John Hagee - Knowing The Mind of God
What does God think about the way you think? Your attitude about your future, your hopes and dreams for tomorrow determines your success or your failure. The Bible introduces the concept of change your thoughts and you change your life. Say that with me. "Change your thoughts and you change your life". Reading Philippians 4:8, "Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praise worthy: think on these things". Say that with me. "Think on these things".
Father God, thank you for the joy of being in this house today. Let the anointing of the Holy Spirit empower us to understand the mind of God concerning our thoughts about ourselves, our families, our future, because our thoughts will determine exactly that. In the authority of Jesus' name, we pray. And all of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. First of all, the Bible holds you responsible for your thought life. Listen to the voice of Solomon in Proverbs 23:7. He says, "As a man thinketh, so is he". Say that with me. "As a man thinketh, so is he". If you think you can, you will. If you think you can't, you won't. If you think you're going to be beaten, you will be beaten. If you think you will fail, you will, because your thought life determines the quality of your life. Philippians 2:5, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus". Paul writes in Romans 12:2, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind". How do you renew your mind? You renew your mind by washing it in the Word of God. Ephesians 5:26 says, "You renew your mind by washing it in the Word of God".
I assure you, if you want to turn your life around, start reading the biblical truth about what you should think about and how you should live your life, and your pity-pot mentality will transform into a champion for Christ. Isaiah 26:3, "I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee," not "Whose mind watches fake television three hours a night, but whose mind is stayed on the principles of righteousness". What you think about, what you brood about, what you are depressed over, everything that goes through your brain is something that you decide whether it stays there or not.
Listen to this story of a man and his wife. I say it's two people and two attitudes about their life. This is a true story. A famous writer was in his study, and he began reflecting about the past year. And he wrote the following: one, last year, my gallbladder was removed, and I was bedridden and suffered for several days. Two, the same year, I reached the age of 60 and was forced to leave the publishing company where I had spent the last 30 years. Three, the same year, my father died. Four, the same year, my son failed his medical exam. He was in a terrible car accident, and as a result, he was hospitalized for several weeks. And my new car that he was driving is a total loss. His concluding statement: this past year was a horrible year. His wife walked in, read what he had said, she sat down and wrote her point of view on another piece of paper, gave it to her husband, and said, "Read this".
She wrote: one, last year, I finally got rid of a gallbladder that did nothing but give me pain and suffering for years. Now I feel wonderful. Two, I turned 60 with good health, and retired from my job. Now I can utilize my time to do what I want to for the rest of my life. Three, the same year, my father died at the age of 95 without suffering, without depending on anyone, and without any critical condition. He peacefully stepped into eternity into the hands of God. Four, the same year, God blessed my son with life. My car was destroyed, but my son was alive and without permanent disability. Her conclusion: last year was a fabulous year. Listen to this, because this is the whole point. It's not happiness that makes you grateful, but it's gratefulness that makes you happy. It's gratefulness that makes you happy.
Which one of these two people are you at your house? Don't raise your hand. Just which one of them are you? You win the war of the mind when you recognize that your attitude is contagious. When you go home and the dog hides behind the door, it's you. You have a mind like concrete. It's thoroughly mixed up and firmly set. A wife said to her husband, "I'm not a grouch. I've just been in a bad mood for 40 years". In a church in the deep south, the pastor was late for the Sunday morning service. And suddenly, the devil appeared in the pulpit. The church members delve out the windows. Some of them hid under the pews. They ran in mass to the front doors. And there was a pileup in the lobby trying to get out. A man was sitting on the front seat. He didn't move. He didn't blink. The devil said, "Aren't you afraid of me"? And he said, "Absolutely not". And the devil said, "Why not"? And the man said, "Because for the last 20 years, I've been living with your sister".
Don't raise your hand, partner: this is a bad time. That's an attitude. One of the greatest statements that's ever been made about your thought life was made by the richest man on the face of the earth, king Solomon. He said, "As a man thinketh, so is he". Say that with me. "As a man thinketh, so is he". Listen to saint Paul after he had been stoned and beaten and left for dead in the streets of Jerusalem for preaching the Gospel. He said, "Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: think on these things". Say that with me. "Think on these things".
The Bible established the fact that your success or your failure is a direct result of your thought life. Your attitude is reflected in your speech. "From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh". That's the Word of God. Your attitude embraces faith or it wallows in doubt. Believe in the God that believes in you. Believe in the God that believes in you. You are the child of God. You have access to God. You have access to the most supernaturally-powerful thing in the universe, in the authority of Jesus' name. That is an awesome pleasure and an awesome privilege. In the mind of God, your attitude celebrates in victory or it wallows in the slime of self-pity.
I'd rather change my mind and succeed than to have my own way and fail. Think about that. Your attitude refuses to be pushed by your problems or to be led by your dreams. Do not let your past control your future. Do not allow other people to define your future. Don't let other people drag up your past and try to destroy your present. You are a child of God. You have the free-moral agency to become who you want to become. "This is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it". Rejoice in the Lord! Give the Lord praise in the house!
You cannot read the Bible and not be a joyful person. The Bible says, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad". Rejoice that you have the health to be in this service today. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. Rejoice that angels are going before to prepare your way and behind you as your rear guard. That's an actual Bible fact. The Bible says, "He will give his angels charge over you to protect you in all of your way". I know I am alive today because of the guardianship of the angels of God. Rejoice that nothing is impossible to you. If that was the only verse in the Bible, it would make Christianity the most exciting experience on the planet. Nothing shall be impossible to those that believe and are called according to the purposes of God.
Rejoice that God is your father. You are somebody! You are a child of God! You have access to God! Get happy about who you are! Your attitude determines your success or your failure. The Bible-based attitude does not depend on your circumstance. The Bible-based attitude is a rock-ribbed confidence that endures no matter what the circumstance happens to be. Every person in this auditorium and those of you who are listening across America and around the world, let me share with you a man who had a heart-breaking situation, and let's look at how he responded. It's Job, the richest man in the east, so says the Bible: a powerful and a righteous man who made a daily sacrifice for each of his ten children.
Think about that. At the end of seven days, he had killed seventy animals praying for the well being of his children. Job experienced the greatest tragedy in all of the Old Testament. He lost ten children in one day. In one day, he lost everything that he owned, and he was an awesome man of wealth. All of his herds were destroyed in one day. The emotional agony of that is beyond your ability to grasp or your heart to understand. What was his response? What was his attitude toward God? Job did not blame God. He said, "The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord".
That's an awesome, awesome story, but it actually happened. God gave Job ten more children and restored his wealth while he was yet alive to be greater than it ever was before, because the God that gave the first can give the last. Job was righteous. And when he got to heaven, the ten children that he lost were waiting there. Today in heaven, there are 20 children sitting at Job's table. The ten he got when his ten were lost, God restored the whole family. And they're there now around the throne of God, just as it will be with your family.
Remember the secret. Whenever the worst happens, he did not blame God. He did not become angry. He did not become bitter. If that's the way God does, I'm done with that! Don't you ever do that, because God can replace anything that you ever lose. If you woke up this morning and you didn't see your picture in the obituary column, you've got something to be happy about. What happens to good people when bad things happen to them? They become better people with the help and the grace of God. You are a child of God. You are royalty. Nothing is impossible to you. When you change your thoughts, you'll change your world. Say that with me. "Change your thoughts and you'll change your world". Give the Lord praise in the house.
Your attitude determines your attainments. Your attitude determines your attainments. Consider saint Paul and doubting Thomas, the disciple of Jesus. The apostle Paul, after he had been beaten and stoned and left for dead, his response? He sang in a Roman prison and God sent angels down to shake that prison off of its foundation. Paul and Silas walked out of that prison with the jailhouse keys in one hand and a convert in another hand, because in the worst of circumstances, they gave the Lord praise.
"Jailhouse rock" was not created by Elvis Presley. It happened from saint Paul. Consider doubting Thomas. He had Jesus for a pastor, and you can have no better. Thomas was never beaten. He was never put in prison. He was never stoned for his witness for Christ. He saw miracles for three and a half years. He was a couch-potato Christian if there ever was one. Following the crucifixion, he said, "I cannot believe that Jesus has risen from the dead unless I can touch his body". Pity-pot Christianity is stinking thinking. Stop it! You got hurt back in 1985. Get up and get over it. Get up and get over it. Stop saying, "I can't," and start saying, "I can do all things through Christ". Stop saying, "If," because by God's grace, you will. Stop saying, "It's impossible," because nothing is impossible to those that believe and are called according to the purposes of God.
Don't say, "I don't know the right people". You know God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that's enough to turn the world upside down! They were promised in the New Testament, "You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you," power over the world, the flesh, and the devil: power over powers and principalities in the heaven: power over sickness and disease: power over poverty. "It is the Lord that gives you the power to get wealth". Hello, Christians. You are connected to enough supernatural power to terrify every demon that's in the pits of hell. You have that kind of power. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
The Bible says, Daniel, in chapter 11:32, "The people, who know God, take action". Say that with me. "The people, who know God, take action". They don't sit around and whine about how bad things are. You go through the problem. You don't sit there and let the problem whip you. Quitting is not a solution! Here are excuses people make: "Well, I'm not an expert at anything". The Titanic was put together with experts. The ark was put together by volunteer help. Which boat would you like to take a cruise on? Look around you. Analyze the conversations of people you know who lead unhappy, unfulfilled, unsuccessful lives. They're constantly whining about the circumstance, their family, their boss, their church, their marriage, something, something. Is this you? Stop it! "This is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it".
Saint Paul said, "Forgetting those things which are past". Say that with me. "Forgetting those things which are past". For those of you who have a lot of gray in your hair and you've been here 40 years, you've heard me say this several times. But there are scores of people here and thousands watching that need to hear this. I want to teach you the most therapeutic phrase that you'll ever find in theology. It's "Get over it". Quit waiting around in the misery of your past. I'm going to point to you. And when I point to you, I want you to say, "Get over it". Have you been hurt? Have you been criticized? Have you been rejected? Have you failed? There you are. Now you're over it. Turn to your neighbor and say, "I feel better".
One of my favorite quotations comes from president Calvin Coolidge. He says, "Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent," end quote. Life is like a wheelbarrow. You get nowhere till you start pushing. "The righteous arise," the Bible says, "And they take action". You have the ability to do anything that God has placed in your heart to do. Get up and do it, because God will go with you and make it happen! The attitude of fortitude turns adversity into advantage. If what you're doing doesn't have resistance, what you're doing is not worth doing.
I can tell you that every church we've ever built, every building program, the school, Christians united for Israel, sanctuary of hope, the national television ministry: there was always the committee of naysayers saying, "You can't do that now. It's just not possible to get that done now". It almost became the anthem of encouragement to me. It was a cardinal sign I was on the right track. And the more I heard that, the more inspired I became to get it done. Without the resistance of water, a ship cannot float. Without the resistance of air, a plane cannot fly. Without the resistance of gravity, you can't walk out of this building.
Have you run into a mountain of impossibility? Climb over it. If you can't get over it, go around it. If you can't go around it, go through it. If you can't go through it, turn it into a mountain and turn that mountain into a gold mine, and sell it to the government. Quitting is not an option. Adversity is opportunity to those who possess the attitude of fortitude. A rubber band is effective only when it's stretched. A turtle gets nowhere until it sticks its neck out. Remember the tea kettle. Though it's up to its neck in hot water, it sings its finest song. God uses no one until you graduate from the university of adversity. Joseph came to the throne of Egypt through the pit his brothers threw him in. They sold him as a slave to the Midianites. He was sold again to Potiphar, who was the chief of police for Pharaoh. He was falsely accused, by a desperate housewife, of rape. He was sent to prison innocently where he said for 12 years.
Adversity turned that fuzzy-faced boy into a statesman of steel that was able to give a nation the wheelbase and the potential to birth the Jewish people for 340 years when they became a nation. Why? He had grit. He had the fortitude to endure the wind of adversity. Moses was raised as a prince in Egypt with wealth and power. But God vanished him to the backside of the wilderness for 40 years until he learned to hear his voice and learned the discipline of doing what needed to be done. And then he went and faced Pharaoh, and liberated the Jewish people.
Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest president after being defeated 12 times. The thirteenth time he ran, he became the president of the United States. That's the attitude of fortitude. John bunion wrote "Pilgrim's progress" in Bedford jail. Other than the Bible, "Pilgrim's progress" is the most read book in the history of Christianity. With the attitude of fortitude, you can never forget who you are, you can never forget your dream, you will never give up on the mission, because your goal and God's goal, you will get there! Keep going! "The victory is ours through Christ the Lord". Say that with me. "The victory is ours through Christ the Lord".
Can we stand together? How many of you in this room can say, pastor, there are painful thoughts and memories in my past that destroy my peace and happiness of the present. I want peace of mind in my life, and I need God's help to have that peace of mind. If that describes you, lift your hand, please, right where you are. Everyone in this audience and those of you who are watching by television, I want you just to lift your hands toward the Lord and pray this prayer with me.
Heavenly Father, in the authority of Jesus' name, I receive the peace of God that passes all understanding. And I pray that you would give me the supernatural power to control my thoughts, so they make my life a thing of joy, a thing of peace: that the prosperity of the Lord will follow me all the days of my life, because of the goodness of God. In the authority of your name, Lord Jesus Christ, I receive forgiveness of all of my sin. And I receive your peace forever. Amen.