God, What Should I Do? | Steven Furtick

To seek the Lord doesn't  mean you will know exactly what he's going to do every step along the way. David said, "The best thing I can do is to  escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in  Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.

" Is it possible that David, in this moment, isn't  even really sure where God's hand is working, but all he knows is, "I've  got to get out of here"? When he says, "I sought the Lord," he's  referring back to this incident where he had to go to the Philistines, the enemies  he wanted to kill, and live with them for a season while he waited for God to do what  he had promised to do. Is it possible that you are in a season right now where you're  seeking the Lord, but he hasn't exactly shown you what's going to happen in a sequence of  events that you can logically understand?

So, the word of the Lord for you is…What is  the next best thing for you to do? The next best thing. For David, what he really  wanted was to be the leader of Israel, but sometimes you can't do exactly  what you want to do.

Sometimes the will God has for you is still  in the process of unfolding. Sometimes the person you're supposed to marry  hasn't even moved to Charlotte yet. Sometimes the job you're supposed to have isn't even  open yet.

So, you get rejected three times for jobs you think you'd be a perfect fit  for, but the truth is, if you got that job, it would become a snare to you for  the door that God is going to open. I'm talking about trusting him. I'm talking  about "I sought the Lord, and there was a space.

I didn't know if he heard. " So what did David do?  The next best thing.

"I would love to be fighting Saul's battles right now. I would love to be  killing Philistines, like I did with Goliath. " "I would love to be taking  my kids to school every day, but I only get to see them every other  weekend right now.

So, when I get them every other weekend, I'm going to make that  count, because that's the next best thing. " "I would love to have somebody to take long walks  on the beach with, but I don't have somebody, and I don't have a beach, so I'm going  to get on this treadmill and get a podcast and take myself on a walk,  because that's the next best thing. " "I would love to have a healed body right now  so I could be in church with Pastor Steven, but right now I can't leave the house because  I'm confined to this bed, but I'm going to lift my hands, because even though I can't get out of  this bed, I'm going to do the next best thing.

" "I would love to be farther along in my finances  by now, but I didn't save in that season because nobody taught me, but I trust in God, and  I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread, so I'm going to  do the next best thing. I'm going to give him what I've got and trust him with what I'm  not. I will bless the Lord at all times…good times, bad times!

" Ask Paul and Silas.  "I'd love to be out of this prison, but they haven't released me yet,  so let's do the next best thing. You praise him on the first verse.

I'll praise  him on the second verse. You sing the chorus. I'll sing the bridge.

I'm going to do what he  gave me to do with what I've got to do it. " Yes, sir! The next best thing for  you.

That's all you have to do. You don't have to figure out the next  50 things. That's God's job.

He said, "You're fired from trying to be God. " I just  want you to think about it. What's the next best thing you can do?

Go complain about  it or praise him like he already knows? What's the next best thing? "I sought the  Lord.

Oh, it wasn't pretty. My fears were terrible. " The word fears that he uses is  only used three other times in the Bible.

It is a state so intense it's only used three  times in the Bible. It means horror. He said, "I was in a horrible place, a  lonely place, an isolated place.

" I was talking to a brother yesterday. He said, "I'm creative, but I can't find anybody to  collaborate with. " I wanted to tell him, "Well, the next best thing is going to  be you have to open up some kind of app on your phone and just start collaborating with  your phone.

" Y'all don't want me to teach this. We want "magic wand" God. We want "I sought  the Lord, and he heard.

" But sometimes… Should I do it? I can save it. I plan to be here  next week.

I can save it. Do you want it now or do you want it next week? Do you want it right now  while I'm freshly anointed with this Holy Spirit to break a chain off of you, going, "I can't go  here.

I can't go there. I don't have a degree. I can't start the business.

I can't get out of  the contract. I shouldn't have signed the lease. " Why don't you just turn the apartment you're  in into a habitation of a holy God while you wait on another one to come?

The next  best thing for you to do is connected to the next thing God is going to do  that you don't even know about yet. God killed Saul. David didn't have to.

Oh, it's better than that. You don't even know  how good God is. Saul fell on his own sword.

So, you do the next right thing. You have  integrity. You have character.

You just move on. You forgive. You be bigger than that. 

Don't go back and forth with Saul. What a word. It's hard for me to preach it to you while the  Holy Spirit is still giving it to me.

I'm just trying to decide, "Lord, what should be said  out loud and what should I ponder? " He said, "They don't know the power of what  they're singing when they say, 'I sought the Lord. ' They think that's what  they're doing only in church right now.

" This "seeking the Lord" thing is sometimes going  to look like you spitting and scratching. Nobody really knows what it's like to be on those  tours except Holly. Nobody knows what it's really like to look up at an arena full of  people and go, "Jesus, this is wonderful, and I'm terrified," except the woman who was back  there with me two hours before when I was saying, "It feels like razor blades in my vocal  cords, and I don't want these people to feel cheated tonight.

I don't want it to feel stale  tonight. I don't feel like I have the energy. " Sometimes before you preach you feel like  you get the flu, but it's not in your body; it's in your mind.

For her to be with me…  She'll say, "Come over here. " Sometimes she'll just put her hand on my shoulder, and  sometimes she'll press strength into my mind. I know we're supposed to be better than that. 

We're supposed to float on the stage on a cloud of shekinah glory, but sometimes I'm scribbling  and scratching and spitting just like you, but I'm seeking him. David thought to himself,  "Saul is going to kill me," but he kept seeking God even while he was thinking crazy stuff to  himself. That's what I want you to do, church.

I want you to say, "I sought the  Lord, and I sought him again. I sought him even as I thought he didn't  hear me, even as the Devil told me, 'You're never going to be free from this.  Your dad did it, his dad did it, and you will die an alcoholic too.

'" Even while you are  thinking that to yourself, you do the next best thing. That's all you have to do. I promise you  I'm giving you a testimony.

I saw it in my family. I saw it when my dad was dying of ALS. I wanted  God to heal him.

God didn't heal him. I wanted to take care of him. That didn't work out.

For two  years, I couldn't take care of him. My mom was taking care of him. He became abusive toward  her, so we had to put him in a nursing home, and he was way too young to be in that nursing  home.

I was crushed the day I walked in and he was calling bingo in a nursing home when I  knew I wanted him down the street with my mom. But they couldn't be together. It wasn't safe  for her.

So, why were we doing a Thanksgiving dinner in a nursing home with my dad while he was  dying with an uncertain time limit left? Why were we eating a microwave meal off of paper plates  in a nursing home with a man who was in his 60s? That wasn't what I wanted.

It was the next  best thing. That's what it means to seek him. It's such a good quote.

He said that  faith doesn't show you the whole staircase, just enough to take the next  step, the next best thing. Yeah, just like that. Just like that.

Watch this.  It's going to be ugly sometimes. Every prayer is not going to be pretty.

Every prayer isn't going  to happen in church. Every faith experience isn't going to happen in a controlled environment, but  the Bible says to humble yourself under his hand, because Saul's hand is nothing compared to  his hand. First Peter 5:6 says, "In due time, he will lift you up.

" One next best thing at a  time. That's how he's going to bring you out. Ugly trust.

Spitty beard trust. Crust in your  eyes but went anyway, tears on your pillow, sleepless nights, but I'm not giving  up on God. Ugly trust.

Do you know what that means to me…ugly? It means  trusting God until God lifts you.