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Part 2 of 7
Understanding Your Purpose Through Aggravation
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What if you will discover your purpose where you may experience unique aggravation? Show me what aggravates you uniquely, and I may be able to show you what God is calling you to intentionally.
The enemy wants us to only see our situation through the lens of aggravation so we can abandon our assignment. Be careful if you are labeling something annoying when God sent it to activate your anointing. Throughout the Bible, whenever you see aggravation, you see activation.
Consider David and Goliath: everybody on the battlefield hears Goliath and chooses to ignore him. David shows up, and what he hears from Goliath aggravates him—and that aggravation activates him to fight. What if you are labeling people and situations annoying, not realizing God is using that annoyance to activate your anointing?
The tension often leads us to search for answers. But what if God isn't giving you the answers you want because He created you to be the answer others need? God is not giving you the answers you want because He's waiting on you to become the answer that other people need.
Stop looking for answers and start being the answer. Many of you are frustrated because you wait on God to give you an answer when God is waiting on you to become it.
You are aggravated because what you see in your family doesn't match what He put in your heart. So now you don't go around them because they annoy you—when God was trying to let them aggravate you so you become something that could drive them to be better.
If you don't see what you want to be around you, be it so somebody else can see it. I am the answer to the debt that my family finds themselves in year after year. I am the answer. If somebody needs to see what a miracle looks like, it is me.
God often hides our purpose inside of other people's problems. You will be remembered for two things: the problems you solve or the problems you caused.
Are you a problem solver or are you a problem starter? That's critical, isn't it?
Most people never fulfill their purpose because most people never commit to prayer. Everybody wants to be outside in purpose without committing to going inside for prayer.
Be careful when you are surrounded with people that scream "we outside" for the party but won't shout "we inside" for prayer. There is a unique assignment that God has birthed, created, crafted, and designed you for. You will never fulfill your purpose if you do not commit to prayer.
Sadly, too much of church has become praise breaks, not prayer meetings.
Let's define prayer. According to Dr. Tony Evans, prayer is mental, oral, or written communication with God the Father offered in the name of Jesus the Son with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
When you pray, you are putting everybody on one call. You pray to God in the name of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is behind you giving you assistance. Prayer is like a conference call or a group FaceTime where when one person presses dial, everybody gets a notification—God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all on the line together.
Prayer is mental. Not all prayers are spoken out loud. Many of us were raised in church with the religious pressure that you have to pray out loud to be heard. But that's not biblical or realistic.
There are times when something is happening in real time—your flesh wants to react, but in your mind, you're talking to God: Father God, give me the strength not to go to jail today. Let me walk away right now. You're praying in your mind, and God hears you.
You may be driving, never saying anything out of your mouth, but in your head you're talking to God: God, give me the strength to do this. Give me grace. You can talk to God in your mind.
But here's the important part: don't become so comfortable talking to Him in your mind that you don't use your words. Death and life are in the power of your tongue. After a while, if you really believe what you're thinking, you'll be bold enough to speak it.
Prayer can also be written. You can write a prayer. It's still communication with God.
Rock City's definition of prayer: It is a mental, oral, or written conversation—two-sided—with God the Father and Holy Spirit in hopes of expressing emotion, both positive or negative.
Prayer is a two-sided conversation. Prayer isn't prayer if you're the only one talking. Have you ever been on the phone with somebody who does all the talking, and you set your phone down and walked off without them even knowing you left? Prayer should never be like that.
Prayer is not always positive. Some of you don't pray as much because you feel like if you don't have anything good to say, you should just be quiet. But a real, authentic relationship with God is expressed based on what you are really going through.
There are times when I talk to God and it isn't positive. I might say: Father God, in Jesus' name I thank you for waking me up this morning. But God, I'm just being honest with you—what's going on? I'm doing everything you called me to do. I'm seeing people get blessed with stuff who I know won't help anybody else. God, I'm frustrated. I'm tired of them.
I'm not complaining. I'm talking to the One who actually has the power to fix my situation.
Intercessory prayer is not when you pray for someone. An intercessory prayer is when you pray as someone. It's when someone doesn't have the strength to pray for themselves, so you go to God on their behalf. You stand in the gap. When you pray for someone, you've only partially done it—but when you pray as them, that's true intercession.
There are also imprecatory prayers. David gets frustrated with God and says: God, why are you hiding from me? Where's your hand? Did you bring me out here just to die? David even says: Lord, kill all my enemies. Just kill every one of them. God does not always oblige, but the point is that David had the kind of relationship where he could be himself with God. He could be honest with God.
Prayer increases our intimacy with God. How will I know if we have chemistry unless I spend time with you? Prayer gives me the ability to see into me. It increases my intimacy with God.
Prayer expresses our dependency on God. Dependency means I need you. It means I can't do this without you. It means I won't go if you don't come. It means if you don't give me a yes, it's always a no. It means I prayed, you didn't answer, so I'm still on hold—I'm not moving without you.
Many of us pray, don't get what we want, and we move on. But God is saying: sit there until you hear back from heaven. Your child knows the difference between a dependent call and an independent call. When my son Miles calls me, it often means more to me than when my son Mason calls me. Mason could do things by himself, but he chooses to call me and ask. Mason says: Dad, I could do this by myself, but I don't want to. That's dependency, and it means more.
So when you get ready to make a decision—about a job, about dating, about anything—talk to God. Show God: I could do this by myself, but I don't want to. I'm getting ready to make a decision, but I don't want to do it without you.
Prayer invites Divine involvement. I see the opportunity. God sees what's behind it. Before I open the door, I need God to go in the room first to make sure the room is clear.
You may think: Pastor Mike, I don't know how to pray like you pray. Do you know how to text? Text yourself. When I feel like I need to express something but cannot find the words, I text myself. My phone will go off: Mike, I know you're frustrated. We don't know what to do. Maybe you should just chill. I respond to that text: But it seems like we're going to get a whole lot of money if I just say yes. Then Mike responds to Mike: But is this God's will? Be still.
It may sound funny to you, but this two-sided conversation—this expression of what you're really thinking—keeps you from falling into traps because it gives you a place to work through the wrestling in your head.
I'm in a series entitled "I Got Away." I want you to understand that "I got away" is not about escaping but enduring. God won't always take you out of it.
God will never take you out of what He can develop you in. He will never remove you from what He is using to develop your character, your faith, and your calling.
Last week I told you about Jonah. God goes to Jonah and tells him: Go preach to your enemies. Go love your enemies. Go save the people who have been killing everybody just like you. Jonah doesn't like that. His spirit doesn't want to do it. So what does Jonah do? Jonah goes in the opposite direction.
Don't sit here and look at me like God has never called you to do something you didn't want to do. Your spirit was telling you to be nice to some nasty people, and you said no.
Jonah gets on a boat. A storm breaks loose. While the storm is breaking loose, he's at the bottom of the boat asleep. When you look at your life and all these storms are happening, how are you sleeping at a time like this? How is your family on the verge of falling apart with everybody, yet you're good because you're living right? No—he's sleeping at a time like this.
Jonah gets up, praises God, and tells the people: I'm the problem. They pick Jonah up and throw him off the boat.
"Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once." (Jonah 1:15)
If you don't mind, write this down: Some storms won't stop until the wrong people leave. Some storms won't stop till you throw some people off your boat.
Jonah gets thrown off the boat. A storm breaks loose. He tells them it's his fault. They remove him, they throw him over the boat.
"Now the Lord had arranged a great fish to swallow Jonah." (Jonah 1:17)
I have to pause here because I have a lot of young people listening to TikTok who will tell you this story never happened. There's no fish big enough to swallow a man. But look at verse 17—it says the Lord arranged a great fish.
Which means what? You see something that is natural, but God had to hand-make something for His escape. Some of you can't figure out why folk don't like you. It's because they saw your cousins, saw your friends, saw your co-workers, and can't figure out how you got where you are—because God arranged some stuff.
If it had not been for God, you ought to jump up and shout! Write this in your notes: Verse 17 — underline "arranged," underline "Lord." Sometimes stuff jumps off in your life and you can't figure out why it happened the way it happened. Behind the scenes, God was arranging stuff.
The steps of a good man are ordered by God. For five of you who are getting ready to start a business this year, or take your relationship to the next level, or go back to school, and you're telling your circle you're going to be different—and folk are looking at you like, Well, how are you going to do all that?—your whole comeback for this season is going to be: He arranged it.
God Didn't Just Provide—He Arranged
Sometimes stuff jumps off in your life and you can't figure out why it happened the way it happened. Behind the scenes, God was arranging stuff. The scripture says the steps of a good man are ordered by God.
When the Lord says He "arranged" a great fish, He means He prepared it. Some translations say He provided it. The word comes from a root that means He created something special just for Jonah's purpose. God didn't just make do with what was available—He prepared exactly what was needed.
Jonah thought he was in trouble when he was swallowed by the fish. But what looked like trouble was actually God's arrangement to get him where he needed to be. Sometimes God uses a season of being broke to transport you to your prosperity. Sometimes God uses a difficult relationship to teach you what you don't want, so you'll recognize what you do want. Sometimes God uses a layoff to transport you to a better job.
Stop crying about whatever you're going through right now. It might just be God arranging you transportation to your next level. The fish didn't destroy Jonah—it carried him where he needed to go.
The scripture says the Lord arranged a great fish. Here's what's critical: if where you are isn't small, and where you're going isn't small, then God can't arrange something small for you.
Sometimes you go through great suffering because you're headed to some great place. Some of my pain has been great pain. Some of my betrayal has been great betrayal. Some of my hurt has been great hurt. But the reason I haven't lost my mind is because even if it's great, my great God has got me.
Let me tell you a story. My oldest son, Xander, was in a car wreck. When I pulled up to the scene, the car was totaled. I could see him in the driver's seat with people pulling him out. But I wasn't panicking because God had made me a promise—my baby's covered. We took him to the hospital. He was sore, a couple of bruises, but he was alive.
For five months after that, his car was gone. Insurance takes time. Every morning he'd say, "Dad, can you take me to school?" And I'd take him. Then Thursday came—the insurance check arrived. I called him and said, "Hey, I need your help doing something this weekend." It was a test. If you only want to be with me when I'm giving, that proves your motives.
He said, "Dad, I got you." I told him, "Your check came. We're going to go find you something to drive."
Here's what's critical: when I woke him up that morning, he probably thought he was going to be cleaning out a closet or working on something at church. He had no idea. Sometimes arrangement doesn't always look like an arrangement.
If I gave you a piece of steak, it's impossible for you to eat that steak whole. You'd have to break it down. But God knows if He picks something that's going to devour you completely, when He gets you where He wants you to be, you won't be functional.
So God crafts something that will ingest you whole. I'm so concerned about your exit that I can't let your entrance kill you. You're so busy waiting to come out—but your biggest praise shouldn't be when God brings you out. Your biggest praise should be that He kept you when you went in.
Whoever has looked back over your life and was like, "That right there could have taken me all the way out"—that's your praise moment. If it had not been for God, you ought to jump up and shout.
While Jonah was in the belly of the fish, he did something he should have done first—he prayed. Anybody can pray when you come out of it. Everybody can pray before you go through it. But if you really want to see my prayer life, catch me when I'm in the middle of something.
You might be sitting in your pew right now and you're going through something. You're thinking, "I swear this dude is in my business every week." Dare to praise God in the middle of it. Thank Him in the middle of it. Say, "It's not perfect. It's not good. But if the devil thinks this is going to break my relationship with God, I still praise You."
You ain't never had to shout in the middle of some stuff. You ain't never been in a situation where you didn't have anybody in your phone you could call. You didn't even feel qualified to talk to God. Then at some point you mustered up enough courage and said, "God, I just need You." And God stepped inside your situation.
On that third day, the scripture said Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. From inside. Not after he got out—while he was still in the darkness, still in the isolation, still in the belly of the beast.
Everybody can pray when the storm breaks loose. I watched it happen on the boat—everybody prayed to their own god. But what's important is that Jonah prayed to his God. He had been through so much that he could have said, "Forget all this God stuff." But Jonah understood that the safest place in the whole wide world is in the will of God.
That's why he kept saying: My God when I'm up, He's still my God. When I'm down, He's still my God. All the money in the bank, He's still God. No money in the bank, He's still God.
I've learned something the older I get. We celebrate victories from battles we should have never fought in the first place. That relationship didn't break me—but you should have never been in that one in the first place. I've been in some dumb stuff that I never should have been in. I've been with people I never should have been around. I spent money I never should have spent. I loved people I never should have loved. I went places I never should have visited.
But here's what I'm grateful for: He kept me. Not because I made all the right decisions, but because even when I made dumb decisions and ended up in fights I should have never been in, God kept me. That's enough. That's everything.
I should have been dead. But here I am. And the older I get, the more I realize you don't know how you survived half the hell some of us have been through. But we did. Because He kept us.
Jonah inside the fish—he can't see. There's no light in the stomach of a fish. The storm outside was dark. The fish is dark. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know what's going on.
Day one, he's sitting there like, "Am I dead? Am I in hell? What's going on?" Day two comes. Day three comes. He's in a season of no vision. He has no friends—he's in a season that feels isolated.
But here's what's critical: He is not lonely. He feels lonely. God is with him even when people aren't with him.
He said, "I cried to the Lord in great trouble and He answered me." Not just that he cried—but that He answered. The Lord heard him from inside the fish. He called out from the land of the dead, and the Lord heard him.
In verse three, Jonah says: "You threw me into the ocean. I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me. I was buried beneath Your wild and stormy waves."
That's real. That's honest. That's what prayer sounds like when you're actually in it.
When Jonah prayed from inside the fish, he didn't merely cry out—he called to God with the confidence that He would answer. He said, "I cried to the Lord in great trouble and he answered me." This wasn't just a desperate wail; it was a declaration that God had heard him.
Jonah's prayer was brutally honest about his condition. He said: "You threw me into the ocean. I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me. I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves." That's what real prayer sounds like when you're actually living through it.
In verse four, Jonah declares something profound: "You have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more towards your temple." This is critical. Jonah says, "I will look to your temple"—not to the hills, because looking to the hills is a misinterpretation many of us make.
The reason ancient people looked to hills was because they practiced astrology and witchcraft there. Magicians looked at the stars trying to read horoscopes. But the Scripture actually says, "I will look to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord." The point isn't the hill itself—it's that our help comes from God alone, not from people or false gods.
Jonah continues with brutal honesty: "I sink beneath the waves and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head." He's describing total despair—wet, dark, scared, unable to see anything. Yet even in this state, he says, "I will offer sacrifice to you with songs of praise. Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies, but I will fulfill my vows. My salvation comes from the Lord alone."
Verse six reveals Jonah's lowest moment: "I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth whose gates lock shut forever. But you, oh Lord my God—you snatched me."
That word snatched is everything. Hell thought it had Jonah. Death thought it had him. The situation thought it had him. But God snatched him out of there. God gives us the strength not just to escape, but to endure while He's working on the escape. This is what "I got away" really means. It's not just praising the fact that you escaped—it's honoring God for how He gave you the strength to endure.
Verse ten says, "The Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out on the beach." Notice the number ten—ten fingers, ten toes—the number of order and stability. When God lets your situation spit you out, you're going to be right where He wants you to be.
Whatever you find yourself in right now, whatever real stuff you're facing, God is working behind the scenes. When you let go and let God have His way, that's when things start happening. When you stop looking backward, when you truly release it to Him, the grace of God covers you. He's giving you a type of mercy, a type of strength, a type of peace that will carry you through.
I don't care how anointed you are. I don't care how rich you are. Life can get hard. Sometimes you find yourself in situations that seem impossible. But hear this: You are not alone. God's already prepared your escape. He's doing what eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. He's preparing the way. He's doing what only He can do.
If you're here and you don't know Jesus, hear me: You can be a teenager, in your twenties, thirties, seventies, eighties—it doesn't matter. Right where you are, you can give your life to Christ. All you need to do is say: "Lord, come into my heart. Make me over again. I confess with my mouth. I believe with my heart that Jesus rose from the dead. Right now I am saved."
If you made that decision today, text HOME to 28950. We have a team that will reach out to you this week. We're calling people who've given their lives to Christ—over 4,000 this year—and we want you to know we love you and we're praying for you. There's a church that loves you, that cares about you, that has your best interest at heart.
