Jentezen Franklin - Keys To Living The Right Life
I'm going to teach you today a message on "Keys to Living the Right Life", because you can live your life and live it wrong, or you can live it right. And, one of the keys is found in Psalms 34, to a happy life. One of the keys to a happy life is found right here. "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble will hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together". Listen to this, it's powerful. Psalms 34:4, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fear".
When you begin to magnify God, when you begin to praise God, He said that was the key to my deliverance. He delivered me, I love what He said, He delivered me from all my fear. And so many people are bound by fear, and everybody just look at me, just a moment. I'm preaching today to you - not just somebody out here, I'm preaching to you, how to live the right life. It starts with number one. If you're taking notes, just take some notes. You've got to have the right atmosphere.
"What do you mean, the right atmosphere"? In your life, you create the atmosphere, and the right atmosphere, in a word, is praise. Have you ever noticed that emotions create atmospheres? If somebody's sad, you walk into the room and you feel that sadness. If somebody is fearful, if somebody, for example, is angry, if they're upset about something, without a word being said, they project from their spirit into the atmosphere of a room a negative feeling just from the anger that they possess.
If somebody is afraid, that creates an atmosphere. And the way that you get God's favor on your life and you draw God's blessings into your life is God is a God Who responds to atmosphere, and what atmosphere is it that He responds to? One of thanksgiving, one of gratitude, one of praise. The right atmosphere is praise. There's an amazing story in the Old Testament. King Saul would be diagnosed as a manic depressive. He had fits and times when darkness and depression would come on him and he would go out of his mind.
And the Bible said when the evil spirits of depression troubled him and he went into the dark place of his life, that he did something strange. He called for David and he said, "Tell that boy to bring his harp and begin to play and fill this palace with praise". And as David would play his music, while that king was sitting on his throne in depression, in darkness, in the sorrow of life and hopelessness - as David would play, your Bible said the evil spirits departed from Saul and he would come back to a place of peace again in his life, and all David did was fill the room with praise and it changed the atmosphere of the palace.
That story is in your Bible. It says that we can change the atmosphere even when things aren't changing yet that you're praying about and hoping for and believing for, but you can control the atmosphere of your life through praise. And when you understand that, you have to ask the question, "What is the atmosphere of your life? What kind of people do you have around you"? That's what creates the atmosphere of your life. Are they negative or are they positive? Are they faith-filled or are they fear-filled? Because the people around you create the atmosphere of your life. Not only that, what kind of music do you listen to? What kind of things do you fill your mind with? It creates the atmosphere, and God is either drawn to the atmosphere or He withdraws from certain atmospheres, and He's looking for an atmosphere of gratitude, of praise, of thankfulness.
Then, I want you to see something else. You've got to have the right energy source. If you're fighting the flesh, issues that you're dealing with the flesh, you're just fighting against yourself. When you've got problems, and you've got challenges, and you've got addictions, and you're trying to fight the flesh with the flesh, you're going to lose, 'cause the flesh is the flesh. We don't fight in the flesh. We have to have a supernatural energy source, and the supernatural energy source of the believer is the power of the Holy Spirit.
That's why the Bible talks about praying in an unknown tongue. When you pray in the Spirit, when you pray in the language that God gives - and before you dismiss me, and before you say, "I don't believe in that stuff", then you don't believe in part of the Bible, because the Bible said when we speak, in 1 Corinthians 14, "When we speak in an unknown tongue, we speak not unto men, but unto God". We bypass the natural mind. We bypass your opinion, anybody else's opinion, and when you pray in the Spirit, you go to God. The Apostle Paul said, "I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all, yet when I do it, I don't get up in an audience and I don't confuse people; but in my prayer life," the Apostle Paul said, "I pray in the Spirit. I pray in an unknown tongue". He said, "Don't forbid speaking in tongues".
He said that in 1 Corinthians 14, but religion will say you can't have that. Oh, it was in the Upper Room. It happened in Acts 2. It happened in Acts 19. It happened in Acts 10. It's talked about in 1 Corinthians 14. But, you can't have that now, but that's religion. I'd rather believe what God says, and when you pray in the Holy Spirit, when you pray in that unknown tongue, listen to me, it's the believers' energy source. Suddenly - The Bible put it like this in Isaiah, "With stammering lips and an unknown tongue will I speak to my people"? Listen to this. And He said, "It'll be a refreshing. It'll be a refreshing". It's an energy source. It's where you get your strength from.
I want you to understand that the Holy Spirit not only is a person, but He has a mind to think and He has a mouth to speak. And Romans 8 said when you don't know how to pray, the Spirit Himself wants to pray through you and He wants to pray the perfect will of God. If you pray in the perfect will of God, we know He hears us. How do you do that? You get baptized in the Holy Spirit. You get filled with the Holy Spirit. America needs to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It'll make you love everybody. It wouldn't be any race issues if we'll get full of the Holy Spirit. We'll love one another. We'll be for one another. We'll encourage one another. There's too much hate! There's too much flesh! We need the power of the Holy Spirit back in our lives again! He's our energy source.
Do you know how we defeated the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during WWII? You know what we did? They were intercepting - they had Japanese interpreters who could intercept the messages that were being sent to soldiers from platoon to platoon. They could hear our plans, and they kept defeating us on the battlefield, until we went to the Navaho nation and we got some Navaho Indians who had a language that had only been spoken and taught, handed down from generations, on the reservations, and we gave them a walkie-talkie. They were called Codetalkers or some called them Windtalkers. And they would talk in Navajo, and those spies would be listening in and they could understand English, but when they'd start giving the orders in the language that was only unique to those few - they only had, I think it was 17 of them in the whole army, but they had all of the orders going in that language that the Japanese could not understand.
What I'm trying to say to you is we don't have to play fair with the devil. We can go straight to the throne room. Some of you are new to this church and I'm blowing your mind, but we are not ashamed of the power of the Holy Spirit! Be filled with the Spirit! Pray in the Spirit and you'll have your energy source.
Turn to somebody and say, "The Holy Ghost is my right source of energy". I'm trying to stay calm this morning, but I'm preaching the truth. You're growing colder and colder and sitting there looking at me, "I don't believe it". That's why you're growing colder and colder. And some of you who claim to have it, how long has it been since you prayed? I'm telling you today that as a pastor and as a preacher, I pray in the Spirit every day of my life. It's my secret source. It's the source of energy and power for the believer.
Then you've got to have the right information, the right information. You can't listen to garbage and see a rose garden. What you take in, determines what you see. If you get bad information, frightening information, you'll see a world of fear and hopelessness, and it's all connected to what you're taking in, constantly. Even while I'm preaching, what are you taking in? Are you taking in the distractions or are you taking in the truth of God's word?
Jeremiah 15:16 said, "Your words were found, and I did eat them". I took them in. It's not enough to hear it. Some of you hear it out here, but it never gets in you. But when you hear it and you take it in, you start getting the right information. What does the Lord say about your situation is what matters. What does the Lord say about your family? What does the Lord say about your future? What does the Lord say about your freedom? It doesn't matter what your circumstances or people's opinion has to say.
There's a remarkable story in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua, in the sixth chapter and the seventh chapter, about a man by the name of Gideon. The Midianites took over the nation of Israel, and Gideon was hiding in a cave. And God sent an angel, and the angel told him and said, "You are a mighty man of valor". He didn't feel like a mighty man of valor, he felt like a wimp. But God said, "You're not a wimp. You're a winner". God said, "You're not a weakling. You're my man. You're the man of valor".
Well, what was God doing? God was putting the right information in him. God wanted him to be aware of more than his fear and his overwhelming circumstances, and he wanted him to get a new picture of seeing himself in victory. God doesn't call you like you are, He calls you like you're going to be. That's why when you start taking this in, it many times will speak the opposite of what you're experiencing, but God is beginning to get you to understand that it's not about what you are, it's what you shall be. He doesn't announce just where you are today, but He simply declares where you're going to be tomorrow through His strength. Instantly, Gideon began to manifest his inferiority.
When God said, "You're My called man, you're the one I'm going to use", he began to talk about "You picked the wrong person. I came from the smallest tribe. I'm poor. I don't have this. I don't..". He raised all of these issues to God, and God said, "My way of giving you victory is to get a new picture in your mind. Go down to the enemy's camp and listen to how the enemy sees you, and get a picture in your mind of how your enemy sees you and how I see you, and let it change how you see you".
The Spirit's way to victory is to give you a picture of yourself, not as you see yourself, but as God sees you. God does not see you defeated. God does not see you bound. God does not see you poor, and broke, and walked on, and kicked by life. God sees you as an overcomer. God sees you as the head and not the tail. God sees you as blessed and highly favored, and He's got to get that picture in you and you've got to get the right information in you. That's why it's so important that you're listening to me right now, 'cause while I preach, God'll show you flashes of your future. Get the right information. Change the information that you're taking in.
Fourthly, you've got to get in the right location. You've got to have the right atmosphere, the right energy source, the right information, and you've got to get the right location. I Kings 17, they were in a famine in Israel. They didn't know what they were going to do, and God told the prophet to go to the little river, and He said, "I'll cause the birds to feed you". But then the brook dried up and God said, "Go to the widow woman. Go there. I've commanded her there to feed you". The blessing was connected to a location. When God tells you to go there, and you stay here, the blessing moves on and you're on your own. God will dry up the brook to bring you back to your source.
And many times, we trust in systems, instead of trusting in God, but God is our source. And you've got to keep moving when God says move, when He says change locations. And I'm not just talking about geographically, I'm talking about spiritually. God is saying to many people under the sound of my voice, at all of our campuses, it's time for you to move to a new place. That's why He's put you in our church, is because He's saying you know, there's an interesting story when Elisha wanted a double portion. How many of you'd like to have a double portion of God's blessing on your life? You know what the prophet told him? He said, "If you're with me in the right place when I'm taken up, it'll come on you".
And then, Elisha did something interesting. He broke the plow. The plow represented his security. The plow represented the system that had fed his family. The plow represented every success. He was a farmer in a farming, agricultural society, and the plow was everything to him, but he broke the plow. And God said, "If you want a double portion, it begins with breaking the old plow. I don't want you leaning on what I used to do, and what I used to use, and how I've always done it in your life. I need you to break the plow".
Sometimes denominations and the way that we were raised can be the old plow that we need to break, that we say that was good for then, I honor what that did in my life, but I'm not stopping here and living at the old plow the rest of my life. Maybe God has you at a church like this to take you where you've never been before in the Holy Spirit! Why don't you make up your mind to break the old plow? Somebody praise God if you're tired of living in yesterday's blessings, and yesterdays' experience, and way back then when God really touched you. Break the plow and say, "I'm ready for a new location"!
Can I give you two more? You've got to have the right people. You've got to have the right people. People who are right in your life are people who will be honest with you. They don't just tell you what you want to hear, they tell you what you're supposed to hear and what you need to hear. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend". How many of you've got a good friend? "Faithful are the wounds of a friend". That means they confront you.
Get the right people in your life. Everybody who comes into your life brings a spirit. And sometimes, we want people that we really can relate to, but the problem with that is if you've got certain spirits or weaknesses that you're prone to, those people are drawn to you because birds of a feather flock together. And it may feel good at first, but what you realize is, eventually, you just multiplied your problems by two. But when you really want God's blessing, if you're struggling in an area, you don't need to be around somebody who's struggling with the same thing, you need to get around somebody who's strong in that area that you're weak in. You need to get around somebody who knows how to go where you are trying to get.
And some of you don't have God's favor and don't have God's blessing because you're around the wrong people. You don't want to get around the right people. But if you'll get around the right people, God's presence will be drawn into your life. You've got to have the right people. You've got to have the right focus. The Bible said what when Job was going through His trial - the battle turned in Job 42:10. Listen to what happened when he prayed for his friends. The focus came off of his needs, and his sorrows, and his bad days, and his pain, and his hurt, and he focused on others. And the moment he focused on others, God turned his battle and blessed him in the trial end because you've got have the right focus.
The widow woman, when she was gathering her last bit of meal to cook for her and her son, and they were going to eat it and die, and along comes a man of God. So you've got a woman with a seed and a man of God with a need, and she has to make a decision. Do we eat it and die or do we look at others and take care of others even though we have needs in our own life?
And the moment she got the right focus and she put it in the hands of the prophet - always remember this. What you keep in your hand, shrinks, what you put in God's hand, multiplies. And the moment that she made a decision that I am not going to just, as precious as her child was, she decided, "We are not going to be self-focused people that just care about us, but we're going to care about others". The moment she got the right focus, the Bible said that the meal didn't run out for 3-1/2 years. God multiplied it, and multiplied it, and multiplied it, 'cause she got the right focus.
Lastly, last point, you've got to have the right timing - the right timing. The Scripture declared in Proverbs that, "For every purpose there is a season..." It's an amazing verse that says for every purpose in life, there is a season for every purpose. It means you can't just have purpose. Purpose is connected to timing. When we quit - I told you last Sunday, everything you are believing for is on the other side of not giving up, most of the time, because purpose is established, but the timing we give up on. But the timing of the purpose, they have to be connected.
Right time is important. God's promises always have a timeframe on them. We need to know what time it is on God's clock! We need to get our clock in sync with God's clock, and some of you are saying, "It's time, Lord. It's time, Lord. Why hasn't it happened yet"? And God says, "Get in sync with My clock". We have to get a fresh revelation of what David said, "My times are in your hands". The right timing is now. The right timing to serve the Lord is now. The right timing to give your heart to the Lord is now.
There are so many things that God wants to do in your life right now! And I tell you what I feel in my heart this morning, that our praise can change the atmosphere of this room, that the favor of God can so come upon our lives that it will astound us, that the blessing of the Lord will begin to overtake us and God would use us in ways that we can't even imagine. When we get all of these areas right in our life, then suddenly when they come in alignment, the favor and the blessings of God begin to overtake us like a wave hitting you in the ocean from the back and you didn't see it coming, and it just overtakes you.
And some of you have in your time clock when you're going to get right with God, when you're going to surrender to God, when you're going to be filled with the Spirit, when you're going to go after God with all of your heart. But the Lord says, "I want you to synchronize your clock with My time, and My time is this morning. My time is today. My time is to say to somebody, 'You don't have as much time as you think you have'". You need to get in sync with God's clock for your life. The clock is ticking on your destiny.
Running around, wrong people, wrong location, wrong energy source, wrong atmospheres, attracting wrong people, attracting wrong steps in your life, making wrong decisions - I've given you the floor plan of how to get your life right this morning. You don't have time to play games anymore. You don't have time. It's more than you that's at stake, but there's people that only you can influence. This is the day, this is the hour, this is the moment! Man, I feel the Lord right here! Every once in a while, He hits me. I'm not playing games up here. Somebody needs to get right this morning with Jesus.