The Mystery Of Potential

Summary

Podcast Summary: Elevation with Steven Furtick

Episode: The Mystery Of Potential
Date: June 26, 2026
Host: Pastor Steven Furtick
Platform: iHeartPodcasts / Elevation Church

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Episode Overview

In "The Mystery Of Potential," Pastor Steven Furtick explores the concept of untapped potential through a biblical lens, focusing on how God's work in our lives often unfolds mysteriously, in ways we do not immediately understand or see. Drawing on the story of Elisha and analogies of seeds, soil, and sowing, Furtick encourages listeners to trust the process, remain faithful, and resist the urge to prematurely judge what God is cultivating within them.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Global Church Family & Setting the Tone

• Furtick opens by engaging with the EFAM community around the globe, highlighting the shared experience of faith:
  “We bring you greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.” [04:13]
• He sets the theme of hidden potential and the importance of worship and praise even in challenging situations, referencing new music being released at midnight as a metaphor for breakthrough moments. [04:41]

Biblical Foundation: Ecclesiastes 11 & Divine Mystery

• The text centers on Ecclesiastes 11:5-6, emphasizing human ignorance before God’s processes:
  “You do not know the way the spirit comes to the Bones in the womb of a woman with child. So you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.” [05:30]
• Furtick notes that even Solomon, “the wisest man in the world,” admits to the mystery of God’s work:
  “His common theme in this book is you do not know is a mystery.” [06:04]

The Process of Potential: The Bones and the Breath

• Furtick distinguishes between what can be observed (bones) and what cannot (the breath/spirit). He draws a parallel to Genesis, where “God breathed into man the breath of life,” highlighting that divine breath changes everything. [07:08]
• He explains that God’s potential is only limited by our belief:
  “The only thing that ever limits Him is what you believe He can do.” [08:34]

Personal Anecdotes: Parenting, Pressure, and "It's Too Soon to Tell"

• Furtick humorously reflects on first-time parenting anxieties and unrealistic projections of potential, sharing his own experience with his son Elijah’s little league baseball and a scout’s wise words:
  “He said…it’s too soon to tell.” [12:33]
• He connects this to our tendency to rush judgment, desire instant results, and abandon processes prematurely.

The Misery and Mystery of Potential

• The notion of potential is often frustrating because it is unrealized and unseen:
  “When you’re young and people tell you you have potential, it makes you feel hopeful. By the time you’re 65… it’s depressing because by the time I’m 65, I don’t need potential. I need kinetic.” [15:37]
• The only way to realize potential is through the risk and vulnerability of planting—a seed’s value is only discovered when it’s sown.

Planting, Sowing, and the Importance of Process

• Furtick encourages embracing process over instant results:
  “You will never see it until you sow it. While we’re praying, ‘God, show me my potential,’ …the only way to really know the potential is to plant it.” [17:43]
• He uses the story of Elisha to illustrate that preparation takes time and hardship is often God's plowing, not just the enemy’s attack. [20:10]

Release, Remain, and Environment

• To unlock potential, we must release control (“let it go and watch it grow” [28:15]), and avoid strangling what God wants to nurture. Generosity and openness are key.
• Similarly, the seed must remain planted:
  “The sower has to release, but the seed has to remain. And both are so important.” [39:14]
• The right environment—supportive people, positive inputs, faithfulness—enables potential to develop:
  “What is around the seed determines whether what is within the seed comes out of the seed.” [41:16]

Comparison, Identity, and Accepting Your Story

• Furtick warns against measuring your success against others (humorously referencing his barber comparing himself to Jay Z):
  “Look what he has done with his life…Of all the people in the Milky Way for you to choose…you just had to go get Jay Z.” [34:17]
• He stresses embracing your unique potential:
  “You are not Jay Z. You are not supposed to be. So tell your neighbor, you are not Beyonce. Tell them, but I am Destiny’s child.” [34:47]
• Parent guilt/story about not taking kids fishing underscores the dangers of unrealistic expectations and the need to release damaging or controlling ideas. [36:31]

Staying Power and the Value of Remaining Faithful

• Furtick addresses spiritual restlessness and impatience, especially with church involvement or personal growth:
  “If you never stay, you’ll never see it. If you just keep moving to a new city every time you make a mess out of your relationships…you will never see the potential of it.” [43:51]

Elisha, Resurrection, and the Power of What Remains

• The sermon crescendos referencing Elisha’s final miracle—even after death (the story in 2 Kings 13 when a dead man touches Elisha’s bones and comes to life):
  “He wasn’t buried, he was planted. Because there was still one more miracle left in him that hadn’t been tapped yet.” [49:26]
• The metaphor extends to Jesus' resurrection: buried not in a grave, but in a “garden,” and what looked like death was actually a planting for greater life.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On recognizing God’s ways:
  “Anything God breathes on comes to life. If there’s anything you need God to breathe on today…anything is possible.” [07:50]
• On expectation vs. reality:
  “Potential doesn’t pay the bills. Potential doesn’t put a ring on my finger.” [15:37]
• On the discomfort of process:
  “Maybe it’s good ground and it’s just unplowed…A lot of the things you’ve been praying away, God is plowing into. It’s God’s plowing process.” [20:10]
• On comparison:
  “You are not Jay Z. You are not supposed to be. So tell your neighbor, you are not Beyonce. Tell them, but I am Destiny’s child.” [34:47]
• On significance despite small beginnings:
  “Don’t judge the significance by the size of the seed.” [35:08]
• On perseverance:
  “If you never stay, you’ll never see it…You will never see the potential of it.” [43:51]
• On resurrection and legacy:
  “He wasn’t buried. He was planted. Because there was still one more miracle left in him that hadn’t been tapped yet.” [49:26]
  “If God is in it, it shall come forth.” [55:46]

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Important Timestamps

• [04:41] – Announcement of new music and setting up the theme of breakthrough.
• [05:30] – Scripture reading from Ecclesiastes 11:5-6. Introduction of “the mystery of potential.”
• [12:33] – Parenting and baseball story: “It’s too soon to tell.”
• [15:37] – Potential as frustrating: “Potential doesn’t pay the bills…”
• [17:43] – Core insight: “You will never see it until you sow it.”
• [20:10] – God’s “plowing process” in hard seasons.
• [28:15] – “Let it go and watch it grow.” On releasing control.
• [34:17] – Story: Comparing your life to Jay Z and the dangers of faulty standards.
• [39:14] – The seed must remain: “The seed has to remain. And both are so important.”
• [41:16] – The influence of environment: “What is around the seed determines whether what is within…”
• [43:51] – Perseverance: “If you never stay, you’ll never see it.”
• [49:26] – Elisha’s final miracle: “He wasn’t buried, he was planted…still one more miracle in his bones.”
• [55:07] – Resurrection metaphor: “When they buried Elisha, he still had one more miracle in his bones...”

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Tone & Style

Steven Furtick’s tone throughout is motivational, humorous, authentic, and direct—often shifting between playful anecdotes and intense, preacher’s exhortation. He uses relatable experiences, self-deprecation, and repetition for impact (“sow it, sow it, sow it”), making the theme accessible yet deeply spiritual.

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Actionable Takeaways

• Embrace the Mystery: Don’t judge your life or your calling prematurely; God’s process requires patience and faith.
• Plant What’s In You: Gifts, love, encouragement, and calling must be sown/acted upon before their potential can be seen.
• Release Control: Let go of what you can’t direct; release old expectations, bitterness, and perfectionism.
• Stay and Remain: Don’t uproot and start over at every discomfort; potential grows in faithfulness and consistency.
• Stop Measuring Against Others: Your story, your potential, and God’s harvest for your life are unique.

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Final Encouragement

Furtick concludes by speaking resurrection over listeners’ potential and buried dreams:
“Nothing is wasted. Nothing is over. Nothing is finished…If God is in it, it shall come forth.” [55:46]

The full message is a faith-building call to press on in trust while God’s purpose unfolds—never abandoning the process, for the greatest miracles and outcomes may be yet unseen.

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For listeners:
This episode is for anyone feeling frustrated by slow progress, hidden gifts, or unmet dreams. It’s a reminder that God’s process is mysterious, His timing is perfect, and your potential is still very much alive—keep sowing, keep trusting.

Transcript

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[Steven Furtick]

Hey, this is Steven Furtick. 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 you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Let's take just a moment, Valentine, and engage our responsibility and privilege to welcome our EFAM watching around the world on the Elevation App, YouTube, Facebook. I want to see who's watching. Somebody bring me a phone with YouTube on it. I did this at 11:30 last week.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

It was

[Steven Furtick]

I'm going to see if y' all trust me with your phone. Do you know how much trouble I could get you in with your phone in five minutes? How many texts I could send on your behalf? How many bad influences I could block off your phone? Give me five minutes with your phone I'll fix your future. I'll get you into college. I'll break up with him so you don't have to. I'll put a kissy face on it. YouTube. Tell me, where are you watching from in the world? Just put your city, state, hamlet. How many of y' all grew up in a hamlet? Don't we love this choir and the energy they bring? Hello, Puerto Rico, Iowa. Whoa, it's going fast. New Zealand.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I can't keep up.

[Steven Furtick]

Look how fast it's scrolling. Gaithersburg, Maryland. New York City. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Brussels. Houston, North Dakota. Miam, Richland, Tampa Bay. Philadelphia, South Korea, Missouri, all kinds of countries. Pakistan, Oregon, South Africa.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

India. Singapore.

[Steven Furtick]

Guatemala. Milwaukee. Las Vegas. Topeka. Indonesia. Dominican Republic. Jamaica. Chattanooga, Vermont. Philippines. Charlotte, North Carolina. We bring you greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. Scotland, China, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Lithuania, Costa Rica. You have a message. I'm going to give this back now. Come take this.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Come on.

[Steven Furtick]

Let's thank God for all those all over the world joining us in worship. Thank you, Lou. She's going to be preaching soon. I'm going to give her the mic soon and turn her loose.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

But not today. Today I have this. You can relax. How many are ready for the word of God?

[Steven Furtick]

I want to encourage you to stay up late on this Thursday night. Eastern standard time. Midnight. The beginning of one thing, the end of another. We're releasing five songs called Midnight because Paul and Silas knew what to do in a desperate situation. When we sing together and join together and praise God together, it creates freedom in our spirits and it often creates change in our situation. I want you to be a part of that. All of our watch parties around the world at midnight, I'm going to need you to caffeinate and plan accordingly. For some of you, it's going to be a bigger miracle than a jailbreak for you to stay up until midnight. But we're believing God for supernatural energy for you stay up at midnight and put it on Instagram and Facebook, put it on MySpace. Do you hear me? Young people, let us know where you're watching from. Ecclesiastes, chapter 11. I want to continue a conversation I began with our Matthews campus on Thursday night. This message is called the Mystery of Potential. How many know God has put things inside of you that your eyes haven't seen yet? God put things inside of you that your parents didn't even know about. I want to speak on those things today. From Ecclesiastes 11:56 says, you do not know the way the spirit comes to the Bones in the womb of a woman with child. So you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know. He said that in both verses it must be important. Solomon, the wisest man in the world, speaking about human ignorance, that even after all he learned, accomplished and every success he achieved, his common theme in this book is you do not know is a mystery. He said, one might prosper, that you count out. So since you don't know, keep sowing. Since you don't know, keep sowing. For you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both. Whether both alike will be good. Lord, this is your word, so we do not ask you to make it true. It already is. Get it in our hearts past all the falsehood, distractions and deceit, so it can become flesh in our lives. In Jesus name, amen. You may be seated. In using these two different analogies for the revelation of potential, the commonality is that there is a process by which anything must be fertilized. Whether it's human life or whether it's a seed that will become sustenance, it must undergo a process of fertilization. I don't think I need to have the birds and the bees talk. If your parents didn't do that by now, it's not my job. He talks about how in the womb of a woman there is a process and a part of human pregnancy that can be explained or that can be anatomically identified. Then there is another part which he calls the spirit entering the bones or the breath, the ruach. In Hebrew, it's the same word. When you hear spirit of God, you can also think breath of God. Both are correct. It's the same word because it's the same process. Anything God breathes on comes to life. If there's anything you need God to breathe on today, you are in his presence and anything is possible. As a matter of fact, the way this whole project called you'd got started was God breathed on something dirty. He took the dust of the earth, and when he breathed on it, he breathed into man the breath of life. So there are the bones and there is the breath. One of those can be explained and perceived with human eyes. If there's anybody in overflow, I don't know if there is. We have two premium seats on the landing at Ballantyne. So bring in two people who traveled and had to sit in overflow and give them those seats. If it's a husband And a wife. Or if it's two single people who look like they like each other out there in overflow, put them in those two seats. Let's see what God can do. When God brings things together and breathes into things, the limit of God's potential is only your belief. Because God is so big and so great, the only thing that ever limits him is what. What you believe he can do. A lot of people will say, well, nothing limits God. He's God. Of course he is God. But God breathes into things. And when God breathes into things, it's so important that we receive it when he breathes. Amen. How many of you are firstborn children? Come on, let's give it up for ourselves. Come on, give it up for me and you because we were our parents.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Experiment.

[Steven Furtick]

I think when you're having a child, and I don't have a lot of parenting advice, but this is one thing I do think is pretty good. I may write a book about this. When you have your first child, you know how you create a college fund for your college fund for your kids, but for your firstborn, you need to also create a therapy fund. Just go ahead and start it. Put it in an index fund or something, because you are learning things on them that the other ones. It's kind of rough with your firstborn because you put all your hopes and dreams and fantasies and projections of parenthood on that poor child. I'll never forget when Elijah is coming home from the hospital, I'm driving 17 miles an hour on 485. By the time Abby came, who was the third? I sent her home in an Uber because I have this now. But on the first one, you're learning everything. So you're totally overprotective and sometimes you're overly ambitious. So anything the kid does, you're like, oh, my God, he just played the piano, walks by and bangs it, and you think he's Mozart because you see potential. Sometimes it's not there. When Elijah first started playing baseball, I remember when he was on this coach pitch team. The coach pitch league is kind of deceptive because the pitcher is working with you, which is the opposite of real baseball, but the pitcher wants you to hit it. I was trying to figure out how to help Elijah with baseball because I played baseball a little bit. My dad coached me, but I don't know a lot about it. I found out one of the grandparents there was a former scout for minor league baseball. He walked over to me one game in the middle of the season, and Goes, hey, that's your boy out there? I said, yeah. He said, he's pretty good. He has potential. I was like, for real? How much potential you think he's a future? I couldn't even get the whole sentence out. He interrupted me and said something to me I believe God wants to say to some of you. He said, it's too soon to tell. In other words, I was just trying to be polite and say your kid has a good swing and encourage you to keep it up. As a dad, it's way too soon to tell whether or not you should start looking for an agent. He just has a good swing. But don't we always want to know so soon how we post stuff and if people don't like it in two minutes, we feel the pressure to delete it? Because maybe the picture wasn't as good as I thought it was. It's the worst thing in the world, how we live in this age of instant validation where we just expect every opinion to be accepted just quickly. If it doesn't happen quickly, if it doesn't happen just like that, if it

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

doesn't just turn around by Friday, if

[Steven Furtick]

within our first week back at the gym in January, it doesn't melt off,

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

we will cancel the gym membership and talk about the fact that the machines weren't right. But it wasn't the machines.

[Steven Furtick]

It was our consistency, our deep diversity.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Down kneed to see it happen so quick. The man said, it's too soon to tell.

[Steven Furtick]

Solomon said the same thing.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

He said, there are some things in

[Steven Furtick]

your life that are like the bones

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

that are waiting on the breath and you don't know the way God is

[Steven Furtick]

going to work in your situation.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

It is always too soon for you to quit on something God put on

[Steven Furtick]

the inside of you.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

If he gave you a dream, it's too soon to walk away from it just because it doesn't manifest in three

[Steven Furtick]

dimensions by the time you get done praying about it. That's what I want to talk to you about today. The mystery of potential and how it's too soon to tell and how the only way potential can be revealed is for process to be embraced. Are y' all with me today? I never know. I never know how a sermon is going to affect people. Even after I preach it, it's difficult for me to discern the impact of it. I guess I could go off of a reaction base, but I went to a Panthers game one time and a lady was in front of me yelling the whole time. But she left in the fourth quarter because sometimes the loudest are the first to leave. I don't know how hard a sermon hit by how loud somebody gets about it. Feel free to be loud. I like it loud. I really do like it loud. I'm a punk rocker at heart, but I don't know by how loud. It's how deep it goes. It's whether or not you get nicer to your wife after I preach that shows how good my message got on love. I thought I would have a few amens from the higher register of the octave range, But you don't know. You really don't know. The idea of human potential and a limitless God comes together in this text in a way you can see several times throughout Scripture in several examples. Whether we would talk about Peter, who had to cast his net on the other side of the boat after he spent all night catching nothing. The potential was there. But until the command was given from Jesus at the place of his frustration. I called this message the Mystery of Potential because I thought it sounded good. I could have just as easily called it the Misery of potential. And we could preach about that, too. When you're young and people tell you you have potential, it's a compliment. It makes you feel hopeful. By the time you're 65 and people are saying, you know, you have a lot of potential, it's depressing because by the time I'm 65, I don't need potential. I need kinetic. Potential doesn't pay the bills. Potential doesn't put a ring on my finger. Oh, you're going to be a good wife. Well, I'd like to be a good wife. Three years ago, if I'm a good wife, where's my good man? I come to church and I walk past all these men, but they're all passive. Bunch of Christian men. We'll never give anybody a hug. Praying for a wife instead of asking one out to Starbucks.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I can't do anything in potential.

[Steven Furtick]

That seemed like that one hit. You know, you can never know the potential of a seed by looking at it. Hey, little seed. You pray over a seed, you still won't know its potential. You can study the history of seeds, and although you might intellectually grasp its potential or comprehend what it contains, the only way to really know the potential is to plant it. Could it be that in your life and in my life right now, there is potential that has not been planted?

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

While we are frustrated about what our

[Steven Furtick]

lives are missing, it's already in us

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

in an immature form.

[Steven Furtick]

Until we sow it, we will never know what it could have been,

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I believe, all over this house today there are so many starving seeds. There are things, gifts, abilities, thoughts, ideas,

[Steven Furtick]

wisdom God has put in us, but it will not be shown until it is sown.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Can I preach like I'm Dr. Seuss? My rhymes are on point so far. You will never see it until you sow it. While we're praying, God show me my potential. And we're taking personality tests, which are fine.

[Steven Furtick]

God bless Myers Briggs, whoever he is.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

God bless the Enneagram. Holly reads all that stuff to me.

[Steven Furtick]

She tells me I'm a one and she's a nine. And the one and the nine go together. My one and her nine make a perfect five or something like that.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I don't know how it works.

[Steven Furtick]

I like all of it.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

But the truth of the matter is you can't bubble in a test and

[Steven Furtick]

find out what's in you.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

You can't go on a journey of self discovery and find out what's in you.

[Steven Furtick]

Watch this.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Until the seed is sacrificed, until it goes into something bigger called the ground. Until it breaks open to accomplish something, you'll never know what was in it. When you live a selfish life, a safe life, and you don't sow it, you will never know. The enemy has some of us so selfish, so discouraged that our seeds are starving

[Steven Furtick]

not for the lack of potential, but for the lack of process. Think about Elisha plowing in a field in 1 Kings 19, just as an illustration. He's plowing in a field with a yoke of oxen. There it is. He's plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him. He's not posing in front of the plow.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

He's not posting on my plow.

[Steven Furtick]

He's just plowing. A lot of times we will confuse the fact that we don't have good

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

ground in our life.

[Steven Furtick]

That is good opportunities. But maybe it's good ground and it's just unplowed.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I wonder if sometimes the things we go through that are hard for us is not the enemy attacking us, but it is God plowing us to make the ground ready, to make our hearts ready, to make our wills ready. So we won't be arrogant and prideful, but we will have a plowed heart. I don't know who this is for, but a lot of the things you've been praying away, God is plowing into, it's God's plowing process. Just like Elisha had been plowing the ground. I believe God had been plowing Elisha

[Steven Furtick]

and I Believe he has been plowing

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

some of us and getting our ground ready and getting our hearts ready. Because sometimes, if God visits us too soon, soon with an opportunity life has not prepared us for, we will not only ruin the opportunity, but we will hurt others in the process. So I don't want my heart to be unplowed ground,

[Steven Furtick]

but I'm getting ahead of myself here. This message is not just about plowing. It's about planting. Really what I wanted to say is, you have no idea what your encouragement can be until you plant it. What your smile can be until you plant it. Planted for me, is theoretical. For a farmer, it's practical. I read it as a metaphor, planted. But really, this process Solomon is describing in an agricultural society would hit home like. It would be like an iPad, because there were so many more. You have to understand the Bible was written in the context of its culture. It would be like, sam, I was sitting next to a man on an airplane, and this actually happened. Okay, True story. I just got my iPad. This was years ago. I was so proud to be one of the first people with an iPad. It had just come out. We sent an intern to the Apple Store to get one of the first iPads. I let them buy themselves something, too. So I hooked them up. But the thing is, I wanted to have one of the first iPads because Levi Lusko was telling me, you have to get an iPad, bro. He's like, totally. You know, my friend Levi, he's been here to preach. You have to try Sriracha, bro. You have to get this new bracelet for your workout, bro.

[Podcast Host]

You got to.

[Steven Furtick]

You have to get an iPad. He's always telling me to get something I don't already have, and it always makes me feel like my life is missing something. He's some kind of marketer from the pit of hell, but I love him. You have to get an iPad, bro. It's beautiful. The technology is beautiful. So I have my iPad. The guy next to me had an iPad, too. So we felt like a connection. He goes, how do you like your iPad? I was like, I don't know. I just got it. He goes, I've had mine a week. I was like, they just came out yesterday. He said, I have connections at Apple. I was like, oh, I have an intern. I sent them to the Apple store. He goes, so what are you planning to use it for? I was like, well, I'm a preacher, so I'm going to preach my sermons from it. He goes, what else? I was like, I don't know what Else. That's it, really. I guess he got this look on his face, like, disgusted, like disappointment in somebody who a minute ago, he felt an affinity for, but now he just felt nothing but deep, total sadness and loss at what could have been a great relationship. He goes, you are using that device so far beneath its potential. We didn't speak the rest of the flight. I didn't know what to say back.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I'm so sorry.

[Steven Furtick]

I just don't.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

You know, every time I open the

[Steven Furtick]

iPad, I think about what it could do. I think about what's on it and what it could connect to through the WI FI connection. I think about everything it could do that it's not doing. I think about the potential of it. I think about everything that's in some of the people I get to preach to.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Everything that is in you that you

[Steven Furtick]

haven't accessed, and everything that's in you

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

that got buried, that got covered up. But the thing about dirt is it can also bring out potential. The thing about a seed, when it goes into the ground, remember, it doesn't go into the ground to die. It goes into the ground to multiply. Some of y' all know what I'm talking about. Because you had a failure in your life, and people wrote you off, and people walked away, and it seemed like it was over. But you gave it a little time, and you gave it a little water, and you gave it a little trust, and you kept coming to church. And somehow, someway, God turned pain into potential. Now, if you ever fished all night and caught nothing but you cast your nets on the other side and hauled in a bucketful, I need you to shout right now that there's so much more. It's the mystery. Elisha is plowing, and Elijah says something to him.

[Steven Furtick]

He says, well, actually, he says it with an action, not with words. He throws his cloak on Elisha, which represents the potential for miracles. When Elijah's cloak, Remember, he's the great miracle worker who stood before Ahab, who ran from Jezebel, and who found Elisha plowing in a field. He throws his mantle, the symbol of potential. I don't know who this is for, but God is throwing something your way today. I wish I could throw this microphone right at your forehead so you would just get it. But it's expensive. He doesn't say much about it. It's very mysterious. When Elisha receives that mantle, he doesn't immediately perform a miracle. In fact, let me tell you how mysterious potential is. We don't hear Elisha's name again until 2 Kings 2, which many tell us was 13 years after his potential was first suggested. But his potential was not revealed until he would take that same cloak and strike the water with it after a long season of obedience. Y' all have to know where to shout. That's where to shout. That's where potential is proven. When it is planted, it's on the device, but it can only be retrieved from the device through a process of connection.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

This process of connection, in seed speak,

[Steven Furtick]

revolves around planting, which makes me think, first of all, of the sower. Because when the sower plants a seed, remember, farmers don't have funeral over seed. They scatter. Instead, they have expectation to see it

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

again in a greater form later. So you're never really saying goodbye to anything you give to God.

[Steven Furtick]

You're really just opening your hands, which means before you can receive anything, you have to release something. For those of you who like to take notes, you can write down the word release. Because process is revealed in potential and potential is revealed in process. It comes a little bit along and along. But the first step is to release the sower. Must release the seed to see what it could be. I'm just wondering, is there something you need to release in your life today? Could it be possible that you are looking at something, praying about something, and trying to manipulate something God wants you to release so it can mature and manifest? This is for all of us who are control freaks, because until we release, can't grow. Look at your neighbor. Say, let it go. Tell them, watch it grow. Let it go and watch it grow. But it can't grow if you're trying to control it. It's starving seeds and then it's strangled seeds holding on so tight. Oh, it's my time, it's my money. I feel so sorry for people who aren't generous.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I feel so bad for you. Because all stinginess does is strangle the seed God has given you.

[Steven Furtick]

If you could let it go, who

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

knows what it could be? What if I just preached that sermon in the mirror? It would bounce right back. But if I put it out through that camera, it might hit Botswana and help somebody in their life. Or Bamberg, South Carolina. I don't care. It's God's business where it goes. It's my job to sow it. You have to sow it in the morning, sow it in the evening. Sow it when you feel it, sow it when you don't sow it when they cheer for you, sow it when they criticize you. Sow it when they hosanna and sow it when they want to string you up. Sow it when they notice. Sow it when they don't sow it. Sow it, sow it. But just like you can't live your

[Steven Furtick]

life not accessing everything that's on the

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

device and expect to be a reflection of the image of God, you also. And I want to say this is so important because when we talk about potential, a lot of people start trying to produce something God did not put inside of them. We have oranges wanting to be apples,

[Steven Furtick]

apples wanting to be kumquats.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

You're not a kumquat.

[Steven Furtick]

You are a delicious red apple.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

You're going to be a big, juicy

[Steven Furtick]

red apple, but you will not be a kumquat, y'.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

All.

[Steven Furtick]

My barber told me a story the other day. His name is Fly Tie. That's who you want to cut your hair. He put fly in his name. I trust him with my fade because he's fly.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Ty.

[Steven Furtick]

He has been cutting my hair. Now he attends our University City location. I asked his permission to tell you this because I didn't want to embarrass him. But y', all, he told me the dumbest story ever. The other day. He was cutting my hair and he has this bad habit of stopping cutting my hair while he tells me a 15 minute story. And he needs to go to multitask school because I have things to do. Cutting the clippers off and talking. But it's fine because I usually like his stories and his anecdotes, but this one was dumb. Listen to this. He told me a story and I don't remember exactly what the year was, but years ago he was hosting because he's not only a barber, he's a host, a radio personality. He works for the Hornets. He's very involved in the community. He speaks to little kids every time he comes to cut my hair. He's recently spoken to a group of kids that same day. And he DJed a wedding and he cured cancer and he fought a fire on Providence Road. He's just everywhere, all the time. But he was sitting there telling me this story because we're talking about potential and what God has put in you. We talk about this a lot. We talk about God, I guess because my dad was a barber, I just have a love for barbers. So clippers start going, we start talking. We're talking about it. And he told me a story. Jay Z came to a concert. I guess it was in the 90s before he was as popular as he is now. The concert was half full. Fly Ty was one of the hosts for the concerts. He said he observed Jay Z during the concert talking to one of the members of a female group who was also on the concert bill called Destiny's Child. He said the concert was half full because Jay Z was just on the come up, which would lead him to be, some would say, the greatest rapper of all time. Depending on how you quantify that, it's a very strong case. But he said, I've since thought back to that day because Jay Z and Beyonce were back there and I was watching their relationship develop before my eyes. And he's my same age. I think often to myself, look what he has done with his life. What have I done with mine? Now, of all the people in the Milky Way for you to choose to use as a standard of how successful your life is, you just had to

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

go get Jay Z.

[Steven Furtick]

Not even Lil Wayne.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Jay Z. You had to pick the most influential

[Steven Furtick]

rapper of our lifetime.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Here's what he did. He just wanted to feel small so

[Steven Furtick]

bad that rather than focusing on look

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

how gracious God has been to me. I asked his permission to say this

[Steven Furtick]

and he said I could.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I'm going to preach to him through the camera.

[Steven Furtick]

He's listening right now.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Instead of picking, look where I could have been if it hadn't been for the grace of God. Look how he raised me up. Look how he kept me alive. Look how I wasn't a statistic. Look how he's using me in ways I never could have imagined. Look how he put a gift in me. Look how he has been good to me. You are not Jay Z. You are not supposed to be. So tell your neighbor you are not Beyonce. Tell them, but I am Destiny's child. And what God put inside of me, I said, what God put inside of me is looking for a place to grow. I'm going back to my school like a seed ready to grow. Don't judge the significance by the size of the seed. I'm fly freakin Thai, clippers in one hand and microphone in the other.

[Steven Furtick]

I have potential, but I have to let go of what I think I'm supposed to be. To become what I am. You know how sometimes you get this parental guilt, this feeling of like, I watched a football game with the boys last night and I came to tears because there was a commercial of a man taking his son fishing. I was choked up.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I said, I'm so sorry, boys, I

[Steven Furtick]

never took you fishing because I'm thinking

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

That's where the lessons of life need to happen. On the boat. It's okay, dad.

[Steven Furtick]

It's fine. Let's watch football. But it can just always make you feel like I need to be a

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

dad like that,

[Steven Furtick]

you know? Truth of the matter is, Holly was telling me how her dad used to take her out on the boat all the time. I was like, do you ever feel like you married the wrong guy? That I've never taken our family out on a boat once? I don't even know how to drive a boat. She said, no, I hated it on the boat.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

My dad liked the boat.

[Steven Furtick]

See how I did it, though? I have to take my kids out on a boat to be a good dad. It's just a small thing. I understand. It could be much deeper than that. You could start thinking when you are supposed to have a family by anything. I am supposed to be further along in my career. But when you let go of what is supposed to be in your mind when you let that go. The sower has to release the seed. I feel God calling some of us to release some things, even to release bitterness. Some of us, if we would release that root of bitterness, we would reap a harvest of peace. It has to be released. God is calling me to release some things, released some expectations, and released my white knuckled enneagram1 perfectionist ideas. Did I get it right? 1 yeah. I don't know. All I do know is sometimes I cut off my circulation and strangle the seed of opportunities because of my need to control it. When you throw your net on the other side. You know what I love about sowing? You don't have to be in a good mood to do it. The seed doesn't care if you carefully dropped it or threw it and walked off.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

It's still where it's supposed to be.

[Steven Furtick]

Peter said, we've worked hard all night and caught nothing.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

But because you say so, he got blessed while he was rolling his eyes because he had the faith to do what Jesus said, you have to sow it when you feel it and sow it when you don't.

[Steven Furtick]

From the seed's perspective, being planted is a different experience. Because the sower has to release, but the seed has to remain. And both are so important. I didn't mean to do that.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I promise.

[Steven Furtick]

So important to remain. Thirteen years before, he knew what that mantle meant. Thirteen years of being planted. Correctively speaking. Why does Peter get so much airtime in pulpits for stepping out of a boat? That same thing that made him step out of the boat made him run when Jesus went to the cross. How about John, who stayed in the boat and when Jesus was on the cross, stayed by his side to take care of his mom? We don't celebrate those who stay. We don't celebrate those who just do it. We make a tagline out of it for a shoe company, but we don't celebrate it. In other words, the seed has to remain in order to reproduce. I wonder why we think God can grow what he wants to grow in our life when we keep uprooting what he's doing every time it gets uncomfortable. The soil is so important to the growth of the seed that you can have a really good seed and it can become nothing. Not because it was nothing, because it was surrounded by something that wasn't worthy of its presence. You can put a really good seed. This is the power of environment,

[Worship Leader]

that

[Steven Furtick]

what is around the seed determines whether what is within the seed comes out of the seed. I don't know if this is pertinent to anyone in the area of who you spend the dominant amount of your time hanging out with, but what's around it eventually determines whether what is within it comes out of it.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

You can have really good stuff in

[Steven Furtick]

you, but if everything around you is just dark and noise and everything around you, if there's no light to it,

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

if there's no hydration to it, it won't take root. If it doesn't take root, it can't come out. As a matter of fact, God sent me to speak to some people saying there's nothing wrong with the seed. There's nothing wrong with who you are. It's just what you've surrounded yourself with in your mind, in your heart, on your feed, in your time, on your schedule. I'm looking for plow ground. I want other people in my life who can help bring out. I want to join an egroup. Oh, watch that plug. This dude is a professional. I want to get around some good soil because I want the good stuff that is in me to come forth out of me.

[Steven Furtick]

How many of y', all, if you could put your kids around the right people, you just know your kid would be a doctor. I know they would. It's the environment. But watch this. Why do we think God can bless us to grow when every time the soil gets uncomfortable we go to another church? Do you feel that tension shift? I did. When I see people in this church who have been here 10 years, when I see people in this church who would be planted, I realize that the potential of what is in someone can only really manifest when it has time to mature. When we walk around, oh, I don't like that. I'm going over here to a new church. I don't like the way they talk to me.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I'm going over here.

[Steven Furtick]

I'm going to make some new friends. You know what? You are taking the old you to the new friendships.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Y' all don't like this at all. I'm going to sow this seed anyway.

[Steven Furtick]

I'm going to hit some good ground with this seed. It's so important that you stay sometimes.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I know sometimes you have to find better ground. But sometimes it's our inability to. To just let what God is doing in our life work. He uses some uncomfortable things. But if you never stay, you'll never see it. If you just keep moving to a new city every time you make a mess out of your relationships so you can start over with the same seed you carried in the last relationship, you will never see the potential of it.

[Steven Furtick]

So I have to stay. I have to stay in faith. I have to remain in the vine so I can bear my shrug, so I can become what I already am in potential form. Only God knows how long it's going to take for me to become all that I am. When John was writing about it in his epistle, he said, see what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. Now watch this in verse two. Beloved, we are God's children now. When I am forgiven, I am full of the Holy Spirit. I am well able. I am strong and courageous. That's in me now. But what we shall be has not yet appeared. It can only appear if it remains. It will be revealed if you remain. 13 years for potential to be revealed.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Most of us won't do it for 13 days. 13 years to see what it is.

[Steven Furtick]

13 years of being planted. Then he did. Elisha did twice as many miracles as Elijah did. You don't know what's in you yet. You don't know what the broken bread of your disappointed expectations is going to multiply into if you leave it in God's hands a little while, you don't know yet. The enemy can't remove anything God put in you. But if he can keep you from sowing it, you will never know what it would have been. If he can get you to quit, give up, end your life, stop hoping, turn into a cynic. If he can get you to stop sowing. I'm preaching to people who have stopped sowing. Because of what you didn't know. Because you didn't know it quit too soon. It's too soon to tell what it's going to be. It's too soon to tell if it made a difference. It's too soon to tell whether or not it was worth it.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

It's too soon for you to start.

[Steven Furtick]

Every time you take the seed and

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

pluck it out, to look at it

[Steven Furtick]

and judge it, you interrupt the process by which it grows. So stop judging it and keep watering it and keep sowing and keep trusting.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Because Elisha goes on not only to

[Steven Furtick]

part the waters of the Jordan river, which was his first miracle, but then

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

he gets to Jericho and they need a healing in the water.

[Steven Furtick]

So he heals the poisonous waters. His second miracle.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Then he calls she bearers out of the woods to kill some little boys

[Steven Furtick]

because he was still working this thing out. Because potential can be tricky at first,

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

so you can misuse your power in an earlier stage of your life.

[Steven Furtick]

Never forget that the thing that makes

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

you powerful makes you vulnerable.

[Steven Furtick]

Unguarded strength is a double weakness.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

It's all about potential.

[Steven Furtick]

But everything he did was about potential. From the moment he was plowing, it was about potential.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

From the moment he told the kings, hey, dig the ditches in preparation for the rain that is not coming from a natural source, but God is going to send it. When you do a natural thing, it was preparation for the potential of the power of God. Like the woman's oil. See, you never judge what can be in the resource by the size of the current supply. So the woman is like, oh, it's not much. Oh, I'm not very good. Oh, I'm not very much. Oh, I'm not very known. Oh, I don't have many followers. Oh, I'm not Jay Z. Oh, I'm not Beyonce. Oh, I don't have that. I can't sing like that. I can't move like that. But a little bit of oil flowed into a lot of jars. It wasn't about the amount of oil, it was about the amount of jars. When the Shunammite woman made him a guest room, he prophesied she would have a baby. She had given up on that. She didn't even believe that was possible. She didn't even know that was in her until the word of God spoke it over her. You don't know what's in you. You don't know what's in your kids. Don't judge it too soon. They might turn out better than all the straight A students. The straight A Students might be working for them. You don't know yet. It's too soon to tell.

[Steven Furtick]

My God.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Who is this for? God is just all over me for somebody today. I know when he speaks through me like this that it's for one person.

[Steven Furtick]

I don't know who I'm sowing this

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

into, but it'll come back.

[Steven Furtick]

I'll hear about it. I release this word over your life today. I release it over your life. Like Elijah released a mantle on Elisha's shoulders, that when this word hits you, the potential of what God has put in you, every gift, skill, experience, plan, everything God has brought you through, even all the pain, that's a potential miracle. That's the seed of the word of God. Seed is a small thing. Elisha told Naaman. Go down to the Jordan dip seven times. You know when he was healed? Not on the first time, not on the second time, not on the third time. On the seventh time, potential is revealed in process. One day, a young prophet was chopping some wood to build a school for the prophets, and the axe head fell on the water. Elisha showed him where. When the young man showed him where it had fallen, something came on the axe head. It floated to the surface. The potential for God to speak to a small thing in your life is just as easy as it is for him to speak to a big thing. See, all that was on Elisha in potential form. All of it manifested when he planted himself in the purpose of God. So good to me. There's so much still in you, man. There's so much still in you, but you won't know if you stop sowing. Now follow Elisha all the way to the last miracle he performs. The Bible records, depending on how you divide it, 15 Miracles Elisha performs, Elijah performed eight. So it's roughly double the amount of miracles the double portion Elisha asked for. He got it. The last thing we see him do, he's with this king who's being attacked him. He tells the king to take these arrows in his hand and start striking the ground with the arrows. Every time he struck the ground with an arrow as an act of faith, it represented a potential victory God would give him. When he struck the ground three times and stopped, it upset Elisha. Elisha said, you are using this device so far beneath its potential. He was angry because he saw the victories that could have been if the king had believed in his potential. You know what's really weird? After everything Elisha did, one miracle short of exactly twice as many miracles as his mentor, Elijah did eight, Elisha did 15. The king strikes the ground and stops and forfeits his potential. Elisha is angry. The next verse says, in 1 Kings 13:20, Elisha died and they buried him. He wasn't buried. He was planted. Because there was still one more miracle left in him that hadn't been tapped yet. There is someone who still has a miracle in your bones, and something you have buried is trying to come alive while I'm preaching today. Something you have buried, a hope or a character element of your character, or something you have believed God for and is still in your bones. So they buried Elisha one day, the Bible says, as they were conducting a funeral. So much potential in this room. There is so much potential in this room, you have no idea the potential that is in this room as they were conducting a funeral. The Bible says every springtime, the Moabite raiders would come in and they would invade the land during harvest time. Isn't that interesting that the attack always happens when the harvest is coming? Y' all are sleeping on the preacher now. I know I wore you out, but

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

stay with me three minutes and I

[Steven Furtick]

promise you I'm going to close this. The attack always happens.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

The enemy, if he can't keep you from sowing, he wants you to walk away when you're about to reap it. He wants you to walk away just at the moment. And if you stop now, you won't know what could have been.

[Steven Furtick]

The Bible says there was a man who was being buried. There was a funeral in progress. Verse 21 says, when the band was coming, they got in a hurry and they threw the man on the grave of Elisha.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Now, when they did that, it messed

[Steven Furtick]

up the funeral, because when they buried

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Elisha, he still had one more miracle in his bones. So now when the dead thing hit the bones of Elisha, watch what God is about to do in your life. As soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying if you'll grow it on the bones, if you will believe in the power of God, if you will declare resurrection, power over everything you saw. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is over. Nothing is finished.

[Worship Leader]

If God is in it, it shall come forth.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

Come on, give him a great praise.

[Steven Furtick]

I believe in resurrection.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I believe God is a grave robber. I believe that the bones of Elisha still have power.

[Steven Furtick]

I believe the word of the Lord

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

can still hit a barren wound. I believe that the seed you have sown was not buried. It was planted in the soil of God's faithfulness. Come on, let's touch the bones today. Let's touch the bones. Go to the empty grave where they buried Jesus. But God was planting him. He was the firstborn among many brethren. And when he went down into the earth. When he went down into the earth, how many know?

[Worship Leader]

Early one Sunday, he didn't stay there,

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

but he got up.

[Worship Leader]

And I'm getting up too. The resurrected king. Come on. He's resurrected by your spirit. I arise from the ashes of the king. The resurrected.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

If you receive this word, get your hands up. Come on. Every location, get them up. I need us to keep our hands lifted because we believe in resurrection. We believe in second chances. We believe in new beginnings. We believe. Does anybody believe this? Does anybody believe what this verse says?

[Steven Furtick]

The tomb where soldiers watch in V was borrowed for three days. Stay down right there. His body there.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

I was praying.

[Steven Furtick]

I was praying last night about this gospel message. I had to tell you what God showed me, that it wasn't a grave, it was a garden.

[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

And after three days, what happens? How many of you believe in resurrection? I need every hand lifted, every voice raised. It's coming up. It's coming up better.

[Worship Leader]

Your name. Your name. His victory. All praise will rise to Christ the King. Your name. Your name. Your name is Victory. Oh, praise.

[Steven Furtick]

Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.orgpodcast 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 a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us. Levation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

[Podcast Host]

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[Worship Leader]

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[Co-Speaker/Assistant]

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[Podcast Host]

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[Steven Furtick]

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