July 26, 2024 • 53 mins
How do you keep your faith when it seems like nothing is happening? How do you keep believing when the process is invisible? Discover how God will often allow you to encounter an impossible situation in order to prove His presence in your life.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I won't tell you the whole story, but just a
little part of it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
In One Kings eighteen forty one, and Elijah said to Ahab,
go eat and drink, for there is the sound of
a heavy rain.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So Ahab went off to eat and drink.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
But Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down
to the ground and put his face between his knees.
Maybe I'll read you a little bit more. This is
a good story. I'll reach you a little bit more.
How are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Are you.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Me too? Me too? I used to have a guy.
Every time you'd ask him how are you doing, he said, well.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
He's doing any better? I'd be twins. It's weird. You
know what that means? This other guy used to always say.
He said, I'm better than I deserve. That's pretty good. Yeah,
it's got pretty good. And so we have here a
picture of a nation coming out of a drought. And
then it's but it's a process, and it doesn't happen
(01:18):
all at once, and it happens in stages.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Look at verse forty three.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Elijah tells the king that he hears the sound of
the abundance of rain, and they haven't had any rain
in three and a half years. And then he tells
this servant go and look toward the sea. And the
servant went up and looked, and he came back and said,
there is nothing there. Seven times Elijah said go back.
The seventh time, the servant reported, a cloud as small
as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So
(01:46):
Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And go down before the rain stops you.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose,
a heavy rain started falling, and Ahab rode off to Jezruel.
The power of the Lord came on Elijah, and, tucking
his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab
all the way to Jezreel. I love that. I just
I think it's cool that Elijah ran seventeen miles and
(02:16):
he was out running the King's chariot because he was
ready for rain. Look at your neighbors, say I'm ready
for rain, and then comes to question are you really?
You know, then comes to question are you really? For
as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated
by creative process.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So I like to hear how books were written.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Usually after I watch a movie, I will go on
Wikipedia and study, and then I'll go read about how
they did it, and I'll find YouTube interviews.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
With the director.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
If I liked the movie, or even if I didn't
like the movie, I want to know how did it
get that bad? You know, like what went wrong in
the creative process? Because I know at some point somebody
thought this movie was going to be better than it
ended up being, Like what went wrong? And so I'm
a student of the creative process. When I hear a
song that I like, I love music and I've always
(03:10):
loved music. And even before I started trying to write songs,
of course, I started trying to write songs right around
the age I was like twelve or thirteen, I was
starting trying to write. So I just thought of one
that I tried to write when I was twelve or thirteen,
but that is not for public consumption. Okay, that's just
from my memories, but I remember reading about songwriting process.
(03:34):
I just always thought I was fascinating, And even to
this day, I'll ask someone if I hear a song
that I like and I get to meet the person.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Who wrote it, I'll say, how did it start?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
To me, that's always interesting because sometimes when they tell
you how the song started, it started in such a
different place than how it was when you heard it.
I could let you hear songs from Elevation worsh from
the album.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
If I let you hear how they started, they.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Would make you cry, and not because of the presence
of God or the anointing. They were that bad when
they started. I let my kids hear a few of
the songs from our newest album, and I let them
hear it in Beta. I let I let them hear
the song from when it started, and they have told me, Dad,
you should never let anyone hear this again. You need
(04:23):
to delete this off of your phone. Nobody should hear this,
because there is something about starting that feels shameful. Have
you ever been to the gym and you know you've
got a lot of work to do? Have you ever,
I did this for for for one for one thing.
I want to say this, Okay, I want to say
(04:44):
this about going to the gym. When you start, it
always sucks. Okay, this is this is the truth about exercise.
It always sucks when you start, when you go to
the gym. I remember one time walking into a certain gym.
This has been years ago. I walked into a certain gem,
turned around and walked out. I didn't didn't touch a machine.
(05:05):
All I did was look at the other people who
had been there consistently and walked out. Just turn around,
walked out, didn't even touch anything, just turn around and
walked out. They don't even work looked at the person
behind the counter, didn't even want to think about the
process of soreness that would accompany the workout. Something about
starting touch and never say get started, get started. And
as we begin this series, I want to take you
on a little bit of a journey. And I've kind
(05:26):
of committed myself today if it's okay with you, I
want to get in a little bit of a more
of a teaching mode because there is something about the
nature of faith that God has.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Been dealing with me about.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And if I start preaching and hollering and all that
stuff that do sometimes and all that wild stuff, I.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Won't get my content across.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And I really feel like the content of this is
what is most important about.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The nature of faith.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
The last time I was with you, we were talking
about harvest. Did any of you hear my message on
harvest problems? And then what do we say? We talked
about how what you've been calling a problem, God calls
a harvest. Now, there is something about the nature of
(06:14):
faith that is illustrated by the rain in First Kings,
chapter eighteen, and so we see it when Elijah says
to Ahab, there is.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
The sound of the heavy rain. There's the sound of
the heavy.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Rain that often, when it comes to the realm of faith,
we hear things.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That we cannot see yet.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
That is, when a word of God comes forth into
your life, you will not immediately see a change in
your situation. It will first produce a change within you.
I just feel like teaching a little bit today because
there are a few stages that you're going to have
to go through if you are going to come out
of the drought. Now, when I say the drought, I
mean the dry season that you have been experiencing inside
(06:58):
of yourself. When I say the drought, I don't necessarily
mean that you're on the verge of bankruptcy or losing
your marriage. Even because one thing I found out about
dry seasons is it often my situation can be doing
a whole lot better than my soul. I found out
(07:20):
that everybody else can look at my life and see
evidences of success. But if my soul is dry, if
my heart is empty, if my motivations are not aligned,
I can be winning outside and weeping inside. So I
want to speak to you today about coming out of
(07:42):
the drought, but I want to do it a little differently.
What I want to do is I want to talk
about the enemies that will keep you in a dry place.
I believe that there are at least three, and they're
all illustrated in the text I just read you. And
really I'm using this text as a picture of the
creative process. There is a creative aspect of faith. When
(08:06):
I grew up in the Baptist Church, I heard about
saving faith, and it was almost like that was all
that faith was for, just to get saved go to heaven.
But I found out that while I'm here on earth.
I need my faith in the meantime. I won't need
my faith when I get to Heaven. Faith is the
substance of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.
(08:28):
So when I see Jesus, I won't need to believe
in Jesus. He will be right there. I need faith
now now. Faith is the substance of things, hope for
y'all going to mess up and make me preach. I
told you, I just want to stay here with my notes,
y'all like rite set out. But I'm living in this
(08:48):
stage where I have not seen him, but I love him.
And there are some things that I know in my
soul that I don't see in my situation yet. And
that's what faith is for. I guess I consider myself
at the core. If you cut me, I'm a faith preacher.
Not a faith preacher where we all have to act
(09:10):
like everything's all right, but a faith preacher, a deep
faith preacher. And nothing's happening, but I believe something's happening
when nothing's happening, because beneath the surface, my faith is
rising in hard times, fallow crowd, I got faith. Well,
sometimes it's invisible because there will always be a stage
(09:36):
of invisibility. There are three stages I want to mention,
and you can see where you find yourself today. But
I believe our faith must survive the invisibility stage, the
stage where you may be, like Elijah, have heard something
since something precede something, believe something that you do not
(10:03):
yet see. I spent like seventy thousand dollars on my
seminary education, so every once in a while I like
to say stuff I learned there. They talk about the
already not yet eschatological tension. That is a seventy thousand
dollars word, eschatological. It just means that as things unfold,
there are certain realities of your new nature and Christ
(10:24):
that you will experience already, but there is a part
of it that is not yet fulfilled. So watch this,
you know. I just said to Ahab, go eat and drink,
for there is the sound of a heavy rain, which
isn't good news if you just washed your car, or
if you have an outdoor wedding, or if you're a pastor.
(10:45):
I can tell how stupid my staff members are by
how they act when it snow's on Sunday, if they're
posting stuff on Instagram. The snow is so beautiful. No,
snow sucks on Sunday. If you're a pastor, okay, it's
pretty for people don't go to church. But if your preacher,
that is the worst thing you can see on Sundays.
And now, which means that the conditions of the weather
(11:08):
and how they affect you depend on your expectation. So
if you've been in a famine like the nation of
Israel had for three and a half years, and you
hear the sound of rain, it is not inconvenient. See,
this is where people sometimes they'll go, well, I'm preaching,
they are not desperate enough yet for the word of God.
(11:30):
So while I'm preaching, they're like, but if you get
in a situation where you really need God to speak
to you, if you get in a situation where you
know that you that you need every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God, that you cannot live on
bread alone, you won't be like you be like, please God,
(11:55):
let him hold me two hours. Speak Lord, for your
turban is listening. I hear the sound of the abundance
of rain. As a matter of fact, I got seed
in the crownd and unless it rains, they can't come forth.
So bring the storm, Bring the rain. The storm will
only serve to reveal the foundation. I build my house
(12:16):
on the rock, and the rain comes down, and the
stream shries, and the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it did not fall because it had its foundation
on the rock.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Somebody shot, I'm ready for rain.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So Ahab goes off to eat and drink, and the
famine is over and the drought is over. But Elijah
climbed to the top of Carmel. Now, I love you guys,
and I like to demonstrate the Bible. We're appropriate, but
it does not seem to me to be appropriate to
demonstrate what he did here physically, So you just have.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
To imagine it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
He bent down to the ground and put his face
between his knees. Now, I don't do that yoga preaching stuff, okay,
the hot yoga, cold yoga, none of I don't do
any of that yoga, all right, So so watch everything's
in motion, right this refugee. I don't know if you
(13:05):
know about Elijah. He was He was a rain maker,
but he was also a refugee, okay, And everybody in
here is a little bit of both as well. By
the way, Okay, he's been hiding for three and a
half years because he called for the drought because the
people had started depending on sources other than God.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And anytime you depend on a source that.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Is not God, he will cut you off because He
will not allow your life to be sourced by something
that cannot sustain your life. So he will cut you
off for a little while so you will come back
to what you needed all along, because he loves you
that much. And Elijah is like hiding the whole time
(13:49):
because if Jezebel, who is in charge of all of
the rain gods, they serve this god called bail who
wasn't really a god. He didn't have all power, you know,
like politicians who say things, but they don't really have
the power to change all the stuff that they make
promises about. I'm not saying politicians are bad. We have
politicians in our church, and I love the politicians in
(14:10):
the church. And there's there's there's great politicians, and there's
there's politicians, there's other politicians, and there's all of that.
But but but God, being the true and living God,
will not be corralled or confined by human need. He's
not corralled or confined by human expectation. He will not
be manipulated by the mechanics of humanity. And so now
(14:32):
the rain has stopped falling, and you will come into
a season of your life where God will cut you off.
He won't stop loving you, he won't stop providing for you.
It's just that God will allow situations to get your attention.
And you can pray and ask him to change the
(14:52):
situation all that you want, But until you allow him
to change you, nothing is going to change in the situation.
When the time came for Elijah to come forth and
present himself before Ahab and Jezebel, that king and that
queen whose wickedness was responsible for the nation's famine, he
(15:15):
comes before them boldly. He calls for a summit. By
this time, he survived so much. Did you ever see
that show Survivor? I think might still be on the
on the air. I'm not sure, do hem I still
watch Survivor?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
No?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Is it still on? Everybody over seventy three is raising
their hand they still watch Survivor. We watched it for
a couple of seasons. Holly used to tell me all
the time, isn't this a mean thing to say to
your husband.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
She was like, you would be the first.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
One voted off of survivor. I couldn't argue with her.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
She's right.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I have no survival skills none. All I can do
is talk, and sometimes I'm not even that good at that.
This is the only thing I do. That's why I
hold the mic so tight, because I don't know what
I would do if I couldn't talk, and I have
no survival skills. On Elijah the prophet, he had the
skills to survive the drought, and he did.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
He survived in.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
The drought, he survived the dry.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Season, and he did it really well.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
He did it by obeying the voice of the Lord.
So when the voice of the Lord told him to
go to the brook, and I'll have birds there that
will drop your breakfast off. I'll have birds dropping off biscuits.
I'll have birds dropping off bow Jangles biscuits. I'll have
birds dropping off bow Jangles spicy Cajun filet biscuits. I'm
gonna say it till you get hungry. God will provide
(16:38):
for you in some strange ways. If you haven't noticed,
God had ravens, which is a dirty bird. I mean,
the only people who like ravens live in Baltimore. God use.
God used the dirty bird to feed his man in
a time of famine. Stop telling God how he can
and can't bless you. Stop telling God how he can
(17:00):
can and can't feed you. Stop telling God what style
he can and cannot use. Stop waiting on a song
you like in church to worship God. What if God
wants to bless you in a different style, bless you
in a different way. He's very creative, and so he's
supplying for Elijah at the brook. The brook drives up.
God sends Elijah to a widow. Why would you send
(17:21):
me to a widow to provide me with food? Because
sometimes God will show you how great a supply is
by sending you to someone with a greater need than
you had to begin with. And sometimes you will realize,
in the course of meeting someone else's need how great
God's supply already is in your life. So he does
all that, and for three and a half years he
(17:42):
is a refugee until it comes time for the refugee
to become a rain maker.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
That was almost my title of the sermon, from refugee
to rain maker. I like creativity. I like creative process,
all right, titles for every sermon I preach. I just
love it.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And he stands up and he gets all the prophets
of Bail, all these little rain dancers, makes fun of him,
calls them names, he tells them. He's like, hey, maybe
Bail's in the bathroom. Maybe that's why he can't hear you,
because they had a deal. You call for fire, I'll
call for fire. And the God who answers by fire,
(18:28):
he is God. And when Bail didn't answer, Elijah said,
maybe he's in the bathroom. I love the Bible, And
at the end of the whole thing, the Bible says
that after wetting the wood, now watch this. This is
the nature of faith. You wood before you call for fire.
(18:51):
You do when you're walking by faith, because that's how
God often proves his presence by putting you in an
impossible sit situation, an impossible situation preaching to somebody today,
I'm gonna look all around this room in Valentine and.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Find out who it is.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You are in an impossible situation, and you are in
the stage called invisibility, that's where you don't see any
way that it could happen. Okay, I was even talking
to one of my.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Friends this week.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
He's very successful, but he has another level God is
calling him to. It isn't just for the people who
need God to heal them of cancer, although this message
would apply to you in that situation. This is somebody
who's going from one stage to the next. And here's
what he said to me. He said, I feel like
God is doing something new in me, but I just
don't see the path to it yet. Invisibility, I sense
(19:49):
God doing it. I hear the sound of rain, but
I don't see anything yet. And so Elijah, while the
king goes off to eat and drink, buries his head,
closes his eyes and believes by faith that what he
has spoken will come to pass.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
And this servant come here, jjy.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
The servant runs up to the top of the mountain,
going up there to the Yeah, I just want to
show you what he did. I don't know if the
camera can catch this. For the other campuses. Here comes
goes up to the top.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
We're gonna have some fun with this too.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
We're gonna have some fun with this because he didn't
just do it one time.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Come here, Jonathan.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And now on the way back down, he's going slower.
On the way back down, he's going slower because he's
got to deliver some bad news to the Man of God.
And in case you hadn't noticed, you don't want.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
To give bad news to Elijah a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I mean, he's the kind of guy you do not
want to give Elijah bad news. Elijah slaughtered all eight
hundred and fifty false prophets. Okay, So now you've got
to come to the guy who just killed just under
a thousand false prophets, and.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
He doesn't even look up at you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
He's in this weird position, this prayer, this prayer thing.
And now you've got to tell this guy who just
told the king, gets your chariot ready and go down
before the rain stops you. You just told you just
told the king that it's going to rain. You sent
your servant to go see it, and the servant comes
back and says, look at the phrase, there is nothing there.
(21:45):
Can I ask you a question? Was the servant wrong?
I feel like I'm being set up right now.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Got on.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You are, because remember we're talking about a rain cycle.
And before you see the cloud form, it is rising
from the sea, So something is happening when nothing is seen.
(22:25):
Whenever you're preaching, you say something so good that you
know God is on it, and they just look at.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Flat for the word.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
And so the guys like, I don't know if you
want me to go catch up with ay have and
tell them to take it easy on the food and
drink because, uh, I don't know what you heard. But
whenever you start in faith, remember we were talking about
the start of the process, it always feels like nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing nothing. You know what this church
started with, right, nothing?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
You know what the disciples packed when Jesus went out
to teach one day and five thousand men and the
women and children needed to eat. You know what they
packed in their cooler that day?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Nothing? Nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
I wonder are you in the it's nothing stage? It's nothing,
there is nothing, there is nothing. Maybe the doctors have
told you there is nothing we can do. Maybe you
were told since you were a little girl there is
nothing special about you. The invisibility stage is kind of
(23:55):
tough because you know what you heard, and you know
what you sense some times, but what you see is
a direct contradiction of what you sense. Please talk to me.
If I'm talking to you, I need a little bit
of response, unless you're trying to illustrate nothing. Oh man,
(24:18):
I know what it feels like to be looking at
nothing and hearing something. Do you do you know what
it feels like to be believing God for something and
seeing nothing. I mean no change in your kids. I
mean the more you pray for them, the wilder they get.
I mean nothing, I mean no bit, I mean no
(24:40):
new revenue, I mean no way forward. And Elijah does something.
This is spectacular. Elijah says, go back, look at your neighbor.
Say go back. Everybody point to Jonathan. Jo says, even
at the other campus, to say, go back and look again.
So go back. It goes back again, and he looks again.
(25:06):
Now look Jonathan, look, look, look, look, look, come on back.
I got bad news. It's still nothing. Still nothing. Everybody says,
still nothing. I'm gonna drag this point out because this
is how it feels. This is how faith feels. This
(25:29):
is how it feels to write a sermon. This is
how it feels to write a song. This is how
it feels to raise a kid. This is how it feels.
This is how it feels to wait on God by faith.
This is how it feels to worship God in a
dry season. This is how it feels for three and
a half years when you hear the sound but can't
see the sight. Somebody's shouting nothing, go again, go again.
(25:55):
Everybody pointed Jonathan, say go again, go again, go again.
Look again. Now, Notice Elijah is not moving. He sends
a runner. Maybe he knows that if he uses his eyes,
his faith will die. Maybe he knows that where I
am right now, and how it seems right now, I
(26:17):
can't look at my situation. I gotta listen right now.
I gotta hear what God says. If I go by
what I see, I'll die in this trout. So come
on back, come on back, come on back. Still nothing,
still nothing, Go again. Here's my message. You ready? Still nothing?
(26:46):
Go again, still nothing, Go again. One lap around the
Jericho walls, still nothing. March again. Two laps around the
Jericho walls, still nothing. Go again. One dip in the
Jordan River, name and still nothing. Go again. Two dips,
(27:06):
still nothing, Go again. Five trips up the mountains. Still nothing.
Go again, still nothing, Go again, still nothing, Go again,
still nothing, Pray again, still nothing, Sing again, still nothing.
Praise them again. I will reason. Faith is the substance
(27:40):
of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean he didn't
speak it.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I can't see.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Y'all at the University City location right now, but that
doesn't mean I don't believe that you are shouting. I
mean up on your feast shouting. I can't see it
right now at Gaston, but that doesn't mean you're not
on your feast shouting. I can't see you online, but
I release the word of God into your situation, into
(28:20):
your sickness, into your shame.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Nothing it's impossible with God. Hold on, Nothing is impossible
with God.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The only thing that is impossible with God is nothing.
Somebody's shout is never nothing, not if God is in it,
it's never nothing. If God is in it, nothing is impossible.
(28:55):
I don't feel appreciated today. I just want to teach
you a little bit. So so the seventh time, if
you how many times did you go, We're gonna pretend
like you're seven.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Come here, Come here, come here. I don't have time. Slow,
you're so.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Slow, Jonathan Josephs, everybody give it up for John.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I see something. Huh, I see something. You see something there? Well, well, so.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You're saying it's not it's not nothing, it's not nothing.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Okay, it's not nothing. It's not nothing, but it's small though.
Oh it's not it's not nothing. It's something. But now
it's not much, not much.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So when he came back the seventh time, he said,
it's not nothing. I see it, but it's not much.
It's not invisible, but it's insignificant.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Now this is this is.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
This is is the second stage that your faith must survive.
It's insignificance. Sit down, a runner, do whatever you want
to do. I'm dumb and say, now it's not nothing.
There is a boy here, but he only has five
loaves and two fish. How far will they go amongst
so many? It's just a little bit of oil. It's
(30:20):
not nothing, but it's not much. So now we've gotten
to the place where, okay, I stood up in front
of the church when we had who is this message hitting?
Because right now, so it's so strong in my soul.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I stood up in front of the church and you
had two first time guests.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Do you know what a disaster it would be now
to have two first time, guests. But you gotta celebrate
what seems insignificant when I teach leaders. When I teach leaders,
how many have you own a business or run a
division in your company, or you have somebody that reports
to you where you breathe? Okay, raise your hand, all right,
you need to learn this. Celebrate something. Let me tell
(31:08):
you what to celebrate? Celebrate?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Can I preach real? We'll edit this out for online,
but it's just us.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It's just you know, twenty five thousand of us, right, Okay,
so that's a secret. Celebrate the sucky start. Celebrate the
soreness the next day, celebrate the small start. Do you
(31:35):
remember that first girl that got saved in our church?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Her name was Crystal.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
There was a period of three months where she was
the only person that we could get saved. So every
week we talked about Crystal. I don't even know where
Crystal is today. She left the church a long time ago,
but she was our first salvation. I wish she was
still here. That'd be great. I care about her, God
bless her and all that.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
But it was a start.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I can't tell you how many times on my sermon
I'll start writing something down. Can I just talk to you.
Can I talk to you because I know you're working
on something. I know you're believing God for something. I
know that you're working on something that don't have to
be a song, that don't have to be a sermon.
But I always start and the first thing I'm thinking
when i'm writing it down, this sucks.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
This sucks. It always does to start with.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
That's why my kids said, you should never let anybody
hear how these songs started.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
You know what, though, I'm proud of my sucky starts.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I'm proud. I am so proud of those sucky starts.
I am so proud of all those little voice memos
and type notes and gibberish. I mean all these notes
that I wrote that you will never hear. I mean
all of these ideas, all of this stuff that I tried,
(32:56):
I'm proud of. I'm proud of my scraps, out of
my frustrations. I'm proud of my problems. I'm proud of
my failures. I'm proud of my strikeouts. It's the proof
that I survived and I stuck it out when it sucked.
I went back when it wasn't much. I stayed with
it when it was little. Proud of that. I'm proud
(33:20):
of that scribbling. I'm proud of that chicken scratch. I'm
proud of everything I did that didn't work. It's what
made me strong enough to sustain the blessing when it came.
Oh yeah, you gotta shout over the small stuff. So
(33:42):
the servant's like, it's a class of a man's and
the life just like, let's go bump bump, bump, dump
dum dum, doom, doom doom.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And the servants like me, you don't hear me. Cloud, man,
it's not a I know. We gotta go. We gotta go.
We gotta go.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
We gotta go, We gotta go, we gotta go, we
gotta go. It's building. We gotta go. It's working. We
gotta go, it's building. We gotta ride this momentum. It's
just a little cloud. But if we get out in
front of it, watch what God will do if we
get in front of it, if we'll start moving on
a little bit of blessing, little as much when God
is in it. I texted my friend the other day,
(34:30):
I said, I want you to make this confession over
your life for thirty days. I want you to look
at everything that seems stupid that you're doing right now
that feels like because I know moms feel like this.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I know you do.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I know that I know that employees and jobs that
you don't really like feel like this. I know couples
trying to get out of debt feel like this. I
know people that are believing God to bless them in
a bigger way. And you know you're in a small space.
I know you feel this.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
West.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I want you to make this confession over your life.
I said, I want you to say, this is significant.
This is significant. This is significant. Running a vacuum cleaner,
this is significant, changing a diaper, this is significant, coming home,
just being a good husband, this is significant.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
This is significant.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
The devil won't like it when you say that, because
the way he gets you to leave your assignment is
to convince you that it doesn't matter what you're working on.
It's so small, it's so small. This is significant. And
don't wait to say that until it seems significant, because
(35:37):
that takes no faith. This is significant. This this not
just that. This is significant. Have you ever wanted a
new car and you picked out the kind of car
you wanted and the next thing you knew. You started
(35:57):
seeing that car everywhere you went.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
They just flooded the market with that car all of
a sudden. Google has an algorithm in your brain, and
so they put the cars in front of you. Perhaps
we're probably coming to that day. But it wasn't Amazon, baby,
It was your attention. You started seeing it when you
started searching for it. You want a life that matters.
(36:27):
Make it matter, make it matter, make it matter.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
This is significant.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
It's a cloud the size of a man's hand, and
a lighter said, let's go. That's what we've been waiting for.
It sucks, but it's a start. It's small, but it's
a start. I barely see it, but it's a start.
We got a long way to go because we got
in this famine three and a half years ago, and
it's not going to be over overnight. But it's a start.
(37:00):
It's a start, and my start is significant. Can I
show you one more thing? Can I? If you need
to leave, go ahead and leave, But I'm gonna take
ten minutes with everybody who wants to hear, because if
the enemy cannot get you to stay listen, he wants
(37:20):
And I don't know if you believe in the devil,
but your brain, let's let's approach it from a psychological perspective.
If you don't believe in the devil, you don't have kids.
But just in case you don't have kids and don't
believe in the devil.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Your brain is wired for survival.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Okay, So when you're living in your head, all you're
thinking about is survival. What had Elijah been doing for
three and a half years before the drought was over? Survival,
which in that three and a half year span was success.
Because sometimes just making it is what matters. Just making
(38:00):
it is what matters. I mean, just still being in
faith is victory sometimes. But when the shift happens, I wonder,
will you be ready for the rain you've been praying for?
Because your brain, if you stay inside your brain, your
reflex will always be to run. What has Elijah been
(38:23):
doing for the last three and a half years, Come on,
talk to me, church. What's he been doing? He's been running,
surviving and running and surviving and running and surviving. So
when the rain comes, he runs, and for a little
while he's running ahead of the rain. He's running in
front of the chariot because he's ready for his next assignment.
(38:43):
He's ready to survey have now he believes revival has
come to the nation. The bail prophets have been destroyed,
the asker of profits are all laying at their own altars,
dead in their own blood. And now revival can come.
And so he runs seventeen miles on the fuel of
his eight, on the fuel of the promise of God
coming to pass in his life. He runs ahead of
(39:05):
the chariot, he runs ahead of the rain.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And then something happens.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Because if the enemy can't kill you in the invisibility
stage or the insignificant stage, the only thing left for
him to do to keep you from receiving what God
is pouring out in your life is intimidation. He can't
keep God from making it rain, but maybe he can
(39:35):
keep you from receiving it.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
If he can get your running.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Because I'm a runner, I'm a refugee, and I'm a
rain maker.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
But now I'm a refugee. WA's what happens? What's what happens?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
When when Elijah should be celebrating the storm, I'll come
back to that another week.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Your storm, celebrate your storm.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
We always preach about storms like it's something we want
to get out of. What if the storm that God
sent into your life was to prove his presence. Celebrate
your storm, Celebrate your storm, Celebrate your storm, Celebrate the
storms you survive, and celebrate the storms when they come,
because you know God is with you in the storm.
(40:24):
He isn't ever present help in the time of trouble.
And when the storm came and Ahab went down and
told Jezbel what Elijah had done.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
She knew that her day's were numbered, So she sends
a messenger to Elijah.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
And what happens next is going to shock you because
you just watched the faith of a rain maker, but
now you're going to see the fear of a renegade,
run away a refugee. And the messengers come to Elijah,
come on, let's play this out, and they say, Jezebel says.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
She's going to kill you. What we are thick the
scripture off the screen.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
What we are expecting next is for Elijah to tell
Jezebel where she can go with that noise and what
she can do with her threats. Come on, would it
you wish Jezebel would try.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
To kill me?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
So what comes next is shocking against the backdrop of
the boldness of a prophet who put his head between
his knees and waited for rain, who survived three and
a half years of drought, who was fed by the
mouths of birds, and at the house of a widow.
And now the rain has come, and now the drought
(41:52):
is over. And now verse three, Elijah was.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Afraid.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Never thought I'd see those three words. Never thought he would.
I mean, I would have understood if he ran well,
the drought was still in progress. But it's raining. Now
it's raining, and Elijah, the one who survived three and
(42:23):
a half years of drought, is running. The Bible says
he's running for his life. I don't buy it. I'm sorry,
I don't buy it. I don't believe Elijah that you're
afraid that Jezebel can kill you, because if she could
(42:46):
have killed you, she wouldn't have sent messengers to warn you.
If she could kill you, she would send her bailiffs
to arrest you. But she knows she can't kill you,
so she's trying to contain you. Don't you know the
(43:07):
devil found out a long time ago that he can't
curse what God is blessed. Don't you know if the
devil could have killed you by now, he would have killed.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You by now.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
If he could have kept it from raining, he would
have kept it from raining. If he could have taken
you out, you'd be out. But since he couldn't kill you,
and he tries to contain you, so he intimidates you.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
And now Elijah is running. Please catch this.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
He is running from the same reiin that he prayed for.
Some of us are better at surviving in famine than
we are at living in blessing. What I mean is
what I mean. When the rain started, the one who
(44:03):
ran ahead of the rain started running away from the rain.
So the message God gave me for somebody today you
know who you are, is that you are running from
the rain. You are running from the blessing of God.
(44:27):
You are running from something that is already defeated. You
are running from shame that the Cross of Jesus Christ
has already taken away. You are running from a power
of sin that has already been broken. You are running
from situations that God has already worked out. You are
(44:47):
running from an outcome that you don't have to fear.
Guess what God's gonna deal with Jessebel.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Head back in the.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Right direction and run toward the rain. It's raining now,
the it is over come out of the drop. It's
raining now, it's rating. Why would you run from the rain?
(45:16):
Why would you run from the blessing of God?
Speaker 2 (45:19):
See, when you.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Run from the resistance, you run from the rain. When
you run from the battle, you run from the blessings.
When you run from the problem, you run from the promise.
When you run from the problem, you run from the harvest.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Where you're running from.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
You really believe that Jezebel can kill you, after all
you've already survived. You really think Jezebel has the power
in her mouth to stop what God is doing in
your life. No, somebody's said, I'm coming out of the drought.
I'm coming out of the drought. I've been dry too long,
(46:08):
defeed it too long to press too long, discourage too long.
It's a new season.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
In my life.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I feel the presence of God so powerfully in this place.
I'm ready for rain. I'm ready for rain. I'm ready
for rain. I'm not running from it now, I'm ready
(46:42):
for it. I'm ready for rain. I'm ready for rain
and all that it brings.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I'm ready. I'm ready for.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
The storm and an amazing how you can be blessed
situation and have a dry soul and have rain falling
all around you. And Elijah ran for his life, and
he went into a cave in the wilderness, and he
(47:18):
isolated himself, and a voice came in the form of
a gentle breeze, which was a whisper, and called him
out of the cave. See, I don't believe that God, don't.
I don't believe that God is calling you out of
the drought today. I believe he's calling the drought.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Out of you.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Listen, listen. If this is for you, you'll know it
when I say it. You've been you've been telling yourself
you're in a dry season. Really you've just been in
a dry place. And if you would come out of yourself.
Do you know what God told Elijah listen to He said,
you think you're the only one, because Elijah had convinced himself.
You know how we do when we get inside ourselves.
(48:06):
Nobody appreciates you, nobody sees you. It's nothing. There's no one.
God said, I have seven thousand that have not bowed
their need to beat. You think you're the only one.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
You're not the only one.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
You're not alone. It's not nothing. You're not alone. There
is a cloud. There is a cloud, but.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
You won't see it in the cave. Now.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
I want you to stand to your feet because the
spirit of the Lord is passing by it.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
This is going to be such an amazing season of
faith in our church during this series.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
I trust that you can feel it already working in
our midst, I said, I trust that you can feel
at work in already in our midst. Why don't you
respond by faith to what God has doing in your life.
I see a few people leaving. I ask if you
can stay. Please respect the presence of God. I promise
we'll all be dismissed together in a moment. But for
(49:15):
those of you who are ready to stop running from
the rain that God has blessed you with, for those
of you who have been in a place of watch
this invisibility. I can't see it right now, insignificance. It
doesn't matter because it's not much or intimidation. Sometimes God
can bless you with the very thing that you are
believing Him for, and you.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Don't know how to stand in a season of success.
What I'd like for you to do right now is symbolic.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
I want you to lift your hands to heaven like
you are receiving the refreshing presence of God, the reign
of His presence. And when we say we receive your rain,
let's not picture our situations right now.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Okay, let's sing it over our souls.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Maybe you're in a good season, but you're just in
a dry place inside. The only way to come out
of the drought is to get the drought out of you.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
You've got to come out.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
Of yourself, out of your self consciousness, out of your
self absorption, out of your obsession with what others think,
out of your failures, out of your past, out of
your fears. Come on, Elijah, the spear of the Lord
is passing by. You don't want to miss your miracle
because you are in the cave. Come out. It is raining, now,
(50:42):
come out. It's raining. Now, receive it. Stop resisting it
and receive it. Stop running.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
And receive it. I hear the.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
Sound of the abundance of rain. It starts like a whisper,
and it's welling up. We declare over your life. The
dry season is over. There is a cloud. The dry
season is over. There is a cloud. There is a
(51:20):
well springing up. There is a river who streams. Make
glad the city of God. There is a cloud beginning
to swell. Come on, worship and worship, and worship.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
And worship him.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Worship and worship and worship him.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Worship.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Thank you for the rain, God, Thank you for the
refreshing of your presence. Thank you for setting my feet
on the rock, giving me a firm place to stand.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Thank you Lord. I'm coming out of the drought.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
I'm coming out, coming out of myself, coming out of
my insecurity, coming out of my inadequacy. I can't do
all things through Christ, who gives me me straight. There
is a cloud. There is a cloud. Greater is he
that is in me, that he that is in the world.
(52:09):
There is a cloud. Come on, release your fear. Receive
it by faith. There is a cloud.
Speaker 5 (52:19):
There is there is Please, there is there is. Would
you receive it today? Would you be free today?
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Peace? Would you drink it today? Come out, come out,
come out, Come out he peace. It's lady is Ray.
Lift that right head, lift.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
That very heart.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
you who give generously to this ministry is because of
you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
with your friends. You can click the share button, take
(53:21):
a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
tag us at Elevation Church.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I won't tell you the whole story, but just a
little part of it.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
In One Kings eighteen forty one, and Elijah said to Ahab,
go eat and drink, for there is the sound of
a heavy rain.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So Ahab went off to eat and drink.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
But Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down
to the ground and put his face between his knees.
Maybe I'll read you a little bit more. This is
a good story. I'll reach you a little bit more.
How are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Are you.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Me too? Me too? I used to have a guy.
Every time you'd ask him how are you doing, he said, well.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
He's doing any better? I'd be twins. It's weird. You
know what that means? This other guy used to always say.
He said, I'm better than I deserve. That's pretty good. Yeah,
it's got pretty good. And so we have here a
picture of a nation coming out of a drought. And
then it's but it's a process, and it doesn't happen
(01:18):
all at once, and it happens in stages.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Look at verse forty three.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Elijah tells the king that he hears the sound of
the abundance of rain, and they haven't had any rain
in three and a half years. And then he tells
this servant go and look toward the sea. And the
servant went up and looked, and he came back and said,
there is nothing there. Seven times Elijah said go back.
The seventh time, the servant reported, a cloud as small
as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So
(01:46):
Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And go down before the rain stops you.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose,
a heavy rain started falling, and Ahab rode off to Jezruel.
The power of the Lord came on Elijah, and, tucking
his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab
all the way to Jezreel. I love that. I just
I think it's cool that Elijah ran seventeen miles and
(02:16):
he was out running the King's chariot because he was
ready for rain. Look at your neighbors, say I'm ready
for rain, and then comes to question are you really?
You know, then comes to question are you really? For
as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated
by creative process.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So I like to hear how books were written.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Usually after I watch a movie, I will go on
Wikipedia and study, and then I'll go read about how
they did it, and I'll find YouTube interviews.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
With the director.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
If I liked the movie, or even if I didn't
like the movie, I want to know how did it
get that bad? You know, like what went wrong in
the creative process? Because I know at some point somebody
thought this movie was going to be better than it
ended up being, Like what went wrong? And so I'm
a student of the creative process. When I hear a
song that I like, I love music and I've always
(03:10):
loved music. And even before I started trying to write songs,
of course, I started trying to write songs right around
the age I was like twelve or thirteen, I was
starting trying to write. So I just thought of one
that I tried to write when I was twelve or thirteen,
but that is not for public consumption. Okay, that's just
from my memories, but I remember reading about songwriting process.
(03:34):
I just always thought I was fascinating, And even to
this day, I'll ask someone if I hear a song
that I like and I get to meet the person.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Who wrote it, I'll say, how did it start?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
To me, that's always interesting because sometimes when they tell
you how the song started, it started in such a
different place than how it was when you heard it.
I could let you hear songs from Elevation worsh from
the album.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
If I let you hear how they started, they.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Would make you cry, and not because of the presence
of God or the anointing. They were that bad when
they started. I let my kids hear a few of
the songs from our newest album, and I let them
hear it in Beta. I let I let them hear
the song from when it started, and they have told me, Dad,
you should never let anyone hear this again. You need
(04:23):
to delete this off of your phone. Nobody should hear this,
because there is something about starting that feels shameful. Have
you ever been to the gym and you know you've
got a lot of work to do? Have you ever,
I did this for for for one for one thing.
I want to say this, Okay, I want to say
(04:44):
this about going to the gym. When you start, it
always sucks. Okay, this is this is the truth about exercise.
It always sucks when you start, when you go to
the gym. I remember one time walking into a certain gym.
This has been years ago. I walked into a certain gem,
turned around and walked out. I didn't didn't touch a machine.
(05:05):
All I did was look at the other people who
had been there consistently and walked out. Just turn around,
walked out, didn't even touch anything, just turn around and
walked out. They don't even work looked at the person
behind the counter, didn't even want to think about the
process of soreness that would accompany the workout. Something about
starting touch and never say get started, get started. And
as we begin this series, I want to take you
on a little bit of a journey. And I've kind
(05:26):
of committed myself today if it's okay with you, I
want to get in a little bit of a more
of a teaching mode because there is something about the
nature of faith that God has.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Been dealing with me about.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And if I start preaching and hollering and all that
stuff that do sometimes and all that wild stuff, I.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Won't get my content across.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And I really feel like the content of this is
what is most important about.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The nature of faith.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
The last time I was with you, we were talking
about harvest. Did any of you hear my message on
harvest problems? And then what do we say? We talked
about how what you've been calling a problem, God calls
a harvest. Now, there is something about the nature of
(06:14):
faith that is illustrated by the rain in First Kings,
chapter eighteen, and so we see it when Elijah says
to Ahab, there is.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
The sound of the heavy rain. There's the sound of
the heavy.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Rain that often, when it comes to the realm of faith,
we hear things.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That we cannot see yet.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
That is, when a word of God comes forth into
your life, you will not immediately see a change in
your situation. It will first produce a change within you.
I just feel like teaching a little bit today because
there are a few stages that you're going to have
to go through if you are going to come out
of the drought. Now, when I say the drought, I
mean the dry season that you have been experiencing inside
(06:58):
of yourself. When I say the drought, I don't necessarily
mean that you're on the verge of bankruptcy or losing
your marriage. Even because one thing I found out about
dry seasons is it often my situation can be doing
a whole lot better than my soul. I found out
(07:20):
that everybody else can look at my life and see
evidences of success. But if my soul is dry, if
my heart is empty, if my motivations are not aligned,
I can be winning outside and weeping inside. So I
want to speak to you today about coming out of
(07:42):
the drought, but I want to do it a little differently.
What I want to do is I want to talk
about the enemies that will keep you in a dry place.
I believe that there are at least three, and they're
all illustrated in the text I just read you. And
really I'm using this text as a picture of the
creative process. There is a creative aspect of faith. When
(08:06):
I grew up in the Baptist Church, I heard about
saving faith, and it was almost like that was all
that faith was for, just to get saved go to heaven.
But I found out that while I'm here on earth.
I need my faith in the meantime. I won't need
my faith when I get to Heaven. Faith is the
substance of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.
(08:28):
So when I see Jesus, I won't need to believe
in Jesus. He will be right there. I need faith
now now. Faith is the substance of things, hope for
y'all going to mess up and make me preach. I
told you, I just want to stay here with my notes,
y'all like rite set out. But I'm living in this
(08:48):
stage where I have not seen him, but I love him.
And there are some things that I know in my
soul that I don't see in my situation yet. And
that's what faith is for. I guess I consider myself
at the core. If you cut me, I'm a faith preacher.
Not a faith preacher where we all have to act
(09:10):
like everything's all right, but a faith preacher, a deep
faith preacher. And nothing's happening, but I believe something's happening
when nothing's happening, because beneath the surface, my faith is
rising in hard times, fallow crowd, I got faith. Well,
sometimes it's invisible because there will always be a stage
(09:36):
of invisibility. There are three stages I want to mention,
and you can see where you find yourself today. But
I believe our faith must survive the invisibility stage, the
stage where you may be, like Elijah, have heard something
since something precede something, believe something that you do not
(10:03):
yet see. I spent like seventy thousand dollars on my
seminary education, so every once in a while I like
to say stuff I learned there. They talk about the
already not yet eschatological tension. That is a seventy thousand
dollars word, eschatological. It just means that as things unfold,
there are certain realities of your new nature and Christ
(10:24):
that you will experience already, but there is a part
of it that is not yet fulfilled. So watch this,
you know. I just said to Ahab, go eat and drink,
for there is the sound of a heavy rain, which
isn't good news if you just washed your car, or
if you have an outdoor wedding, or if you're a pastor.
(10:45):
I can tell how stupid my staff members are by
how they act when it snow's on Sunday, if they're
posting stuff on Instagram. The snow is so beautiful. No,
snow sucks on Sunday. If you're a pastor, okay, it's
pretty for people don't go to church. But if your preacher,
that is the worst thing you can see on Sundays.
And now, which means that the conditions of the weather
(11:08):
and how they affect you depend on your expectation. So
if you've been in a famine like the nation of
Israel had for three and a half years, and you
hear the sound of rain, it is not inconvenient. See,
this is where people sometimes they'll go, well, I'm preaching,
they are not desperate enough yet for the word of God.
(11:30):
So while I'm preaching, they're like, but if you get
in a situation where you really need God to speak
to you, if you get in a situation where you
know that you that you need every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God, that you cannot live on
bread alone, you won't be like you be like, please God,
(11:55):
let him hold me two hours. Speak Lord, for your
turban is listening. I hear the sound of the abundance
of rain. As a matter of fact, I got seed
in the crownd and unless it rains, they can't come forth.
So bring the storm, Bring the rain. The storm will
only serve to reveal the foundation. I build my house
(12:16):
on the rock, and the rain comes down, and the
stream shries, and the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it did not fall because it had its foundation
on the rock.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Somebody shot, I'm ready for rain.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So Ahab goes off to eat and drink, and the
famine is over and the drought is over. But Elijah
climbed to the top of Carmel. Now, I love you guys,
and I like to demonstrate the Bible. We're appropriate, but
it does not seem to me to be appropriate to
demonstrate what he did here physically, So you just have.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
To imagine it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
He bent down to the ground and put his face
between his knees. Now, I don't do that yoga preaching stuff, okay,
the hot yoga, cold yoga, none of I don't do
any of that yoga, all right, So so watch everything's
in motion, right this refugee. I don't know if you
(13:05):
know about Elijah. He was He was a rain maker,
but he was also a refugee, okay, And everybody in
here is a little bit of both as well. By
the way, Okay, he's been hiding for three and a
half years because he called for the drought because the
people had started depending on sources other than God.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And anytime you depend on a source that.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Is not God, he will cut you off because He
will not allow your life to be sourced by something
that cannot sustain your life. So he will cut you
off for a little while so you will come back
to what you needed all along, because he loves you
that much. And Elijah is like hiding the whole time
(13:49):
because if Jezebel, who is in charge of all of
the rain gods, they serve this god called bail who
wasn't really a god. He didn't have all power, you know,
like politicians who say things, but they don't really have
the power to change all the stuff that they make
promises about. I'm not saying politicians are bad. We have
politicians in our church, and I love the politicians in
(14:10):
the church. And there's there's there's great politicians, and there's
there's politicians, there's other politicians, and there's all of that.
But but but God, being the true and living God,
will not be corralled or confined by human need. He's
not corralled or confined by human expectation. He will not
be manipulated by the mechanics of humanity. And so now
(14:32):
the rain has stopped falling, and you will come into
a season of your life where God will cut you off.
He won't stop loving you, he won't stop providing for you.
It's just that God will allow situations to get your attention.
And you can pray and ask him to change the
(14:52):
situation all that you want, But until you allow him
to change you, nothing is going to change in the situation.
When the time came for Elijah to come forth and
present himself before Ahab and Jezebel, that king and that
queen whose wickedness was responsible for the nation's famine, he
(15:15):
comes before them boldly. He calls for a summit. By
this time, he survived so much. Did you ever see
that show Survivor? I think might still be on the
on the air. I'm not sure, do hem I still
watch Survivor?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
No?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Is it still on? Everybody over seventy three is raising
their hand they still watch Survivor. We watched it for
a couple of seasons. Holly used to tell me all
the time, isn't this a mean thing to say to
your husband.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
She was like, you would be the first.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
One voted off of survivor. I couldn't argue with her.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
She's right.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I have no survival skills none. All I can do
is talk, and sometimes I'm not even that good at that.
This is the only thing I do. That's why I
hold the mic so tight, because I don't know what
I would do if I couldn't talk, and I have
no survival skills. On Elijah the prophet, he had the
skills to survive the drought, and he did.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
He survived in.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
The drought, he survived the dry.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Season, and he did it really well.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
He did it by obeying the voice of the Lord.
So when the voice of the Lord told him to
go to the brook, and I'll have birds there that
will drop your breakfast off. I'll have birds dropping off biscuits.
I'll have birds dropping off bow Jangles biscuits. I'll have
birds dropping off bow Jangles spicy Cajun filet biscuits. I'm
gonna say it till you get hungry. God will provide
(16:38):
for you in some strange ways. If you haven't noticed,
God had ravens, which is a dirty bird. I mean,
the only people who like ravens live in Baltimore. God use.
God used the dirty bird to feed his man in
a time of famine. Stop telling God how he can
and can't bless you. Stop telling God how he can
(17:00):
can and can't feed you. Stop telling God what style
he can and cannot use. Stop waiting on a song
you like in church to worship God. What if God
wants to bless you in a different style, bless you
in a different way. He's very creative, and so he's
supplying for Elijah at the brook. The brook drives up.
God sends Elijah to a widow. Why would you send
(17:21):
me to a widow to provide me with food? Because
sometimes God will show you how great a supply is
by sending you to someone with a greater need than
you had to begin with. And sometimes you will realize,
in the course of meeting someone else's need how great
God's supply already is in your life. So he does
all that, and for three and a half years he
(17:42):
is a refugee until it comes time for the refugee
to become a rain maker.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
That was almost my title of the sermon, from refugee
to rain maker. I like creativity. I like creative process,
all right, titles for every sermon I preach. I just
love it.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And he stands up and he gets all the prophets
of Bail, all these little rain dancers, makes fun of him,
calls them names, he tells them. He's like, hey, maybe
Bail's in the bathroom. Maybe that's why he can't hear you,
because they had a deal. You call for fire, I'll
call for fire. And the God who answers by fire,
(18:28):
he is God. And when Bail didn't answer, Elijah said,
maybe he's in the bathroom. I love the Bible, And
at the end of the whole thing, the Bible says
that after wetting the wood, now watch this. This is
the nature of faith. You wood before you call for fire.
(18:51):
You do when you're walking by faith, because that's how
God often proves his presence by putting you in an
impossible sit situation, an impossible situation preaching to somebody today,
I'm gonna look all around this room in Valentine and.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Find out who it is.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You are in an impossible situation, and you are in
the stage called invisibility, that's where you don't see any
way that it could happen. Okay, I was even talking
to one of my.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Friends this week.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
He's very successful, but he has another level God is
calling him to. It isn't just for the people who
need God to heal them of cancer, although this message
would apply to you in that situation. This is somebody
who's going from one stage to the next. And here's
what he said to me. He said, I feel like
God is doing something new in me, but I just
don't see the path to it yet. Invisibility, I sense
(19:49):
God doing it. I hear the sound of rain, but
I don't see anything yet. And so Elijah, while the
king goes off to eat and drink, buries his head,
closes his eyes and believes by faith that what he
has spoken will come to pass.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
And this servant come here, jjy.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
The servant runs up to the top of the mountain,
going up there to the Yeah, I just want to
show you what he did. I don't know if the
camera can catch this. For the other campuses. Here comes
goes up to the top.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
We're gonna have some fun with this too.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
We're gonna have some fun with this because he didn't
just do it one time.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Come here, Jonathan.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And now on the way back down, he's going slower.
On the way back down, he's going slower because he's
got to deliver some bad news to the Man of God.
And in case you hadn't noticed, you don't want.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
To give bad news to Elijah a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I mean, he's the kind of guy you do not
want to give Elijah bad news. Elijah slaughtered all eight
hundred and fifty false prophets. Okay, So now you've got
to come to the guy who just killed just under
a thousand false prophets, and.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
He doesn't even look up at you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
He's in this weird position, this prayer, this prayer thing.
And now you've got to tell this guy who just
told the king, gets your chariot ready and go down
before the rain stops you. You just told you just
told the king that it's going to rain. You sent
your servant to go see it, and the servant comes
back and says, look at the phrase, there is nothing there.
(21:45):
Can I ask you a question? Was the servant wrong?
I feel like I'm being set up right now.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Got on.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You are, because remember we're talking about a rain cycle.
And before you see the cloud form, it is rising
from the sea, So something is happening when nothing is seen.
(22:25):
Whenever you're preaching, you say something so good that you
know God is on it, and they just look at.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Flat for the word.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
And so the guys like, I don't know if you
want me to go catch up with ay have and
tell them to take it easy on the food and
drink because, uh, I don't know what you heard. But
whenever you start in faith, remember we were talking about
the start of the process, it always feels like nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing nothing. You know what this church
started with, right, nothing?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
You know what the disciples packed when Jesus went out
to teach one day and five thousand men and the
women and children needed to eat. You know what they
packed in their cooler that day?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Nothing? Nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
I wonder are you in the it's nothing stage? It's nothing,
there is nothing, there is nothing. Maybe the doctors have
told you there is nothing we can do. Maybe you
were told since you were a little girl there is
nothing special about you. The invisibility stage is kind of
(23:55):
tough because you know what you heard, and you know
what you sense some times, but what you see is
a direct contradiction of what you sense. Please talk to me.
If I'm talking to you, I need a little bit
of response, unless you're trying to illustrate nothing. Oh man,
(24:18):
I know what it feels like to be looking at
nothing and hearing something. Do you do you know what
it feels like to be believing God for something and
seeing nothing. I mean no change in your kids. I
mean the more you pray for them, the wilder they get.
I mean nothing, I mean no bit, I mean no
(24:40):
new revenue, I mean no way forward. And Elijah does something.
This is spectacular. Elijah says, go back, look at your neighbor.
Say go back. Everybody point to Jonathan. Jo says, even
at the other campus, to say, go back and look again.
So go back. It goes back again, and he looks again.
(25:06):
Now look Jonathan, look, look, look, look, look, come on back.
I got bad news. It's still nothing. Still nothing. Everybody says,
still nothing. I'm gonna drag this point out because this
is how it feels. This is how faith feels. This
(25:29):
is how it feels to write a sermon. This is
how it feels to write a song. This is how
it feels to raise a kid. This is how it feels.
This is how it feels to wait on God by faith.
This is how it feels to worship God in a
dry season. This is how it feels for three and
a half years when you hear the sound but can't
see the sight. Somebody's shouting nothing, go again, go again.
(25:55):
Everybody pointed Jonathan, say go again, go again, go again.
Look again. Now, Notice Elijah is not moving. He sends
a runner. Maybe he knows that if he uses his eyes,
his faith will die. Maybe he knows that where I
am right now, and how it seems right now, I
(26:17):
can't look at my situation. I gotta listen right now.
I gotta hear what God says. If I go by
what I see, I'll die in this trout. So come
on back, come on back, come on back. Still nothing,
still nothing, Go again. Here's my message. You ready? Still nothing?
(26:46):
Go again, still nothing, Go again. One lap around the
Jericho walls, still nothing. March again. Two laps around the
Jericho walls, still nothing. Go again. One dip in the
Jordan River, name and still nothing. Go again. Two dips,
(27:06):
still nothing, Go again. Five trips up the mountains. Still nothing.
Go again, still nothing, Go again, still nothing, Go again,
still nothing, Pray again, still nothing, Sing again, still nothing.
Praise them again. I will reason. Faith is the substance
(27:40):
of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean he didn't
speak it.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I can't see.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Y'all at the University City location right now, but that
doesn't mean I don't believe that you are shouting. I
mean up on your feast shouting. I can't see it
right now at Gaston, but that doesn't mean you're not
on your feast shouting. I can't see you online, but
I release the word of God into your situation, into
(28:20):
your sickness, into your shame.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Nothing it's impossible with God. Hold on, Nothing is impossible
with God.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The only thing that is impossible with God is nothing.
Somebody's shout is never nothing, not if God is in it,
it's never nothing. If God is in it, nothing is impossible.
(28:55):
I don't feel appreciated today. I just want to teach
you a little bit. So so the seventh time, if
you how many times did you go, We're gonna pretend
like you're seven.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Come here, Come here, come here. I don't have time. Slow,
you're so.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Slow, Jonathan Josephs, everybody give it up for John.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I see something. Huh, I see something. You see something there? Well, well, so.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You're saying it's not it's not nothing, it's not nothing.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Okay, it's not nothing. It's not nothing, but it's small though.
Oh it's not it's not nothing. It's something. But now
it's not much, not much.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So when he came back the seventh time, he said,
it's not nothing. I see it, but it's not much.
It's not invisible, but it's insignificant.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Now this is this is.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
This is is the second stage that your faith must survive.
It's insignificance. Sit down, a runner, do whatever you want
to do. I'm dumb and say, now it's not nothing.
There is a boy here, but he only has five
loaves and two fish. How far will they go amongst
so many? It's just a little bit of oil. It's
(30:20):
not nothing, but it's not much. So now we've gotten
to the place where, okay, I stood up in front
of the church when we had who is this message hitting?
Because right now, so it's so strong in my soul.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I stood up in front of the church and you
had two first time guests.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Do you know what a disaster it would be now
to have two first time, guests. But you gotta celebrate
what seems insignificant when I teach leaders. When I teach leaders,
how many have you own a business or run a
division in your company, or you have somebody that reports
to you where you breathe? Okay, raise your hand, all right,
you need to learn this. Celebrate something. Let me tell
(31:08):
you what to celebrate? Celebrate?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Can I preach real? We'll edit this out for online,
but it's just us.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It's just you know, twenty five thousand of us, right, Okay,
so that's a secret. Celebrate the sucky start. Celebrate the
soreness the next day, celebrate the small start. Do you
(31:35):
remember that first girl that got saved in our church?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Her name was Crystal.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
There was a period of three months where she was
the only person that we could get saved. So every
week we talked about Crystal. I don't even know where
Crystal is today. She left the church a long time ago,
but she was our first salvation. I wish she was
still here. That'd be great. I care about her, God
bless her and all that.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
But it was a start.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I can't tell you how many times on my sermon
I'll start writing something down. Can I just talk to you.
Can I talk to you because I know you're working
on something. I know you're believing God for something. I
know that you're working on something that don't have to
be a song, that don't have to be a sermon.
But I always start and the first thing I'm thinking
when i'm writing it down, this sucks.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
This sucks. It always does to start with.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
That's why my kids said, you should never let anybody
hear how these songs started.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
You know what, though, I'm proud of my sucky starts.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I'm proud. I am so proud of those sucky starts.
I am so proud of all those little voice memos
and type notes and gibberish. I mean all these notes
that I wrote that you will never hear. I mean
all of these ideas, all of this stuff that I tried,
(32:56):
I'm proud of. I'm proud of my scraps, out of
my frustrations. I'm proud of my problems. I'm proud of
my failures. I'm proud of my strikeouts. It's the proof
that I survived and I stuck it out when it sucked.
I went back when it wasn't much. I stayed with
it when it was little. Proud of that. I'm proud
(33:20):
of that scribbling. I'm proud of that chicken scratch. I'm
proud of everything I did that didn't work. It's what
made me strong enough to sustain the blessing when it came.
Oh yeah, you gotta shout over the small stuff. So
(33:42):
the servant's like, it's a class of a man's and
the life just like, let's go bump bump, bump, dump
dum dum, doom, doom doom.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And the servants like me, you don't hear me. Cloud, man,
it's not a I know. We gotta go. We gotta go.
We gotta go.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
We gotta go, We gotta go, we gotta go, we
gotta go. It's building. We gotta go. It's working. We
gotta go, it's building. We gotta ride this momentum. It's
just a little cloud. But if we get out in
front of it, watch what God will do if we
get in front of it, if we'll start moving on
a little bit of blessing, little as much when God
is in it. I texted my friend the other day,
(34:30):
I said, I want you to make this confession over
your life for thirty days. I want you to look
at everything that seems stupid that you're doing right now
that feels like because I know moms feel like this.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I know you do.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I know that I know that employees and jobs that
you don't really like feel like this. I know couples
trying to get out of debt feel like this. I
know people that are believing God to bless them in
a bigger way. And you know you're in a small space.
I know you feel this.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
West.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I want you to make this confession over your life.
I said, I want you to say, this is significant.
This is significant. This is significant. Running a vacuum cleaner,
this is significant, changing a diaper, this is significant, coming home,
just being a good husband, this is significant.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
This is significant.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
The devil won't like it when you say that, because
the way he gets you to leave your assignment is
to convince you that it doesn't matter what you're working on.
It's so small, it's so small. This is significant. And
don't wait to say that until it seems significant, because
(35:37):
that takes no faith. This is significant. This this not
just that. This is significant. Have you ever wanted a
new car and you picked out the kind of car
you wanted and the next thing you knew. You started
(35:57):
seeing that car everywhere you went.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
They just flooded the market with that car all of
a sudden. Google has an algorithm in your brain, and
so they put the cars in front of you. Perhaps
we're probably coming to that day. But it wasn't Amazon, baby,
It was your attention. You started seeing it when you
started searching for it. You want a life that matters.
(36:27):
Make it matter, make it matter, make it matter.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
This is significant.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
It's a cloud the size of a man's hand, and
a lighter said, let's go. That's what we've been waiting for.
It sucks, but it's a start. It's small, but it's
a start. I barely see it, but it's a start.
We got a long way to go because we got
in this famine three and a half years ago, and
it's not going to be over overnight. But it's a start.
(37:00):
It's a start, and my start is significant. Can I
show you one more thing? Can I? If you need
to leave, go ahead and leave, But I'm gonna take
ten minutes with everybody who wants to hear, because if
the enemy cannot get you to stay listen, he wants
(37:20):
And I don't know if you believe in the devil,
but your brain, let's let's approach it from a psychological perspective.
If you don't believe in the devil, you don't have kids.
But just in case you don't have kids and don't
believe in the devil.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Your brain is wired for survival.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Okay, So when you're living in your head, all you're
thinking about is survival. What had Elijah been doing for
three and a half years before the drought was over? Survival,
which in that three and a half year span was success.
Because sometimes just making it is what matters. Just making
(38:00):
it is what matters. I mean, just still being in
faith is victory sometimes. But when the shift happens, I wonder,
will you be ready for the rain you've been praying for?
Because your brain, if you stay inside your brain, your
reflex will always be to run. What has Elijah been
(38:23):
doing for the last three and a half years, Come on,
talk to me, church. What's he been doing? He's been running,
surviving and running and surviving and running and surviving. So
when the rain comes, he runs, and for a little
while he's running ahead of the rain. He's running in
front of the chariot because he's ready for his next assignment.
(38:43):
He's ready to survey have now he believes revival has
come to the nation. The bail prophets have been destroyed,
the asker of profits are all laying at their own altars,
dead in their own blood. And now revival can come.
And so he runs seventeen miles on the fuel of
his eight, on the fuel of the promise of God
coming to pass in his life. He runs ahead of
(39:05):
the chariot, he runs ahead of the rain.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And then something happens.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Because if the enemy can't kill you in the invisibility
stage or the insignificant stage, the only thing left for
him to do to keep you from receiving what God
is pouring out in your life is intimidation. He can't
keep God from making it rain, but maybe he can
(39:35):
keep you from receiving it.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
If he can get your running.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Because I'm a runner, I'm a refugee, and I'm a
rain maker.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
But now I'm a refugee. WA's what happens? What's what happens?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
When when Elijah should be celebrating the storm, I'll come
back to that another week.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Your storm, celebrate your storm.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
We always preach about storms like it's something we want
to get out of. What if the storm that God
sent into your life was to prove his presence. Celebrate
your storm, Celebrate your storm, Celebrate your storm, Celebrate the
storms you survive, and celebrate the storms when they come,
because you know God is with you in the storm.
(40:24):
He isn't ever present help in the time of trouble.
And when the storm came and Ahab went down and
told Jezbel what Elijah had done.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
She knew that her day's were numbered, So she sends
a messenger to Elijah.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
And what happens next is going to shock you because
you just watched the faith of a rain maker, but
now you're going to see the fear of a renegade,
run away a refugee. And the messengers come to Elijah,
come on, let's play this out, and they say, Jezebel says.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
She's going to kill you. What we are thick the
scripture off the screen.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
What we are expecting next is for Elijah to tell
Jezebel where she can go with that noise and what
she can do with her threats. Come on, would it
you wish Jezebel would try.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
To kill me?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
So what comes next is shocking against the backdrop of
the boldness of a prophet who put his head between
his knees and waited for rain, who survived three and
a half years of drought, who was fed by the
mouths of birds, and at the house of a widow.
And now the rain has come, and now the drought
(41:52):
is over. And now verse three, Elijah was.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Afraid.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Never thought I'd see those three words. Never thought he would.
I mean, I would have understood if he ran well,
the drought was still in progress. But it's raining. Now
it's raining, and Elijah, the one who survived three and
(42:23):
a half years of drought, is running. The Bible says
he's running for his life. I don't buy it. I'm sorry,
I don't buy it. I don't believe Elijah that you're
afraid that Jezebel can kill you, because if she could
(42:46):
have killed you, she wouldn't have sent messengers to warn you.
If she could kill you, she would send her bailiffs
to arrest you. But she knows she can't kill you,
so she's trying to contain you. Don't you know the
(43:07):
devil found out a long time ago that he can't
curse what God is blessed. Don't you know if the
devil could have killed you by now, he would have killed.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You by now.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
If he could have kept it from raining, he would
have kept it from raining. If he could have taken
you out, you'd be out. But since he couldn't kill you,
and he tries to contain you, so he intimidates you.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
And now Elijah is running. Please catch this.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
He is running from the same reiin that he prayed for.
Some of us are better at surviving in famine than
we are at living in blessing. What I mean is
what I mean. When the rain started, the one who
(44:03):
ran ahead of the rain started running away from the rain.
So the message God gave me for somebody today you
know who you are, is that you are running from
the rain. You are running from the blessing of God.
(44:27):
You are running from something that is already defeated. You
are running from shame that the Cross of Jesus Christ
has already taken away. You are running from a power
of sin that has already been broken. You are running
from situations that God has already worked out. You are
(44:47):
running from an outcome that you don't have to fear.
Guess what God's gonna deal with Jessebel.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Head back in the.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Right direction and run toward the rain. It's raining now,
the it is over come out of the drop. It's
raining now, it's rating. Why would you run from the rain?
(45:16):
Why would you run from the blessing of God?
Speaker 2 (45:19):
See, when you.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Run from the resistance, you run from the rain. When
you run from the battle, you run from the blessings.
When you run from the problem, you run from the promise.
When you run from the problem, you run from the harvest.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Where you're running from.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
You really believe that Jezebel can kill you, after all
you've already survived. You really think Jezebel has the power
in her mouth to stop what God is doing in
your life. No, somebody's said, I'm coming out of the drought.
I'm coming out of the drought. I've been dry too long,
(46:08):
defeed it too long to press too long, discourage too long.
It's a new season.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
In my life.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I feel the presence of God so powerfully in this place.
I'm ready for rain. I'm ready for rain. I'm ready
for rain. I'm not running from it now, I'm ready
(46:42):
for it. I'm ready for rain. I'm ready for rain
and all that it brings.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I'm ready. I'm ready for.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
The storm and an amazing how you can be blessed
situation and have a dry soul and have rain falling
all around you. And Elijah ran for his life, and
he went into a cave in the wilderness, and he
(47:18):
isolated himself, and a voice came in the form of
a gentle breeze, which was a whisper, and called him
out of the cave. See, I don't believe that God, don't.
I don't believe that God is calling you out of
the drought today. I believe he's calling the drought.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Out of you.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Listen, listen. If this is for you, you'll know it
when I say it. You've been you've been telling yourself
you're in a dry season. Really you've just been in
a dry place. And if you would come out of yourself.
Do you know what God told Elijah listen to He said,
you think you're the only one, because Elijah had convinced himself.
You know how we do when we get inside ourselves.
(48:06):
Nobody appreciates you, nobody sees you. It's nothing. There's no one.
God said, I have seven thousand that have not bowed
their need to beat. You think you're the only one.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
You're not the only one.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
You're not alone. It's not nothing. You're not alone. There
is a cloud. There is a cloud, but.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
You won't see it in the cave. Now.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
I want you to stand to your feet because the
spirit of the Lord is passing by it.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
This is going to be such an amazing season of
faith in our church during this series.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
I trust that you can feel it already working in
our midst, I said, I trust that you can feel
at work in already in our midst. Why don't you
respond by faith to what God has doing in your life.
I see a few people leaving. I ask if you
can stay. Please respect the presence of God. I promise
we'll all be dismissed together in a moment. But for
(49:15):
those of you who are ready to stop running from
the rain that God has blessed you with, for those
of you who have been in a place of watch
this invisibility. I can't see it right now, insignificance. It
doesn't matter because it's not much or intimidation. Sometimes God
can bless you with the very thing that you are
believing Him for, and you.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Don't know how to stand in a season of success.
What I'd like for you to do right now is symbolic.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
I want you to lift your hands to heaven like
you are receiving the refreshing presence of God, the reign
of His presence. And when we say we receive your rain,
let's not picture our situations right now.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Okay, let's sing it over our souls.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Maybe you're in a good season, but you're just in
a dry place inside. The only way to come out
of the drought is to get the drought out of you.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
You've got to come out.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
Of yourself, out of your self consciousness, out of your
self absorption, out of your obsession with what others think,
out of your failures, out of your past, out of
your fears. Come on, Elijah, the spear of the Lord
is passing by. You don't want to miss your miracle
because you are in the cave. Come out. It is raining, now,
(50:42):
come out. It's raining. Now, receive it. Stop resisting it
and receive it. Stop running.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
And receive it. I hear the.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
Sound of the abundance of rain. It starts like a whisper,
and it's welling up. We declare over your life. The
dry season is over. There is a cloud. The dry
season is over. There is a cloud. There is a
(51:20):
well springing up. There is a river who streams. Make
glad the city of God. There is a cloud beginning
to swell. Come on, worship and worship, and worship.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
And worship him.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Worship and worship and worship him.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Worship.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Thank you for the rain, God, Thank you for the
refreshing of your presence. Thank you for setting my feet
on the rock, giving me a firm place to stand.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Thank you Lord. I'm coming out of the drought.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
I'm coming out, coming out of myself, coming out of
my insecurity, coming out of my inadequacy. I can't do
all things through Christ, who gives me me straight. There
is a cloud. There is a cloud. Greater is he
that is in me, that he that is in the world.
(52:09):
There is a cloud. Come on, release your fear. Receive
it by faith. There is a cloud.
Speaker 5 (52:19):
There is there is Please, there is there is. Would
you receive it today? Would you be free today?
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Peace? Would you drink it today? Come out, come out,
come out, Come out he peace. It's lady is Ray.
Lift that right head, lift.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
That very heart.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
you who give generously to this ministry is because of
you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
with your friends. You can click the share button, take
(53:21):
a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
tag us at Elevation Church.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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