiet enough to listen for a around that
disrupts the atmosphere all of a sudden
I couldn’t pray the way that I was
praying because there was a sound like a
mighty Russian wind and all of a sudden
I felt power and all of the sin I felt
strength and all of a sudden I felt
Vision all of a sudden I didn’t care
that there was a Target on my back
because I knew there were Angels backing
me up all of a sudden nervous didn’t
matter all of a sudden shame didn’t
matter because I got a word that
disrupted the atmosphere you right I
shouldn’t be up here preaching but the
sound disrupted your opinion the sound
disrupted my fear the sound disrupted my
anxiety the sound disrupts
Shake it up Shake it up Shake it up
Shake it up Shake it up Shake it up
Shake it up Shake it I’m sick of them
you better watch who you’re sitting next
to because if they mess around and
release a sound it makes disrupt your
atmosphere you might get a breakthrough
because of who you’re sitting next to
you better watch out when you get to sit
next to me cause I’m listening for
something and you’ll know it and hit me
cause I’m gonna praise God for the
generations that got saved because I got
disrupted
[Music]