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There is More: When the World Says You Can’t, God Says You Can
Copyright
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.williamcollinsbooks.com
This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018
This edition published by arrangement with WaterBrook Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC
Copyright © by Aider Pty Ltd. 2018
Cover design by Jay Argaet, Nathan Cahyadi, and Nick Dellis; cover photography by River Bennett
Brian Houston asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (AMPC) are taken from the Amplified Bible Classic Edition. Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Scripture quotations marked (BSB) are taken from the Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB copyright © 2016 by Bible Hub. Used by Permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, ESV® Text Edition® (2016), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (HCSB) are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. HCSB® is a federally registered trademark of Holman Bible Publishers. Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers Inc. Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Scripture quotations marked (NIV84) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked (NIV11) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (TBL) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (WEB) are taken from the World English Bible.
Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the author’s added emphasis, except in The Message.
Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins
Source ISBN: 9780008290405
Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780008290412
Version: 2018-02-15
Praise for There Is More
‘Brian Houston is a dear friend who knows what God can do in your life when you surrender all. There Is More will help you learn to live a fulfilled life by trusting God to take control. I challenge you to allow this book to impact your life.’
—RICK WARREN, senior pastor of Saddleback Church
‘If you’ve ever felt that you’ve been created for something greater, pastor Brian Houston’s new book, There Is More, is exactly what you need. Packed with spiritual truth, deep insights, and practical wisdom, this book reveals how your future can hold more than you ever thought possible. Read There Is More and prepare for God to build your faith, stretch your mind, and enlarge your perspective of what He wants to do through you.’
—CRAIG GROESCHEL, pastor of Life.Church and author of Divine Direction: 7 Decisions That Will Change Your Life
‘Why is it that most of us have what we need yet still find ourselves striving for more? My friend Brian Houston taps into this dichotomy and challenges us in the way that only he can. If you’ll dig into this book, I’m confident you’ll walk away with a greater expectation for your future.’
—STEVEN FURTICK, pastor of Elevation Church and New York Times best-selling author
‘There couldn’t be a more timely or needed book. In these confusing days, we need to be stretched where our thinking is limited, expanded where our dreams are small, and reminded that our God is not a God of confusion. In Brian Houston’s There Is More, we are encouraged to hold tight to that truth, believing that His peace, power, and light abound in even the darkest of times and that through us He can and will do immeasurably more than we can ever imagine.’
—ROMA DOWNEY, actor, producer, and president of LightWorkers Media
‘Brian Houston is an exceptional leader—God loving, Jesus focused, Holy Spirit anointed, authentic, credible, and pioneering. There Is More is a treasure trove of inspiring visionary teaching and leadership insights, combined with fascinating anecdotes and his own powerful testimony. I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did.’
—NICKY GUMBEL, vicar of HTB Church, London
‘Brian’s approach in explaining how to seek God, walk by faith, dream big, and trust Him completely is very effective. I believe many will experience more of God’s destiny in their lives through the inspiration he shares.’
—JOYCE MEYER, Bible teacher and best-selling author
‘I respect and admire Pastor Brian so much that when my own dad and pastor was valiantly fighting cancer, it felt only natural to me that Pastor Brian was the kind of father, husband, and pastor I could look to for leadership in these next seasons of my life. I literally began to call him ‘my pastor,’ and the rest, as they say, is history. When I read There Is More, I noticed that the character of God has spurred Pastor Brian on to desire more of Him, to learn more about Him, to follow His hand with great faith, and to live with an expectation of His goodness in all circumstances. This hunger for more is sincere and deep and very real; not for things but for a vibrant relationship with his God. Not because he is a pastor, or a husband, or a father, but because he is first a follower of Jesus. It’s clear from these pages that Pastor Brian actively cultivates this beautiful appetite for more of God. And now he whets all of our appetites as well.’
—JUDAH SMITH, lead pastor of Churchome.org and best-selling author of Jesus Is _____.
‘God has a plan and a purpose for your life that is bigger than you. But God needs you to believe it, know what’s inside of you to achieve it, and build the character that sustains it. Brian Houston’s new book, There Is More, will show you the way! Don’t just make it a part of your library; make it a part of your life!’
—A. R. BERNARD, ambassador for Christ in Culture
‘My friend Pastor Brian is a strong man of God and a phenomenal leader to the body of Christ. His new book, There Is More, will challenge you to pursue the calling God has given you with renewed passion and fervor. This book is an invitation for God to take you beyond what you dreamed to be possible!’
—JOHN BEVERE, author and minister, Messenger International
Dedication
To the wonderful people who have loved me through the highs and lows of my best and worst seasons, none more so than Bobbie and our beautiful extended family, thank you for doing the journey.
To the long-serving board and elders of Hillsong Church, you have led the way and faithfully stood alongside us, always seeking the will of God. I am eternally grateful to each and every one of you.
And to the team who have worked closest to Bobbie and me through all these years, who have always wanted only God’s best for us and spurred us on toward the “more” of God’s ever-unfolding purposes, you have my deepest respect and appreciation.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Praise for There Is More
Dedication
Introduction: Exceeding, Abundant, and Above
1. Dreams and Destiny
2. Myth or Mystery?
3. Obedience and Abundance
4. Gifted and Graced
5. Calling and Confession
6. Appointment and Disappointment
7. Ready and Receptive
8. Credibility and Consistency
9. The Walk and the War
10. Troubling the Troubler
11. Uncommon Grace and Unusual Miracles
12. New Roads and New Rivers
13. Ceilings and Floors
14. Spiritually Dead and Spiritually Alive
Epilogue: There Is More
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Publisher
Introduction
Exceeding, Abundant, and Above
Please, sir, I want some more.”1 These famous words of a starving Oliver Twist have undoubtedly echoed in the hearts and minds of millions of people who also long to have just a little bit more. Perhaps you long for more time, more resources, more space. Maybe you simply need to find a bit more energy and motivation to continue along the path you currently find yourself on, or maybe you have a dream in your heart that continues to evade you. Maybe you’re walking in your calling but still find yourself asking, What is this all about? Should I be doing more with my life?
The narrative of this book is not about selfishness and greed. It’s not about acquiring more, about avarice and indulgence. It’s not even an essay on satisfaction and self-fulfillment. It’s about calling—God’s amazing plans for your life and the sufficiency of His grace in superseding your wildest dreams, all for a purpose bigger than you are.
Have you ever stopped to wonder what God’s response would be to your heart’s cry for more? It is my firm belief that, unlike Mr. Bumble (the tyrannical caretaker of the orphanage in Charles Dickens’s classic novel), the Savior of the universe would bend down and in the most caring of manners say, “More what? And how much more? My supply is unending. My mercy is limitless. My grace is more than you need.”
You see, the more that God wants for your life is beyond comprehension. It’s not limited to space and time, not able to be measured with earthly devices or human minds. Ephesians 3:20–21 tells us plainly, “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us” (MSG). Other translations put it this way: He can “do above and beyond” (HCSB) or “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
Have you ever stopped to think about that? God can do anything. And not just a little bit more than you have already asked for or dreamed of. Far more.
What are your wildest dreams? Your craziest ideas, deepest longings, and grandest plans—the things you’ve not dared tell anyone and barely allowed your soul to imagine? Because it is exactly that dream, that vision, those grand plans of yours that I’m telling you aren’t enough. What a small thinker you are! All of heaven is looking down upon you, shaking their heads, and saying, “Is that all?! Is that all he wants? Is that all she can dream of?”
Allow me to stretch your thinking here, dear reader, because we serve the ultimate Big Thinker. No plans of yours even compare to His. Your heart’s cry for more has been answered with a chuckle and a grin from a Father’s heart that takes what you see and expands it into something you can’t see.
God can take every limitation that has been put on your life—by yourself or by others—and expand your heart and purpose in a way that is way bigger, way higher, way more effective than anything you could imagine.
I’ve seen it in my own life. I can testify to His faithfulness when it comes to more—more than I wanted, more than I dreamed, more than I ever thought I would need. I’m not speaking of simple material matters, of monetary things or things that can be counted or valued by earthly standards. I’ve watched as God has exceeded the dreams in my heart, the visions I’ve had for my own life and the lives of my family and those closest to me. I’ve experienced the “much more” favor of God when it comes to my marriage, leadership, children, and friendships.
For many years, while standing in one of our Hillsong Church auditoriums or by the side of the stage at one of our annual conferences, people have asked me, “Could you see all this when you started?” You know, I have always been a determined visionary, but in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined all God has done and is doing. I couldn’t have planned it, executed it, or dreamed of the days we are living in now. And I’ve stopped trying to. You can never out-dream God.
I’ve learned to trust God with the secret desires of my heart—the things I don’t know that I need and the things I thought I didn’t need. Many a time, I’ve discovered there is more to the valleys I walked through than simply the pain I experienced. There is more to learn in storms than what my eyes were fixed on in the natural. There is more purpose to my provision than simply my own fulfillment and enjoyment—so much more.
In fact, in the sentences preceding the glorious verse I already quoted (Ephesians 3:20–21), we are given a glimpse into the reason for our more:
I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (verses 14–21)
Filled with all the fullness of God. Glory to all generations.
This book is about exactly that: the character and nature of the God we serve and His desire to see each and every one of us experience that Ephesians 3 life—His desire to see us filled to overflowing with every good, wonderful, and perfect gift from Him, purposed to build the church, expand the kingdom, and echo His name throughout the generations. The following chapters unfold the purpose of our more, the source of our more, and the understanding that more is less about us, more about others, and all about Him. But first you need to understand that our heavenly Father sees more in you than you could ever see in yourself.
My prayer is that you will turn each of these pages and discover something new within the ancient text scattered throughout. I hope that regardless of the prayers you have prayed, the triumphs you’ve celebrated, the failures you’ve lived or perceived, you will come to understand that there is more grace, goodness, mercy, kindness, love, forgiveness, and favor waiting in your future. God’s will for your life—heaven’s perfect purpose—is indeed beyond your wildest dreams. And if you have ever asked for more and, like Oliver Twist, been met by angry words or an indifferent spirit, or if you’ve ever had your motives questioned or been unjustly assailed, I pray that through my personal experiences and revelation, you will find healing as you discover a little bit more about the true character of our giving God and His desires for your life.
There is always more to uncover—more to discover about who He is and who He says you are. There is more ahead of you than you’ve allowed yourself to dream or allowed yourself to believe. There is more room in your life for the things of God and the people of God than you even thought possible—more space to be made for God to make His presence known in and through you. And if for some reason you’ve stopped dreaming big things for your life, stopped imagining that your life is a story to tell or a legacy to be remembered, then this book is a good place to start again.
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