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Part 7 of 8
Suddenly Part 3
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Our working thesis for this series is this: Sometimes God is working long before we can see the evidence. Suddenly does not mean there was no process. It means the manifestation can happen faster than we imagine.
This is critical to understand because people who watch you from the outside will get your story wrong. When you testify that God did it suddenly, they think there was no process attached to it. They imagine you asked for it on Monday and got it on Tuesday. They don't realize you've been through some stuff, survived some stuff, and lived to tell about it.
Don't judge my public praise. You don't know my private pain.
Sometimes what looks like shouting because you're going through is actually you looking back over what God brought you through.
Suddenly is not God starting something. Suddenly is God revealing what he has already been working on.
If there is no definition, you cannot live up to it. Consider a surprise birthday party. When do people see the surprise? At the party. When was it prepared? Long before. Everybody jumps out and yells, and the person who wasn't part of the preparation is blown away because they don't realize people were working behind the scenes the whole time.
God is doing the same thing. He's preparing surprises for you—bills being paid, doors opening, promotions, blessings—and when they manifest, it will look sudden. But the work has been happening all along.
God's ability has never been the issue. Every suddenly in Scripture has one thing in common: somebody kept believing while nothing seemed to be changing.
Throughout the Bible, every time we see God do something suddenly, the one constant is that somebody kept believing even while nothing seemed to be changing. Yet some of you are rolling your eyes saying, "Pastor Mike, I'm believing God for suddenly, but it's been 14 days yet. It ain't happened yet."
Put this in your notes: God is still faithful even when he's not fast.
We live in a culture that has confused speed with faithfulness. We have same-day shipping, same-day delivery, instant downloads, microwavable dinners. AI gives us answers in seconds. We've become conditioned to immediate results, so when God doesn't move immediately, we assume he's not moving at all.
God rarely works at the pace we prefer.
He gave Abraham a promise, then made him wait for decades. He gave Joseph a dream, then left him in prison. He anointed David king, then sent him back to the pasture. Many times we think because God isn't doing something, he's not going to do it.
But here's what we miss: Even when God ain't doing nothing, he's doing something. When God is doing nothing, he's actually doing something because he's doing nothing on purpose. If he's doing nothing, he is intentionally doing nothing because he's getting ready to do something.
You're frustrated because you're looking for something and don't realize there's something you want that you can't touch while he's not doing the nothing he ain't doing. Because when he's doing nothing, he's actually doing.
There are two types of people sitting here. Some of you are praising God because he's up to something. Anybody can shout when they see God is up to something. But there are some of you who have the level of faith where you're not shouting because God's up to something—you're shouting because he ain't doing nothing. And if you know God like you know God, when he's doing nothing, he's really doing something.
I need three people who can praise God and say he's up to something even when he's doing nothing.
We are living and conditioned for immediate results. When you type www.therockcity.org and the website pops up, if it trickles a little bit, the first thing you ask is what's wrong with the Wi-Fi? Because we want stuff immediately.
But God rarely moves at the pace you move. This is why you don't reap in the same season you sow. If a farmer plants a seed and puts it underground, he doesn't go out there next week saying, "I'm looking for it." He understands God has a process. If he lets it grow in spring, it won't make it. If he lets it grow in summer, it will die. If he lets it grow in winter, it won't live. But if he lets it do its work, God will develop you in a way you can't develop yourself.
You'd be surprised how many people are sitting frustrated saying, "God ain't answer my prayer." And God is saying, "I can't answer that prayer. Because to answer that prayer is antithetical to what I'm doing."
We rush to fix things because uncertainty makes us feel unsafe.
In other words, humans hurry is often pain trying to protect itself. So you're telling God, "Hurry up and do it," because you're afraid of what might happen if he doesn't. But you don't realize God is trying to show you: When you rush, you ruin it.
Consider cooking. Any good cook knows certain meals you can't rush. If you want to rush, they created microwavable dinners. You pull the film back and pop it in the microwave—in 7 minutes, you eat.
But when mama cooked salisbury steak from scratch, she prepared it, seasoned it, got her meat right, mashed the potatoes herself. There's a difference between a meal that's been prepped and something that's just ready.
The question I'm trying to ask my church is: Which blessing do you want?
Some of you are stressing God because you really want a hot Little Caesars blessing—you just want it hot and ready. And God is like, "I can give you what everybody else gets, or if you let me work, I can give you something custom for you. What I need God to do for me may not be what you need God to do for you. So if God has to wait another six months for me to walk into my breakthrough, anyway you bless me, Lord."
God may be grieved, but God is not emotionally fragmented. Why is that important? Because God's grief does not make God lose Godself. God does not react from trauma. If somebody comes at you, the first thing you want to do is defend yourself. If you find out something's passed through, the first thing you try to do is catch it up. A lot of us don't realize a lot of our life is reactionary to trauma.
God is not afraid of abandonment. He doesn't scramble because he's not validated. He's not trying to prove his divine worth. God may be grieved, but God is not emotionally fragmented. And because he's not emotionally fragmented, God's grief does not make God lose Godself.
When stuff goes wrong, God ain't going to act like you because you're bothered.
We hurry because hurt makes us believe something must happen immediately for us to be safe. God does not hurry because God's wholeness is never threatened by a moment. You want it done immediately. God is saying, "I'm going to do it suddenly." And the two ain't the same.
If I go to the counter and say, "Give me my food immediately," and it ain't ready, they give me what's available. If I say, "God, give it to me suddenly," that means he prepares exactly what I need for the right moment that I need it.
Suddenly embraces how God often works quietly before he moves quickly.
Many of us don't understand how God moves because you think how you move is how God moves. Some of us don't understand quiet moves because we're always loud. You're too loud to understand why God is quiet.
People often want to tell folk what they're going to do before they do it. Scientists have proven that the euphoria you get, the dopamine you get from announcing it, is equivalent to doing it.
That's why in January all of us went to the gym and took selfies next to workout equipment. "Hey y'all, new year, new me. Just so you know, I'm getting a house this year. I'm so excited. I'm in the workout room. Y'all can see me. Got to get this weight off me."
Now it's July, and you still look like the old you. It's because God works quietly before he moves quickly.
Why do you think the children of Israel were frustrated? They were in bondage, in slavery, saying, "God deliver us. God heal us. God get us out of this." But nowhere does God talk to Israel.
You would think while you're going through, God would talk to you. But why would God talk to the problem? The problem is in Israel. God doesn't talk to the children of Israel. God starts talking to Moses.
Some of you think God ain't answering your prayer. And God sent you to church for me to tell you: Why would God respond to your prayer when he could just be working on your answer?
You're saying, "I do not want to go to that job tomorrow. I can't stand that job. God, please fix something on this job." And you're frustrated because God ain't responded to you yet. You don't realize God doesn't have time to talk back to you. He heard you. What God is doing is at another place working on your behalf, and at the right time, God's going to do it.
God's delays are never evidence of God's absence.
Consider the children of Israel walking around the wall of Jericho. For six days they marched. How? Quietly. For six days they marched quietly.
Don't you think by day four somebody's thinking, "Tell me what we're doing again. This is what we're going to do. We're going to march for six days quiet. Then on the seventh day, we're going to holler. I ain't the smartest of men, but last time I checked, if we go into a fight, we need weapons. What are they called? Obedience."
For six days they marched quietly. On the seventh day, the wall fell quickly.
Suddenly, God does not have to be loud for him to work.
Can you imagine guards at the top of the wall? You got an enemy. Arrows drawn. They never say nothing. Day two, they're back, and they say nothing. Maybe by day three them fools out there walking. Sometimes God moves quiet to disarm your enemy.
That's why some of you—I'm praying for your strength—the folk you think are friends ain't really friends. The circle you think you have ain't the circle. What you don't realize is that God is about to bless you in such a way that folk who undermined you or underestimated you won't be able to handle what God's getting ready to do in you.
They've been looking at you for six months. They've been looking at you for two years. And when God lets you pop out this time—I'm preaching whether you receive it or not. Hear me when I say this: Sometimes his greatest work isn't what he's preparing for you.
Sometimes God's greatest work isn't what he's preparing for you. It's what he's preparing in you.
This is why one of the greatest tragedies in life is this: The greatest enemy to your suddenly is not delay but quitting. The greatest enemy to your suddenly is not delay—it's quitting. Because quitting disconnects you from why God was preparing you.
The devil knows something that we forgot: He cannot cancel what God has ordained.
Here's what you forgot. The enemy cannot cancel what God has ordained. So instead, what does the devil do? He simply tries to convince you to leave it before you see it.
The devil knows he cannot cancel what God has ordained. So he tries to convince you to leave it before you see it. When the devil can't defeat you, he exhausts you. The devil tries to put you through so much trauma that you walk away from it before God does it.
The devil knows something we've forgotten: He cannot cancel what God has ordained. So instead of trying to defeat you directly, he employs a different tactic. The devil tries to convince you to leave it before you see it.
When the devil can't defeat you, he exhausts you. He puts you through so much trauma that you walk away from your promise before God completes it. This is why you must be careful about who you listen to—some people will convince you to quit at the doorstep of your breakthrough.
Dead faith is faith that hears God's word but never moves on it. The number of people in a church doesn't impress God. The internet has taught us that people will watch anything—a cat video, a man cooking a steak on a rock by water. The devil doesn't mind you being entertained or informed. He doesn't want you transformed.
What's the use in driving across town if you're not going to do anything with the word? It's better to have 75 people truly committed to applying Scripture than 3,000 sitting in a room with only two actually doing the word.
Domesticated faith is a faith that has been tamed by yesterday's pain. When you've experienced so much hurt, you stop believing God for things. You've failed so many times that you don't even trust God anymore.
But here's what many don't realize: You're penalizing God for failing at stuff you wanted, not stuff God told you to do. The devil encourages you to operate outside of God's will so that when you finally get into God's will, you think the results will be the same. But the difference is this: When God does it, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."
The devil's plan is this: He gets you to try things on your own, they fail, and then you think God's promises won't work either. But failure outside God's will doesn't predict failure inside God's will.
Who killed Goliath? It wasn't David. David didn't kill Goliath—God used David. Who got out of the fiery furnace? It wasn't Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they were special. God delivered them.
So whenever you attempt something in life, you must discern and pray so you're not attempting stuff God isn't attempting with you. Certain things that failed in your past would have never worked even if they succeeded because God wasn't in them.
If you're saying, "I'm done trying relationships because everyone I love lets me down," ask yourself: Where did you find them? If you didn't find them where God dwells and didn't take them where God dwells, why would you expect it to work?
Domesticated faith is equivalent to a child who touches a stove and gets burned, then fears stoves for the rest of their life. The stove isn't bad—the problem is ignorance of how to use it. If you get past your pain and get information on how to use the stove, you'll realize what a blessing it was.
God understands this. He doesn't need to kill your enemies—He prepares a table for you in their presence. You want to lose your pain, but God doesn't need to get rid of it. He'll let you fail in front of them so that when you come back, they'll be able to say it was nothing but God. Your comeback season is the time to get your faith back where God wants it to be.
Double-minded faith is a faith divided between God's promise and human doubt. Every time you step out on faith, you step over doubt. Faith requires two feet.
Consider this: You can't be out here on faith while holding back in case it doesn't work. Faith is a two-step. The first step is what you have to get over. The second step is stepping into faith.
What do you step over? You step over the fact that you don't have the money, you don't have the resources, you don't have the education, you don't have the experience. Once you step over that, with God, all things are possible.
Don't just say, "I'm going to take a step." Understand: The first thing you step over is doubt, fear, insecurity, pain. Only then do you step in faith. If you don't do anything else this week, just step over it. That doesn't mean you have to do it yet—just get the faith to say, "Yes, I'm stepping over it."
I didn't know how to be a good father. My dad was an incredible daddy, but being a father scared me. I didn't want to be a part of my kids' testimony. I didn't want to be overbearing or fail. I had to step over that fear.
I didn't feel like I could sing. I didn't want to do gospel music. When a clip of me went viral and gospel artists reached out, I almost let insecurity stop me. I didn't feel like I could stand next to certain people. I didn't feel like I had what it took. But I woke up one day and said, "You know what?" That was a big step, and I had to step into it.
At every point that I stepped into faith, I stepped over something. Your issue isn't stepping in—your issue is stepping over.
Delegated faith is a faith that depends on someone else's belief instead of developing its own. Another name for this is borrowed faith.
There are seasons of life where you need borrowed faith. When I started this church at 24 years old, I borrowed faith from people like Miss Carol Smitherman who told me, "Michael, God has His hand on your life." I borrowed faith when she said she'd help me get my sound system. There are seasons where you borrow faith from your parents, your pastor, your friends, your prayer partners.
Borrowed faith is beautiful, but it's dangerous if it becomes permanent. The issue isn't that you borrow faith—the issue is that some of you are still borrowing faith. "I believe because you believe" may be enough to introduce you to God, but it's not enough to sustain you through life.
Your mama's faith can inspire you. Your pastor's faith can instruct you. Your spouse's faith can encourage you. Your church's faith can surround you. But eventually, you're going to have to get to know God for yourself.
Job said, "I had only heard about you before. But now I have seen you with my own eyes." Job moves from inherited information to personal revelation.
Many of us, especially in the African-American community, got inherited information. Our parents did a phenomenal job giving us church. But I don't think they always gave us God—they gave us what they interpreted as God. They taught us how to do church, but I'm not sure they taught us how to be Christian.
They taught us, "Do what you want as long as you're in church Sunday." But you don't have to take God with you on Monday. They gave us secondhand convictions instead of personal revelation.
Delegated faith creates secondhand convictions. If somebody else gave you all the answers, what happens when life asks you a question and they're not present? If you depend on people for answers, what do you do when life hits you somewhere your favorite sermon didn't cover?
Borrowed convictions will collapse under personal pressure. Eventually, life will ask you something your borrowed faith can't answer. Don't make your pastor your God. There's nothing wrong with coming to church, but you have to develop your own relationship with God.
When I was starting out, I didn't have enough faith for what God was calling me to do. I was worried and didn't understand. So I borrowed some. I called Dr. Mike Moore at Faith Chapel and said, "Sir, there's a building I'm believing God for. I don't have the money they're telling me I need. But I remember when you were believing God for those domes, and they were built. Can you take me to lunch and pray with me?"
He took me to Bonefish Grill with his full Bible. He told me, "Michael, you got to believe without a shadow of a doubt that God can do it. He's the God of super abundance." He showed me Scripture and prayed with me, and I sat there with tears in my eyes.
I had to borrow his faith. So every morning, I would walk through this church by faith, declaring, "These lights are on in Jesus' name. God, we're believing you." I had to become a copycat of the right cat to copy. The day those lights came on, I was no longer borrowing his faith—I had developed my own.
When I borrowed faith from Dr. Mike Moore, I didn't yet have my own. Every morning, I would walk through this church by faith, declaring, "These lights are on in Jesus' name. God, we're believing you." I became a copycat of the right cat to copy. The day those lights came on, I was no longer borrowing his faith—I had developed my own.
It's all right to be a copycat if you got the right cat to copy. However, delegated faith isn't where God wants us to stay permanently.
Delegated faith makes people your middleman. When you depend solely on others' faith, you can become more dependent on the voice of the vessel than the voice of God. You start saying things like, "I need my pastor to pray for me" or "I need somebody to give me a word."
There's nothing wrong with receiving prayer or counsel. The problem comes when you cannot hear God unless somebody else has the microphone.
Delegated faith produces spiritual panic. When the person you depend on is unavailable, so is your faith. You know you have delegated faith when your faith is directly tied to another person's presence or availability.
I thank God for my prayer partners, but if they don't pick up, I know how to talk to God for myself.
God never intended for somebody else's faith to become a substitute for your relationship with Him. This is why the story of David is so powerful. David's family had been kidnapped. His own men were so bitter they wanted to stone him. In that worst moment, the scripture says David encouraged himself. He didn't wait for someone else to encourage him—he encouraged himself.
When your miracle arrives, it often comes because somebody else refused to quit believing. That's beautiful. But you cannot spend your entire life depending on that. Sometimes your miracle arrives because somebody else refused to quit believing, but you have to develop the capacity to believe for yourself.
In Mark 2:5, a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus by others who believe for his healing. Jesus sees their faith and speaks to the paralyzed man: "Son, your sins are forgiven."
Notice something critical here: the man needs healing, but Jesus is looking at the faith of the people around him. The people around him don't need anything—they just want his to be done.
I pray God puts some people in your life who want you to get it just as bad as they want it.
This scripture teaches me that I can be blessed or hindered by the people around me. This scripture shows me that God can look at the people around me and determine whether I'm ready. Sometimes your miracle is delayed because God isn't impressed by the people He's looking at in your life. Jesus doesn't speak until He assesses the people around you.
That's why my circle is tight. The word friend is special to me now—it's sacred. I don't need new friends. I don't want to have so many people around me that God sees their faith and says, "He ain't ready."
Here's something powerful: Jesus tells the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven," when the man needs healing from paralysis. Why would Jesus forgive sins before healing the body?
God says, "I can't fix your body till I fix your life." The first thing God does is forgive the man's sins because if He forgives your sin, your faith will lift. It's critical.
The suddenly principle for today is: Borrow faith for a season, but build your own for a lifetime.
You're going to go through seasons where you need to borrow faith. That's life. That's normal. Who hasn't needed to borrow something? God is saying, "I don't mind you borrowing faith. My problem is, are you ever going to take time to build your own?"
I speak over your life: God is going to give you the strength to build your faith up. Over the next season, you're going to become the person who lets people borrow faith from you.
Our faith is not predicated on possessions. Our faith is predicated on God being God. We understand that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Just because you may be in a season of nothing doesn't mean you should doubt God. You know that at any moment nothing can turn into something. You were good when we lost and You're good when we won. You were good when we were up and You're good when we down. You're good when we're sick and You're good when we heal.
Sometimes sin impacts our faith to the point where we don't feel worthy enough to ask or pray. We feel disqualified and stop asking God because we don't feel worthy. But God creates in us a clean heart and renews a steadfast spirit within us.
