3 Ways God Speaks | Steven Furtick

And I have discovered three very specific and repeatable ways that God seems to speak. I'll give them to you right now. Number one, he speaks through impressions, impressions. Number two, he speaks through instructions, instructions. And number three, he speaks through interruptions. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. The word of the Lord. The word of the Lord isn't always a preacher preaching. The word of the Lord isn't always at your devotional time. Sometimes the Holy Spirit, if he lives in you, will show you something that you shouldn't say, show you something that you should say, show you a way you should see the situation that you haven't been seeing the situation. It's an impression. I can't explain it, but it's an impression. But then sometimes we get so heavy on that that I think we just run around just following whatever impression we get. And the problem with my impressions is that sometimes my impressions are impostors and they pretend to be God, but they're really just what I want dressed up as God. That's what we're going to talk about from Jonah, because God gives impressions, but he also gives instructions. And one thing I love about God is he will never give you an impression that violates his clear instruction. So I don't care how attracted to her you are. If she is married, you have received an instruction on that situation. And I don't care that her name is Cindy and so was your grandmother's. That is irrelevant to this situation. There is an instruction. You know, sometimes I think we're waiting on God to give us a feeling or a thought because we don't want to obey what we clearly saw that he said. I'm going to stand here and preach this like I've been a pastor for 20 years. Y'all ain't going to intimidate me today, reading all up in the book of Revelation, trying to figure out which one is North Korea and which one is Israel and which one is Iraq, and you're all over there translating that. Meanwhile, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians something you don't really want to read in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. This is pretty clear. This is an instruction. Flee from sexual immorality. So we can read all the revelation we want. Read it. Underline it. Highlight it. Circle it. Star it. Smell it. Sniff it. Take it. Eat it. Whatever you want to do, but you still have to do this, because this is an instruction, and he is God, and he is not my buddy. He's not an influencer. He is Alpha and Omega. Y'all don't want me to preach. I need to go back on break. But somebody high-five your neighbor and say, "'Cause he said so." His definition. His description. So, I need a word from the Lord. There's one. Do that all week and check in with me. Take seven days of that. Well, I don't really struggle with that, so what do you got for me? I looked up some Scriptures, because we said we want a God thought. All right. There's another one in Ephesians 4.32. This one says, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. I don't feel like forgiving, but this is not about an impression. This is about an instruction, because you have a Father who knows you can never be free until you forgive. So, if he tells me to flee, I've got to go. If he tells me to forgive, I've got to love. It's an instruction. Those are just some of the things God will use to speak to you. But then there is Jonah, where God will give you an interruption. An interruption to the way you think. An interruption to the way you see the world. An interruption to what you think is important. An interruption to the path you laid out for your own life. So, Jonah is a prophet, and the Bible says the word of the Lord came to Jonah. I have to say this one more time, in case you didn't get it. The word of the Lord can come to you. Do you come to the word of the Lord so that the word of the Lord can come to you? Because there he will give you instructions that will then mold your impressions so that they are in his image, not yours. Praise the Lord. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, saying… Here are the details of the conversation. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. Nobody wants to go to a place that is against them. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. They were brutal. They wouldn't just kill you. They would impale you to send a message. That's what I thought. Come try us again. They were brutal, barbaric, and unrepentant. They had personally oppressed the people Jonah was identified with. So, when the Lord said, go to Nineveh and preach against it, for their evil has come up before me, the Bible says, But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. We know because we just read Psalm 139 that what he is trying to do is impossible. He went to flee from the presence of the Lord. We know because we have Psalm 139 that if you ascend to the heavens, he's there, if you descend to hell, he's there, and you can't flee from God. But Jonah thought he could. I won't break this all down for you, but Nineveh was 500 miles from the port where he was supposed to go, and Tarshish, where he tried to go, was 2,500 miles. So, it was going to take him five times longer to get where he had decided to go than where God told him to go. But he kind of thought he could get around it. He thought. That's what I thought. Now, let's talk. There are some ways you have tried to run from some things in your life. You thought, well, if I just move to a different city… It's not always bad to move to a different city, as long as you realize you go with you. Get at least a two-bedroom apartment, because there are at least two of you. He tried to go to Tarshish. He thought he would run from the Lord. Every word of this is so instructive, but just for the sake of time, focus in with me on verses 3 through 5. He went down to Joppa. Pastor Mickey used to say, when you run from God, you always go down. I like that. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. Pastor Mickey used to always say, if you ever want to run from God, the Devil will always give you a ride. Anyway, that's just old preacher stuff that I used to hear. So, he paid the fare and went on board. I'm holding up my penny, y'all. He paid the fare, went on board to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. Surprise! Verse 4. You can't. You can't run from any of it. You can't run from it. Well, you can run from it, just not very long, especially if the Lord really loves you, because those he loves he disciplines. Those he really loves he does what it takes to bring them back. Those he really has a purpose for he will even punish you short-term to prevent you from something in your future that would be worse than the pain of the present. I am not saying every bad thing happens so God can teach you a lesson. Please understand that the number of people who I have watched die of cancer and the number of people I have seen have their lives senselessly taken from a drunk driver would prohibit me from ever spewing that kind of nonsense from the pulpit. But I need to point out to you that the God who speaks by instructions and impressions also will sometimes come into your situation through an interruption, because the Bible says that the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. It is not the fact that there was a storm that made me bring this passage up. It was who sent it that made it noteworthy. I am used to God calming storms. I am not used to God sending them. But there was something God wanted to do in this situation that was important enough for him to send a storm to stop Jonah somewhere along the way. He thought he was going to Tarshish, but before he could get where he thought he was going to go, a storm was sent upon the sea. Now we're ready for verse 5. The Bible says, Then the mariners or the sailors were afraid. Now remember, these men don't know God, not Jonah's God. They call on many gods. They're polytheists. They have gods for everything. They have gods for feasting, gods for fasting, gods for drought, and gods for storms. As they're calling on all their many gods, they can't do anything for you when it really counts, like some of the gods we worship and serve, only to find out that they are so small in the face of a great storm. Is this why God has brought you to this point in your life, so that you can call out for something bigger? But the Lord hurled a wind on the sea. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, "'What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise! Call out to your God! Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.'" I'm talking about when God gives a thought to you. I know what he meant when he said it. Maybe if you call on God, he'll remember that we're in this situation. Maybe if you call on your God, he'll do something our gods can't do. One translation says, maybe he'll take notice. Another translation says, maybe he'll throw a thought our way. Maybe he'll give a thought to us. But the phrase was so rich, man, I couldn't just take it at face value. I realized when he said, perhaps your God will give a thought to us and this storm will stop that your God can give a thought to you that will stop the storm in its tracks. He can do it today, and he can do it right now, and he can do it even though you're in your 30s, and he can do it even while you're in your teens. What the captain said that was so profound… He said, We need a thought from God. I don't even know if you have the right one, but we need God in this situation. Is it possible that you are in a storm right now in your life? Not to be overly generic, but everybody in here has some kind of storm or is journeying with someone through a storm, and would it be a good prayer for you to pray right about now? God, give a thought to me. See, because God's thoughts are precious. God's works are wonderful, but his thoughts are also precious. It means sometimes we're praying, God, do something, and God is speaking for us to think something. Until we think something different than we've been thinking, he can't do anything different than what he has been allowed to do. For instance, the ship is not going to turn around just because God wants Jonah in Nineveh. God did not turn the ship. God sent the storm, and in the middle of the storm he had a decision to make. Not will God give a thought to me. God had his eye on this boat from the moment Jonah got on it. The whole reason they were in this predicament was because of the sleeping prophet. Now we have some panicked pagans, and now we have a self-pitying prophet, and we have a sovereign God sending a storm on a raging sea, and we're used to him calming storms. But the God of the calm is the God of the chaos, and into the chaos the captain says something that the prophet should have known for sure. We need a God thought. We need God to do something in our family. We need God to do something in this relationship. I need God to do something in my business. I need God to do something in my body. I need God to walk in with me to this doctor. I need God, and I'm not ashamed to cry out to him, and I can't sleep down here. Get up and call on God, and maybe God will give a thought to us. Jonah said, See, I worship Yahweh, and Yahweh told me to go to Nineveh, and I said, No way. I'm just trying to keep it light because it's kind of a hard sermon to preach, if you want to know the truth. But after he got done explaining, and they cast lots, which is kind of like drawing a straw, and they realized it was Jonah's fault that they were in this storm, they realized, listen to this, that you can throw all the cargo overboard that you want, but until you deal with the real thing that's going on, it will stay chaotic. You can't fix chaos by losing cargo. How much more stuff are you going to throw overboard before you realize Jonah has got to go? What do you mean Jonah has got to go? I'm saying anything that is on your boat that is keeping Jesus from being the captain of your peace and your soul has got to go. You can rearrange all the deck chairs you want. It's still the Titanic if Jonah doesn't go. You can continue to throw things off and spend money and waste money and buy stuff and buy more square footage so y'all can sleep at opposite ends of the bigger house, but until the attitudes at the root of it change, nothing does until God gives a thought. It cost Jonah… Did you see how it said he paid the fare? He paid more than a penny for this. He paid his peace. He almost paid his purpose because of a wrong thought. How much have the wrong thoughts cost you? Because God, your God, the God who speaks by impressions, instructions, and even interruptions, might be using this storm to give a thought to you.