Joyce Meyer - Seeing the Unseen - Part 2

«Now faith,» Hebrews 11:1, «Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things that [we] Hope for, the proof of the things [we] Do not see». Wow. «And the conviction of their reality». Let’s just use an example. Let’s say, this is the deed to a home. And let’s just say that I said to somebody that I knew didn’t have a home, «I hear you’ve got a great home». «Oh, no, I don’t have a home». «Well, you do have a home, because I’m gonna give you a home. And here’s the deed to your home».

Well, they read it, «Four bedrooms…Made out to me. Whoa, I’ve got a home»! They still haven’t seen their home, but they’ve got the deed to it. And so they believe that they’ve got it. And you know what? You have got the deed to everything that God promised that he would give you. But the deed to it is your faith. You can have every promise that God promised. If anybody can have it, you can have it. But there’s a few things we gotta say. Mark 11:22, «And Jesus, replying, said to them, 'have faith in God'». The Amplified Bible says, «'[constantly]. Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the sea! But does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. For this reason I’m telling you, '» now listen, «'whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it]'».

Now, you see that? When you pray, ask God for something in his word, it is granted to you, but you don’t have it yet, you will get it. The thing it doesn’t tell you is how long it’s gonna take. Could be three days, it could be 20 years. And what are you expected to do in the meantime? Hold on to your deed. You know, there’s a beginning and an end, but there is a middle. And the middle is where your faith is tested. That’s where you gotta hang on and keep believing God. I prayed for my dad for over 30 years. Not every day, but regular enough to say I prayed for him on a regular basis to be saved. The father who had sexually abused me. And I didn’t want him to go to hell. I knew what he could have, and I wanted him to be saved.

And finally one day, I remember I was driving. I remember where I was at, and I just said to the Lord, I said, «Okay, I’m just gonna ask you to do me a favor. People get saved through our ministry all the time. Now, would you do me a favor and save my father»? You know, you can just talk to God like he’s your friend. You know that? I didn’t have to get all fancy sounding. I just poured my heart out. Well, it took a little while and some different things took place, but I’ll just give you the bottom line. When he was 83, he received Christ. Dave and I got to baptize him. He died when he was 86. The only life he ever really had were those three years. And I’m just telling you, if you’re watching this by TV, you don’t have to continue to live like that.

If you’re here tonight, you don’t have to continue to live like that. You don’t have to wait till you think you’re good enough to get saved. You’re never gonna be good enough. Amen. You just receive. You just receive. You say, «Well Joyce, I’m in the middle, how long am I gonna be here»? I have no idea. But you know what hope is? Bible says, «They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength». But that word «Wait» actually is «Hope», those who hope in the Lord. And hope is not like this flimsy «Well I hope, and I don’t know, and you know, maybe but I’m not sure». No, that’s worldly hope. Bible hope means that you’re expecting something good to happen at any moment. Say, «God I got my deed. I’m expecting something good to happen to me today»! Faith has to stay active all the time. You keep trusting God. You keep believing in him.

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, «We walk by faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction, our belief, respecting man's relationship to God and divine things... We walk] Not by sight or appearance». So, the same way that we’re saved, that’s the way we need to live, constantly leaning on God. And you may think you don’t need a message on faith, but I can tell you that you do. Because this is what God told me to preach. And I believe that I hear from God. You think, «Well, you’re awfully confident». Well, would you rather I have no confidence? Why don’t you have some confidence? «Well, I just don’t think I hear from God». Don’t say that. Say, «I hear from God».

God speaks to every one of you, but he doesn’t yell, he whispers. And you gotta get quiet enough to hear those whispers, and still enough to hear those whispers. Amen? Seeing the unseen. Wow. You know, Elijah had a servant that was with him. And in 2 Kings 6, verse 13, there was a king that had commanded, «'go and find out where Elisha, '» I said Elijah, it’s Elisha, «'is, and we will send out troops to seize him'. And the report came back: 'Elisha is at Dothan'». I’m in 2 Kings 6:13–17. «And the report came back: 'Elisha is at Dothan'. So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. And when the servant of Elisha got up early the next morning and went outside, and there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere».

I love this. «Oh, my Lord, what are we gonna do now»? Sound like anybody you know? «And he cried out to Elisha, and Elisha said, 'don’t be afraid'. Elisha told him, 'for there are more on our side than on theirs'! And then Elisha prayed, 'o Lord, open his eyes and let him see'! …And when he looked up, he saw the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire».

Open my eyes God that I might see. Open my heart that I might believe what I don’t see. You know our journey here is not gonna be one of seeing what God’s doing, it’s gonna be one of knowing the word and believing what he says. Why would you not rather believe God, than to believe nothing? You know what I tell people? If I believe in God all of my life, and at the end, for some reason, I find out I was wrong, and somebody who claims to be an atheist or an agnostic or whatever, and they don’t believe all their life, when you get to the end, if you find out you’re wrong, you’re in big trouble. I haven’t lost anything. My faith has made me happy. Amen.

So if you’re one of these people that are like, «Well, I don’t know, all the bad things that happen in the world, and if there’s a loving God, then why are children starving»? I don’t know. I don’t know. I know that we have a devil that hates us. And all destruction comes from him. «He only comes to steal, to kill, and destroy». But Jesus said, «I came that you might have and enjoy your life, and have it in abundance (until it overflows). I came to make you right with God, to give you righteousness, to give you peace, and to give you joy». He came to make us powerful, not weak and wimpy, to give us confidence, to understand there’s only one thing that will overcome fear, and that’s faith. It’s the only antidote for fear. And believe me I’ve lived in fear just like many of you have.

Isaiah 30:20 and 21, «And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes will constantly behold your teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you saying, 'this is the way: walk in it, when you turn to the right and when you turn to the left'».

Now, God would love you to receive that tonight. So I’mma read it slow. 'cause sometimes we can’t take things fast. And though, I’ll just paraphrase, and though the Lord allows you to go through difficulty and hard times, I’ll just put it like this, yet from now on, if you’ll believe it, the Lord will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes will constantly behold your teacher. And he’s not talking about these eyes in your face. He’s talking about the eyes of faith. Do you know how many things that God does that we give the credit to luck and coincidence? It’s pitiful, absolutely pitiful. God is at work in your life all the time, and he’s doing things that you don’t even realize is him.

How do you think you get out and drive in traffic and stay alive? I mean, Dave said one time, and it is amazing, he was sitting up in a hotel window, and he was watching traffic. There was a four-way stop, and he was just watching traffic. And he said, «Do you know how amazing it is that this many cars come here, and this many cars come here, and then they do the lights, and people go through, and then this many cars come here, this many cars…» He said, «What if they all came at once»? I mean, really, if you think about it, it’s like God even controls that. I watch for God’s favor. I pray for God’s favor, and I watch for God’s favor, and I get it. You say, «What is favor»? It’s God doing something for you that you don’t deserve just out of his kindness.

My daughter and I went out to eat one day last week. And the parking lot was jammed at this restaurant, just absolutely jammed. And so I do silly things like pray for parking places. «Lord, could we have a place right up front»? Drove around the lot one more time, got a place right in front of the door. Come on, you’re God’s child act like a child. Unless you become like a little child, you’ll never enter the kingdom. There’s all kinds of things that God’s doing for every one of you that you just don’t see. I dare you to start watching for God’s love. You know, sometimes God likes to wink at you. He does. Just do some little something that maybe would only make sense to you. And it’s like, «I see you». «I gotcha».

I love those things. Probably more than great big things. I love those things. You think, «Well, I would believe if I could just see miracles». No, you wouldn’t. John 6:2-9, the disciples had seen him do miracles. But when they got hungry, they got concerned about lunch. Lord, we didn’t bring any lunch. They’d seen him feed 5,000 and 4,000 with almost nothing. They’d seen him heal people. They’d seen all kinds of miracles. And now they’re worried about their lunch. Come on, you’ve seen God do some amazing things in your life. What little thing are you worried about now? I had breast cancer 35 years ago. And the guy that read the mammogram, the doctor said, «You don’t know how amazing it is that he caught that, because it was so tiny. If he wouldn’t have seen it, it was a fast-growing kind of cancer, by the next time you got a mammogram, it might have been too late».

Well, that was a cool coincidence. I think not. For some reason, I think God just made him take his time. It was so small, that I didn’t even have, I had to take no radiation. I didn’t have to take any chemo. And I’ve had 37 clean mammograms ever since. So see, when I get worried about, I don’t know, some silly somethin', what somebody thinks of me. When I get concerned about that, why don’t I remember the miracle? See God is never gonna just let us live on miracles. Miracles can jump start your faith, but it won’t keep and run it day after day. I prayed for a woman in a prayer line one night it was a healing service, this is actually the only time I can say that I felt this, but I literally felt the power of God go out of me. She felt it come into her and she went…We both… And she was healed. I mean, absolutely healed.

And you know what? For about three or four months, it turned her life around, 'cause she wasn’t a believer when that happened. But a few months later, she was right back to the same person she was before the miracle. Don’t always be looking for a miracle, you are a miracle. Do you know that? It’s a miracle that I’m still able to do what I’m doing at my age. I mean, it’s not just good luck, or good genes, or whatever. God’s still got me going because he still wants to use me. And when he’s done with me, then I guess I’ll go. Amen? You don’t have to worry, you don’t have to be afraid of dying. You’re gonna be here as long as God wants you here. And when he don’t want you here anymore, nobody will keep you here.

«I’m not gonna shut up until you get it». Anybody feel like your faith is getting a good shot in the arm tonight? «And Jesus walked up the mountainside and sat down with his disciples. And the Passover was approaching. And Jesus looked up then, and seeing a vast multitude was coming toward him, he said to Philip, 'where are we going to buy enough bread, that all these people may eat'? And he said this to prove (and to test) him, because he already knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, 'we have (forty dollars) where are we going to get enough bread to feed all these people'? And another of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 'well, there is a little boy here, who’s got five barley loaves, and two small fish'».

Why don’t you stop worrying about what you don’t have, and look at what you do have, and start doing something with it? Somebody asked me today in a restaurant, when did you decide to do this? I said, «You don’t decide to do it. You don’t go get it somewhere. God calls you and he equips you and enables you to do things that you don’t know how to do».

Now, I was always a good speaker. I could always get my point across. And my teachers wanted me to try for a journalism scholarship, because they recognized I could write. But because of being in the abusive situation I was in, all I wanted to do was, I mean, I knew that college was not ever a possibility for me. All I wanted to do was get out of high school, get to the age of 18, pack my stuff in a box, and get out of that house when my dad was at work. And that’s exactly what I did. So I didn’t get to go for a journalism scholarship. Almost failed English. No journalism scholarship, but I’ve written 150 books. Nobody ever taught me how to put together a sermon. I never took a public speaking class.

I have a 12th grade education. But I’ve got three or four, what do you call them, honorary doctorates. I could officially call myself Dr. Joyce. But everybody calls me «Mama Joyce». We need mothers and fathers in the body of Christ. We need those of you that actually know something, and have been through something, to mentor some of the younger people. If God is calling you to do something, don’t be afraid. «Well I don’t know how». I remember when God first told me, I led a girl to the Lord in the bathroom, this was at work, shortly after I’d been filled with the spirit. I just wanted everybody to know what I knew. And I picked her up for work and she rode with me every morning, and she was going through a really rough time. And so I started talking to her about Jesus, and we got around to salvation, and I said, you know, «Do you wanna be saved? I’ll pray with you».

So I took her in the bathroom and prayed for her to be saved. She received Christ, and she was joyous, and I went back to my desk and I heard that whisper, «Well, you can’t leave her like that». And I’m having this conversation, «God, well, what do you want me to do to her»? And I heard him say, «Teach her the word». I said, «I don’t know how to do that». He said, «I do». And when God called me to take the word around the world, I was making my bed. You know, some of you are looking for a call. Maybe you need to make your bed. Maybe you need to clean your house up. Maybe you need to get the junk out of your car. Amen? Don’t worry. Listen to me, honey. When God wants you, if you’ve made yourself available, he will come and get you, and you don’t have to worry about whether you have, «I don’t wanna miss God. I don’t wanna miss God». When God wants to say something to you, he has multiple ways of doing it. Amen?