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The Power Of Potential

Elevation with Steven Furtick

Fri Jan 10 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: Elevation with Steven Furtick – "The Power Of Potential"

Podcast Information:

Title: Elevation with Steven Furtick
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
Description: Welcome to the weekly podcast of Elevation Church led by Pastor Steven Furtick. To learn more visit our website at Elevation Church or download the Elevation App. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.
Episode: The Power Of Potential
Release Date: January 10, 2025

Introduction

In the episode titled "The Power Of Potential," Pastor Steven Furtick delves deep into understanding and harnessing human potential through the lens of biblical scripture. Drawing from 2 Kings 13, Furtick explores how individuals can recognize, nurture, and utilize their God-given potential to overcome personal and communal challenges.

Opening Remarks

At the outset (01:18), Pastor Furtick sets the tone by thanking listeners and expressing hope that the message will inspire faith and provide new perspectives on God's movement in one's life. He emphasizes the simplicity of the scripture passage, noting, "This passage of scripture might seem simple. I'm learning that God speaks through simple."

Main Message: The Power of Potential

1. Work Your Window

Furtick begins by analyzing 2 Kings 13, focusing on the instruction given to Jehoash: "Open the east window" (01:18). He interprets this as a metaphor for confronting personal oppression rather than evading it. By facing challenges head-on and taking action, individuals can unlock their potential.

Key Insight: "What if God won't open the window for you, but he'll show you which one to open?" (02:10)

2. Elements of Potential

Furtick outlines four critical elements necessary to release one's potential:

Patience
Perseverance
Persistence
Purpose

He asserts, "These are the elements that release potential" (04:15).

3. Potential is Unpredictable

Addressing the unpredictability of potential, Furtick shares personal anecdotes illustrating that potential does not always manifest as expected.

Notable Quote: "Potential is unpredictable." (05:58)

He cautions against judging others solely based on their potential, emphasizing the importance of recognizing underlying patterns of behavior.

4. Potential is Limited

Contrary to popular belief, Furtick suggests that potential has its limits, often tied directly to one's purpose.

Notable Quote: "Potential is Limited. If you think about it real quick, you can remember several times in your life where you came face to face with the limits of your potential." (17:52)

He uses the analogy of a microphone, explaining that while it can amplify sound, it cannot perform unrelated tasks like building a house.

5. Potential Has Potential

Furtick explores the dual nature of potential, where it can lead to both positive and negative outcomes depending on its application.

Notable Quote: "Potential has potential. If not correctly appropriated for a purpose to become poisonous, Potential can make a strong man who could have been a defender of the weak, abusive of his wife..." (26:19)

6. Process Reveals Potential

Emphasizing the importance of the journey, Furtick asserts that the process of striving and struggling is what brings potential to fruition.

Notable Quote: "Process reveals potential." (35:09)

He shares the story of Elisha, highlighting how being involved in everyday processes prepared him for greater responsibilities.

Practical Applications

Furtick encourages listeners to:

Embrace Challenges: Face personal "Arams" (oppressions) directly.
Utilize Every Resource: Use all available "arrows" (resources and talents) to their fullest potential.
Understand Purpose-Potential Alignment: Ensure that their potential aligns with their divine purpose to avoid stagnation or negative outcomes.
Commit to the Process: Recognize that perseverance through the process is essential for unlocking true potential.

Conclusion

In wrapping up (43:55), Furtick reiterates the importance of not stopping short in utilizing one's potential. He urges listeners to continue striving, saying, "The limit to your potential is your purpose and your perseverance."

Final Encouragement: "Shout potential. Shout potential. Power of potential."

Furtick closes with a prayer, declaring blessings over the listeners and reinforcing the message that their potential, when aligned with God's purpose and pursued with perseverance, will lead to remarkable outcomes.

Notable Quotes with Attributions and Timestamps

[01:18] Steven Furtick: "This passage of scripture might seem simple. I'm learning that God speaks through simple."
[02:10] Steven Furtick: "What if God won't open the window for you, but he'll show you which one to open?"
[05:58] Steven Furtick: "Potential is unpredictable."
[17:52] Steven Furtick: "Potential is Limited. If you think about it real quick, you can remember several times in your life where you came face to face with the limits of your potential."
[26:19] Steven Furtick: "Potential has potential. If not correctly appropriated for a purpose to become poisonous..."
[35:09] Steven Furtick: "Process reveals potential."
[43:55] Steven Furtick: "The limit to your potential is your purpose and your perseverance."
[43:58] Steven Furtick: "Shout potential. Shout potential. Power of potential."

Key Takeaways

Facing Challenges: Embrace and confront personal and external challenges as opportunities to unlock potential.
Alignment with Purpose: Ensure that your potential aligns with your divine purpose to prevent misuse or stagnation.
Embrace the Journey: Understand that the process of striving, facing setbacks, and persevering is essential for realizing true potential.
Utilize Resources Fully: Like Elisha was instructed to use every arrow, individuals should utilize all their talents and resources to their fullest extent.

Final Thoughts

"The Power Of Potential" serves as an inspiring reminder that while potential is a powerful force within each individual, its true impact is realized through purpose-driven action and unwavering perseverance. Pastor Steven Furtick's message encourages listeners to actively engage with their potential, ensuring it serves a meaningful and divine purpose in their lives and communities.

Note: Timestamps correspond to the podcast transcript to facilitate easy reference.

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Transcript

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Ryan Seacrest (0:45)

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Steven Furtick (1:18)

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. This passage of scripture might seem simple. I'm learning that God speaks through simple. We want it deep. You know why we want it deep sometimes, so we don't have to do anything with it. Let's talk about the angels. How many wings does a seraphim have? I can study about the wings on a seraphim and still treat my wife like a dog. But once we get into the practicality of taking aim and taking action, that's kind of what we mean by work your window. You'll see it in the passage. If it's your first time here or you haven't been here for the series, you're walking into something. Hopefully you feel like a fresh wind of God's spirit blowing in the church today. I hope you do. I certainly feel it on the inside. If you're not excited, I'm excited enough for all of us today. I want to go right back to my epic scripture passage in 2 Kings 13. What appears to be an archery lesson on the surface is really loaded with spiritual principles. This little scripture has been our window to see some precepts and principles that are changing our lives. Picking up in verse 17, where Elisha the prophet tells Jehoash the king, open the east window. Open the east window. What if God won't open the window for you, but he'll show you which one to open? What if God won't do the work for you, restore the relationship for you, but he will show you what to say to begin the process of restoration and what to do to rebuild trust? That's what we're trying to look at this year, work your window, emphasis on work. We're not saved by works, but we work out what God has worked in us. Salvation is not a stopping point, it's a starting line. We want to see God do great things, not just for us, but through us. It's kind of like a vision statement around our church. See what God. Seven people helped me finish the church mission statement that'll make you want to resign. See what God can do through you. Look at your neighbor, say, yes, you, even you, you too. Open the east window, which is facing Aram, which was that confederation of territories that was oppressing the nation of Israel. And God tells him to open the window facing in the direction of his oppression. He does not tell him to turn his back on it and run and pretend like it doesn't exist and deny it by faith, but to face it. Not only to face it, but he told him to take the bow and the arrow. He instructed him to grab. In verses 15 and 16, he said, after you've opened it, shoot. And he shot. And then he proclaims prophesies and declares the Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram. Everybody has an Aram. Everybody has an arrow. Which one are you watching today? Are you watching the possibility of victory, or do you have your eyes on your problems to the point where you see no way to win? Just trying to be really practical in this series about facing your Aram, launching your arrow, and seeing the salvation of God in your situation in 2017, 18, 19, 2020. Whenever you're watching this on TV, they play these things for a long time. He said, you will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek. But he didn't.

Steven Furtick (6:29)

We're taking aim. We're taking action. Amen. He said, you will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek. Then he said, see, it's not complete yet, just because God announced it. It's not complete yet just because you believed it. Patience, perseverance, Patience, perseverance, persistence, purpose. These are the elements that release potential. We talked about the power of precision. We talked about the power of preparation. I made a statement last week that most of us are not living at the level of our potential. We're living at the level of our preparation. Then he gave him some preparations to make. The victory is won. You will prevail. But the preparation still has to be made. Then he said, take the arrows. And the king took them. So far, so good. Elisha told him, strike the ground. He struck it three times and stopped. He stopped short. The man of God was angry with him and said, you should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have. That construct is sad to me. You should have, then you would have. When? That would be a horrible place to live this year. Wouldn't that be a horrible place to live your life? You should have, then you would have. I've told you before that my dad used to always say, I could if I would. Well, God flips that and says, you could if you would. I've preached about this before. It's nothing new. It's a passage really, about unfulfilled potential. The man of God was angry with him because he saw what it could have been. He knew how much more was in store. I need you to lean into this word today. There is potential in this moment. The word of God is alive and active. The potential is limitless for what God can Do through the power of his word. It's funny because anytime you talk about potential, you have to clarify a little bit. Here's what I mean. I have four points for you about potential today. Number one, potential is unpredictable. Potential is unpredictable. Even the prophet, seeing what could have been the Lord's arrow of victory over Aram, was not able to predict the ultimate outcome. Here's a dating don't pick your mate according to their potential. You are not Joanna Gaines. And this is not fixer upper. But he has potential. Yes, but he also has a porn addiction. His porn addiction is called a pattern. Here's a marriage tip. Don't pick according to potential. Pick according to patterns.

Steven Furtick (36:46)

You will never know your potential if you keep resisting the process by which God is trying to reveal it. You never know what your mic can do. You never know what your marriage could be. You never know what you could be as a dad if you just keep stay stuck in the fact you didn't have one. Your past is not your potential, nor is it the best predictor of it. The limit to your potential is your purpose and your perseverance. Your purpose. You can't do what he didn't assign you to do. And your perseverance. He told him you should have struck five or six times. My oldest son loves to argue. You could see that as a problem. I see it as potential because I feel like if we can get it applied to the right purpose. I don't have time to preached this whole sermon. But something you've been calling a problem is actually your potential in a different dimension. That boy might make $10 million as a lawyer by the time he's 25 and tithe to me personally. Stephen Furtick Incorporated Ministries of Jesus Christ. It's not a real thing. He was kind of arguing with me. He said, this is the most epic text in the Bible. But he said, why not nine or ten times? Why not 15 or 16? The Prophet was angry because here's a man named Elisha who one day, just going about the process of his life, a mantle falls on him. You can stay with me, lj. I'm closing. When the mantle falls on him, his potential, his potential is revealed with a glimpse. It's just a glimpse. He did not fully realize his potential until 14 years later that he was standing at the Jordan with the mantle that hit his shoulders while he was plowing. Because process reveals potential. God will give you a glimpse of the arrow and then he will call you to strike the ground. Process reveals potential. Why not nine times? Elijah said, that's a good question. Why not 15? I mean, if we're just striking the ground. But I had an answer because I'm not going to be out argued about the Bible by my 11 year old. Not a chance. There is no potential for that to happen. Touch somebody and say you have potential. You have potential. I know you have potential. Because if you didn't, God would have killed you by now. We'd be at your funeral. If you didn't have potential, what you do with it is up to you. You let it sit, it will be poisonous. You should have than you would have. Why five or six times? Here's my theory. It's just a theory, but it's absolutely true. The man of God was angry. You know why? He said five or six times. Remember when he told him to shoot out the window, he said take the arrow. Singular. What was the verse? Was it 17? Was it verse 17? Give it to me on the monitor here. Everybody shout Potential. You mumbled whispered potential. I wanted you to shout potential. Shout potential. Power of potential. You let it sit, it will become poisonous. You'll start projecting onto other people the potential you didn't fulfill. But if you release it in the process, it will become your provision. Here's what the man of God said. He said, open the east window, shoot the Lord's arrow of victory. You will completely destroy the Arameans. You will completely destroy. You are pressed towards the mark. You will. You're going to do it all. Then he said, take the arrows. Plural. For some reason when I used to visualize this story in my mind, I had the king with one arrow striking it over and over again. But now I realize all the prophet wanted him to do was use every arrow arrow that was available. Why six arrows? You only did half of what you could have done. The only type of person I've ever found God can only use in a limited measure is one who is half hearted. I've met addicted people God used. I've met discouraged people God used. I've met mean people God used. Elisha was mean. One time he was. He was walking back from healing the waters of Jericho. He had thrown some salt in the water, just like the church needs to heal the toxic waters of our nation.

Steven Furtick (45:17)

But maybe Elisha's bones are a lesson in unfulfilled potential. Maybe he died with one more miracle still in him. Maybe the king isn't the only one who stopped short. I'm just asking you today, have you stopped short? I know it's not because you don't care. I used to preach like that. You bunch of complacent, lazy, coward Christians. You have to be legalistic in your 20s. But now I'm starting to see I get to know people. I realized you're holding back parts of yourself and you're giving a percentage of yourself to your purpose because you're telling yourself, here's the way. One comedian said it. He was up in front of a crowd and he said, I didn't Prepare tonight. So I have no idea what I'm going to say. They laughed. He said, no, I'm serious. It's my strategy. I never prepare. They laughed a little less, but they were still laughing. He said, no, I'm serious. He said, because if I don't prepare and I bomb, I can tell myself it was because I didn't prepare. I'm preaching right to somebody right now. I'm not in your zip code. I'm in your living room. I have my shoes off. I have them up on your coffee table. I'm asking for another Diet Mountain Dew. That's what I like to drink. Don't send me a link about aspartame. I don't care. It's my shop. Potential. He said, if I don't prepare and I bomb well, I didn't prepare. Try harder next time. Go get them. If I don't prepare and it goes well, hey, it's a miracle. I'm a genius. If I prepare and fail. So I didn't prepare. He said, they laughed, but it's not funny when you live that way, when you don't love. If I love. If I give them all I am and then they reject me. They reject me. I'd rather send my representative. I'd rather stop short. I'd rather stop short than give it all I got and find out it wasn't enough. I declare in the name of Jesus, whoever this is for, lift your hands and receive it. You are enough. Say it. I love Christ. In me the hope of glory. Father, I thank you for the potential that is in this place today. Your word has been released. I've spoken it to the best of my ability, but it's going to take a response. It's going to take perseverance. It is going to take a commitment to purpose to see it fully come to pass. I declare over this word I've spoken. As the rains fall from the heaven.