Crash the Chatterbox: Hearing God's Voice Above All Others (30 page)
Read Crash the Chatterbox: Hearing God's Voice Above All Others Online
Authors: Steven Furtick
But this stuff will work—if you work it.
The chatterbox will crash …
if you pound the ground …
and pound it again …
and again.
Don’t stop after three times. You could. Most Christians do.
Survival mode. Partial victory.
Endless information but very little transformation.
You could stop there.
Or you can keep pounding.
You can wield the promises of God, sharper than a two-edged sword, and keep accepting, affirming, and believing. Until you see significant patterns of change in the way your heart communes with God and the way you engage your world.
Pound the ground until the pounding becomes a rhythm.
Pound the ground until the sound turns into a cadence.
Pound the ground until the ground starts to shake.
Relentless. Steady. Consistent.
Pound the ground until the erratic
clomp
of your arrow on the floor falls into the slow, steady driving rhythm of a heartbeat.
Pound the ground until it becomes second nature to strike the ground, your new default.
Pound the ground until the shaky clasp of your sweaty palms around the arrow feels normal.
Pound the ground until the soft flesh on your fingers develops more than a few calluses.
Pound the ground until the driving rhythm becomes the backbeat of your life, until it becomes the music you dance to and the war drum you announce battle with.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
God says I am.
CRASH!
God says He will.
CRASH! CRASH!
God says He has.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
God says I can.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Aim. Release. Repeat.
CRASH!
We live in a world full of chatter. Lies of condemnation, fear, insecurity, and discouragement bombard us every day. All the people around you are fighting off their own chatterboxes. Your friends. Your spouse. Your coworkers. The young woman taking your order at Starbucks.
But the battle isn’t ours to fight alone.
The good news is, now that you have the tools to fight with, the Enemy doesn’t stand a chance. Not only can you crash your own chatterbox, but you can become the catalyst of change for others as they expose the lies they hear inside their own heads.
My team and I have created specific resources to amplify what God is already doing in your life and to equip you to lead the charge against the chatterbox for the people all around you. For example, we want you to be the voice of encouragement for a friend. The leader of a small group designed to build a team of willing world changers. The ambassador in your circles to develop empowering habits that stifle the Enemy.
On your campus. At the office. In your neighborhood.
We are calling all chatterboxers to step up and fight.
Visit
crashthechatterbox.com
and click on the “Calling All Chatterboxers” link. Here you will find many options for how to take what you’ve learned through this book, decide what works best for you, and spread the word, prompting others to experience liberation from the chatterbox.
So lace up the gloves. And join the thousands of other chatterboxers already in the middle of the action.
Section 1: God Says I Am
Overpowering lies of insecurity
Please read the introduction and chapters
1
–
4
of
Crash the Chatterbox
.
Recap:
The voices of our chatterboxes are the lies resounding inside our minds that keep us from hearing the voice of God. One major way the chatterbox lies is by telling us that God could never want someone like us. But if we are following Christ, then God wants us to know that He
does
love and accept us. And this acceptance isn’t grudging, as if God
has
to accept us because it’s a part of the deal worked out on the cross. Rather, He genuinely
likes
us. The Enemy will undoubtedly raise questions and inspire doubts about what God has said about us, but we can reverse these attacks by affirming the truths of God about who we are.
The chatterbox says
I am worthless
and rejected
.
God says
I am His beloved
child through Christ
.
1. What are the main messages your chatterbox has been bombarding you with lately?
2. How have you noticed the lies from your chatterbox drowning out the words of truth from God? Can you give an example or two?
3. In what ways do you suffer from insecurity in your relationship with God?
4. Read Ephesians 1:3–14. Keeping in mind that
identity
trumps
insecurity
, what does this passage teach you about who you are in Christ?
5. Pastor Steven says,
[God] has not chosen you blindly but intentionally, even while knowing you inwardly and intimately. And let me tell you why
this is some of the best news in the history of the universe: if this God has chosen you while totally knowing even the worst parts of you, then you no longer have to live
up
to anything. Instead, you are now empowered to live
out
of an awareness of divine acceptance.
How does the reality of your acceptance by God free you to live differently?
6. Have you ever felt in your heart,
God may love me, but I wonder if He really likes me
? If so, what was the context for that chatterbox lie? What did it do to you?
7. What evidence do you have that God’s favor rests upon you?
8. How has the Enemy tried to twist or cast doubt on affirming things you know God has said about you? (For examples of some of the affirming things God says, see
chapter 2
.)
9. What truths from Scripture can you think of to contradict the lies of insecurity you’ve been hearing from your chatterbox?
10. What do you think God wants to say to you right now about who you are in His eyes and how He feels about you?
Overpowering lies of fear
Recap:
The second major area where the chatterbox lies is by convincing us that we should be scared about what could happen to us in this life. But God commands us to kick fear out of our lives. We do this through the counteractive force of faith—we choose to trust in God’s love and care for us. One strategy that helps is to mentally complete our fearful scenario using the sentence starters “What if …?” (for example, What if the car repair bill is more than I can afford?), “That would …” (That would be inconvenient), and “God will …” (God will help me figure something out). Then, trusting that God is greater than our fears, we need to act in faithfulness to Him. In communication
theory terms, we need to tune out the noise of fear so that we can tune in to the signal of God’s reassuring words to us. And follow Him.
1. What are your worst or most frequently recurring fears?
2. How do these fears hinder you from living the way you think God wants you to live?
3. Consider this statement:
Faith, not courage, is the opposite of fear
. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
4. Read Psalm 23. What do you think gave David his spirit of confidence? Would you say you share that spirit of confidence? Why or why not?
5. Pick one of the biggest fears in your life right now, and play it out to its logical conclusion (
God’s
logic, remember, not the
Enemy’s!
) by completing these sentences:
The chatterbox says
the future is full
of danger
.
God says
He will preserve
and protect me
.
What if_______________?
That would _______________.
God will _______________.
6. How does this exercise change your perspective on this area of fear?
7. In what ways is God calling you to push through your fears by acting in faithfulness to Him? What might you achieve if you do it? What might you miss out on if you disobey?
8. How is the noise of your fear interfering with the signal of God’s reassuring words to you? Give an example.
9. What specific scriptures could you read, meditate on, and memorize to help counteract the fears you are feeling?
10. What do you think God wants to say to you right now about your future?
Overpowering lies of condemnation
Recap:
Another area where the chatterbox is frequently active is condemnation. When you do something wrong, the Enemy tries to make you feel worse about yourself than you should feel. Of course it’s good to make a realistic assessment of a sin and to repent of it—but that’s totally different from thinking you’re worthless and have forfeited God’s love. The Enemy’s
condemnation
of your very being is completely distinct from the Holy Spirit’s
conviction
of your sin. You can recognize condemnation because it encourages you to evaluate your error as personal (
What’s wrong with me?
), permanent (
I always …
), and pervasive (
… mess up everything!
). The truth is, God says He has forgiven you—and He has. To triumph over condemnation, you need to keep in mind the Lord’s gracious acceptance of you in Christ and quit dwelling on your failures.
The chatterbox says
my mistakes
disqualify me from
God’s love
.
God says
I am His beloved
child through Christ
.
1. Think of a time when you messed up big time. What messages about yourself did you hear in your head afterward?
2. How has a sense of condemnation affected you (such as in your choices, your ministry, or your relationships with Christ and other people)?
3. Pastor Steven says,
The Enemy wants to magnify our failures to the millionth power with his exaggerations so he can pervert the power of the Spirit’s conviction. Ignoring the Enemy’s accusations is impossible. Besides, we don’t want to minimize the nature or ramifications of sin. But we must develop the habit of separating our sense of worth from our appraisal of our behavior. It’s the only way we can rightly deal with our sin practically, confident in the fact that God has already
dealt
with it—eternally.
If you were to come up with a list of dos and don’ts about dealing with your errors, what would the list include?
4. How do you recognize the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin when it comes?
5. How is the outcome of conviction different from the outcome of condemnation?
6. Describe a time when your chatterbox used one, two, or all three of the
p
’s of condemnation.
Personal
—The chatterbox says your sin shows what a fundamentally bad person you are.
Permanent
—The chatterbox says the sin illustrates how you
always
mess up.
Pervasive
—The chatterbox says this one sin shows what a screwup you are in all sorts of areas.
7. When the chatterbox starts spewing condemnation, what’s something you could do to help yourself
remember
God’s forgiveness?
8. What’s something you could do to help yourself
forget
your failures?
9. The biblical chapter that begins, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” ends with a stirring statement about the inability of condemnation to drive a wedge between Christ and us (Romans 8:31–39). After reading this passage, how do you think you can react better when the voices of condemnation start to chatter in your head?
10. What do you think God wants to say to you right now about your position with Him?
Overpowering lies of discouragement
Read chapters
11
–
13
and conclusion.
Recap:
The last weapon of the chatterbox is discouragement. All of Jesus’s followers, whether famous or obscure, are vulnerable to downer thoughts about their lives and their relationship with Christ. Such temptation to be discouraged is not something we can realistically hope to get past. But we can defy the inertia of discouragement. You see, when the Enemy tries to discourage us, he’s hoping we’ll stop trusting in God’s plan. So we should realize that facing doubts and discouragement can actually be confirmation that we are being obedient in our calling. (Because otherwise, why would the Enemy be trying to detour us?) When there’s a gap between our expectations and reality, we have to trust that God is still working out His plans. One key to persevering while we wait for God is to remember all the wonderful things that God has done and is still doing for us—and be grateful.
The chatterbox says
I can’t be the person
or accomplish the
things I want
.
God says
I can do all things
through Christ who
strengthens me
.
1. What have you been discouraged about lately?
2. Pastor Steven says,
Going to the next level isn’t about graduating from difficult circumstances and dark emotions. It’s resolving to live with the mind-set that declares,
My joy is not determined by what happens to me but by what Christ is doing in me and through me
.
How do your own experiences help to confirm that conclusion?
3. Read 2 Corinthians 12:1–10. How does Paul’s experience serve as a paradigm for us in facing tough circumstances despite spiritual advancement? In learning about perseverance through disappointment?
4. Who are some mature believers you know who have dealt with discouraging situations? What have you learned from their reaction?
5. What do you think
the Enemy
is trying to accomplish through current situations in your life that aren’t what you expected or wanted? What do you think
God
is trying to accomplish through them?
6. What gives you hope amid your discouragement?
7. What are some of the greatest blessings in your life that you can thank God for?
8. If you wanted to make gratitude to God an enduring quality of your life, how would you go about it? How might it change you?
9. What do you think God wants to say to you right now about what you can be and what you can accomplish?
10. What are the areas in your life where you think you’re going to have to be unrelenting from now on in crashing the chatterbox?