Behind the Scenes with Pastor Furtick...

The other day I was part of a meeting that Pastor Furtick was leading. He took the principle from Seth Godin's book, The Dip, and described how the principle actually found it's origins in the Word of God.

You'll have to read Godin's book to understand what he meant by it because I will focus the rest of this blog on Pastor's interpretation of his principle.

Pastor suggested that there are two main reasons why we will go through spiritual dips in our life:

1) Disobedience - Sometimes we make stupid decisions and create our own problems for ourselves. We borrow more money then we can pay back and find ourselves in financial crisis. We neglect our kids by working too much and then suffer the consequences. He pointed to David and Bathsheba, Jonah, and Peter as Biblical examples of this idea.

2) Divine Dips - There are other times that God puts the pressure on us. We are doing all that we know how and we still find ourselves in times of struggle. At that point we have three steps to follow: 1 - Receive God's activity; 2 - Remember how he has walked with us in the past; 3 - Respond to God's direction.

Now, I know you probably had to be there to experience the weight of this teaching, but trust me, it was a VERY profound moment.

Here are a few quotes to consider:

"The teacher is always silent during the test..."

"God's past performance always predicates His future ability..."

"Is my integrity worth suffering for?"

To close out the talk Pastor highlighted Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil... In classic style Pastor highlighted that we are walking through the valley. We might be in the valley today, but God's intention is to take us through it.

If you're in a Dip today follow Pastor's advice. if it's because of sin or disobedience then repent. If not, then Receive, Remember and Respond and know that no matter how deep your dip is the same God that lead you into it has every intention of leading you through it and on the back side of any valley is always another mountain top!