Joyce Meyer - The War for Man's Soul - Part 2

I am the righteousness of God in Christ, but, you know, I got a phone call this morning that made me a little angry, and I got over it. Whereas, 30 years ago, I might have stayed mad for two weeks. Now, I can get over it in a few minutes because I know that’s what God wants me to do. Even though the enemy might be tempting me to stay angry, God shows me to let it go and to forgive it. And of course, I’ve studied these things for a long, long time, so it’s easier for me to do now. But even while I was angry, I was still the righteousness of God in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Not in myself, but in Christ.

We need to learn how important it is that we’re in Christ and he is in us. We have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. This verse is interpreted to mean that Jesus became the representative sin bearer for the world, identifying with the sins of humanity when he died on the cross. God treated Jesus as if he were sin itself, but Jesus was sinless. By uniting with Jesus in faith, people become righteous, the opposite of sin. Do you think that you could begin to feel a little bit better about yourself if you really would decide to believe these scriptures? Do you know people, most people, a lot of people, at least, I was one of them, they don’t like themselves very much. And they’re constantly taking an inventory of everything that’s wrong with them.

Have you done that already this morning? When you woke up this morning, did one of the first things that come to you was thoughts about everything you did wrong yesterday or everything you’ve done wrong in your life? Or have you already thought today about something that you did 20 years ago that you’re still kind of mad at yourself over and wondering if God actually really did forgive you? But see, when you know who you are in Christ and you believe what the Bible says, you can say, «My sins are forgiven, I am the righteousness of God in Christ, and I accept and I like myself».

Matter of fact, you can love yourself, not in a selfish, self-centered way, but you can love yourself. And all that means is that you are receiving the love of God that he poured out upon you. We’re to love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor even as we love ourselves. Now, in Romans 6:11, and this is important, it says, «Even so consider yourself dead to sin». Now, «Consider» means think. So how do you think of yourself? Do you think of yourself as dead to sin or do you think, «Well, you know, I have this problem in my life, I’ve got a bad temper, and I just, I can’t get over it. I mean, I just lose my temper and there’s nothing I can do about it». Or when you think about it, do you think, «I’m dead to sin»?

And you can even begin to think like that while you’re still angry. And I know if you’re just looking at this with your natural mind, it makes no sense at all. But everything I’m telling you is backed up in Romans chapter 6 and 7 and 8. Consider yourself who and what God says you are even while you’re still changing. God has made us to be something that we are constantly becoming. Let me say that again. God has made us to be something that we are constantly in the process of becoming, because God is always working with us toward good change. «Consider yourself dead to sin and your relationship to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with him]», here it is again, «In Christ Jesus».

It’s amazing how those two little words have been there all the time, and yet, most people don’t pay any attention to 'em at all, or they’ve never had any teaching on how important it is to be in Christ. We need to learn to identify with who we are: a new creature in Christ. Today, people talk a lot about, «Well, I identify as this,» and, «I identify as that,» and, «I identify as something else». Well, I identify as a child of God. I identify as someone who has been made right with God through the blood of Christ. I identify with the fact that I’m redeemed, that Jesus bought me with his blood and I belong to him. I identify with the fact that I am a joint heir with Christ, a joint inheritor in that whatever Jesus earned I get just because I believe in him, because I believe in him.

You know, the Bible says, «Only a fool will believe that there’s no God». I, honestly, don’t know how anybody, I just don’t understand how anybody can be an atheist. I mean, if you really look around the world and you see the amazing things that God has created, how could you possibly believe that they just bang, happened? No, God created you in your mother’s womb with his own hand, purposely and intricately, and he loves you and he has a good plan for you and his plan for you is not that you go around miserable all the time, thinking all these bad things about yourself, but he wants you to know who you are in Christ.

And then, 13 and 14, of Romans 6 says, «Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] To sin as instruments and (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] Life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness». Now, the Bible tells us that, «We are to present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice». All of our faculties, everything that we are. So, I don’t do this every single day, but a lot of mornings when I pray, I say, «God, I present myself to you. I give myself to you. Everything that I am, everything that I have, it all belongs to you. Use my mouth today. Use my mind today. Think your thoughts through my mind. Use me to be a blessing to people. I’m yours. Take me. Do what you want to with me. Your will be done in my life».

Now, for many years, all I did was think about myself in the morning. What I wanted, how I could get what I wanted, how I could get other people to do what I wanted them to do. But I’ll tell you, having a relationship with Christ should be changing you. And if you think you were born again 15 years ago and you can see no change in you at all, then maybe you better go back to square one and have a serious conversation with God. I don’t think it’s possible to be born again and never change. Remember, you are spirit. You are a spirit. You have a soul and you live in a body. And right now, the work of the Holy Spirit is to get the soulish part of you, your mind, your will, and your emotions, to agree with the spiritual part of you, which has been made perfect and righteous and holy and pure and wants to do everything right.

And the more of your mind, will, and emotions that belongs to God, the greater influence and blessing you can be in this dark world that we’re living in. People are in desperate trouble today and they need to see Christians being Christians. They need to see us walking in love. They need to see us walking in forgiveness. We can’t act like the rest of the world and think that we’re gonna have any influence on the world because we won’t. «Sin shall [no longer] Exert dominion over you, since now you are not under law [as slaves], but you’re under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy]». In verse 18, «And having been set free from sin».

See, that’s something that you can say, «I’m dead to sin. I’ve been set free from sin». Instead of thinking, «Well, you know, I’m afraid that I’ll lose my temper today. I’ve got a bad temper. I’ll probably lose my temper». Or, «I may do this,» or, «I may do that». «I can’t control myself. I have no self-control. If I eat one potato chip, I have to eat the whole bag». No, you don’t. You have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of you, and you can control yourself, not without God’s help. But he will help you do anything that he has told you to do in his word. Believe what the Bible says about you, and it will change your whole entire life.

Now, you know, you might have to do a little study, but you can get on your computer and you can just put in the search engine, «Joyce Meyer’s list of who I am in Christ,» and it’ll take you right to a whole list of things that I’ve written down that the Bible, not me, but the Bible says that you are in Christ. And you take that and you repeat that out loud two, three times a day, and you look at it every day and you study it. You look up the scriptures that it comes from. You study them and you study them. And the more you do that, the more your mind will be renewed and you’ll start to think like God thinks instead of the way the devil wants you to think. The mind is the battlefield.

The battleground where the enemy fights with you is on your mind. He tells you lies, and through those lies, if you believe them, you become deceived, and then you believe things that are not true. The only real truth that we have is God’s word. Anything that disagrees with God’s word is a lie. It’s not true. And if you’ll believe that and begin to live with that thinking in mind, you will start to see big changes in yourself. «And having been set free from sin, you have become the servant of righteousness (conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action)».

Now, if we go to Romans chapter 7, Paul describes his own daily conflict with sin and righteousness. He apparently went through a period of time just like we go through where he had this war in his soul. And you know, Paul had been chasing down Christians and putting them in prison. He was happy to be at the stoning of Stephen and to watch him die. Paul did some terrible, terrible things. But then God confronted him on a day when he was traveling, and he confronted him on the Damascus road and said, «Saul, Saul,» which is what his name was before he was renamed Paul. «Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me»? Well, immediately, Paul knew that it was the Lord. And he said, «What would you have me do»?

Now, see, that’s what God wants to hear from us. «What do you want me to do»? To be honest with you, I can tell you right now it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. Maybe you’ve hurt people. You may need to apologize to them. But what I’m saying is that as far as your relationship with God, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past if you will admit those sins and confess them and be willing to turn away from them, the grace of God through your faith will completely cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and you will be placed in Christ and he will come to live in you, and you can start a brand-new journey that will be absolutely marvelous.

Now, Romans 7:15–25, I may skip around a little bit. Paul said, «I don’t understand my own actions [I'm baffled and bewildered]. I don’t practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I hate, [which my moral instinct condemns]». Well, we all understand that. We go through that. «What is wrong with me? I get up in the morning and I plan to do good things today, and I plan to pray, and I plan to help people and to walk in the will of God, and then, somehow, I end up doing the very opposite of what I want to do. What is my problem»? Then he says, «If I [habitually] Do what is contrary to my desire, [that means] I acknowledge and agree that the law is good». So, he’s saying, «If I can’t control myself, then I must need the law to control me». «However», he says, and this is where it gets kind of like, «What are you talking about, Paul»? «However, it’s no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] Which is at home in me and has possession of me».

So, he’s saying, «The real me, the spiritual me, that’s not the man doing the deed. It’s the sin principle operating in my flesh that’s doing the deed». Now, that doesn’t mean he has no responsibility. That doesn’t mean he’s saying, «I’m not responsible for it». He’s just beginning to understand that he’s not following the spirit, but he’s following the flesh. He says, now, «I know nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh». And that’s true. There’s not one good thing in our flesh. «I can will what is right, but I can’t perform it. [i have the intention and the urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out]». He’s really talking about, «I can’t do this on my own».

And then he goes on, and on, and on. Keeps kind of saying the same thing in different ways. And then he says in verse 24, «O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death»? «How am I gonna get free from this? Who is gonna help me? I’m trying everything I know to do, and it’s not working». I think one of the best things that God loves to hear is, «God, I cannot do this. I give up. If you don’t help me, I will stay this way forever». «Who will deliver me from this body of death? O thank God»! Exclamation mark. «[He will!] Through Jesus Christ». Remember, in him, with him, through him, «(the anointed one) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and the heart, serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin».

Paul used this kind of language to help express his intense hatred for sin and evil. He talks about the daily conflict he had with a depravity that remained in his flesh. Although his spirit was entirely renewed, his soul was in the process of being renewed day by day. You know, I no longer focus on what’s still wrong with me. I focus on how far I’ve come, and I celebrate the victories that I’ve had in my life. Yes, I still have issues that I’m working through with God, but you know, right in the middle of all that, I am still the righteousness of God in Christ, not in Joyce, but in Christ. I identify with Christ, and that’s what we need to learn how to do, to identify with Christ. «I am a Christian. I am a child of God. I am a follower of God, and every day I am changing little by little».

Ephesians 4:23 says, «And be constantly…» «Constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude]». Be constantly renewed. So, this is something that’s going on all the time in us, all the time. And you know, the things that I still struggle with now, the day will come when they will no longer be a struggle for me, because those things will have been put to death just like many of the other things that I once did that was wrong. Paul frequently, according to Matthew Henry’s commentary of the whole Bible, «Paul frequently was led into tempers, words, or actions which he did not approve of, nor did he intend to permanently allow in his life».

Wow. There’s some good things that Matthew Henry has to say. Here’s another one from his commentary. «It is not the heart or the spirit of the born-again man that chooses to sin. It is the uncrucified flesh that is still in the process of becoming». Can you understand that? You are something that you are still becoming. You can only get it by revelation. It has to be revealed to your spirit. And if I were you, every day I would ask God, «Grant me revelation today». When you sit down to study the word, «God, grant me revelation in the word».

We don’t need any more information. We need revelation. We’ve got so much information at our fingertips that it’s astounding. But we need revelation. And one of the things that we need to do is not read the Bible for speed to see how much we can get done in one day, but slow down. Like Ephesians 4 says, «And be constantly», well, that word «Constantly» is very important. But we could read this verse and not even see it. «And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude]».

Every single day we need to renew our mind and renew our attitude. Just because I had a good attitude yesterday, I’m not guaranteed of having a good attitude today unless I set my mind in agreement with God and ask for his help. Any time that you’re going into a trial or a tribulation, the first thing you should ask God is, «God, help me do this right. Help me do it in a way that I can glorify you». You know, if we can’t love and worship God just as much when we’re in trouble or when we’re having circumstances we don’t like as we can when all of our circumstances are good, then we’ve still got a lot of growing to do. We are constantly being transformed into his image, constantly being transformed into the image of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, «And all of us, as with unveiled face», well, what does that mean? Well, when Moses came down off the mountain from receiving the law, there was so much glory shining from his face that he had to put a veil over his face. If the law had that much glory, how much more glory should grace have? So, in essence what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians is if we go to the word and look and read it as law, then we’re going to miss out on what God really wants to show us. But if we read it with unveiled face, if we take that veil of the law off of our face and we read it as a gift from God, as a gift of his grace, then it says, «Because we continued to behold [in the Word of God] As in a mirror of the glory of the Lord, we are constantly being transformed into his image».

Well, that’s a promise and I’m gonna believe it. Every time I read or study the word I am constantly being transformed. I’m becoming a little bit more like Jesus and so are you. So many people say, «Well, you know, when I read the Bible, I don’t understand it». Well, even if you don’t understand it right now, just keep at it, keep at it. And one of these days it’ll be like a light bulb goes off and you’re like, «Oh, I get it». And I hope and pray that today is one of those days for you. You need to understand what it means to be in Christ and how to identify with him and to know that your sins are forgiven, forgotten.

The Bible says that «God forgets them and he moves them as far as the east is from the west,» and, «You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ». I’m so glad that you joined me today and we’re gonna continue along these lines tomorrow. So, I hope you can be with us again tomorrow. And I want you to know that God loves you very, very, very much and you are stronger than you think you are and you’re doing a lot better than the devil wants you to think that you are. You need to say, «I am growing in Christ, and I will continue to grow day, after day, after day». God bless you and have a great rest of the day.