Joyce Meyer - Dressed for Battle - Part 2

The Bible talks about "Wearing your shoes of peace". You wanna do some high-powered, spiritual warfare, you just enter the rest of God and stay in peace when the devil's trying to stir a bunch of stuff up. My morning was so crazy, I finally started laughing about it. And the enemy was trying to frustrate me, he was trying to get me stirred up inside because I'm much better if I get over here in peace. Try to stay in peace. If you're waiting for a parking place and somebody sneaks in and steals it, "Bless you". Don't let 'em ruin your day just because they were being stupid. Come on, are you with me? Do you? You know how hard it is to stay in peace just one day? I mean, just one day. And just, come on, listen. Just because somebody else is acting like a jerk, that don't mean you get to. You know why? Because you belong to your father, in heaven. And he expects more out of you.

"Wield the two-edged sword," Ephesians 6 says, and that sword is the Word of God. You use it. You use the word against the enemy. It's your greatest weapon against him. And then it says, "Cover everything with prayer". All kinds of prayer. Pray everywhere, at all times, in the spirit. For everybody, pray. Cover people with prayer. I love that idea. I like to pray and say, "I cover my children with prayer today. Put a covering over them". "Love covers a multitude of sins". That means that when somebody sins, you can forgive 'em, you don't even have to mention what they did. You know, I used to be kind of bad. Like, I might pick dave's socks up, but I wanted him to know he left 'em in the floor. I wanted him to know how good I was being.

And then God said, "Why don't you just do that, keep your mouth shut"? Well, you know that's, I mean, he always wants more. God always wants a little bit more. And then, stay in faith all the time, from faith to faith to faith to faith to faith to faith. Not from faith to doubt and unbelief to a little more faith. Let's just stay in faith. "I trust you, God. I trust you. I trust you". We could say that a hundred times a day and it wouldn't hurt us. "I trust you, Lord". 2 Corinthians 4:13 says, "It is written: 'i believed: therefore I have spoken'. Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and we also speak". Now, you know what we say is very important that I didn't get around to reading these scriptures last night, but you know, in Isaiah 53 it says, "Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth". It's talkin' about Jesus. That's kind of interesting. "He opened not his mouth".

And then in John 14:30, Jesus told his disciples, it was getting to be close to time for him to go into some of his worst suffering, and he said, "I'm not gonna talk with you much more". Well, that's kind of an interesting scripture, "I'm not gonna talk with you much more". Well, why? Because he was gonna be under a lot of pressure. And let me tell you somethin'. When you're going through a rough time, and you're under a lot of pressure, one of the best things you can do is just zip your lip. You know why? Cause when you're under pressure that's when you're more likely to say dumb stuff, that's gonna get you in trouble. But once you put those words out there, oh, words are so important. They're so much more important than what we think they are. "I didn't mean to say that". Well, too bad, you said it. Proverbs 18:21, "The power of life and death is in the tongue, and those who indulge it must eat the fruit of it whether for life or death".

Now, you know, we hear statements that actually they, somewhere along the line they came, somebody started them because they came from the Bible, but we hear this, "You're gonna eat those words"! Well, that comes straight out of the Bible. We eat our own words, so say things that you want. Don't keep rehearsing what you've got. Talk about what you want. Amen? Come on, don't make me work too hard. Take a little pity on me: I'm getting older. I work hard at it. I figure if I'm gonna be on television, you ought to have something that's at least halfway decent to look at, so. Romans 12:11 says, "Never be lacking in zeal". That's spiritual enthusiasm. "Keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord".

I don't know why it is, but when I get out here, I always get excited. See, and I'll bet you feel more excited here than you would if you were laying home eating donuts and watching soap operas. So, put yourself in places that are gonna help you get stirred up. Don't go to lunch with somebody that's gonna do nothing but complain the whole time and gossip about other people. Hang out with people that have what you want. Amen? Have a conquering spirit, not a lazy, passive, procrastinating, lukewarm spirit. If you want to know somebody that the devil can take advantage of, it's somebody that's passive. Watchman nee, in particular, did a lot of writing about the dangers of passivity. And a passive person is somebody who sits around and waits for something good to happen to them, or they wait for other people to do what's right: they're not using their own will.

And the less you use your will the weaker it gets. God's given you a free will and you need to be decisive and make decisions. That's why I like to sit in the morning and make decisions about how I want to be that day. I don't wait to just see how I'm gonna be. Amen? Is this helping anybody? Go ahead, just try it. Just take five or ten minutes in the morning and just sit there and think, "Now, today, everybody that I'm around, I wanna walk in love". And if you already know people you're gonna be with, I like to think about 'em and think, "God, is there anything I can do for them"? And sometimes, it's just compliment, encourage, smile, be friendly. I don't always feel like being friendly. Sometimes, I feel like, "Leave me alone". But, God says, "Be friendly," so... "How are you, today"?

Now, David prayed in Psalm 51, after he'd sinned with Bathsheba, "Create in me a clean heart, o God, and renew a right spirit within me," and the Amplified says that right spirit is a "Persevering, steadfast spirit". Persevere. Be the kind of person that makes your mind up, "I'm not ever gonna give up. I've already decided I'm not quittin', I'm not giving up". People ask me all the time, and they have for 15 years, "Have you ever thought about retirement"? Yeah, but I'd be bored stupid. What would I do? So, I'm just gonna be here as long as I can stand up. I mean, I've been doing this a long time. I asked Dave, this morning, I said, "I wonder how many conferences we've done"? And this morning I thought, "Maybe I'll retire".

I do that sometimes when I'm tired, but I know I won't, because I don't know what else I'd do. I mean, this is my life. This is what I've done for 45 years. This is me. But I have a persevering spirit. Even when I had that situation with my legs. I mean, that got to be ridiculous. I mean, then I got home after the nerves in this leg got well enough that I could use a walker. I got home and fell and broke the other leg. Yeah, you have to be really smart to do that. So, I ended up back in the hospital, another 10 days in the rehab hospital, "Lord, help me do this right". And then, you'd probably have to have done this to get it, but when they sent me home I couldn't really use either leg, so I had to get out of my wheelchair onto this sliding board and slide onto the toilet. They'd stick this board under my bottom, and I'd scoot over, slide back off into my wheelchair, and then take me back to my recliner and I'd slide onto my wheelchair.

All the time I'm saying, "I've got the victory, I'm more than a conqueror. I'm not givin' up". And you know what? I knew, I knew from the beginning that it would turn out alright. And here I am. Now, the Bible says we're "More than conquerors". What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? I mean, how can you be more than a conqueror? This is what I think. I think being more than a conqueror means that you know you've got the victory before you ever get the problem. So, that means you no longer have to be afraid of trouble. You don't have to be afraid of trouble because whatever comes your way, you've already got the victory. It's yours. All you have to do is play the game God's way. Amen? You just do it his way. Stay sweet. Just keep sweet and obey. Amen? And I'm not naturally sweet: so I have to do that on purpose. I mean, I love people, but I don't have a real soft, sweet, gentle personality. But I could be that way on purpose.

All right now, John 11:39-44. Jesus had a friend named Lazarus who was sick, and he knew he was sick, but he waited until he'd been dead four days on purpose before he went to help. Now, what kind of love is that? It's the God kind of love. Sometimes he wants you to need a miracle so bad that by the time he gets around to helping, you know it was nobody but him. Amen? So, when he finally showed up, Martha said, "You're too late, he's been dead four days, he already stinks". So, see, no matter what kind of stinking mess you got, God can still bring a resurrection. Amen? And this is such an interesting story. Jesus goes up to the tomb. He's getting ready to raise a dead man. The tomb has got a big rock, big stone over it. That's how they closed 'em off. And he said to the people, "Take away the stone". Now, I got to thinking about that a few years ago, and I thought, "Why in the world would somebody who's getting ready to raise a dead man need the people to move the stone"?

This is really good when you get it, because he wants us to be part of what he's doing. And I can tell you, if they wouldn't have removed the stone, Lazarus would still be in there. And some of you may have some stones that you need to roll away in your life. It might be a stone of offense, might be a stone of unforgiveness. It is unbelievable how many people in the body of Christ are holding unforgiveness against somebody. At our women's conference in San Antonio, I asked this question, 16,000 people there, 90% of them stood up. No wonder we have problems in the church. And I talk about this in every conference, and I don't care how tired people get of hearing it because we are going nowhere till we forgive. That is rule number one. If you want any prayer to get answered you gotta forgive, no matter how unfair it seems, you forgive. And I'm not talking about how you feel about them. You might not feel any different, but I've decided I'm gonna pray for them every day. I'm gonna bless them. And get this, if they need help, I'm gonna help 'em. Yeah, you haven't made your mind up so much about that, have you?

Now, you know, there may be some occasions where it might not be smart to do that. But, you know, you can even help people anonymously. It still works in the spirit even if they don't know it was you. It's just being obedient to what, and that's what the Bible says. "Pray for them, bless them". What does it say in Proverbs? "If your enemy's thirsty give him a drink. If he's hungry give him something to eat". If he can't pay his rent this month, that's me, not the Bible. If he can't pay his rent this month, pay it. "What? What? Let him get evicted, I don't care". Well, that's a great godly attitude, isn't it? Is anybody in the house today? These kind of simple things, I'm telling you, are some of the most important things that I know that I've learned over the years. And let me tell you something, I learned this stuff the hard way. I'm downloading on you. It's just like you go out and buy a new program for your computer. It's like getting a free piece of software. I'm giving you a download this morning. All you have to do now is put it to work. Amen? Roll away the stone. Let God bring a resurrection. Are you with me?

But first, you gotta roll away the stone. Maybe it's something as simple as you need to apologize to somebody. Don't be a rude Christian. Have good manners. "'take away the stone'. 'but, Lord,' said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 'by this time there's a very bad odor: he's been in there four days'. And Jesus said, 'did I not tell you if you would only believe you would see the glory of God'"? I'm thinking about, I wanna write a book on faith and I'm thinking about calling it "Only believe". If we would just get that. Just get that. Just go home with that in your cute, little brain. "All God wants me to do is believe. I don't have to figure it out. I don't have to understand it. I don't have to like it. He just wants me to believe. Believe he's good. Believe he's got me. Believe it's gonna work out all right. That's all God wants me to do is believe".

How many of you understand how derailed we get, through trying to figure things out? Just give up reasoning. You can think about something until it starts to confuse you and at that point that's when you've gone too far. When you start getting confused then you just say, "Okay, I'll just forget it. If you wanna explain it to me God, that's fine. If not, I'm okay". There's a lot of things I don't understand but I'm just trying to do what God tells me to do. "So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked up and said, 'father, I thank you that you've heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing around here, that they might believe that you sent me'. When he said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out'! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face", grave clothes, and "Jesus said to them, 'take off the grave clothes, and let him go'".

And I think that's an important part that we forget. After you're born again, then systematically let the Holy Spirit work with you and start taking off the grave clothes. See, I was born again, but I still had a very bad attitude. I had a lot of leftovers from my childhood. They were grave clothes, things that were holding me back, things that were keeping me from acting like Jesus. And gradually, God helped me take those things off. God will work with you the whole rest of your life. I don't know what I've got left, but I just wanna do whatever God wants me to do. We're "The light of the world and the salt of the earth". And although we're living in very difficult times, we are living in the best of times.

To be honest, you didn't happen to just show up on earth at this time. God picked you for this time in history. You don't sound too happy about that. So, he must think you've got what it takes. And I'm trying to get it out of you. You're the light of the world, the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its saltiness, the Bible says, "It's not good for anything". So, be a salty Christian. What does that mean? Make people thirsty for what you've got. "I want some of that. I want some of that peace you've got. I want some of that joy you've got". Amen? "I want some of that power you walk in". The light of the world. No matter how dark a place is, you turn on one, little light and it swallows up the darkness. Wow. The world is a dark place today, but all we need to do is turn up the lights.