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During his sermon titled “It’s Always Been In You” pastor Steven Furtick (PSF), mentioned that he was giving us “The Bethel Revelation.” Before I go any further, I want to first provide two definitions of the word “Bethel.” According to Jacob the father of the nation Israel, Bethel is “none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28: 17, NIV). PSF defines Bethel as “the place where you can’t figure it out and all you have is faith.” His sermon (which centers on Genesis 28: 10-17, 32: 28, 34: 30, 35: 1.12) revolves around two significant messages. The first is that we are each born with something special in us which is often revealed to us in the presence of God at a time when we feel the greatest fear in our lives and the second is that when we find ourselves in a state of confusion, when we feel the most powerless, we need to remember go back to Bethel where God revealed himself to us.

I believe Jacob’s experiences provided in the scriptures above can help us in our walk of faith towards our promise or purpose because they reveal the imperfect nature of the father of Israel and his children and give us a sneak peak into his struggles and how he dealt with them. PSF explains that Jacob lived a life of struggle. He says, Jacob “always identified himself by something external” but that God was always trying to show him that his struggles were in him and not with the people in his life such as his uncle Laban, his brother Esau, and his children. Therefore he believes, “Jacob had to make peace with Jacob” and stop fighting what was in him, which was placed there by God.

The Context: Jacob was born holding onto his brother’s heel struggling to come our first (Gen 25: 26), he later managed to trick his brother into selling him his birth rite (25: 31), and also wrestled with God (32: 28). Jacob stole his brother’s blessing from their father Isaac and it was then that he fled (to Laban, his mother’s brother) from his brother and had an encounter with God at a place he named Bethel (Chapter 28). Later on, Jacob still struggled when living with Laban his uncle who made him work so many years for Racheal (Jacob’s beloved wife) (see, Chapter 31). He also struggled with the plans to make peace with his brother Esau who warmly received him with an embrace, holding no grudge against him (chapter 32-33). And now struggling with a decision that his sons made; killing all the men in Shechem (after one of them raped their sister) and leaving their father so scared for his life and the future of his family. It is in this situation that God told Jacob to go back to Bethel (chapter 34-35) and there God reminded him of his promise to him.

The revelation provided by pastor Steven is that after our first encounter with God, we easily allow people and various circumstances which bring on us problems, (even) success (the things we earn along the way) to dress us in shame, stress, offence, etc. which cause us to completely forget the thing that is in us, that God placed in us. Pastor Steven warns us against letting people place things on us that will lead us into trouble. When we find ourselves in situations where we are uncertain of the future, PSF encourages us to undress these external things that are weighing us down like Jacob did when he told his family to take off the clothes and their gods, as a sign of purification and head back to the place where he encountered God. God had put nations in Jacob, and during his painful time, he started to forget what was to come from his children and focused on the situations he was facing.

During this sermon, PSF asked us to close our eyes and imagine a time when we felt like there was no hope in our situation, a time when we were most afraid, a time where we made a promise to be faithful to God if he intervened in our circumstances. As I closed my eyes, I tried to think of all the times I have been afraid and uncertain of the future and remembered the time (in 2020) when I spent the isolation (quarantine) period on my own wondering how the world was going to come out of the COVID situation. During this lonely time when the world was facing one of the biggest challenges in history I was writing my masters thesis away from my loved ones. While I was uncertain about the future of the world, I also found myself stuck with no progress in my thesis and with a three weeks deadline. On one particular day, I decided to take a short walk to the back of my hostel and I spent some time in the garden hoping to find an answer to my problems. This memory revealed to me that this was my Bethel. As I was crying during this lonely time in the garden and praying to God to help me get a breakthrough, I felt that this effort I had put into my thesis was not in vain. I felt it deep down in my heart that I was going to make it out with a good grade despite how I felt in this moment because God has made that promise to me. As I closed my eyes during this part of the sermon, it hit me that what God revealed to me that day is that I had resilience in me and that I was never going to let anything make me forget that. I later walked back to my room and gave it all I had in those remaining days, called the people who I needed help from and persisted until I handed in my thesis. The good grade that I got after that was the promise God had made to me before my struggle. I had forgotten because of the external things I or life had put on me, such as stress, worrying, anxiety and pressure. The garden behind my former house, my Bethel is now a place I will always go back to and remember God’s goodness and how he revealed himself to me and reminded me of my gift of resilience.

PSF asserts that this gift we were born with lives in us along with the fear and that we will always struggle with the two until the time when we die. We have to make sure we do not let anyone make us forfeit what the Almighty has placed in us, and not to get lost in our struggle. He further asks us, “have you made your covenant with your struggle greater than your covenant with your God?” We need to always remember the time when we didn’t think we would make it. According to PSF, “he (God) doesn’t call you back to a place where you felt the greatest faith, he calls you back to the place where you felt the greatest fear but you made it anyway, to remind you what it really felt like when God revealed himself to you.” Do not forget Bethel! Just like Jacob, some of us find that the distressful season has been caused by other people and is not a result of what we did. Others are distressed as a consequence of their actions. This according to PSF doesn’t change the fact that we are in a place of need and need to remember God’s love and grace. To go back to Bethel, you may need to step away from your accomplishments and get rid of all these material things that have become your gods, the things that you gained along the way. If it is making you unclean, leave it all behind, walk back to God and reconnect with him. He will restore back everything at the right time like he did for Jacob.

There is a lot in you that you may not be able to see right now. Protect it with all you have! God is experienced best when you need him. Try not to be overwhelmed by success or pain, always remind yourself that you need God for everything in your life, walk back to him with a clean heart and a willing spirit, he will remind you of what is in you. When Jacob went back to Bethel, God reminded him that his sons were going to birth kings and nations, clearly Jacob had forgotten this when he was mad at his sons and at his situation. These circumstances do not dictate how your life ends, God does. Let him remind you of who you are and what is in you.

My prayer is that you will protect the gift that God has placed in you. You are going to make big changes in this world, you have got to believe this!

With love and prayers,

Resty Kansiime

Here is Pastor Steven’s sermon It’s Always Been In You | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church – YouTube