Joyce Meyer - Obedience

TOPICS: Obedience

Well, thank you so much for joining me today on "Enjoying Everyday Life". And you know, I believe that the only way we can really enjoy our life is if we have Jesus Christ in our life and if we learn how to follow his word, which means to obey him. And today, I'm going to teach about obedience, which literally means study the word and then do what the word tells you to do. You know, we have an enemy, satan, the devil, and he has a large group of, what we call, demons. When he fell from heaven or was kicked out of heaven, he took a third of the angels with him and they became wicked and evil just like he is.

Now, the devil is very active in the world today and he is behind all the evil. That doesn't mean that people are not responsible for allowing him to work through them, but he is the source of it. And we need to know how to deal with the source of our problems and not just always be plucking off the fruit and leaving the root. And in James chapter 4, verse 7, there's a wonderful scripture, it says, "Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee".

So, anyone who thinks that they're going to get rid of the devil while disobeying God is deceived. It just won't happen. Now, I'm sure there are things that we're all disobeying God in and we don't even realize that we are because we're constantly learning. But purpose disobedience is a very dangerous thing. And I'm just wondering, as I'm talking to you, and I want you to think it over, especially maybe take a little time when the program is over, are there things that you know that God has spoken to you about or things you've read in the word that you already know you're disobeying God? If there are, this is a great opportunity today for you to repent, which means to turn around from the wrong direction and go in the right direction.

Many times, we hear that scripture quoted only in half, "Resist the devil and he will flee". But that's not it. You submit yourself to God, you resist the devil and he will flee. And I'd like to start today by talking to you about obeying God in little things because I think that's where we begin to practice. I know when the Holy Spirit first started working with me back in the '70s, he would deal with me about such little things. And we have a tendency to think that little things don't matter, but it's "The little foxes that spoil the vine," the Bible says in the song of Solomon.

And so, if we think that we're going to obey God in big things, but not obey him in little things, we're mistaken. The little things, I think, are where you get your practice. So, let's just talk about a few little things. Maybe it's on your heart to make a phone call to a sick friend. I know a few weeks ago I kept having a girl on my heart that I haven't seen for a few years, but she just kept coming to my heart and coming to my heart. Well, I've learned over the years that when that happens, that is God prompting me to contact somebody. So, I called her, she answered the phone, and she said, "Oh, I'm so glad you called me. I'm in the emergency room. I fell, and I think I broke both of my wrists".

Well, I don't know if she broke both of them 'cause I've been thinking, "How could she answer the phone if she broke them both"? But she was hurting. And although we didn't talk a long time, it blessed her to know that God had put her on someone's heart. And so many times when God is asking you to do little things like this, it may not seem like much to you, but to the person on the receiving end, it is a big thing and can make a big difference in their life. I mean, I've done little things like call somebody and just say, "I just want you to know you're a blessing". And they'll say, "You made my whole day".

You know, we never know what people are going through or what they need, but we need to be obedient to the Holy Spirit to do those little things. How about sending a thank you card, or a text message thanking somebody, or a text message just telling somebody, "I love you and I appreciate you". I try to do those things in obedience to God. How 'bout apologizing to somebody for being rude? You know, the Bible says, "Love is not rude". And so, if we are rude, we should say, "I'm sorry". How about telling someone's secret? Mmm... The Bible tells us not to do that and we know we shouldn't. Oh, but we're so tempted to tell. We just like to tell things.

How 'bout gossip? We know something about somebody that's not good and we just want to tell somebody. And even worse, sometimes as Christians, we do it under the guise of, "I just want you to pray for them," which really, what we really wanna do is just gossip. We just wanna to tell it. How 'bout complaining? You know, a lot of people don't see complaining as sin, but it actually is. The Bible says that it is sin and that it opens a door for the enemy. What God wants us to do is be very, very, very, very thankful. How 'bout telling the truth, even if you know telling the truth is gonna get you in trouble? These are little things, but very important things.

How about meeting a need that you've been made aware of and you do have the ability to do it, but you just don't want to? Maybe it's gonna inconvenience you or cost you a little something. Let's just say that somebody you work with, his car is broken down and you've heard they need a ride to work, and you could pick 'em up, but it would take you about 10 minutes extra to go out of your way. Well, so often, today, our excuse for not obeying God in things like that is, "I'm just too busy. I do well to get up and get myself ready in the morning and get the kids out of the house. I'm just too busy". And you know what? To be honest, I am very weary of the excuse, "I'm too busy".

Everybody today, it seems like, is busy. You haven't heard from somebody for a long time. You see them maybe in the grocery store. "Oh, hey, it's been so long since I've seen you. How's everything been"? "Oh, I've just been so busy". Everybody is busy. But you know what? God has not called us to be busy. He has called us to bear good fruit. Read John chapter 15. It talks all about how God wants us to bear good fruit. Many of these little things do not become acts of obedience because we just plain don't wanna take the time to do them. We're selfish, and we would rather spend the time doing what we want to do.

As I said, "I'm too busy," becomes a tiresome excuse after a while. And in the final analysis, I found this in my own life, and I think if you're honest, you'll find it in yours, we find the time to do what is really important to us. Now think about it. We find the time to do what is really important to us. For years and years and years, I did not exercise or work out because I just thought I didn't have the time. I convinced myself I didn't have the time. And then finally, God dealt with me about it, put some things on my heart, told me if I wanna be strong for the last third of my journey, I had to start doing it.

And so, I didn't see how I was gonna do it because I still thought I didn't have the time, but I thought, "Well, I'll just start by doing what I can. Even if it's five minutes, it's better than doing nothing". Well, you know what? I started and I liked it enough that now... 18 years have gone by and I work out with a trainer with weights three days a week, and it's one of the reasons why, at my age, I'm still able to do what I do. Don't use the excuse, "I'm too busy".

Come on now, somebody, I think, needs to hear this today. Don't use the excuse, "I'm too busy". And if you are too busy, make a list of what you're spending your time doing. Draw a line through the things that aren't bearing any fruit in your life or that you're doing for a wrong motive. Maybe you're spending your time doing things just because somebody wants you to and you're pretty sure that they'll get upset if you don't, but you really don't feel like it's something you're supposed to do. Well, should you use your time to do that? Which is really, in essence, disobeying God too, and then disobey him in something else, or should you just take a chance on losing the friend, which if they really are a friend, you won't lose them if you tell them, "No".

Our real friends want us to be honest with them. You know, if you and I are supposed to be friends and I never hear from you, then I'm not important to you. We find the time to do what is important to us. If my children only found time for me when they wanted something, then they don't love me for me. They only love me for what they can do for me. Little acts of obedience usher in great blessings. I wanna say that again. Little acts of obedience usher in great blessings. There may be some of the most wonderful blessings waiting for you, but there's those two or three things that God's been dealing with you about that you're just ignoring and not doing what he's told you to do. And you know what? There's no harder pillow to sleep on than a guilty conscience. It just makes us absolutely miserable.

Well, what do we consider to be big areas of disobedience? If these are some of the little ones, what do we think are big ones? Well, maybe God asks you to give away a larger sum of money than you've ever given away. Maybe there's a building program at your church or maybe there's an opportunity to help dig a water well in a foreign country where they don't have any clean water. Let's just really make it big and say you've got money saved for a vacation and God puts it on your heart to take that money and give it to help the poor. Well, that's gonna be challenging. It's gonna hurt. But the bigger the sacrifice, the greater the blessing.

We might consider giving up our planned lives to obey the call of God on our lives to be a big thing. Maybe moving to a foreign country to be a missionary to you would be a big thing. But it's important that we do everything that God asks us to do. And to be real honest, I don't think with God there are big and little. I think everything is just important. "Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and he will flee". Now, let me ask you a question. Are you tired of fighting something all the time? 'cause I'll tell ya, the devil is not gonna leave you alone. Especially if you're making any effort to do what's right, he is going to come against you.

When Jesus was in the garden of... not the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was being tempted by the devil, in Luke chapter 4, you can read this account, for 40 days and 40 nights, and by the way, he was led there by the Holy Spirit. It was a test he had to go through. He had to confront the enemy and let him know that he couldn't control him. And when he went through all the different tests, the Bible says in Luke 4:13 that the enemy, the devil, "Went away temporarily to wait for a more opportune time" to come back and test him again. And so, satan is not gonna ever permanently leave us alone.

But we can either trust God and enter his rest and believe that if we're obedient and do what God tells us to do, that he'll do what we can't do. Then we can enter the rest of God and not have to feel like we're constantly fighting something, fighting something, fighting something. And I know I went through periods of time in my life where I felt like I was always fighting something. Always fighting the devil, "I rebuke the devil. I rebuke the devil".

And you know, I found out that everything that was going on in my life that was painful, or I didn't like wasn't the devil. Sometimes just like God led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested and tempted so he could pass those tests, sometimes he leads us into hard places because that's where we get the experience that we need for God to use us. I call them sanctified experiences. And I can tell you after living 81 years of life and being 48 years in ministry, I have got some experience. But it's what enables me now to enter the rest of God when difficult things happen.

I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to get upset about it because I've had enough experience with God and his faithfulness, that I know that I know, that I know that I know, that God will come through for me. I may not know how. I may not know when, but I really don't care because I know that he will, and I know his timing will be absolutely perfect. And whatever you're going through right now, I can tell you that God knows it. He knew all about it before it happened. He has his eye on you. He has a plan for you. He has a timing for you. And what he wants you to do is enter his rest and trust, big word, trust God.

"I will put my trust in the Lord," is what David said, the Psalmist David. And it is a decision that we make. Are you gonna trust yourself? Are you gonna trust your friends? Are you gonna trust the bank? Are you gonna trust God? Put your trust in God. David knew the battle was the Lord's when he faced Goliath. And you know, little David, I mean, this giant was big and none of the other soldiers wanted to confront him. And David said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that we should cower in his presence"? And listen to what he said as he faced Goliath. "All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves: for the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands".

Can I tell you today that whatever you're dealing with, the battle belongs to the Lord? Now, you can take a deep breath and go, "Joyce, I needed to hear that". 2 Chronicles 20:15, Jehoshaphat was doing battle and God spoke to him through the prophet and says, "The battle is not yours, but God's". I want you to get that today. The battle is not yours, but God's. You submit yourself to God, resist the devil, he will flee, walk in obedience, be thankful, thank God for every blessing in your life. Don't complain about what you're going through and enter the rest of God.

Hebrews 10:11-13, "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties: again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins". Now, this is talking about how things were under the old covenant. They had a priest who every day had to offer sacrifices for his own sins over, and over, and over, and over, until Jesus, our high priest came along, praise God, and he made a sacrifice once and for all that is good for all times. We don't ever have to sacrifice: he has done it for us. Jesus has paid for our sins and when we sin, all we need to do is admit our sins, be willing to turn away from them, tell God we know that we cannot stop doing the wrong thing if he doesn't help us, and then we can enter the rest of God.

It says, "When this priest", talking about Jesus, "Had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he has been waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet". You know, there is a time when the devil is gonna be thrown into the lake of fire and he will no longer have any ability to attack any of God's children and Jesus will come back for us and we'll go to live with him for eternity. But we don't have to wait until then to have some peace in our lives. We can have peace right now by entering the rest of God through trusting that God will take care of whatever needs to be done in our lives.

Romans 16:20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet". My... Peace is powerful. You may not see that, but it is, it's powerful. Being upset weakens you but being peaceful in the midst of the storm puts you in a position where satan does not know how to handle you. 1 John 3:8 says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil". Hallelujah. That's the reason why Jesus came and those works of the devil have been destroyed for us but we have to know that and that doesn't mean he can't come against us but it does mean that he can do no permanent damage to us.

Jesus said in John 16:33, "In the world you will have tribulation". Trouble is a promise. But he said, "Cheer up: I have overcome the world". And right before that in John 14:27 he said, "My peace I leave with you. Not as the world gives do I give unto you but my own special peace I now give to you. So, stop allowing yourselves to be upset and disturbed. Stop allowing yourselves to be fearful and intimidated". We do have a responsibility. Concentrate on obeying God and realize that obedience is spiritual warfare against satan and his demons. If you're tired of fighting all the time stop fighting and start obeying God.

Now let's talk about a few important areas of obedience that we sometimes overlook and see them as unimportant. First of all, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances: for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus". Complaining opens the door for satan to bring destruction into your life. And I'll tell you the truth, I think if we could get through one day, one whole day without complaining about anything at all it would qualify as a minor miracle, maybe a major miracle. You know, we need to think about being thankful. I prayed that God would help me today in the studio, help me do these teachings, help 'em be good, help 'em to be just exactly what you need.

And so, when I'm finished today, God answered my prayer, which it seems that he's doing, I need to remember to say, "Thank you that you heard my prayer and that you answered me". Let's don't be like the nine lepers. You know, Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank him. They were healed as they went to show themselves to the priest, that is what Jesus said, "Go and show yourself to the priest". And they will be healed on their way. And that's exactly what happened. And only one, ten percent, came back to thank God for what he's done for us. You know, I think our gratitude should outweigh our petitions. Complaining opens the door for the devil and gratitude and thanksgiving closes it.

1 Corinthians 10:9 and 10 says, "We should not test Christ as some of them did and were killed by poisonous serpents". In the Old Testament when the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness they murmured and grumbled and complained until finally God let serpents into the camp and, get this, 23,000 of 'em fell dead in one day. And then, in the New Testament, it repeats that story and actually says, "We're writing this to you, so you remember what happened to them and you don't repeat the same mistake that they did".

Let me say again there is power in gratitude and there's weakness in murmuring and complaining. Godliness with contentment is of great gain. Paul said, "I have learned how to be content whether I am abased or abounding". Can you be content whether you are having good times or maybe going through a struggle, right now? Maybe you are struggling: I'm sure some of you are. You may be going through some unfair, unjust things or maybe things happening to you that you do not understand.

But I want to really encourage you to look at your whole life: don't just look at the problem you have right now. Look at your whole life and you'll find that you have more good things than bad things, and thank God for all the good things that he's done for you. Many mornings in my prayer I'll just say, "Thank you, God, that you have been so good to me and you have been so good to my children". I have four children that are all healthy. I have twelve grandchildren that are all healthy. I even have six great grandchildren that are all healthy. That is a blessing in itself.

Now, maybe, you have some children that are sick and you're thinking, "Well, that's nice for you, Joyce, but what about me"? Well, you know, maybe you have that as a challenge in your life but I might have a challenge in another area where you're being blessed. So, let's look at the good things that God is doing. There's so many negative things happening in the world today and I think that all believers need to be as positive as they can be, and we need to be as grateful as we possibly can be. Being thankful is protection against the enemy. Let me pray for you.

Father, I pray, right now, in Jesus' name that you would help people to see areas where they are being disobedient and give them the grace to turn and go in a new direction and be obedient to you. Help them close every door that has been open to the enemy and help them to enter your rest. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.