Touré Roberts - Managing Capacity

I mentioned in the message last week about capacity. I want to be honest with you: everything around you right now, for the most part, is the same as it was last season. What has to happen is that you must now be the catalyst to bring about change around you. I’m trying to express this the way I see it. Everything around you has the potential to stay the same because before change comes, there’s sameness. We’re believing for change and shifts and all those sorts of things this year, and you ought to because God is going to do it. But I don’t want to lead you to believe that change is going to happen automatically. No, what happens automatically is sameness. Change necessitates pressing in. I talked about this last week. You have to press into change because everything about you wants to remain the same. The only thing that doesn’t want to stay the same is the will inside you, but all of your natural tendencies are to revert to the same. Even today, you are probably going to leave here and go to the same restaurant. We are creatures of habit, and in order to walk fully in God’s change, you must be intentional. That’s why I believe that the awesome thing about fasting is that it acts like a clearing out. You stop what you normally do in order to press into a space in the Spirit where God can begin to talk to you about the new things He wants to do in and through your life. Can I talk to you like that for just a second? You pause, break up your routine, stop and fast. Whatever your fast is, I don’t judge; it just needs to be a sacrifice. Don’t give up breakfast if you never eat breakfast anyway. I’m fasting this morning. Dude, you never eat breakfast! I know, but it’s intentional now—it’s something intentional. No, it needs to be something. Social media, I’ll be honest with you: I think social media needs to be part of your fast. I get it; if you have to go on and post to push your agenda, do that. But don’t go on just to scroll. You know how we get—we go on to post something, and then we start saying, «Well, since I’m on…» Here’s what happens: we get a whole bunch of other ideas. Can we keep it 100 this morning, family? I want you to fast, listen, and be open to the new thing. I wish I had time to teach this, but when Jesus talked about fasting, He ultimately related it to getting new wine instead of having old wine in old wine skins. I don’t want you to take old wine into a new season, wondering why it still feels old. Everything has to come into evaluation right now. Reevaluation: what was good last season may not be good this season. Isn’t that something? What was a blessing yesterday, if you don’t make a shift when God requires it, can become a curse today. Isn’t that interesting? I want you to fast, listen, and take your pen. Look out for the thing that’s going to stretch you. Oh God, help me! I feel the Lord right there. I want you to listen, fast, pray, and ask God. There may be some people here who don’t understand; I’m saying that the culture is to stop and seek God. You know what? Maybe for the first day, you hear nothing, but what you don’t realize is something’s happening. You’re changing because you’re sacrificing; you’re giving up. Sometimes God will wait until the last day of the fast to give you the breakthrough, whether it’s a one-day fast or a five-day fast, depending on what God told you. You need a new word about you. God, I want to see the me at this level. I can’t be me at this level until I see the me on this level. So God, I need a mirror. Show me, God, who I am. You see me; you look at Gideon. Gideon didn’t know who he was. In God’s interpretation, he was a mighty man of valor. Study the Book of Judges 6, and read the entire Bible; you’ll find it. In God’s eyes, God saw him as a mighty man of valor who was getting ready to bring a great deliverance to His people. But his testimony was much different. He said, «I am in the least tribe of the children of Israel, the smallest tribe, and I am the smallest one in the tribe.» So he saw himself as insignificant. It’s interesting that God engages him, and one of the first things He says is that He calls him a mighty man of valor. Why? Because he couldn’t become a mighty man of valor until he was able to see himself as such.