Joyce Meyer - Seeing the Unseen - Part 1

You know, the apostle Paul had a pretty tough ministry. He went through a lot of hardships in order to preach the gospel. He was beaten several times, had no food several times. Just, if you go through the list, it’s just, you wonder «How did he possibly make it through that»? And he said it was because he didn’t look to what was seen, but he looked to what was unseen. In 2 Corinthians 4:8, he said, «We are hedged in and (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but we’re not cramped or crushed: we suffer embarrassments and we’re perplexed and unable to find a way out, but we’re not driven to despair: we are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]: we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed».

So, I like that. He’s telling you what the problem is, but he’s also saying, «I’ve got hope because I know that I’m gonna get the help that I need». And then, in verse 16, he said, «We don’t become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Even though our outer man is [progressively] Decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] Renewed day after day».

So, you have two lives. You have an outer life: you have an inner life. How many of you are noticing that your outer man is changing? Falling. I don’t know why everything goes down, you know. There would be a nice time when gravity would go up. And you know, I’m 81 ½ pretty soon, now. And, yes, I work hard on it. And, you know, I constantly see changes in my body. And so, I don’t care for that phrase that «I’m constantly wasting away,» but it’s true. However, inside, I feel like I’m 25 or 30, you know? And that’s what… You gotta stay strong inwardly. You know we’re always praying for things, but Paul prayed that people would be strengthened in the inner man by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling them and their personality.

You need to stay strong inside, that’s why you need the word on a regular basis. It’s interesting to me that some people can’t believe the Word of God, but they believe somebody that they’ve never even heard of who says something stupid on the internet, and they believe that. I mean, I thought about that tonight. I thought, «How goofy is that»? Or you’ll hear some newscaster say some crazy thing and believe that, but when God says something, you’re like, «Well, I don’t know if I can believe that».

God is the most trustworthy, truthful, entity that we will ever, ever, ever know. And you can believe every word that he says. And the Bible tells us we will have trials and tribulations, but it also tells us that if we continue to believe in God, he will always work it out for our good. And I believe that because I’ve seen it work in my life and I’ve seen it work in the lives of other people. And sometimes, things that look really bad to us actually, are good, we just don’t see it the way that God sees it.

How many of you have done most of your spiritual growing in the hard times in your life? Well, that’s one of the reasons why we have them. Because sometimes, you won’t believe God if you don’t have to. But when you have to, you hang on to him. And so, then he goes on to say, he calls these troubles that he’s having «Light momentary afflictions». Wow. Light momentary afflictions. Because «We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen». You see, we live in two realms. We live here on the earth, but we also live in the spirit realm. And actually, God wants us to see the unseen. You don’t see it with your natural eyes, but we have eyes of faith, and we have ears of faith.

That’s why Jesus told the people, «You have ears to hear and you hear not, you have eyes to see, and you see not». And he wasn’t talking about their natural eyes and ears, he was talking about their spiritual eyes and ears. «For the things…» Now, I want you to hear this, «For the things that are visible…» The things we can see, «(are brief and fleeting)…» that means they’re not gonna last. Nothing that we look at in this world is gonna last. It’s already in the process of decay, and one day it’s all gonna just move out of the way, and Jesus is gonna come in the clouds. «But the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting».

Now, I’ve had it on my heart for a while now that I needed to do some teaching on faith, and I’ve been doing this long enough that when God keeps putting something on my heart, I know I need to do it, whether it makes any sense to me or not. And, you know, we think, well, these are faith people. But really, how much do we live by faith? How much do we walk by faith? And what do we use our faith for? What are you doing with your faith? You know, a lot of times we just try to use our faith when we’re in trouble or when we want something, or when we need something. But you know, there’s a very interesting scripture, it’s really kind of… Little bit scary.

Romans 14:23 says, «Whatever is not of faith is sin». Wow. I think about that sometimes, and I never have completely gotten through that. But God wants us to do, not only are we saved by faith, but he wants us to live by faith. The same way we’re saved is the same way that we should live. We believe all kinds of things we can’t see. But when it comes to spiritual things, you know, if we could see what’s in this room right now, I believe we’d see it’s full of angels. And I don’t think there’s a demon that would dare to come in here tonight. You have angels with you all the time, all the time. The presence of God is with you all the time. And you think, «Well, I don’t feel it».

Well, maybe you need to just take one step and get out of your head. You know what I do a lot of times? I’ll just say, «God, I know you’re with me right now,» and I can close my eyes and actually, feel the presence of God. I mean like, feel in the natural, the presence of God. You know, we’re not gonna feel his presence when we’re busy and running around and all kinds of noise and doing, you know. One of the reasons why people don’t really sense the presence of God as as they should is because we’re all way too busy and in too much of a hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. That’s why you always need quiet time with God. And if you can start your morning like that, it does help the rest of your day. Before you say a word to anybody in the morning, talk to God first. I recommend starting before you get out of bed, because you never know what a day’s gonna bring.

You know, I’ve never seen gravity, but I believe in it. I mean, if you really think about all the things that you believe that you’ve never seen, then it gets a little bit easier to believe the things that God says that you haven’t seen. I’ve never seen oxygen, but I’m sure likin' it. We use it all the time, we never stop. I can’t see it. We make use of all kinds of things that we can’t see. I didn’t see Jesus die on the cross, but I know that I know, that I know, that he did. It’s interesting the things that we know.

Now, you know God is real, you believe in the Holy Spirit, you believe Jesus died for you. You’ve never seen those things, but by faith, you’ve received that and it’s become ingrained in your heart. Now, what if you could also believe just as strongly that «All things work together for good»? See, then, when you have a problem, I’m not saying that it’s enjoyable to go through, but you can believe «This is gonna work out good. I don’t know how, I don’t see how God’s gonna do it, but some way, this is going to work out good». And there are things that happen to all of us that we don’t understand, things that seem unfair, things that seem unjust. I’ve had many, many, many difficulties in my life, just like most of you have. But I’m still here.

You know, people always say, «Well, I’m going through this, and I’m going through that». Well, thank God you’re going through. You know, going through is not all that bad. At least it’s not killing you, you’re still moving. And I think instead of thinking and talking so much about what we’re going through, we should talk a little bit more about what we have come through and we’re now on the other side of it. Because you know what I just realized recently? This just kind of came out of my mouth when I was preaching: it’s a good way to say it. Once you go through, then guess what? You can go back and get somebody else that had the same problem you had, and you can bring them through. And that’s really all I’m doing.

Using the Word of God, the experience that I’ve had with God, every time you go through a difficulty, you get a little more experience with God, and every time you get a little more experience with him, it’s easier to believe what he says, that he’ll always take care of you, he’ll never leave you, he’ll never forget you, he’s with you all the time, he’ll meet your needs, he’s coming back to get you. Amen? How many of you are ready for that? He could come tonight, and I’d be fine. But except for all the people that still don’t know him. And for that reason, I pray that he tarries as long as absolutely possible. Now, I wanna share one, two, three, four, five scriptures about faith with you. And do a little preaching around them.

First one is Ephesians 2:8-9, talks about salvation. Listen to this, «It is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment…)». See, that’s what it means to be saved, you’re delivered from judgment. You’re not judged for your sins because Jesus already took your punishment. You ought to be more glad than that. Now, we do need to admit our sins, at least the ones we’re aware of. I like what David prayed. Prayed that God would forgive him even for the sins that he didn’t know he’d committed. You’re «(delivered from judgment and made a partaker of Christ’s salvation) through [your] Faith». Now, faith is not the price that buys salvation. Jesus bought it, but faith is the hand that simply reaches out and receives it. It’s interesting to me that we always say, «Did you get saved»? You can’t get salvation. «Did you get the Holy Ghost»? «Did you get your breakthrough»? «Did you get your healing»?

The word «Get» means to obtain by struggle and effort. But tonight, you can receive Jesus. And you know what the word receive means? You can receive mercy. Some of you are mad at yourself for something you did 10 years ago. You can receive mercy tonight. You can’t get it, but you can receive it. See, we can’t get anything from God because everything he gives us was bought and purchased with the blood of Christ, and now is offered to us freely if we will, by faith, receive it. And the word «Receive» means to act like a receptacle and take in what’s being offered. There’s something being offered to you, tonight. I have a way for you to stop worrying. Trust God.

The minute you have a problem pray, and give it to God. Don’t even give the devil a chance to get roots of worry down in you. You don’t have to be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow’s already been taken care of. God’s word says, «Enjoy today because tomorrow is gonna have troubles of its own». Why waste today worrying about tomorrow or yesterday? You can’t do anything about that. Oh, the Word of God is so absolutely wonderful if we can just believe it. But you gotta believe it. That’s our part.

Some of the disciples ask, it’s in John 6, «What must we do to please God»? Everybody always wants to know what they’re supposed to do. One time, we sent a survey around our office and said, «If you could ask Jesus any question, what would you like to ask him»? And you know what? The largest number of people that said the same thing, the thing they said was, «I’d like to ask him when I’ve done enough». And these are Christians working in a Christian ministry. But I think a lot of people have that, «When have I done enough? Do I need to read the Bible more? Do I need to pray more»? Well, sure, we do those things, but we’re not doing God a favor when we read the Bible. He already knows it. We’re not filling out getting our checkmark for reading the Bible, today. We need to read it, so we know what God is offering us and promising us, and because the more that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

The more you read even the same thing over and over and over, the stronger it gets rooted on the inside of you. And I commend you for being here tonight, even though there’s so many things going on in the world right now that are troublesome. And maybe there’s even people here that were greatly affected by the hurricane. Maybe there are people here that lost their homes, and yet, here you are. And I’ll tell you when we have trouble the place we need to run to is the shelter of God. You don’t run away from God, you don’t get mad at God when something happens you don’t understand, that’s when you run to him, and you say, «I know you’re good. I don’t understand what’s going on in my life, but I know that you are good». Amen?

Faith never quits, it never gives up. It doesn’t cave in when the going gets hard. Another thing the Bible says that when you receive Christ, you’re «Justified». You know what that means? To be made just as if you never sinned. You sit with a cup of coffee for about an hour and think about that. You might get happy. Now, listen to this, «And this [salvation] Is not of yourself, it’s not [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God». You cannot buy salvation with your good works. Thank you. You know, we’re New Testament believers, but so many people live as if they’re still under the law, always trying to do something to keep God happy. Don’t ever read your Bible out of obligation. Don’t pray out of obligation. You are wasting your breath to pray out of obligation.

«Well, I know I need to pray. I better say my prayers. I better read my chapter in the Bible. I won’t understand what I read after I read it, but I’ll read it». Well, you might understand more if you’d slow down and quit trying to do it for quantity and do it for quality. I determined, one time, I was gonna read the Bible through in a year. They passed out these calendars where you got check Marks if you read all six chapters a day that you had to read. I’ll never forget it: two in the Old Testament, two in the New Testament, one in Proverbs, one in Psalms. And I did pretty good and was getting my check Marks for a while, but then I started having these gaping holes. Why? Because I wasn’t even doing it for the right reason.

And one day, I read my six chapters and I heard the Lord say to me, «Now what did you learn? Come on, I want you to get, what did you learn»? And I thought, «Absolutely nothing». Not one thing. Do you know that God would rather you take one verse of scripture and read it, and chew on it, and meditate on it, and think how it applies to your life until you really get it? And then you can go on to another one. When we really start thinking about it, we still do a lot of things for wrong motives.

And our motives are very important because the Bible says that anything that we do on Judgment Day will pass before the eyes of fire, and anything that we have done with with an impure motive will be burned up. And the only thing that will be left will the good works that we did out of right motives and those will receive a reward. Don’t give to get. Give to be a blessing to somebody. And yes, the Bible says when you give you will receive. That’s a promise, we can believe that. But we don’t give to get, we give to be a blessing to somebody else.

Okay, it’s «Not because of your works», verse 9: it’s «Not the fulfillment of the law, lest any man should boast. [it is not the result of what anybody can possibly do...]». The only way you’re gonna receive salvation is just to give up. «Here I am Lord, I can’t do it. Take me just the way I am and work on me till you get me to where you want me to be». Amen? Let me tell you something, being a Christian is not boring. Amen?

How many of you always have something going on in your life? How many of you God’s working on you in some area, right now, dealing with you? Amen, well I got a new one yesterday. Ugh, not yet. Yeah, it was about my mouth again. Yeah, I get that message about once a week. Now, let’s look at what faith is. You say, «Well, it’s just believing God». No, it’s actually believing what you can’t see. What God says is true, but you can’t see. Once you can see it, you don’t need any faith.