(UN)QUALIFIED

New York Times best-selling pastor invites readers to embrace who they really are, in order to become who God has called them to be.

Furtick examines the nature of the divine as the great "I AM," and in turn helps the reader examine his or her own identity. Using Jacob/Israel as a test case, Furtick helps us all to confront our weaknesses. Instead of hiding our shortcomings, Furtick invites us to reveal them and ask God to work through them. This is the paradox of the Christian life: that our weakness makes us strong. That God chooses to work through our imperfection.

Pastor Furtick encourages the reader, "embrace who you really are, to become who you are called to be." While that might seem counterintuitive to some, we have to admit that we can't pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We must realize, as Furtick has through his own challenging journey, that God can't bless who we pretend to be. He blesses who we really are.

Steven Furtick is the New York Times best-selling author of Sun Stand Still, Greater, and Crash the Chatterbox. He is also the founder and lead pastor of Elevation Church, which since its founding in 2006 has grown to more than fifteen thousand attendees at twelve locations. He has spoken at major conferences around the world. He holds a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.