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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar with a remarkable declaration:
"We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. And he will deliver us from your majesty's hands. But even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set before us."
This "I won't bow" declaration cuts to the heart of what unshakable faith truly means. Many believe unshakable faith means nothing will ever shake you, but the reality is different: unshakable faith means that when life shakes everything around me, my relationship with God keeps me connected to him.
When life happens around you, that relationship with God keeps you connected to him. Your emotions may shake. Your plans may shake. Your relationships may be shaky. Your confidence in people may be wavering. But you will not allow what happens around you to change what you believe about God.
Have you been through some stuff in life? Now you know it will take far more than losing a job to make you shaky about what God is and who God is to you. It will take more than somebody walking out of your life to make you question who God is. It will take more than a social media post to shake your faith about who God is in your life. God has been too good to you for you to sit around thinking that life can happen and dispute everything He has already done for you.
Thank God you woke up this morning. That alone is good. Thank God you can raise your hand. That is enough. Some people did not wake up this morning, but God saw fit that you would get up, put on your clothes in your right mind, and walk into the church. He has been too good for you to allow one little thing to make you believe that God is not who He says He is.
Life can shape what is around me, but my relationship with God keeps me standing. Sometimes stuff around you is going to happen. You cannot run from that. The problem is not what happens around you—the problem is that you stop standing when things start happening.
What if what is happening in your life did not come to kill you but to develop you? What if God is trying to develop you through the stuff that has happened in your life and around you? Life should not make you stop believing that God still has your back, that God is still good in your life.
To respect the content, you need context. In Daniel 1, we see why the three Hebrew men were the way they were. Daniel sits at the table talking to the king's officials, and they try to get him to eat. Interestingly, if you look at Daniel 1, the three Hebrew men never speak—you only hear Daniel talking.
Some seasons in your life, you are going to have to stop talking and start learning. The reason you cannot get through in your chapter 3 is because you did not listen in your chapter 1. You tried to talk and got nervous and weary. God says if you be around some people fighting through stuff instead of hating on them, you may learn something. When you get in your chapter 3 and get tossed to the fire, you will understand how to stand in the middle of a storm.
Many of us have a lot to say in seasons when God wants you to do one thing: shut up, listen, and watch. Be careful to follow people who do not know God. You have to get yourself around people who have a relationship with God because they can help you see what God is doing inside of you. So when you get to chapter 3 and the fire comes, you will not bow.
Sometimes you cannot see your God. You cannot feel your God. But here is a public service announcement: even when you cannot feel Him, even when you cannot see Him, does not mean He is not present. Some of us want God to be present every single time we feel like it. But God says, "Does not mean that I am not present because you do not feel me."
The king ordered Aspernaz, head of the palace staff, to get some Israelites from the royal family and nobility. Young men who were healthy, handsome, intelligent, well-educated, with good prospects for leadership—perfect specimens—and indoctrinate them in Babylonian language, magic, and fortune telling. They were served food from the king's table.
But Daniel said, "You call that the best food, but that is where you get the Daniel fast from." Daniel said, "Just feed me some vegetables and water. I am going to come out stronger." Some of you are trying to be the same as everybody else. But God said if you do something different, you might come out stronger. You are different than other people.
You wonder why you are going through the stuff you are going through. Every time you turn around, you have to go through it. It is because God is trying to get you to see that you are not the same as everybody else. Your path may be different from my path. You do not do what I do. You do not fast how I fast. Just because I do not eat does not mean you do not eat. You have to do what is best for you and what God told you to do.
Time out for comparison. Stop trying to be like this person and that person. You will not be in their house when God gives them what they have been praying for. Some folk do not know what you have been praying for. Sometimes you have to do something different, and when you do, it ultimately puts you stronger in your spirit.
You can always tell people who are strong in the spirit because when stuff starts happening around them, they say, "It is okay. Let us just pray." Have you ever called somebody and said, "I am going through something. I need some help," and they say, "It is okay. Let us just pray"? That is how you get out. You have to talk to the King who can help you out of stuff.
You do not just go to church to be going to church. Church is not the place where I get my spiritual relationship from. Church is the place where you come and celebrate the King with a bunch of believers sitting next to somebody that loves Jesus Christ.
There is a distinct difference between church people and God's people. Church people come to church because they celebrate church. God's people come to church because they have God in them. Whether it is four walls or no walls, they are going to give God the highest praise. Whether sitting in a sanctuary or in overflow, it is not going to stop them serving their God.
Daniel 1 shows us how convictions are developed. Daniel 3 shows us what happens when those convictions come under pressure. Daniel 1 shows us that convictions are developed in private—nobody sees that. That is a place where you sit down. But Daniel 3 shows us when everybody sees you going into fire. They want to see if you are going to fold under pressure. But you were developed in private. That is why people cannot see you fold under pressure. That is why folk do not understand why you come into this crowded sanctuary lifting your hands up knowing you have issues out there. You are not going to give them the satisfaction to see you fold.
Babylon tried to change their location, their education. They tried to change their names. They tried to change their appetites. Babylon removed them from Jerusalem, educated them in Babylon's systems, gave them Babylonian names, and offered them food from the king's table. Babylon was trying to change where they lived, how they thought, what they answered to, and what they desired.
But Daniel and his friends teach us that people can change what has happened around you without changing who you belong to. They were living in Babylon, but Babylon was not living in them. They decided: I am in the world, but I am not of the world. So when you go to work and they start talking that nonsense that does not fit you, you say, "I am not sitting here listening to this. I know what they said, but I am not of that part."
Nebuchadnezzar moved them out of Jerusalem, but he could not move God out of their hearts. If God is not in your heart, I do not care how much you praise Him and cry at the altar. You can think you have God in your heart until you go through some stuff and have to push yourself to keep going and say, "God, in spite of all of that, I am going to keep myself in position and love on You." That is when He is in your heart.
You are able to say no to things that your flesh wants to say yes to. That is when you know He is in your heart. You are able to keep pushing when your mind, your body, and your soul say, "No, I do not want to do that anymore," but you keep pushing anyhow. That is when you know He is in your heart.
Why? Because relationships must be developed before the fire.
I spoke with my 26-year-old daughter the other day, and she said something that struck me. She said, "Nobody came around here when I had money and a car. Nobody said anything to me. It was not until I lost this job and this car. Now everybody is coming around telling me to be responsible."
That is how we are. We have money. We are on top of the world. We have everything going well—the club, the swag, everything good. But it is not until you lose some of that stuff that you start coming around saying, "Where is God? God, I need you. Help me up." You show up to church at 10:59 when service starts at 11:30 because you need something.
God is like, "Where were you when you were getting raises and bonuses, sales and commissions, doing your thing? You coming to talk to God when you are going through something. Your relationship should have been developed way back then. You would have known that even if you lost all what you have, you still have God and He still has a plan for your life."
When we have the job, money is coming in, the car is running, the family is doing well, and it feels like we have everything under control, sometimes we stop checking in with God. We do not pray the same. We do not seek Him the same. We do not stay in the word the same. It is not that important anymore. It is not that God stopped checking on us. It is that we started living as if we did not need Him anymore.
Have you ever been at that place where you think, "God, I got it. I am good now. I do not need to go to church"? You get to the place where you start drifting. "Oh, I am tired. I stayed out last night. I will watch it online." Then you forget to watch it online. So you watched the replay and then you forgot. God says, "No, get up now and watch it. Get up now and go."
But no, you are good. When you were going through, you were the first one at the door. You were the first one to log in. You were on your devotional energy every morning trying to get a word. You were in the comment section: "I need a word. Somebody prophesy to me. Lay hands on me." And once you got it? "God, I am good. It is all good. I do not need You anymore."
We cannot be at a point where we get from God what we want and never return. God does not only want to hear from you when you need Him to fix something.
The relationship with God should not begin in the fire. The fire should reveal the relationship you were already developing. A relationship with God should not begin in the fire. The fire should reveal the relationship you already have. You do not want trouble to be the only thing that makes you pray.
I like Seekers because everybody who comes is getting up in the morning every week. Everybody logging on is coming to pray. It is like: I know what I am going to get. I am going to get some prayer. I do not care what nobody got on. I do not even care what I am putting on—I am slipping on something. I am getting to Seekers. I want to pray because I have been asking God intentionally to have me at a posture of prayer. Whether life is good, my bank account looks good, no problems or nothing—I want to be at a place where I make prayer consistent in my life.
Why? Because you should not only pray when something is going wrong. You should not only pray when things are happening in your life. God is trying to get you to pray right now because He is seeing you are going to go through the hospital next week. He is trying to build up and develop your faith right now for the issue that may happen next week.
I am not saying that is going to happen to you, but life happens. It may not be the hospital. It may just be frustration with your spouse. But if you were prayed up, He will show you how to discern how to handle that thing. The reason some of us cannot grow up is because we will not come up in the seasons where we have it going on.
I need God when things are falling apart. But I also need Him when everything appears to be going well. Do not allow the blessings God gave you to make you forget the God who gave them.
Have you ever met somebody? You loaned them money. They got paid. They got a job. Everything is good. Then you asked them, "Yo, can we go out to eat or something?" "Oh, I ain't got it." But you see them out to eat. They forgot that you looked out for them. Sometimes we make it seem as if we forgot the God that made it possible for us in the season we are in right now.
The furnace did not create their faith. The furnace revealed their faith. It revealed their faith. You cannot wait until the music starts playing to decide whether you are going to bow or not bow. When you are in the heat, you do not want to be deciding whether you are going to bow to this particular situation while you are in it. You have already decided before you got in it that you are not going down.
You cannot wait until the crisis comes to decide whether you will trust God. The furnace did not create their faith—the furnace revealed their faith. When you are in the heat, you do not want to be deciding whether you will bow to a situation while you are already in it. You must have already decided before you entered it that you are not going to compromise.
I have already decided before the problem even came. I have already decided that my God is too good. I have already decided that I will trust God. I have already decided that I will obey God.
We spend too much time deciding in the moment: Should I go? Should I stop? Should I take another job? Should I trust Him? Should I tithe? Should I pay my bills or give my offering? But the time for those decisions is before the pressure arrives. If He doesn't take care of it, it won't get done. I've already decided that God has got me.
Some of us have not made up our minds to follow God despite the circumstances. I have already decided that the pressure will not have my worship. I have decided that what I am going through will not stop my praise. Whether I make it to church or not, I am going to praise Him. Whether things work out or not, my praise is my weapon.
Trouble does not create your convictions—it exposes them. When you go through trouble, it will reveal whether you trust your money or whether you trust God. It will expose what you really depend on and where your real faith lies.
You know why I can trust God? Because Job said this: "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." I trust God because I have already seen Him work. My mother prayed about Him. My father prayed about Him. My grandparents prayed about Him. But it is not just about their prayers anymore—I have grown up and I have seen God myself. I have seen Him make a way and provide for me. I have seen Him do the impossible.
Even if trouble happens, I have seen Him do it before. I am speaking to someone who may be going through something right now, whether in this room or across the world: If He did it before, He can do it again.
If you have seen the presence of God, He did not stop making blessings at your last blessing. He did not stop pulling you out at your last deliverance. He is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. He is the same God who brought you up. He is the same God who gave you that promotion. He is the same God who made sure your bills were paid. He is the same God who saved you from the streets. He is the same God who saved your loved ones.
If He did it before, I have news for you: He will do it again. It may not come when you want it to come, but He will be on time. I am not going to lose my mind waiting on God because He is the same God who protected me when I was doing wrong. He is the same God who kept my mind when I wanted to be frustrated.
I am not going to get angry while waiting because waiting only means that somebody is on the way. The blessing you need, the breakthrough you need, the things you need to shift—they are on the way. You keep being frustrated about what you do not have, but it is on the way. You keep being frustrated in your season, but it is on the way. Do not grow weary in doing good, because in due season you shall reap if you faint not.
Your relationship with God makes up your mind before the pressure even comes. I am not preaching about relationship for you—I am preaching so that I can stay on the path myself. Even when I get frustrated in the season I am in right now, I need my relationship with God to keep me on track.
I do not want a Sunday morning relationship with God. I need an everyday relationship. I am not saying this because I have it all together. I am saying this because I need my relationship to stay rooted and grounded in all seasons. When the pressure comes, we can reach a point where everything seems good and then the pressure hits and we fold. I do not want to fold under pressure.
The devil is tricky. He is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He looks for those who do not pray enough. He thinks, "I can work on them. They have money and a job, so I can pray on them. They have found someone, and now they do not come around anymore. I will use that person to pull them out of their position." But when your relationship is tight, you do not fold for that. When your relationship is tight, your whole household believes in God. You walk around declaring that everybody in this house shall serve the Lord.
Daniel 3:16 says, "We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter." They were telling the king, "We do not need another meeting. We do not need time to think about this."
You go to people and ask them for advice: "God told me to start my business. What do you think?" Now you are voting. Their voice becomes higher than God's voice. But you will not spend enough time with God to know His direction. If God told you to do it, He will supply every need that you have. You do not need anybody to agree with you and affirm what God is doing in you. You better get up and go do what God called you to do and be all that He called you to be.
You are trying to get people to agree with you, and that tells me you have not really been with God. You are running on zeal, and when you run out of zeal, you run out of gas.
Pressure does not create my convictions—it exposes them. It exposes my weakness and where I am struggling. You are going to have to start telling God to get you under control, because there are some fleshly desires that will cause you to be out of control with God. Pressure will bring out the things you are struggling with on the inside that nobody sees. Normally when people leave and do something crazy, pressure started it. They were under pressure and did not know that all they had to do was stand.
Relationship means trusting God beyond the outcome. Let me tell you a story. I have twin boys, and my wife's birthday was coming up. She wanted to go on a cruise, and her best friend's birthday had been a week before. Since we moved from North Carolina to Birmingham, she does not get to see her friend as much as she wants to. I said, "Yeah, cool. Me and the boys have got it. Go ahead."
So we dropped her off at her friend's house. She flew out, and I took the boys back to Birmingham. That drive was something else. "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy!" I was like, "When is this going to stop?" "Dad, can you change the channel?" "Dad, can you change the CD? I do not want to watch Spider-Man anymore." "Can we pull over? Do I need to use the bathroom? I want a drink." I just wanted to get home as fast as I could.
When we got home, I had someone come over and cut my hair because I had to prepare for the day. So I said, "Hey, nobody took a nap all day. Let us eat some pizza and all get in the bed." My wife does not like my kids in our bed, but we were home alone, so we had a party in the bed. We got pillows, we made tents, we had the whole party going.
So DJ—one of my boys—said, "I love you, daddy." Then he said, "I love your haircut." I thought to myself, "You saw my haircut earlier. Why did not you tell me you love my haircut earlier? But it was not until I gave you something you wanted that now you love my haircut."
That is how we are with God. It is not until He gives you something that now you start talking about God: "I love You. I love that about You, God." But God says, "Why did not you love that about Me before I gave you what you wanted?"
Some of us in this room are saying, "I am waiting on God to do something for me before He ever sees my praise." But your praise means nothing if you can only praise Him when you have what you want. I want to talk to some people in this house who say, "I am going to praise God even if I do not have it. My praise is not predicated on whether God does it or not. The love I have for God is not predicated on whether I get what I want or not."
You have to learn to soak yourself in His presence. I started doing something with my prayer team. I call it the ACTS prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. By the time I get to thanksgiving, I am so soaked in thanking God for all He has done, I have forgotten what I needed to ask for.
Sometimes you have to get to the point where you just say, "God, You are good. Your mercy endures forever. You are the head. You are everything. You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are my healer. You are my deliverer. You are my everything."
Then you thank Him. "God, You woke me up this morning. I thank You for everything. I confess my sins. I missed it yesterday, but You forgave me because of the blood. God, I thank You for shedding Your blood." And then you start remembering that He shed blood for you. Then you get to the point where you just say, "God, You are good. God, You are amazing. I woke up. I am breathing. I am walking. I should have lost everything. I did not have all I needed, but somehow You provided." And then you get so lost in His presence that you do not even remember what you wanted.
When you get to the point where you do not need anything from Him because you know that He has already supplied all your needs, that is when everything changes. The Bible says in Matthew 6:33, "If you seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things shall be added unto you." He did not say you have to ask for it. He said He will add it. Everything you need will be added.
That is why you have to start with adoration—giving yourself the opportunity to say, "God, I am seeking Your kingdom." Confession means saying, "God, I am obeying Your kingdom." And thanksgiving means saying, "God, I thank You for adding already." So you forget to ask Him for something you needed because you are not waiting on the outcome to establish your relationship with Him.
I do not want to be fake in church. I really do not. I do not get it right all the time, but I tell myself, "God, do not let me be fake in church. Do not let me be in here acting like my marriage is perfect when it is not. Do not let me be in here acting like I am the best father when I do not pay Him attention. God, keep me close to You. Keep my mind close to You. It is not about me—it is about You."
When I understand that the outcome is not what establishes my faith, then I can understand what Daniel 3:17 says: "If we are thrown into this fire, the God I serve is able to deliver me. I came to talk to somebody with some doubt in their head. Get it out. You are a king's kid, a royal priesthood. What God has established for you is for you. He will deliver you."
I am believing God for certain things right now, and I am saying God is going to deliver me from them. He will not have me thinking that way anymore. My trust and my faith in God will not shift because of any thought. Not that thought anymore. No, no, no, no, no, no.
But even if He does not do it the way I want, we will not bow. Even if He does not deliver me, I will not bow. Let me back it up because He says, "And He will deliver us." But then on the flip side, in the next verse, He says, "But even if He does not deliver us, we will not bow."
That seems crazy. He says He will deliver us, but then He also says even if He does not. But He is saying, "I know my God is going to deliver me, so even if I stay in this fire, He is going to get in here with me and help me fight through it."
Why? Because mature faith believes God can, but it does not require God to follow my instructions. Mature faith believes God is able, but it does not require Him to get me out the way I want Him to. Maybe God is keeping me in something to get something out of me—to get me to trust Him more, to see Him while I am in it.
Maybe God says, "I am not going to get you out of this. Maybe I am going to get in this with you." I believe God is able. I believe God can heal you. I believe God can deliver you. I believe God can restore you. I believe God can suddenly turn the entire situation around. But my relationship with God cannot be based only on whether He gives me the answer I want.
How close I am with God, how much I am praying, how much I am reading His word, how much I am serving God, how much I am staying connected—these cannot be totally based on the answer I want.
You know what you want. You want God to say it right now: "You are going to marry that man. He is going to be on top of the world. He is going to be a millionaire. You are going to have everything you need." But maybe God is saying, "I am going to put him in the church and get him right for you. You are going to have to wait this out."
Maybe God is saying, "I do not want you to date in this season. You just need to chill and love Me right now and get your stuff together." Maybe God says you have to be a single mother or single father in this season and change your ways and get all the stuff out of you. You do not even realize you are winning because your flesh makes you think you are losing. But you do not realize that God has established something on the inside of you to create something bigger than what you wanted.
You do not even realize it. The word says you cannot even think or imagine the things that God has for you. It also says your thoughts are not like His thoughts. Your ways are not like His ways. But it also says He will never leave you nor forsake you. God is so good.
The breakthrough may happen suddenly, but the faith required to survive until it happens is developed over time. It may happen suddenly, but the faith you are going to need to survive it is developed over time.
Daniel 3:24-25 shows us the fourth man in the fire. God did not keep them out of the fire, but He refused to let them walk through it alone. Can I tell you what God is doing right now in this season for you? He is refusing to let you walk through this season alone.
You think you are alone because you do not feel Him. But you do not have to feel Him to know He is there. You think you are alone because you believe you cannot take anymore, and yet you wake up the next day. "I cannot take it anymore, God." But you woke up the next day. What you could not take? You told yourself, "I cannot do this anymore. I am done with this." But the next day, you are still doing it.
That is because He is walking with you. That is because He is in the fire with you. That is because He is taking care of every need with you. Sometimes God will not give you an explanation for the fire. He will give you His presence in the fire. "Why am I going through this, God?" "Do not worry about why you are going through it. Just know I am here with you."
Because guess what? You are going to have a great testimony when this is over. There is somebody in here with a great testimony right now. The folks sitting next to you do not even know what you are going through right now.
There is somebody in here with a great testimony right now. The folks sitting next to you don't even know what you are going through right now. You sit up in here shouting and screaming and putting your hands up, but they don't know what it took for you to get in here.
Some of you are prospering, and people are looking at you sideways, talking about who they think you are. But they don't know what it took for you to get where you are. They don't know how many sacrifices you had to make to save your money. So don't hate on my breakthrough when you don't know what I've been through.
Before the fire, they knew God was able. But inside the fire, they discovered God was near them. Before the fire, they knew God was able. While in the fire, they knew God was near them.
These three things give us the theological foundation for unshakable faith:
Our God is able. They acknowledged that our God is able.
He will deliver us from your hand.
You have to be bold to be thrown in the fire and look back at Him while you're going in and say, "He's going to deliver us." You're being backstabbed, laid off, going through it right now—and still you say, "He's going to deliver me from this."
You have to be bold to walk like He's going to deliver you while you're going through it. You have to look back at somebody and say, "Oh no. He's going to deliver me out of this. Don't worry. It's only a matter of time."
But even if He does not do it.
They said, "He's my God. He has the power to do it whenever He wants to do it. So even if He doesn't do it when you think He's going to do it or when I think He's going to do it, that doesn't mean He doesn't have the power to do it."
Unshakable faith is not confidence that I will avoid the fire. It is confidence that God will remain faithful in the fire. That God will remain faithful in the fire. That at some point you've got to get it in your mind and make your mind up: God will remain faithful to this cause.
You better keep going to school. I don't care about that bad semester—get back up and do it again. You better keep staying in that sport. I don't care if you didn't make the team or didn't get in last week—keep fighting till you get back in. You better keep going to that job. You better keep filling out job applications. I don't care what they say. My God is faithful. My God is faithful and just. You better stay and stand and stick.
Don't let the enemy make you think that God is not moving because it's not happening for you right now.
I have the privilege to help lead the prayer team. The Lord woke me up and said, "You better stop praying only when it's time to go to seekers or on Thursday. People who say they are prayer warriors and intercessors see things coming before they come."
If stuff starts shaking on the outside and you didn't see it coming, and you're talking about being in the trenches praying—what were you doing? Not only if you didn't see it, but if you weren't prepared.
Most of what God is saying to us is that this season of our life should be preparation. So that when things happen in the world, it won't shake us. What's happening to them in the world doesn't happen to us like that.
I want to push you to get closer to God and say: "I'm not bowing to the wounds and tests of the enemy. I won't bow to disappointment and things that are not happening right now. I will not bow.
This won't be a place where I give up. This won't be a place where I come up off my convictions. This won't be a place where I change my faith to believe that God has created me to prosper. This won't be a place where I get weary because of health issues.
This won't be a place where my children are out there doing crazy stuff, but I don't believe that my God is so faithful that He'll bring them back in. It won't be a place where I miss what God is doing in my life because I won't stand on His word.
I WILL NOT BOW to the enemy.
Your word is crystal clear, God, that You will supply all of our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Your word is crystal clear that we can cast all our cares upon You because You care for us.
Your word is crystal clear, God, that if we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding, and in all our ways acknowledge You, You will direct our path. Your word is crystal clear, God, that we are the head and not the tail. We come behind no good thing.
Your word is crystal clear, God, that You will guard and protect us. That You will protect our minds. That You will cover us. Why? Because You would never leave us nor forsake us.
There may be a soul in this place that has forgotten that You are a good God. There may be someone that needs a little bit of our faith to believe and know that God is good, that God is God. He is a supplier. He is Jehovah Jireh, the one that supplies every need. He is a healer. He is Jehovah Shammah, the one that's right here in this room right now.
As we lift up Your name and call out Your name, we will delight ourselves in You and the desires of our hearts shall be given.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar with a remarkable declaration:
"We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. And he will deliver us from your majesty's hands. But even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set before us."
This "I won't bow" declaration cuts to the heart of what unshakable faith truly means. Many believe unshakable faith means nothing will ever shake you, but the reality is different: unshakable faith means that when life shakes everything around me, my relationship with God keeps me connected to him.
When life happens around you, that relationship with God keeps you connected to him. Your emotions may shake. Your plans may shake. Your relationships may be shaky. Your confidence in people may be wavering. But you will not allow what happens around you to change what you believe about God.
Have you been through some stuff in life? Now you know it will take far more than losing a job to make you shaky about what God is and who God is to you. It will take more than somebody walking out of your life to make you question who God is. It will take more than a social media post to shake your faith about who God is in your life. God has been too good to you for you to sit around thinking that life can happen and dispute everything He has already done for you.
Thank God you woke up this morning. That alone is good. Thank God you can raise your hand. That is enough. Some people did not wake up this morning, but God saw fit that you would get up, put on your clothes in your right mind, and walk into the church. He has been too good for you to allow one little thing to make you believe that God is not who He says He is.
Life can shape what is around me, but my relationship with God keeps me standing. Sometimes stuff around you is going to happen. You cannot run from that. The problem is not what happens around you—the problem is that you stop standing when things start happening.
What if what is happening in your life did not come to kill you but to develop you? What if God is trying to develop you through the stuff that has happened in your life and around you? Life should not make you stop believing that God still has your back, that God is still good in your life.
To respect the content, you need context. In Daniel 1, we see why the three Hebrew men were the way they were. Daniel sits at the table talking to the king's officials, and they try to get him to eat. Interestingly, if you look at Daniel 1, the three Hebrew men never speak—you only hear Daniel talking.
Some seasons in your life, you are going to have to stop talking and start learning. The reason you cannot get through in your chapter 3 is because you did not listen in your chapter 1. You tried to talk and got nervous and weary. God says if you be around some people fighting through stuff instead of hating on them, you may learn something. When you get in your chapter 3 and get tossed to the fire, you will understand how to stand in the middle of a storm.
Many of us have a lot to say in seasons when God wants you to do one thing: shut up, listen, and watch. Be careful to follow people who do not know God. You have to get yourself around people who have a relationship with God because they can help you see what God is doing inside of you. So when you get to chapter 3 and the fire comes, you will not bow.
Sometimes you cannot see your God. You cannot feel your God. But here is a public service announcement: even when you cannot feel Him, even when you cannot see Him, does not mean He is not present. Some of us want God to be present every single time we feel like it. But God says, "Does not mean that I am not present because you do not feel me."
The king ordered Aspernaz, head of the palace staff, to get some Israelites from the royal family and nobility. Young men who were healthy, handsome, intelligent, well-educated, with good prospects for leadership—perfect specimens—and indoctrinate them in Babylonian language, magic, and fortune telling. They were served food from the king's table.
But Daniel said, "You call that the best food, but that is where you get the Daniel fast from." Daniel said, "Just feed me some vegetables and water. I am going to come out stronger." Some of you are trying to be the same as everybody else. But God said if you do something different, you might come out stronger. You are different than other people.
You wonder why you are going through the stuff you are going through. Every time you turn around, you have to go through it. It is because God is trying to get you to see that you are not the same as everybody else. Your path may be different from my path. You do not do what I do. You do not fast how I fast. Just because I do not eat does not mean you do not eat. You have to do what is best for you and what God told you to do.
Time out for comparison. Stop trying to be like this person and that person. You will not be in their house when God gives them what they have been praying for. Some folk do not know what you have been praying for. Sometimes you have to do something different, and when you do, it ultimately puts you stronger in your spirit.
You can always tell people who are strong in the spirit because when stuff starts happening around them, they say, "It is okay. Let us just pray." Have you ever called somebody and said, "I am going through something. I need some help," and they say, "It is okay. Let us just pray"? That is how you get out. You have to talk to the King who can help you out of stuff.
You do not just go to church to be going to church. Church is not the place where I get my spiritual relationship from. Church is the place where you come and celebrate the King with a bunch of believers sitting next to somebody that loves Jesus Christ.
There is a distinct difference between church people and God's people. Church people come to church because they celebrate church. God's people come to church because they have God in them. Whether it is four walls or no walls, they are going to give God the highest praise. Whether sitting in a sanctuary or in overflow, it is not going to stop them serving their God.
Daniel 1 shows us how convictions are developed. Daniel 3 shows us what happens when those convictions come under pressure. Daniel 1 shows us that convictions are developed in private—nobody sees that. That is a place where you sit down. But Daniel 3 shows us when everybody sees you going into fire. They want to see if you are going to fold under pressure. But you were developed in private. That is why people cannot see you fold under pressure. That is why folk do not understand why you come into this crowded sanctuary lifting your hands up knowing you have issues out there. You are not going to give them the satisfaction to see you fold.
Babylon tried to change their location, their education. They tried to change their names. They tried to change their appetites. Babylon removed them from Jerusalem, educated them in Babylon's systems, gave them Babylonian names, and offered them food from the king's table. Babylon was trying to change where they lived, how they thought, what they answered to, and what they desired.
But Daniel and his friends teach us that people can change what has happened around you without changing who you belong to. They were living in Babylon, but Babylon was not living in them. They decided: I am in the world, but I am not of the world. So when you go to work and they start talking that nonsense that does not fit you, you say, "I am not sitting here listening to this. I know what they said, but I am not of that part."
Nebuchadnezzar moved them out of Jerusalem, but he could not move God out of their hearts. If God is not in your heart, I do not care how much you praise Him and cry at the altar. You can think you have God in your heart until you go through some stuff and have to push yourself to keep going and say, "God, in spite of all of that, I am going to keep myself in position and love on You." That is when He is in your heart.
You are able to say no to things that your flesh wants to say yes to. That is when you know He is in your heart. You are able to keep pushing when your mind, your body, and your soul say, "No, I do not want to do that anymore," but you keep pushing anyhow. That is when you know He is in your heart.
Why? Because relationships must be developed before the fire.
I spoke with my 26-year-old daughter the other day, and she said something that struck me. She said, "Nobody came around here when I had money and a car. Nobody said anything to me. It was not until I lost this job and this car. Now everybody is coming around telling me to be responsible."
That is how we are. We have money. We are on top of the world. We have everything going well—the club, the swag, everything good. But it is not until you lose some of that stuff that you start coming around saying, "Where is God? God, I need you. Help me up." You show up to church at 10:59 when service starts at 11:30 because you need something.
God is like, "Where were you when you were getting raises and bonuses, sales and commissions, doing your thing? You coming to talk to God when you are going through something. Your relationship should have been developed way back then. You would have known that even if you lost all what you have, you still have God and He still has a plan for your life."
When we have the job, money is coming in, the car is running, the family is doing well, and it feels like we have everything under control, sometimes we stop checking in with God. We do not pray the same. We do not seek Him the same. We do not stay in the word the same. It is not that important anymore. It is not that God stopped checking on us. It is that we started living as if we did not need Him anymore.
Have you ever been at that place where you think, "God, I got it. I am good now. I do not need to go to church"? You get to the place where you start drifting. "Oh, I am tired. I stayed out last night. I will watch it online." Then you forget to watch it online. So you watched the replay and then you forgot. God says, "No, get up now and watch it. Get up now and go."
But no, you are good. When you were going through, you were the first one at the door. You were the first one to log in. You were on your devotional energy every morning trying to get a word. You were in the comment section: "I need a word. Somebody prophesy to me. Lay hands on me." And once you got it? "God, I am good. It is all good. I do not need You anymore."
We cannot be at a point where we get from God what we want and never return. God does not only want to hear from you when you need Him to fix something.
The relationship with God should not begin in the fire. The fire should reveal the relationship you were already developing. A relationship with God should not begin in the fire. The fire should reveal the relationship you already have. You do not want trouble to be the only thing that makes you pray.
I like Seekers because everybody who comes is getting up in the morning every week. Everybody logging on is coming to pray. It is like: I know what I am going to get. I am going to get some prayer. I do not care what nobody got on. I do not even care what I am putting on—I am slipping on something. I am getting to Seekers. I want to pray because I have been asking God intentionally to have me at a posture of prayer. Whether life is good, my bank account looks good, no problems or nothing—I want to be at a place where I make prayer consistent in my life.
Why? Because you should not only pray when something is going wrong. You should not only pray when things are happening in your life. God is trying to get you to pray right now because He is seeing you are going to go through the hospital next week. He is trying to build up and develop your faith right now for the issue that may happen next week.
I am not saying that is going to happen to you, but life happens. It may not be the hospital. It may just be frustration with your spouse. But if you were prayed up, He will show you how to discern how to handle that thing. The reason some of us cannot grow up is because we will not come up in the seasons where we have it going on.
I need God when things are falling apart. But I also need Him when everything appears to be going well. Do not allow the blessings God gave you to make you forget the God who gave them.
Have you ever met somebody? You loaned them money. They got paid. They got a job. Everything is good. Then you asked them, "Yo, can we go out to eat or something?" "Oh, I ain't got it." But you see them out to eat. They forgot that you looked out for them. Sometimes we make it seem as if we forgot the God that made it possible for us in the season we are in right now.
The furnace did not create their faith. The furnace revealed their faith. It revealed their faith. You cannot wait until the music starts playing to decide whether you are going to bow or not bow. When you are in the heat, you do not want to be deciding whether you are going to bow to this particular situation while you are in it. You have already decided before you got in it that you are not going down.
You cannot wait until the crisis comes to decide whether you will trust God. The furnace did not create their faith—the furnace revealed their faith. When you are in the heat, you do not want to be deciding whether you will bow to a situation while you are already in it. You must have already decided before you entered it that you are not going to compromise.
I have already decided before the problem even came. I have already decided that my God is too good. I have already decided that I will trust God. I have already decided that I will obey God.
We spend too much time deciding in the moment: Should I go? Should I stop? Should I take another job? Should I trust Him? Should I tithe? Should I pay my bills or give my offering? But the time for those decisions is before the pressure arrives. If He doesn't take care of it, it won't get done. I've already decided that God has got me.
Some of us have not made up our minds to follow God despite the circumstances. I have already decided that the pressure will not have my worship. I have decided that what I am going through will not stop my praise. Whether I make it to church or not, I am going to praise Him. Whether things work out or not, my praise is my weapon.
Trouble does not create your convictions—it exposes them. When you go through trouble, it will reveal whether you trust your money or whether you trust God. It will expose what you really depend on and where your real faith lies.
You know why I can trust God? Because Job said this: "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." I trust God because I have already seen Him work. My mother prayed about Him. My father prayed about Him. My grandparents prayed about Him. But it is not just about their prayers anymore—I have grown up and I have seen God myself. I have seen Him make a way and provide for me. I have seen Him do the impossible.
Even if trouble happens, I have seen Him do it before. I am speaking to someone who may be going through something right now, whether in this room or across the world: If He did it before, He can do it again.
If you have seen the presence of God, He did not stop making blessings at your last blessing. He did not stop pulling you out at your last deliverance. He is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. He is the same God who brought you up. He is the same God who gave you that promotion. He is the same God who made sure your bills were paid. He is the same God who saved you from the streets. He is the same God who saved your loved ones.
If He did it before, I have news for you: He will do it again. It may not come when you want it to come, but He will be on time. I am not going to lose my mind waiting on God because He is the same God who protected me when I was doing wrong. He is the same God who kept my mind when I wanted to be frustrated.
I am not going to get angry while waiting because waiting only means that somebody is on the way. The blessing you need, the breakthrough you need, the things you need to shift—they are on the way. You keep being frustrated about what you do not have, but it is on the way. You keep being frustrated in your season, but it is on the way. Do not grow weary in doing good, because in due season you shall reap if you faint not.
Your relationship with God makes up your mind before the pressure even comes. I am not preaching about relationship for you—I am preaching so that I can stay on the path myself. Even when I get frustrated in the season I am in right now, I need my relationship with God to keep me on track.
I do not want a Sunday morning relationship with God. I need an everyday relationship. I am not saying this because I have it all together. I am saying this because I need my relationship to stay rooted and grounded in all seasons. When the pressure comes, we can reach a point where everything seems good and then the pressure hits and we fold. I do not want to fold under pressure.
The devil is tricky. He is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He looks for those who do not pray enough. He thinks, "I can work on them. They have money and a job, so I can pray on them. They have found someone, and now they do not come around anymore. I will use that person to pull them out of their position." But when your relationship is tight, you do not fold for that. When your relationship is tight, your whole household believes in God. You walk around declaring that everybody in this house shall serve the Lord.
Daniel 3:16 says, "We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter." They were telling the king, "We do not need another meeting. We do not need time to think about this."
You go to people and ask them for advice: "God told me to start my business. What do you think?" Now you are voting. Their voice becomes higher than God's voice. But you will not spend enough time with God to know His direction. If God told you to do it, He will supply every need that you have. You do not need anybody to agree with you and affirm what God is doing in you. You better get up and go do what God called you to do and be all that He called you to be.
You are trying to get people to agree with you, and that tells me you have not really been with God. You are running on zeal, and when you run out of zeal, you run out of gas.
Pressure does not create my convictions—it exposes them. It exposes my weakness and where I am struggling. You are going to have to start telling God to get you under control, because there are some fleshly desires that will cause you to be out of control with God. Pressure will bring out the things you are struggling with on the inside that nobody sees. Normally when people leave and do something crazy, pressure started it. They were under pressure and did not know that all they had to do was stand.
Relationship means trusting God beyond the outcome. Let me tell you a story. I have twin boys, and my wife's birthday was coming up. She wanted to go on a cruise, and her best friend's birthday had been a week before. Since we moved from North Carolina to Birmingham, she does not get to see her friend as much as she wants to. I said, "Yeah, cool. Me and the boys have got it. Go ahead."
So we dropped her off at her friend's house. She flew out, and I took the boys back to Birmingham. That drive was something else. "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy!" I was like, "When is this going to stop?" "Dad, can you change the channel?" "Dad, can you change the CD? I do not want to watch Spider-Man anymore." "Can we pull over? Do I need to use the bathroom? I want a drink." I just wanted to get home as fast as I could.
When we got home, I had someone come over and cut my hair because I had to prepare for the day. So I said, "Hey, nobody took a nap all day. Let us eat some pizza and all get in the bed." My wife does not like my kids in our bed, but we were home alone, so we had a party in the bed. We got pillows, we made tents, we had the whole party going.
So DJ—one of my boys—said, "I love you, daddy." Then he said, "I love your haircut." I thought to myself, "You saw my haircut earlier. Why did not you tell me you love my haircut earlier? But it was not until I gave you something you wanted that now you love my haircut."
That is how we are with God. It is not until He gives you something that now you start talking about God: "I love You. I love that about You, God." But God says, "Why did not you love that about Me before I gave you what you wanted?"
Some of us in this room are saying, "I am waiting on God to do something for me before He ever sees my praise." But your praise means nothing if you can only praise Him when you have what you want. I want to talk to some people in this house who say, "I am going to praise God even if I do not have it. My praise is not predicated on whether God does it or not. The love I have for God is not predicated on whether I get what I want or not."
You have to learn to soak yourself in His presence. I started doing something with my prayer team. I call it the ACTS prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. By the time I get to thanksgiving, I am so soaked in thanking God for all He has done, I have forgotten what I needed to ask for.
Sometimes you have to get to the point where you just say, "God, You are good. Your mercy endures forever. You are the head. You are everything. You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are my healer. You are my deliverer. You are my everything."
Then you thank Him. "God, You woke me up this morning. I thank You for everything. I confess my sins. I missed it yesterday, but You forgave me because of the blood. God, I thank You for shedding Your blood." And then you start remembering that He shed blood for you. Then you get to the point where you just say, "God, You are good. God, You are amazing. I woke up. I am breathing. I am walking. I should have lost everything. I did not have all I needed, but somehow You provided." And then you get so lost in His presence that you do not even remember what you wanted.
When you get to the point where you do not need anything from Him because you know that He has already supplied all your needs, that is when everything changes. The Bible says in Matthew 6:33, "If you seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things shall be added unto you." He did not say you have to ask for it. He said He will add it. Everything you need will be added.
That is why you have to start with adoration—giving yourself the opportunity to say, "God, I am seeking Your kingdom." Confession means saying, "God, I am obeying Your kingdom." And thanksgiving means saying, "God, I thank You for adding already." So you forget to ask Him for something you needed because you are not waiting on the outcome to establish your relationship with Him.
I do not want to be fake in church. I really do not. I do not get it right all the time, but I tell myself, "God, do not let me be fake in church. Do not let me be in here acting like my marriage is perfect when it is not. Do not let me be in here acting like I am the best father when I do not pay Him attention. God, keep me close to You. Keep my mind close to You. It is not about me—it is about You."
When I understand that the outcome is not what establishes my faith, then I can understand what Daniel 3:17 says: "If we are thrown into this fire, the God I serve is able to deliver me. I came to talk to somebody with some doubt in their head. Get it out. You are a king's kid, a royal priesthood. What God has established for you is for you. He will deliver you."
I am believing God for certain things right now, and I am saying God is going to deliver me from them. He will not have me thinking that way anymore. My trust and my faith in God will not shift because of any thought. Not that thought anymore. No, no, no, no, no, no.
But even if He does not do it the way I want, we will not bow. Even if He does not deliver me, I will not bow. Let me back it up because He says, "And He will deliver us." But then on the flip side, in the next verse, He says, "But even if He does not deliver us, we will not bow."
That seems crazy. He says He will deliver us, but then He also says even if He does not. But He is saying, "I know my God is going to deliver me, so even if I stay in this fire, He is going to get in here with me and help me fight through it."
Why? Because mature faith believes God can, but it does not require God to follow my instructions. Mature faith believes God is able, but it does not require Him to get me out the way I want Him to. Maybe God is keeping me in something to get something out of me—to get me to trust Him more, to see Him while I am in it.
Maybe God says, "I am not going to get you out of this. Maybe I am going to get in this with you." I believe God is able. I believe God can heal you. I believe God can deliver you. I believe God can restore you. I believe God can suddenly turn the entire situation around. But my relationship with God cannot be based only on whether He gives me the answer I want.
How close I am with God, how much I am praying, how much I am reading His word, how much I am serving God, how much I am staying connected—these cannot be totally based on the answer I want.
You know what you want. You want God to say it right now: "You are going to marry that man. He is going to be on top of the world. He is going to be a millionaire. You are going to have everything you need." But maybe God is saying, "I am going to put him in the church and get him right for you. You are going to have to wait this out."
Maybe God is saying, "I do not want you to date in this season. You just need to chill and love Me right now and get your stuff together." Maybe God says you have to be a single mother or single father in this season and change your ways and get all the stuff out of you. You do not even realize you are winning because your flesh makes you think you are losing. But you do not realize that God has established something on the inside of you to create something bigger than what you wanted.
You do not even realize it. The word says you cannot even think or imagine the things that God has for you. It also says your thoughts are not like His thoughts. Your ways are not like His ways. But it also says He will never leave you nor forsake you. God is so good.
The breakthrough may happen suddenly, but the faith required to survive until it happens is developed over time. It may happen suddenly, but the faith you are going to need to survive it is developed over time.
Daniel 3:24-25 shows us the fourth man in the fire. God did not keep them out of the fire, but He refused to let them walk through it alone. Can I tell you what God is doing right now in this season for you? He is refusing to let you walk through this season alone.
You think you are alone because you do not feel Him. But you do not have to feel Him to know He is there. You think you are alone because you believe you cannot take anymore, and yet you wake up the next day. "I cannot take it anymore, God." But you woke up the next day. What you could not take? You told yourself, "I cannot do this anymore. I am done with this." But the next day, you are still doing it.
That is because He is walking with you. That is because He is in the fire with you. That is because He is taking care of every need with you. Sometimes God will not give you an explanation for the fire. He will give you His presence in the fire. "Why am I going through this, God?" "Do not worry about why you are going through it. Just know I am here with you."
Because guess what? You are going to have a great testimony when this is over. There is somebody in here with a great testimony right now. The folks sitting next to you do not even know what you are going through right now.
There is somebody in here with a great testimony right now. The folks sitting next to you don't even know what you are going through right now. You sit up in here shouting and screaming and putting your hands up, but they don't know what it took for you to get in here.
Some of you are prospering, and people are looking at you sideways, talking about who they think you are. But they don't know what it took for you to get where you are. They don't know how many sacrifices you had to make to save your money. So don't hate on my breakthrough when you don't know what I've been through.
Before the fire, they knew God was able. But inside the fire, they discovered God was near them. Before the fire, they knew God was able. While in the fire, they knew God was near them.
These three things give us the theological foundation for unshakable faith:
Our God is able. They acknowledged that our God is able.
He will deliver us from your hand.
You have to be bold to be thrown in the fire and look back at Him while you're going in and say, "He's going to deliver us." You're being backstabbed, laid off, going through it right now—and still you say, "He's going to deliver me from this."
You have to be bold to walk like He's going to deliver you while you're going through it. You have to look back at somebody and say, "Oh no. He's going to deliver me out of this. Don't worry. It's only a matter of time."
But even if He does not do it.
They said, "He's my God. He has the power to do it whenever He wants to do it. So even if He doesn't do it when you think He's going to do it or when I think He's going to do it, that doesn't mean He doesn't have the power to do it."
Unshakable faith is not confidence that I will avoid the fire. It is confidence that God will remain faithful in the fire. That God will remain faithful in the fire. That at some point you've got to get it in your mind and make your mind up: God will remain faithful to this cause.
You better keep going to school. I don't care about that bad semester—get back up and do it again. You better keep staying in that sport. I don't care if you didn't make the team or didn't get in last week—keep fighting till you get back in. You better keep going to that job. You better keep filling out job applications. I don't care what they say. My God is faithful. My God is faithful and just. You better stay and stand and stick.
Don't let the enemy make you think that God is not moving because it's not happening for you right now.
I have the privilege to help lead the prayer team. The Lord woke me up and said, "You better stop praying only when it's time to go to seekers or on Thursday. People who say they are prayer warriors and intercessors see things coming before they come."
If stuff starts shaking on the outside and you didn't see it coming, and you're talking about being in the trenches praying—what were you doing? Not only if you didn't see it, but if you weren't prepared.
Most of what God is saying to us is that this season of our life should be preparation. So that when things happen in the world, it won't shake us. What's happening to them in the world doesn't happen to us like that.
I want to push you to get closer to God and say: "I'm not bowing to the wounds and tests of the enemy. I won't bow to disappointment and things that are not happening right now. I will not bow.
This won't be a place where I give up. This won't be a place where I come up off my convictions. This won't be a place where I change my faith to believe that God has created me to prosper. This won't be a place where I get weary because of health issues.
This won't be a place where my children are out there doing crazy stuff, but I don't believe that my God is so faithful that He'll bring them back in. It won't be a place where I miss what God is doing in my life because I won't stand on His word.
I WILL NOT BOW to the enemy.
Your word is crystal clear, God, that You will supply all of our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Your word is crystal clear that we can cast all our cares upon You because You care for us.
Your word is crystal clear, God, that if we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding, and in all our ways acknowledge You, You will direct our path. Your word is crystal clear, God, that we are the head and not the tail. We come behind no good thing.
Your word is crystal clear, God, that You will guard and protect us. That You will protect our minds. That You will cover us. Why? Because You would never leave us nor forsake us.
There may be a soul in this place that has forgotten that You are a good God. There may be someone that needs a little bit of our faith to believe and know that God is good, that God is God. He is a supplier. He is Jehovah Jireh, the one that supplies every need. He is a healer. He is Jehovah Shammah, the one that's right here in this room right now.
As we lift up Your name and call out Your name, we will delight ourselves in You and the desires of our hearts shall be given.
