Today, we bring you a message from Pastor Steven Furtick titled, “Fighting For Encouragement.”
Pastor Furtick teaches us in this message about fighting for encouragement in our lives. a little bit of a mind shift for me, reading about the story of Hannah when she was unable to conceive and her rival Peninnah would provoke her every day. In 1 Samuel, chapter 1, it says she would refuse to eat, and her husband, Elkanah, kept trying to feed her. You know, “Hey, I’m going to bring you a double portion,” because the Bible says the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb. At this time, they saw things pretty clearly. They saw a closed womb as being from the Lord and an open womb as being from the Lord. Typically, this particular Israelite conception of God’s favor was that if you are able to conceive, you’re blessed; if you’re not able to conceive, that’s a curse. They associated all kinds of things with The ability to bring life was a sign of a righteous relationship with God, a sign of God’s favor, and a sign of God’s pleasure. The inability to produce life, whether that was the land or whether that was human life, would be seen as a sign of God’s displeasure, God’s punishment, or a consequence of sin. You see it kind of all throughout the stories of the Old Testament. Then, when we come into the New Testament, we find out that Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, not to kill, steal, and destroy. That’s what a thief does. So, we see this progression of the idea that not only does life come from God in that we’re given life by God, but life comes from inside of us when we’re in relationship with God. We’re able to bring life, bring joy, bring ideas, bring opportunities, bring partnership, bring encouragement, and bring inspiration when we’re in a place of connection with God.
Watch and learn from this sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick: Fighting For Encouragement” as we bring the latest messages from Pastors around the globe to you.
Video Credit: Steven Furtick YouTube