Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.
Steven Futrick’s book Sun Stand Still challenges Christians to ask God for the impossible. The title and theme of the book is based on Joshua 10. God had promised Joshua victory in a battle. As the Amorites fled hoping to escape in the coming darkness, Joshua prayed the impossible – that God would make the sun stand still. And God did it. “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies.” (Joshua 10:13).
“Sun Stand Still is a metaphor for the seemingly impossible things God wants to do in and through your life.”
Sun Stand Still challenges Christians to move beyond a life of ordinary, mundane survival, and instead embrace the bold vision God gives each of us, praying audacious prayers and living with audacious faith.
Favorite Quotes
- Sun Stand Still is chock full of great quotes that encourage and motivate. I could list dozens, but for the sake of space, here are the ones that were most meaningful to me.
- Faith is not a drug to sedate you through a life you hate; it’s a force to transport you to another realm of reality. (P 8 )
- I’m not raising my kids to survive the world. I’m raising them to change it. (P 27)
- Seize God’s vision… Activate your faith… Make your move. (P 28)
- You do have a personal birthright to believe in a God-given mission for your life. (P 30)
- Impossibilities don’t exist, because there’s absolutely nothing our God can’t do (Matt 19:26, Luke 1:37) (P 33)
- Extraordinary moves of God begin with ordinary acts of obedience. (P 38)
- God performs the most impressive feats through the most unimpressive people.
- If you do the believing, he’ll do the achieving. (P 55)
- It’s not wrong to feel fear. It’s wrong to let that fear have the last word in your life. (P 61)
- Whatever you do, don’t take your cues from the complacent Christians around you. Lots of people in your life might be perfectly content with kiddie-pool Christianity. But perhaps God is calling you to lead the way so that others can see a different example of what the Christian faith means – an example that will fill them with the longing to experience his power. And someone has to make the first move. It might as well be you. (P 62)
- The great things God will do through you are going to grow in the soil of persistence, prayer, obedience, and sacrifice. (P 68)
- God’s invisible work in you prepares you for his visible works through you. (P 72)
- Sometimes God has to let your dream die so that his vision for you can come alive. (P 73)
- “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” A.W. Tozer (P 79)
- Hearing the Word initiates faith. Speaking the Word activates faith. Doing the Word demonstrates your faith. (P 91)
- “Sometimes we get to see the miracle other times we get to be the miracle.” (P 124)
- Your crisis is your greatest opportunity to see God’s glory and goodness revealed—and to have the high honor of revealing him to others. (P 125)
- Hope is a desire. Faith is a demonstration. Hope wants it to happen. Faith causes it to happen and acts as if it’s already done. (P 154)
- You want to learn to walk by faith, not by sight. And you can’t learn that without walking through periods of complete darkness. (P 166)
- We’re not here to merely survive or to condemn the world, but to transform it for the glory of God. (P 173)
Personal Thoughts
Sun Stand Still has really challenged and motivated me to ask God for a bigger vision for my life, pray bigger prayers, and take bigger steps of faith. I’ve read several other books in recent years that have similarly challenged me in my faith – Seizing your Divine Moment (Erwin McMannus, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat (John Ortberg), Crazy Love (Francis Chan). I can’t say that I learned anything new from Sun Stand Still, but I think it’s good for every Christ-follower to read a book like this at least once a year to stave off complacency.
I am certainly better for reading it. My spiritual and emotional tanks are full, and I’m ready to go bigger for God.
Discussion
- If you’re a Christian is your faith merely helping you survive life, or are you boldly trusting God to use you to impact this world?
- Do you have an audacious, God-given vision for your life? If so, what is it? If not, are you persistently asking God to reveal it to you?
- Have you ever prayed for the impossible and seen God “make the sun stand still?” Tell us about it.
Get a Free Book
If you’d like a free copy of Sun Stand Still, all you have to do is
- Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
- Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).
One person will be randomly selected the afternoon of Wednesday 9/22 to receive a free copy.
Sun Stand Still goes on sale today. More resources are available at SunStandStill.org
I love how this book has such a pro-active positive message. Too often I walk into the Christian bookstore and see loads of self-help type books that are all about surviving, scraping by. Christians aren’t going to change the world if all we do is continually try to “fix” ourselves instead of letting go and letting God do the fixing.
Thanks for giving away a copy of the book! @parchmentgirl37
Kate, I think you’re right. There are a lot of people who think their calling is to “do no harm.” God created us for so much more than that.
I’ve been noticing lately how you can tell who believes they have a “mission from God.”
It doesn’t matter how many people are on board with them. What it costs financially or the time commitment involved. They believe they can make a difference.
Like they can be the catalyst to cause the sun to stand still.
I kinda want to be one of these people. 😉
Per your request, my Twitter username is @tranified.
Very true, Alex! And I want to be one of those people too.
Definite food for thought, Alex. Recently I’ve been wondering if the desire to write what I had assumed was a book was from God or not, considering all the discouraging commentary I’ve received from published authors, self-published authors, and even a CEO of a publishing company. It made me wonder if that was God’s vision for me or not.
Do I need the sun to stand still, or do I need it to advance faster?
Twitter: @joe_sewell
I fear that my comment on the earlier guest post by Steven Furtick may have come across as overly critical. I think it’s just that I’ve heard and seen, personally, too many pastors talking about “God-sized dreams” in the context of a capital drive for a big shiny new building that God wasn’t calling that church to build. Asking for audacious things must happen within the context of a close and interactive relationship with God, in which we sense what God is doing, and we’re praying in line with that, rather than just coming up with our own big ideas and asking God to condone them.
My twitter name is @ChrisBranscome
Absolutely, Chris! Steven makes that very point in the book.
Amen, Chris. God won’t make the sun stand still just because you or I demand it. But God can and will if He desires that we ask it.
I’ve been watching/listening to his 24 hours of preaching today and it’s powerful stuff…I can’t imagine how packed the book is considering he’s not preaching the book!
It’s such a struggle to have God sized dreams especially if you haven’t really experienced a big move of God in your life. You’re essentially stepping out in huge faith because there’s no promise that God’s going to come through on what you’re asking Him to do unless you can make sure you’re in line with Him.
Jason, I think it’s a struggle even when you have experienced a big move of God in your life. Even after we’ve prayed a lot and think we’ve heard from God, we can never be 100% sure God is going to come through the way we think he is.
To quote from the book… “Audacity isn’t the absence of uncertainty and ambiguity. Audacity is believing that God’s promise is bigger than my ‘perhaps'”
Often the question we get stuck on is “Have I really heard from God on this?” when maybe the more important question is “Do I really trust God works all things for good even if he doesn’t answer my prayer the way I want him to and the whole thing blows up in my face?”
We have not got the book yet, but I have been following the Sunstandstill.org site since the start. Just that site and all that has been available has already stirred our hearts. I really do believe God has given Pastor Steven a word. I think it is evident that he prayed for a word and now we have this opportunity to hear from God through his writings and even more.
I am in a Sun Stand Still moment planting my first church and preaching for the first time. Already our launch which was this past weekend has blown my mind and I know God is not through. I am praying that I live an audacious faith filled life in every area.
My twitter name is @traviscurrin
Facebook is under Travis Currin
Awesome! May God continue to bless you take such big steps of faith!
This book is right on time for me. I believe that God has given me some big things as far as ministry vision but sometimes have a hard time taking that first step. I’ve been listening to his preaching today and I’m looking forward to being challenged by this book to step boldly into the vision.
@karensdavis on Twitter
Still trying to grasp the concepts in the book. Would like to read it, if for no other reason than to be a Berean and see what I think about it.
Have never heard of this pastor or his church, not that popular in our neck of the woods.
Quite possibly a timely message for the times in which we find ourselves?
@Goldenmorgan……
I think the quotes on page 27 and page 61 go together – seems so many Christian parents Allow their own fears cause them to raise their children in such a way that they are preparing them to merely survive the world – we have to trust God with and for our children and instead of raising them go follow the “rules” of Christianity, we should raise them to boldly follow Jesus instead. Do I have an audacious vision? Not so sure, but I know many of my friends find it audacious that I don’t bend to pharasitical thinking about the gospels and that I don’t want my kid to either. I want her to follow JESUS, and do what He would have her do, not what the person a few pews up would have her do!
@marvelissa1
Melissa, thanks for your comment. I think I’m going to do a blog post about raising kids to change the world rather than survive it.
On a totally unrelated topic, my sister-in-law’s maiden name is Melissa Martin and she’s from Atlanta too. Strange.
The “gospel of survival” is something to which I can relate. Sometimes it seems that’s the best I can do. The pressures this world places on you can make life hard to survive. The more depressed among us (I’ve been there, done that) might even feel that survival isn’t worth the trouble.
Then again, that comes, for me at least, from an unbalanced, incorrect view of God. He’s not the angry father standing there, arms folded, never praising but always complaining that you’re “not good enough,” even when you give your absolute best. Complaining that you “can’t do anything” when he never bothered to teach you how to do anything. Refusing to help because “you need to learn it yourself,” and later because “you don’t get it anyhow.”
With a father-image like that, survival is the best some of us can accomplish.
Then again, God can get our attention by making the sun stand still and revealing the lie behind that image.
Oops, did this in my first comment, which was a reply, but just in case this one gets chosen, my Twitter name is @joe_sewell and my Facebook profile is http://www.facebook.com/ultrajoe
I have been seeing Steven Furticks name a lot lately and I listen to Steven this morning for the first time! All I can say is powerful! His message was so pack full of conviction and power! If Sun Stand Still is anything like his messages, then it will be well worth it. Dreaming big is something I do a lot, however, following through with the dreams is another story. And right now in my life… I could really use some encouragement in following through with the Dreams that I have! Thanks Paul for your willingness to invest in others!
sorry I forgot to but my twitter name: @jacobricker
Looking forward to reading this book. I am buying one anyway, but I have pastor in mind that I will give the free one should I win. The possibilities are God sized if we make ourselves available for His use, as willing and obedient servants. @tonygrogan
Congrats Travis Currin (@traviscurrin)! You’ve won the copy of Sun Stand Still.
Thanks everyone for the comments, shares, retweets, etc.
You can purchase a copy of Sun Stand Still on Amazon: http://amzn.to/9brPYt
Let’s continue the discussion. Share your God-given vision and your “sun stand still” moments.
Many times even us Christians go thru life with a fear and depression that can pull us off course, tear at our foundations and completely suck the life out of us. In times when things look tough and the task in front of us look impossible we need to remember we serve an Almighty God and nothing is in possible to Him! If we stay in faith He WILL work the impossible in and thru us! Thanks for God driven people who give us a book like this to remind us of that!
Sorry…my facebook is billyhinton@facebook.com
Hey All,
Just stumbled across this book and read the quotes above. I didn’t see Jesus mentioned in any of the quotes. In the rest of the book what role does Jesus have? Is he mentioned?
PAX
Hey Matt, I appreciate your desire to keep Jesus central. Keep in mind the book is based on a passage in Joshua, the Old Testament. God is central in the book and Jesus is God.
The ways of our Lord no-one can explain, I have had thoughts of God miracles in my mind for three days. The sun stand still kept on flashing back and forth. So I decided to check on the internet anything about it. I know and believe there is a message in this book for me. I thank God for you and his miracles. I know it will touch my life in a special way.
God bless you.
Josephine
I have a friend or read this and was posting quotes from it and now Im just really hungry to read it!! Being a young Christian teen is so hard sometimes. Just trying to stay in the word and be the best witness I can be by living it!
That’s awesome, Cierra! I encourage you to read Sun Stand Still, I think you’ll find it inspiring and faith-stretching. But regardless of whether you read it or not, stay strong in your faith. It’s not easy to go against the flow as a Christian in our culture today, but it’s well worth it both now and especially in the long run. 🙂
I am an Associate Minister at my Church and I would like to win a copy of Sun Stand Still so I can review it on this page and discuss it in Bible Study.
Hi Sheldon, I’m glad to hear your interested in Sun Stand Still. This giveaway took place 3 years ago. The book is still available on Amazon, though, so I encourage you to get a copy there.