Joyce Meyer - Living in Agreement with God - Part 2

Well, welcome to, "Enjoying Everyday Life". I'm glad that you've joined me today and I believe the Word of God is going to help you enjoy your life more than ever before. Actually, we're going to continue a message that I started yesterday. And I hope you were watching yesterday, but if not, you'll catch on right away. I'm talking about living in agreement with God. That means that we believe what God's word says. Whether, we see it, whether we feel it, whether it seems to make any sense to us or not, we're just going to believe God. You know, until we stop questioning everything, "Well, I don't understand that. Well, that doesn't make any sense".

Well, there are things that God says that we don't understand, but we don't have to understand it to obey it. You know, I don't understand electricity, but I use it. I don't understand gravity, but I'm glad I've got some today because it's keeping my feet on the platform. It's amazing how in the natural realm, there are so many things that we make use of and just accept as fact that we can't see. But when it comes to God's word and his promises, we want to feel and see everything. I had to make my mind up a few years ago. I just believe the word. I'm gonna believe God's promises. In order to walk with God, which is the way we wanna live, because that's the best life to live, we need to be in agreement with God.

And so, that's what we talked about yesterday was, are you in agreement with God concerning your past? Because past mistakes and past sins, if you've repented of them, the Bible says that God forgives them. And it even says that he forgives them for his own sake, which I love. I tell people all the time, if somebody's hurt you, do yourself a favor and forgive them. Maybe they don't deserve your forgiveness, but you deserve to be free, and you deserve to have peace, and you deserve to have joy.

And the Bible says that God remembers our sin no more. But a lot of times we hang on to things that people have done to us in the past, and we hang on to things that we've done. And God wants you to understand that what's past is past. And you really can't go back and do anything about it except learn from it. And that's a great thing to do. Learn from your mistakes. God makes all things work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And I think one of the ways that he works good out of bad things is by helping us learn not to do that again. I've one last scripture I wanna share about letting go of the past, and then we're gonna go on and talk about your future.

Paul, the apostle Paul said, "There's one thing I do". Now, somebody like Paul, who wrote two thirds of the New Testament, if he says, "Look, there's one thing I do," I'd be listening. It's like, "Okay". If there's just one thing that's that important to Paul, I sure wanna know what it is. Philippians 3:12 and 13: "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal", and he was talking about pressing toward perfection, "But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me", he says, "Everything that Jesus died to give me, I want it". And we need to be like that. "Brothers and sisters, I don't consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do", here it comes, "Forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what is ahead".

And I'm glad the word straining is in there because we do have to make an effort. We have an enemy, the devil. And he's constantly after us trying to steal our faith, steal our joy, make us afraid, and we do have to have a little bit of resistance. Now, that doesn't mean that we have to live in misery. We can live in the rest of God. But we have been given authority over the enemy, but you have to use that authority. It can't just lie dormant. So, stop living in the past because that's not where God's that. He is the great I am, not the great I was.

Now, let's talk about your future. Are you in agreement with God about your future? Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'for I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'". Well, what are your thoughts about your future? You know, "I don't know. I don't have any idea. Probably just more of the same: problems day after day". No, you need to have a dream for your future. You need to have a hope and a plan for your future. And even if it's not like this defined plan where you think you know exactly what's gonna happen, you can at least say, "I believe that I have a good future, that good things are gonna happen to me, and that God has a good plan for me". Matter of fact, I tell people, pretty often, every day when you get up, you should say "Something good is gonna happen to me today".

Now, you know, sometimes, when you've had a really bad past, you have a hard time believing you're gonna have a great future. But I'm telling you, today, that God wants you to believe that good things are coming in your future. Boy, somebody needs to get a hold of that. Right now, you're depressed, you're sad, you have no joy, you gotta bad attitude because you just think same old, same old. No, make a decision, you're gonna believe, "Something good is going to happen to me. God's got a good plan for my future". Now, what are you saying about your future? Ezekiel 37 teaches us that we should prophesy our future, and a prophesy just means to speak forth.

Now, remember, I said yesterday, in Romans 4:17, the Bible says that we serve a God who "Calls things that are not as if they already existed". So, when God plans to do something, before it ever happens, he talks about it as if it has already happened. So, that's why you can be in the midst of having something bad going on in your life and you can say, "Good things are gonna happen to me". Now, let me ask you a question. If you're gonna say anything at all, why not say something good, instead of saying something bad? If you've already got something bad, why prophesy more bad on yourself? Why not say something good? And so, I learned this a long time ago. And, you know, there are people who call it "The name, it claim it" gospel, and that is just absolutely not what I'm talking about here at all. I'm talking about saying what God says, agreeing with God. God doesn't say that we're all going to be billionaires.

So, I can't go around saying, "I'm a billionaire". But I can say, "God has a good plan for my future," because he says he's got a good plan for my future. I can say, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ," because he says I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. I can say, "My sins are forgiven," because he says my sins are forgiven. So, we need to be saying what God says, not repeating all the lies the enemy drops into our head. So, Ezekiel 37, 10 verses, Ezekiel was apparently taken, in the spirit, into a valley of dead dry bones. And he says, "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley, and it was full of bones".

Well, bones usually indicate something's dead. "He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of that valley, bones that were very dry. And he asked me, 'Son of Man, can these bones live'? And I said, 'well, sovereign Lord, you alone know'"? In other words, Ezekiel was like, "Well, I don't know what I'd do. I don't have the ability to make them live. But you, God, you can do anything". Then God said to him, now, listen, "'prophesy to these bones and say to them'". So, God's telling him to talk to these dead dry bones. Prophesy just means to speak forth. And so, he said, "'prophesy to these bones and say, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord"'".

Remember, I said, we're only gonna prophesy God's word. We're not just gonna try to prophesy what we want. We're gonna prophesy the Word of God. "'"This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: 'I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin: I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord'. So I prophesied as I was commanded"'".

Now, you know, maybe, he felt foolish standing in this valley, talking to these dead bones. I know when God first started teaching me about speaking the Word of God out loud and prophesying or speaking things that were not a reality in my life yet, I felt really foolish. But you know what? It's become a big part of my life. And I confess, which means to say the same thing as, I confess the Word of God all the time, because I want the promises, in the Word of God, to be a reality in my life. "'And I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was still no breath in them'", verse 9, "'then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath: prophesy, Son of Man, and say to it, 'this is what the sovereign Lord says, "Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live". So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them: and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army'"'".

So, here, he starts out with a valley full of dead dry bones, and he ends up with a mighty army standing on their feet. Well, you know, this may seem like a silly example. Let's just say that you have a ton of financial problems and you're always talking about how broke you are, and how deep in debt you are, and your bank accounts overdrawn, and you've got a negative balance, and you've got all these past due bills, and all these bill collectors calling you all the time. So, you rehearse that all the time: you tell your friends, you talk about it at lunch, you think about it. Well, how about a new plan? How 'bout getting out your checkbook and talking to it? "Checkbook, I prophesy to you that everything I lay my hand to prospers and succeeds. I give in obedience to God, and he gives back to me. And you are gonna have a plus balance, an overflow. I am going to be out of debt and able to give to all kinds of people that are in need. That's what I have to say to you".

Now, I know some of you probably think I've gone stark raving mad and maybe you've already thought, "I'm turning this off. This lady's a nut". Well, I didn't say anything to you that's not in the Bible. I teach the Bible. And if Ezekiel can prophesy to a bunch of dead, dry bones, you can prophesy to your checkbook. Remember, you "Give and it will be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall man give back into your bosom". You say, "Well, I just don't see how anything good can happen. I just feel hopeless". Well, David said, in Psalm 27:13, "[what, what would have become of me] had I not believed"? See, what are you believing? Maybe, you are broke, right now. But do you believe you're always gonna be broke? I remember, when I used to say, "We're never gonna have any money. Every time we get a little bit of money, something breaks down and takes it". "We'll never own our own home. We'll never drive a new car".

Well, I was agreeing with the devil all the time. But then, I started doing just what I'm telling you to do. We give and we're faithful to give God, we're tithers. And I believe that everything I lay my hand to is gonna prosper and succeed. Well, things have changed in my life since I brought my mouth into agreement with God's word. "[what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living". What do you say about yourself? Do you say what God says about you? Or do you say what people have said about you? Or do you say what you think, or you feel? First of all, God loves you, and you should say that: "God loves me, and he loves me unconditionally. He loves me with a perfect love. He has created me, and I am not a mistake".

You know, the Bible says that in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that "He that knew no sin became sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ". And, you know, so many people struggle to be right with God through their own works. And I did that for years, and years, and years. But you see, so many of these things, God says we already are. And so, we kinda live our life like a person who's trying to get in a chair, they're already sitting in. So, I'm gonna have Erin come up here and she's gonna help me. She's gonna make her TV debut by acting foolish up here with me. Now, just to make sure, you can just sit there and look real pretty for just a minute.

Erin Cluley: Oh, thank you.

Joyce Meyer: Like, the Bible says that if you meditate on the Word of God, day and night, that everything you lay your hand to, will prosper and succeed. So, if you're doing the part God asked you to do, then you should be expecting to prosper and succeed in your future. Well, the Bible says that she's already been made right, through the blood of Christ, so she can never be made any more right, than what she already is, by good works. But we struggle and we struggle trying to get something we've already got. So, show me, Erin, what it would be like to try and get in a chair, you we're already sitting in.

Joyce Meyer: Well, what is your problem?

Erin Cluley: I'm getting in it?

Joyce Meyer: It's kinda frustrating, isn't it?

Erin Cluley: It's hard.

Joyce Meyer: You know, you've already been made right with God, and if you would just believe that you could stop all that struggling.

Erin Cluley: I'm trying, though.

Joyce Meyer: You're trying right, we're tryin'.

Erin Cluley: Tryin' real hard.

Joyce Meyer: Yeah, we try really hard. It is hard. It's hard.

Erin Cluley: Maybe this way.

Joyce Meyer: Now, try one more, maybe one more position.

Erin Cluley: Maybe like this.

Joyce Meyer: Okay, well, you know, just imagine if you tried that for about 30 years, how tired you'd be.

Erin Cluley: I'd be exhausted.

Joyce Meyer: Exhausted. Thank you. I hope that helps you get the point. I used to do that myself, but since I've gotten a little more "Mature," I have somebody else do that now. They can pull their muscles, instead of me, pulling mine. "If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature". You're not that old person you used to be. You're a new creature, and you've been made the righteousness of God in Christ. And you say, "Well, now, wait a minute, Joyce, I do so many things wrong, how can I be right with God"? Because God has decided to view you as being right with him because, not because you do everything right, but because you love Jesus and you've accepted him, and he's already done everything right, and you're in him. God accepts his sacrifice and applies it to you.

Now, that doesn't mean that you still don't want to do things right. But see here's the good news about God. He never expects you to produce something that he hasn't given you. The Bible tells me to love people. But God loves me first, so I've got love in me to give to other people. He tells me to live a righteous life, but he gives me righteousness first, which then equips me to be able to live a righteous life. And, of course, I'm not doing everything right. But I'll tell you one thing, I'm a lot better than I used to be. Because I believe that I'm right with God, it makes me want to do the right thing. But if you believe that you're just a messed up, miserable mess that can never get anything right, then that's exactly what you're gonna keep producing in your life.

Let me tell you something. You don't have to live in the past. You've got a great future in front of you. You are not a mistake. God created you in your mother's womb with his own hand, intricately and delicately. David said, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made: your works are wonderful". Well, David was a bold soul. I mean, he apparently was saying, "I'm wonderful". Now, I don't recommend going around telling other people that. But you know, you are, I mean, God has done something marvelous when he created you. And you have gifts and talents and abilities and something to give to the world. You're not useless. You're not a mistake. "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret places, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth". And I love this. "Your eyes saw my unformed body: all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to pass".

Every single day of my life, and your life, was written in God's book before one of them ever came to pass. Don't tell me God doesn't have a plan for us because he does. He makes us all different. So, why do we spend our life trying to be like somebody else? Be yourself. Be your unique and wonderful and amazing self. You say, "But I have so many faults". But you know what? You have gifts and talents, too. Why are we so good at looking at what's wrong with us, and we think it's wrong to think about what's right with us? You know what? I've got some faults, I've got weaknesses, but I've got some strengths, too. There's things I can't do. But there's things I can do. And I've decided to celebrate how far I've come, instead of being depressed over how far I still have to go. And I believe God wants you to do the same thing.

Romans 12:4-7 says, "For justice each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to the other. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy, if it's faith, then faith, if it's teaching, then teach". And it goes on, he says, God's given us all different gifts and he wants us not to try to be like each other, he wants us to work together. And, you know, our body is not, my hands are not jealous of my feet. If my feet get a new pair of shoes and I'm having a hard time getting 'em on, my hand will go right to the rescue of my foot and help me put my shoe on. It doesn't say, "I'm not helping you. I wanted a shoe of my own and I didn't get a shoe, so I'm not helping you".

We're not like that. If one bad part of my body hurts, everything hurts. If your little finger hurts, makes you hurt all over. And we need to stop being jealous of one another and comparing ourselves with one another and start loving one another and believing what the Bible says. Do you know that you have wisdom? So, stop going around saying, "I don't know what to do. I can't hear from God". Don't say, "I can't hear from God". Say, "I hear from God". You say, "But you know, I don't know if I do hear from God, Joyce. I don't even know how you hear from God".

Well, you know, how does God speak? Well, he speaks through his word. He speaks in that still, small voice that Elijah heard, or some people call it a whisper, a knowing. I think a lot of times we just know down deep inside: we just know what we're supposed to do. We don't even know how we know, but we know. God speaks to you through other people. God speaks to me, fairly often, through one of my daughters. She knows me really well. She understands me. And sometimes, I'll be going through something, I'll not know what to do, and she'll say, "Well, mom, I think this is what you need to do". And sure enough, it'll be the right answer. Sometimes God speaks through our circumstances.

If he keeps closing every door, you're tryin' to do something, and every door keeps getting slammed in your face, if you get enough doors slammed in your face, then maybe, you need to consider that's not the direction you should be going in. And God will even speak to us through our desires. I wanna have a little caveat here, and say, you need to be careful with that one, because the flesh also has desires. But you know, I desire to do what I'm doing. I desire to teach and preach. I desire to write books. I desire to minister to people. And part of that affirms to me the call that is on my life. You know, the Bible says that we are anointed. So, I don't have to try to get anointed. I am anointed. Before I come out to speak, I don't have to go over in a corner somewhere, like I used to, and try to stir up my anointing. But I am anointed.

You say, "What in the world is an anointing"? It's the presence and the power of God on your life. And let me tell you something. The stronger the anointing is on you, when you do something, the easier it is to do that. You are anointed. 1 John 2:20 says, "But you have an anointing". Not, you need to try to get one, you have one. There are so many wonderful things that the Bible says. Let me read you this last scripture and then I'm gonna have to close for today. Genesis 1:26-28: "Then God said, 'let us make man in our likeness, so they may rule over the fish in the sea, the birds, the livestock, the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground'". Of all God's creation, you're the cream of the crop. "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them: male and female he created them".

You can hear from God. And as you continue to believe God's word and trust what his word says, prophesy the Word of God over your life and over your children, if you have little children every day, you should prophesy over them. You don't have to do it, like, to them, but you can, "My son, sammy, is gonna grow up and be a great man of God. He's going to love God and serve him all the days of his life". Say good things about your children all the time that they're growing up. Say good things about yourself. Say good things about your future. And thank God your past has been taken care of and you don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm asking you: will you live in agreement with God? If you wanna walk with God and if you wanna have what God wants you to have, you need to come into agreement with him.