Thought Bubbles | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church

Lord your God, pass your hand over the place and heal me of my leprosy. I

thought

I was going to do one of these little things." God had to burst Naaman's bubble, free him from what he

thought

. I think there is a miracle happening in your heart right now. God is bursting the bubble of what you thought. . ..what you thought you needed, what you thought you could be, what you thought you couldn't survive without it. You're going to discover new abilities in this season that you didn't even know you had. Naaman almost left because I thought.

How many things I've been lost because I thought? How many things has God wanted to do in my life, but I didn't participate because it didn't match what I thought? He's still going to bless you, but not like "God, free me from what I thought." What a prayer ! "Release me from my pattern." It's not what I thought. Then he took me back to Isaiah, where he said, "My ways are higher than yours and my thoughts are not your thoughts." The Lord wants to give you a transplant of thought today. You were approved on the donor list.

He sent his Son to die for you. He said that he wants to give you a thought transplant. I said, "What does that look like, God?" He said, "Well, there will be a period of rejection." My dad had a liver transplant, so I know all this. "There's going to be a period of rejection, but tell them to start thinking... Tell them to spend some time in the bubble with me, because my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways." Thank God Naaman had a good friend. Thank God that Naaman had a voice, because he almost missed what God wanted to give him because it was not what he thought it would be.

Just as the man was leaving, as you had been leaving; just at the moment when he was about to become cynical, bitter, petty and unpleasant; just as he said, "Why bother?" Naaman's servants approached him and said... Can you imagine the conversation? "I'm not going to tell him; you tell him." "I'm not going to tell him; you tell him." But one of them said it, from a thought bubble to a dialog box. He spoke it. He said: "My father..." Respect. "Lord Naaman, if I told you to do a great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when I say to you, 'Wash and you will be clean'!" Thank God he fell.

Isn't it crazy how God's thoughts are above our thoughts, but he sometimes calls us to come down and do something that seems so silly? Naaman said, "I could have washed in the rivers of Damascus. They were better than this." Your bubble is what you think would be best. God also wants to burst that bubble. It's not better to be someone else. God wants to free you from your bubble of what you think would be best so you can enjoy where He has you. I know; I also want it to improve. There are many things I want to improve.

God invites Naaman to a trial. I think he is also calling you to come down, to stop worshiping what you thought. Realize that his ways are higher. Accept his purpose in this season. "...and he dipped himself in the Jordan seven times." Do you know what that spoke to me? Repetition. You don't think differently because you heard a sermon. Do not grow your pecs by doing it once every four weeks. God said, "Another repetition, another repetition, until you think as I think." The man of God told him to do it seven times, and he did it seven times, and his flesh was restored and became clean as that of a child.

He became who he was all along before the leprosy. Before heartbreak, before addiction... God is restoring you. The Spirit of the Lord is restoring you, dip after dip, thought after thought. He's bursting your bubble. You don't need your camels. You don't need your spices. You don't need your clothes. You don't need any of that. It's not going to take what you thought. God said, "My ways are higher." Sir, we have covered a lot of ground today. It all comes down to something so simple. It all comes down to something so simple that we could overlook it.

It all comes down to us realizing that beneath all the layers of what life has thrown at us and the struggle has thrown at us, Naaman had to become a son, a child. The woman had to become a daughter. God, restore us to who we really are. Thank you because we are not our thoughts, our decisions, our mistakes, our achievements. We are here right now because we have a name that has been given to us and that is above all names, whatever people may call us, classify us. I am something different. I am something different from what I did.

I am something different than what I think. Who am I, God? Show me who I really am. Show me who you really are. I'll dive into the Jordan if I have to. I will apologize. I want to rethink my life from your level. I want to spend some time in the bubble. God, I want you to tear down every stronghold, every thought that didn't come from you. Throw it out right now. Raise your hands. I hear the Lord say, "Water your thoughts." Water your thoughts with adoration. Open your mouth right now. If you get serious enough, you won't care what everyone around you thinks.

You will do it right there in your living room and start loving it. "I am a child of God." Even something that simple. Let's make a breakthrough right there in the bubble, right there in your home. Let's make God appear right in that place, right in that broken place.