Joyce Meyer - Ask Us Anything - Part 1
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Ginger Stache: Hey everyone. I am so glad you're joining us today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". I know you're going to really enjoy this program because today we are answering some of your questions. No topic is off limits during this special discussion from a talk it out podcast. Now Joyce will be sharing her heart with you along with Erin Cluley and me, and we are going to be weighing in on everything from our most embarrassing moments to how to deepen your Bible study and make your time with God more meaningful. Some hard questions, some fun questions, and hopefully you'll find answers to some of the questions you have. So, here we go.
Ginger Stache: We are here with Joyce and Erin, and we are going to answer anything. So, what we did...
Erin Cluley: Whoa!
Ginger Stache: We just threw it out there out there on social media, "Ask Us Anything".
Joyce Meyer: Ask us anything and Erin's gonna answer 'em all.
Erin Cluley: That's what you said.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, Joyce said, here, we're just gonna give these to Erin.
Erin Cluley: All right, everybody get ready, let's cozy up on the couch.
Joyce Meyer: 'cause they always make me answer everything, so.
Erin Cluley: You're just so good, though.
Ginger Stache: Before we jump into the questions, you guys were just talking before we got started and Joyce did a speaking engagement last weekend.
Joyce Meyer: Now, you're gonna tell on me.
Ginger Stache: I am because it's so cute. I just think it's the cutest thing ever. And, you know, we often, 'cause I don't go to the speaking engagements all the time when she goes. And so, I said, "Hey, I heard it was really good". And what did you say, Joyce?
Joyce Meyer: I said, "It was a great, it was one of my greatest teachings on pride".
Ginger Stache: She said, "It was really good. I think it was one of my best ever". And then she just starts laughing. And she said, "And it was on pride and humility".
Erin Cluley: I like the balance in those two.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah.
Ginger Stache: It was just very fun.
Joyce Meyer: So, it sounded a little different than what I meant it, but I meant it with a very humble heart. How's that?
Erin Cluley: "Humbly, I'm fantastic".
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, "Humbly, I'm fantastic".
Ginger Stache: She's gonna title this teaching this...
Erin Cluley: I love it.
Ginger Stache: "The best teaching ever on humility".
Joyce Meyer: Let's answer questions.
Ginger Stache: Okay, all right. Let's start with the rapid-fire round.
Joyce Meyer: All right.
Erin Cluley: Okay, I'm ready.
Ginger Stache: Quick questions, quick answers, 'cause we're gonna try to get through a lot of them today, but not as quick as these first ones. What's your coffee order, Joyce?
Joyce Meyer: Well, I make my coffee at home. I only like a Nespresso pot. I'm a coffee snob. And I have got it just the way I like it. I don't like coffee that's super, super strong. So, it's hard for me to get it out because a lot of times it's too strong.
Ginger Stache: All right, Erin.
Erin Cluley: Do you use heavy cream?
Ginger Stache: Oh, no, you're getting deep on the rapid-fire question.
Erin Cluley: Oh, I'm so sorry. I just really love coffee.
Ginger Stache: No, it's okay, go ahead, it's important.
Joyce Meyer: Yes.
Erin Cluley: 'cause I think I learned that from you.
Joyce Meyer: Two teaspoons of heavy cream.
Erin Cluley: Okay, I heard that Joyce did that, so, I thought I'd try it at home. So, I love just regular coffee with heavy cream in there, and it's just delightful. Or a latte.
Joyce Meyer: Is it more than two teaspoons though?
Erin Cluley: Oh, yes. I'm gonna go two tablespoons.
Ginger Stache: So, here's my secret. So, I don't like coffee. I wish I did, but I don't. So, I get hot chocolate.
Erin Cluley: Oh, yes.
Joyce Meyer: Skinny hot chocolate.
Ginger Stache: To balance it out, for some reason, I think this makes a difference, I get hot chocolate with no whipped cream.
Erin Cluley: Oh, totally.
Ginger Stache: Because all that sugar somehow, I think is balanced out by not putting whipped cream on it.
Erin Cluley: It sucks it out.
Ginger Stache: Anyway, yeah. And I'm a hot chocolate snob too because all hot chocolates are not equal.
Joyce Meyer: No, they're not.
Erin Cluley: You are.
Ginger Stache: Okay, next thing.
Joyce Meyer: All coffee's definitely not equal.
Erin Cluley: That's true.
Ginger Stache: What do you enjoy most about doing the podcast?
Joyce Meyer: Aggravating you girls.
Erin Cluley: She does do that. You like that, huh?
Ginger Stache: I think that's a really solid answer.
Erin Cluley: I like receiving it, uh-huh.
Ginger Stache: We all like that for each other.
Joyce Meyer: We just have fun and I like to aggravate you. I mean, I love to help the people and answer the questions, but it's just a relaxed atmosphere and it's just good.
Erin Cluley: Good. Feels like real life, just to get to enjoy community with friends and encourage each other.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Erin Cluley: It's my favorite.
Ginger Stache: I think that's really great. I think it is being able to talk about important, deep, spiritual, biblical things in a really fun way that it's okay as Christians to laugh and be honest and vulnerable. So, I think we're all on the same page.
Joyce Meyer: I think God has a very good sense of humor and we just see him as very rigid, and stern, and rule oriented. And I believe that he has a good sense of humor.
Erin Cluley: Yeah, he's fun.
Ginger Stache: The other day I was at the kitchen sink, and I was praying about something and something funny came to my mind. You know how God does that? And out loud, I just laughed, and I said, "God, you are funny". And Tim walks in behind me and he goes, "Who are you talking to"? So, I was just telling God he's funny. Anyway, okay, when you were little, what did you want to be when you grow up?
Erin Cluley: Oh, I love this one! I wanted to be Joyce Meyer.
Joyce Meyer: Oh! You did not!
Erin Cluley: I never told you that?
Joyce Meyer: No!
Erin Cluley: Yes, this is a good way to start this day.
Joyce Meyer: Now, wait a minute. Now you're telling how old I am and how young you are.
Erin Cluley: Oh, I was a wee child.
Joyce Meyer: You were little when I was an adult?
Erin Cluley: Well, I'm not sure how to answer that. Yes. I grew up listening to you, my parents did, and so, I thought, "She's so great, and she loves Jesus..."
Ginger Stache: Wait, your parents grew up listening to her?
Erin Cluley: Oh, I'm sorry.
Joyce Meyer: Come on!
Erin Cluley: No, I was growing up and my parents were listening to her.
Ginger Stache: Yes, good.
Erin Cluley: Thought, "She's a cool lady, I'd like to be like her when I grow up".
Joyce Meyer: Well, that's a compliment.
Ginger Stache: That's very nice.
Joyce Meyer: That's really nice. You know, because I was in a situation of being sexually abused by my dad, pretty much every day of my life, was just survival. I didn't have any particular aspect to be anything except, I do remember thinking, and I hope this doesn't sound prideful 'cause I think God put it in my heart. I remember thinking, "I am gonna survive this and someday I'm gonna do something great".
Ginger Stache: A lot of people can relate to that, I'm sure. I'm sure.
Joyce Meyer: I didn't know what it was, but I felt like... And God put that in my heart.
Ginger Stache: I wanted to be everything. I wanted to be the president, I wanted to be an astronaut, I wanted to be a surgeon, I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be everything.
Erin Cluley: Wasn't a cowgirl in there?
Ginger Stache: Yes!
Erin Cluley: That's my favorite one of all of them.
Ginger Stache: Thank you for remembering.
Joyce Meyer: A cowgirl.
Ginger Stache: Yes, definitely. Yeah, that was high on the list. Okay, something that helps you stay organized.
Joyce Meyer: People.
Ginger Stache: That's true.
Joyce Meyer: People that help me. People that help me.
Ginger Stache: People that you can count on. And it's okay to ask for help.
Joyce Meyer: Yes, it's okay to ask for help. The busier you are, I should say the more you produce in life. You know, there was a time in my life when I could organize myself. But then there came a time where I was just so busy putting out the word that I needed people to keep other things organized for me.
Erin Cluley: Yeah, that's a really good answer.
Joyce Meyer: Like now, they tell me go here, go there.
Erin Cluley: Do you, do it? Do you go where they...
Joyce Meyer: Well, if it has to do with work.
Ginger Stache: Then we're back to that aggravating people thing that she enjoys.
Joyce Meyer: I called Ginger the other day, you're gonna get a kick out of this. Well, this sounds terrible, but I either order food out or get somebody to cook it, and I had not used a can opener in a long time. I couldn't work my can opener. I had to call my daughter to my house to show me how to use the can opener. So, I thought it was so funny. I called Ginger and I wanted to tell her that 'cause she's a terrible cook. So, I thought she would think that was good. And I said, it was one of those can openers, you had to open the can from the top.
Erin Cluley: Oh, those are hard.
Joyce Meyer: They're hard.
Erin Cluley: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: But she said, "Well, if you didn't open it from the top, where else would you open it"?
Erin Cluley: That's a really good point.
Ginger Stache: I said, "If you're opening it from the bottom, it's just gonna make a mess when you open it".
Joyce Meyer: I laughed so hard.
Erin Cluley: Was it an electric kind?
Joyce Meyer: Nah. It's the kind you...
Erin Cluley: Oh, that's hard.
Joyce Meyer: And I couldn't get it clamped on there.
Erin Cluley: No, you had to do it just right.
Ginger Stache: Well, between the two of us trying to cook a meal we couldn't even open a can, so...
Joyce Meyer: So, I suggested her and I get together and cook a meal. I said, "Let's do something really hard like chicken and dumplings and bake a pie".
Erin Cluley: Y'all would be so hungry.
Joyce Meyer: We can bring in the TV cameras and do a cooking show.
Erin Cluley: I wanna come watch.
Ginger Stache: It would be something. Okay, an embarrassing moment.
Joyce Meyer: Mmm.
Ginger Stache: Too hard to think of?
Erin Cluley: I block them out when they happen. So, whenever anybody asks me this, I can't.
Ginger Stache: That's embarrassing. Haha, I just said that. No, that's good. Okay, I got one. So, we were overseas, and we were in the Amazon jungle. There's this giant tree with these amazing long vines that hung from it. So, everybody was taking turns doing like the Tarzan thing.
Erin Cluley: Yes.
Ginger Stache: Swinging from the vine. And there was even a loop to put your foot in. So, it's supposed to be really easy. I took my turn and I got so tangled up in that vine. I turned upside down and I was basically swinging with my rear end, like up in the air. Everybody had to run and grab me and rescue me and stop me. It was very humiliating. My big Tarzan moment was a disaster.
Erin Cluley: What a good story though: it was worth it.
Ginger Stache: Well, so then I just sat down in the little loop and swang like a four-year-old.
Joyce Meyer: I guess my most embarrassing things have been once in a while on the platform, I'll say something and I don't realize what I've said, and everybody just laughs their head off.
Ginger Stache: I can think of a few of those that I can't share.
Erin Cluley: You can tell us later.
Joyce Meyer: I even said something one day and I won't say what it was, but my son told me later, "Mother, you cannot say that on the platform". And I said, "Well, why"? He said, "Because it doesn't mean now, what it meant when you were young, growing up".
Erin Cluley: That's hilarious.
Ginger Stache: Okay, well, let's move on and do some of the other questions.
Joyce Meyer: Alright.
Ginger Stache: Alright, and again, like Joyce said, we won't spend a lot of time, 'cause most of these questions, we could spend an entire episode on. So, what makes you feel confident? I think this is encouraging to people.
Erin Cluley: Great question.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, what makes you feel confident?
Joyce Meyer: I think that when I preach, what I think is a really solid, good message that has really helped people, I always feel really good when I'm finished.
Ginger Stache: That's good.
Erin Cluley: That is good. I think very unspiritually, a new outfit makes me feel confident. But then I agree with what you're saying too, Joyce, when you're doing what you know God has called you to do and there's that ease in it, that makes me feel confident, too. What about you? You're a confident person by nature.
Ginger Stache: But everybody, you know, has ebbs and flows and things that you just feel stronger. And I think that it is being prepared. And I'm not one... I love spur of the moment things.
Joyce Meyer: That's good: being prepared.
Ginger Stache: But there is something about...
Joyce Meyer: It helps me too.
Ginger Stache: I know I've done my due diligence, you know, I'm ready for this and it does just give you the confidence that you prayed about it...
Joyce Meyer: I have to agree with all of this. I like the outfit, I like that.
Erin Cluley: Imagine when you put all three of those together, whoo!
Ginger Stache: Being prepared in a great new outfit.
Joyce Meyer: And then doing a good job.
Ginger Stache: Exactly.
Erin Cluley: That's a good day.
Ginger Stache: That's really good. Okay.
Erin Cluley: Oh, that goes back to my embarrassing moment, is usually, remember, I fall down when I wear those new outfits, when I do feel good.
Ginger Stache: When you fall up the stairs?
Erin Cluley: When I fall up the stairs.
Joyce Meyer: You fall up the stairs.
Erin Cluley: Yeah, that's embarrassing. But I looked cute, so what are you gonna do?
Ginger Stache: What can a girl do when she looks so good?
Joyce Meyer: I'm gonna send you the teaching from pride and humility. Not that I think you need it, but...
Erin Cluley: But it was that good.
Ginger Stache: It is her best ever.
Joyce Meyer: It was just that good.
Ginger Stache: Okay, this is a great place to start: advice for Bible study.
Joyce Meyer: Well, what I like to recommend is I think that reading the Bible anywhere is great, but I think that it's good for you to study in an area where you're having a problem or some area where you want to improve. It's like, if you're having a problem with patience, look up every scripture you can find on patience. If you're having a problem with anger or jealousy or whatever, the Bible pretty much has the answer to every issue that you could possibly come up with. And so, I did a lot of that, especially in my growing up years. A lot of times now, I read the Bible. But sometimes I get, like, I'll start reading the Bible and then I get to something that like really perks my interest and then I'm off on rabbit tracks.
Ginger Stache: And that's okay, right?
Joyce Meyer: Yeah.
Ginger Stache: That's a good thing.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, everybody...
Ginger Stache: It takes you deeper.
Joyce Meyer: I don't think that there's a formula.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: I don't think there's some specific amount that you have to read or do. I think we just need to love the word and realize that it's our guidebook for life.
Erin Cluley: I think that's great. For me, I know when I started studying the Bible more regularly, I had to ask God to make it alive to me because I was having a really hard time sticking with it 'cause I wasn't, it just felt like words and I knew that's not true. So, me asking God, "Show me something in this, make it real to me," and he did. And so not to say that every time I read it, it's this major Revelation, but he shows up.
Joyce Meyer: That's good.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, I think one of the things for me is consistency and not giving up. Because some of those times, 'cause I've studied the Bible literally since, you know, I was quite young. And you have those times where you're like, "Wow," you know, "I'm learning so much". And then you have other times you think, "Am I accomplishing anything"? And it's realizing that you are always accomplishing something by spending time with God in his word, and not giving up because I haven't had any major Revelation for a while. And so, sticking with it because it will come back around to where something will blow your mind again and God will really speak to you in the midst of it.
Joyce Meyer: One other thing I can say that I think is important for people to hear is don't read the Bible for quantity. Read it for quality.
Erin Cluley: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: Slow down.
Ginger Stache: That's good. God would rather you read one verse six, seven, eight times, think about each word and get something out of it than to read a whole chapter and not even know what you read when you got done. And we're very geared toward quantity.
Erin Cluley: Very much so.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, okay.
Erin Cluley: How we doing?
Ginger Stache: We're doing well.
Erin Cluley: Okay, great.
Ginger Stache: We've got some really interesting questions from people too. Thank you for sending your questions in. "Do you believe..." I think this should be one that Erin answers because I remember a question that you asked on the podcast not too long ago, and then we'll have Joyce answer it for real.
Erin Cluley: I appreciate your honesty.
Ginger Stache: "Do you believe that the more people that pray for someone's sickness to be healed, the better the chance of the healing for that person will be"? So, it's kind of like, do I have to play the odds? If I get more people, will it be more likely that someone will get healed?
Erin Cluley: I laugh not because of that question, but because I know what you're talking about. When Joyce, when I stumped her, and I asked you about prayer, "Does God forget my prayers, I have to redo it again".
Ginger Stache: Does it expire?
Joyce Meyer: Does it expire?
Erin Cluley: So, I think that's a great question: I'm glad you asked!
Ginger Stache: I understand this question. I think it's really valuable, because there is power in getting more people to pray.
Erin Cluley: It's an interesting thing too, I think, because motivation, I think, is a really big deal. Like, if you are trying to get all these people to pray because you think the numbers matter and that the more you add to it, you're gonna get your answer the way that you want it, I don't think that's how God works. But joining with people in prayer and coming in agreement, there is power in that. So, I don't have an answer.
Ginger Stache: I think that's beautiful. Maybe we don't need Joyce to answer that one. That was very good. No, okay, Joyce, go ahead.
Erin Cluley: I don't think she likes that.
Ginger Stache: I'm being, it's crazy talk.
Joyce Meyer: Well, I have an answer. I think it can go either way. I think some things I just pray about myself and don't tell anybody, but then other things, if it concerns me a little bit, like I told you, I've got to get a dental procedure and they may have to take some skin off the roof of my mouth. Well, I am really just like, not looking forward to that. So, I've asked several people to pray about that.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, I think there is something that people can get in the trap of. I mean, the Bible says "Where two or more are gathered together..."
Joyce Meyer: Right.
Ginger Stache: You know, "I'm there in the midst of them". But sometimes we think, "If I could only get Joyce Meyer to pray about this, then I know it would be answered". And there's really something that God honors all of our prayers from a pure heart.
Joyce Meyer: Exactly, yeah.
Erin Cluley: Huge.
Ginger Stache: Okay, how do you find balance with work and play and all the things that need to get done. People talk about balance all the time, and it's a big question that a lot of people ask. But this is interesting, finding balance between work time and still enjoying life.
Joyce Meyer: Well, I made myself sick several times before I found it, and now, I just really kind of go by my heart. Some days I can sit and work on messages and study all day. And yesterday, in the afternoon, I just didn't wanna do it. It just...
Erin Cluley: Good for you.
Joyce Meyer: I was trying, it just wasn't coming together. So, I just stopped and did something more relaxing. So, I think sometimes you have to be willing to listen to your own heart.
Ginger Stache: Oh, that's good.
Erin Cluley: Yeah, that's good. 'cause you can feel that sometimes.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, what do you need? What do I need?
Erin Cluley: Right.
Joyce Meyer: Do I need a nap? Do I need to, you know, I love quiet. And so, that's something that I have to have. That's very relaxing for me. And I just decided that I'm gonna get a bird feeder and I'm gonna sit out on my deck and watch the birds.
Erin Cluley: Yeah, that's a great idea.
Ginger Stache: Give yourself permission to do that.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, to do things.
Ginger Stache: I think that's really important.
Joyce Meyer: And somebody started telling me what a mess it was, and I said, "We'll deal with that".
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Erin Cluley: I have to really balance that because I, like the two of you, feel really productive or feel really good when I am being productive and producing something. So, I have to remind myself like it is okay for me to not always do that. It's okay to sit down or it's okay to play with my kids and not...
Joyce Meyer: It's not only okay, it's vitally necessary.
Erin Cluley: Sure.
Ginger Stache: That's one of the big things I've learned is that I'm better when I play. I'm more creative when I play. I make memories when I play. I make, of course, when the kids were little, like you're talking about those memories with your kids, and still doing that as adults: adults need to play. And I think there's something that God kind of ordained in time that is not the expected. And he often really works through some of those things.
Joyce Meyer: It took me a long time to learn to play because I didn't really have a child in me. Because of being abused in my childhood, I felt like I was always an adult.
Erin Cluley: Sure.
Joyce Meyer: I was always having to keep this secret and be responsible for something.
Ginger Stache: That's a lot of pressure.
Joyce Meyer: Just this morning, I told my daughter, I said, "In june", I have four adult children. I said, "I want all of you kids, and me, I wanna go to the zoo".
Ginger Stache: Oh, nice.
Erin Cluley: I love that.
Joyce Meyer: So, we're gonna go to the zoo. Can you imagine how much fun we'll have at the zoo with David and Danny?
Ginger Stache: That would be so fun.
Joyce Meyer: So, I'm gonna go skipping through the zoo.
Erin Cluley: That's so fun. I think it's the small things like that too. It's also not always some big, huge, fun moment that we're going to have.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, it doesn't always have to be expensive and cost a lot of money. And matter of fact, I think sometimes the more just unplanned things work better. You can play a game with somebody laugh harder than if you try to pay a bunch of money to go somewhere to laugh.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, that's true.
Erin Cluley: So true.
Ginger Stache: Sometimes just trying to open a can with a can opener.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah.
Erin Cluley: That's fun.
Joyce Meyer: That gave us a good laugh.
Ginger Stache: It did. It gave us a good laugh.
Joyce Meyer: I had a good one last night. Dave, you know, doesn't hear well. I have a little problem, but his is worse. And I told him about somebody that was gonna take a new position at the office. And he said, "Oh, who is that"? I said, "Oh, you remember him"? I said, "He's the kinda shorter guy". And I said, "His daughter was sick 15 years ago. She had cancer and we prayed for her, along with a lot of other people, and God healed her". And he looked at me with this deer in the headlights look, he said, "We prayed for her dog, and it got healed... We prayed for his dog, and it got healed"? But it was hysterical. See, it's not funny now, but it was hysterical. I mean, I was almost in the floor.
Ginger Stache: Okay, next question.
Erin Cluley: I think we're done with that one.
Joyce Meyer: That didn't go over too good.
Ginger Stache: No.
Joyce Meyer: Most embarrassing moment, told a joke on talk it out and it didn't work.
Erin Cluley: Do it again, we'll laugh harder.
Joyce Meyer: All right, yeah. You guys weren't very good to me. All right, here's an interesting question. "How do you balance having hope and faith that God can intervene versus just being delusional"? And that's how they said it, but it's a really good question. Like, how do you balance?
Erin Cluley: Can I ask a question with the question? Is how does that, what that question says, how does that work when it's in terms of healing? Because you wanna have faith and hope that God is gonna heal your loved one or whatever the circumstance is, but to not be... What was the word she used?
Ginger Stache: Delusional.
Erin Cluley: Delusional. I just think that's a trap we can sometimes get ourselves into. What does that look like?
Joyce Meyer: Well, I think that you always believe. Jesus said, "Who will I find in faith when I come back"? And I believe that everybody is healed, but I think some people get it when they cross over to the other side. And I just reread something again the other day that just keeps coming back to me. God always answers prayer, but sometimes he says, "No". And he knows what he's doing, we can trust him. And just because we want somebody to stay here doesn't necessarily mean that it's not their time to go.
Erin Cluley: Which then means your faith and your hope is not delusional.
Ginger Stache: Right.
Joyce Meyer: No.
Erin Cluley: Just not the...
Joyce Meyer: But I would always believe, I would believe until the last second. Because that's what God tells us to do.
Ginger Stache: So, the question is, what is your faith in?
Joyce Meyer: Yes, right.
Ginger Stache: Is your faith in getting what I want?
Joyce Meyer: Or is it in God?
Ginger Stache: Or is it...
Joyce Meyer: That's very good.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, yeah.
Erin Cluley: That was really good. You can write that down. Joyce and I.
Joyce Meyer: Best answer of the day.
Erin Cluley: Yeah.