Joyce Meyer - What the Devil Doesn't Want You to Know - Part 1

Well, thank you for joining us today on «Enjoying Everyday Life,» where I teach God’s word, and I believe it changes lives. The Word of God has changed me dramatically over the 49 years that I’ve been teaching it, and I believe that it’s changing your life, too. Now, today, I wanna talk about something that the devil does not want me to talk about, because I’m gonna talk about him. I’m gonna talk about today «What the devil does not want you to know». He doesn’t want you to know, first of all, that he exists. And there are a large number of people that don’t believe that the devil is a real entity. I was in church for many, many, many years before I really realized that, I mean, I knew there was a devil, but I didn’t realize all the functions that he had and the things that he was doing in the earth.

And I read a book that was popular 50 years ago. Matter of fact, the guy sold 55 million of 'em the last count I had, and it was, «The devil is alive and well on planet earth». And I think it opened a lot of people’s eyes. And you know, sometimes people don’t wanna hear about the devil. But you need to be informed so you can know how to resist him and stand against him. And especially how to recognize when he’s at work. Because many times we think it’s people, but it’s really the enemy working through those people. And let’s don’t be so foolish as to think that he could never work through us. Because he can if we’re not well educated. I mean do you know how easy it is for the enemy to use you to discourage somebody else? Or just to say something without thinking that maybe really hurts or offends them and you don’t even realize that you did it.

So, we need to think before we speak and make sure that our words are something that’s going to bring life and not death. I love acts 10:38. «How God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with strength and ability and power: and how he went about doing good». There’s a little bit more to it, but I want you to think about that. «God anointed Jesus and he went about doing good». So, the anointing that God gives us is so we can go about doing good. One of the Fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of goodness. And that is on the inside of us in our spirit. We just have to be willing to do it and to pay attention. I think we need to pay more attention to the hurts of the people around us and stop and think what that would be like if it was us going through that. I mean, we just had some tornado damage here in town.

There were many different towns that did. But just imagine if you, one day you have a nice home and you’re loving it and living in it and all your little treasures are there, your pictures and the things that mean a lot to you and all of a sudden there’s a storm that blows away your whole house. And then the next day all you have is a pile of rubble. And it’s easy for us to say, «Oh that’s a shame,» and go on and never think about it again. But God wants us to always be open to doing something about it. We are anointed for good works. And we don’t do good works to earn salvation. We’re not saved by doing good works, but we’re saved unto good works. See, it’s when Jesus comes to live in our life goodness comes and we should have a desire to do something good. Matter of fact, I’ll just say this: I think every Christian needs to be doing something to help somebody else.

Can you imagine what a different world we would be in if that was the case? We get too focused on getting something instead of giving something. So, the devil does not want you to know that he exists and he doesn’t want you to do good. And Romans 12:21 is one of my very favorite scriptures. «We overcome evil with good». Just think about that. How do we fight the devil? Do good. How do you fight the enemy? Well, get all upset because of what he’s doing. That’s not good. He loves that. That’s why he likes to aggravate you so you’ll get all mad about it. In John 10:10, the Bible says, that our enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy everything good and godly in life. «The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: but I have come, Jesus said, that they may have life and have it to the full». The Amplified Bible says, «That they might have and enjoy life and enjoy it to the full».

So, God wants you to enjoy your life. And the devil wants you not to enjoy your life. And so, enjoying your life doesn’t mean that you live on vacation or you live in the stores shopping and buying things all the time. It means that you can enjoy ordinary, everyday life. I think it takes the Spirit of God to be able to enjoy just Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. See, sometimes we think the only way we can enjoy ourselves is if somethin' amazing is happening all the time. But we need to learn how to just enjoy God and enjoy the fact that he has saved us, that he sent his son to die for us so our sins could be forgiven.

So, he doesn’t want you to know that he exists. He doesn’t want you to do anything that’s good. He is a liar. The truth is not in him. John 8:44, «You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language». I like that. Like my native language is English, so I speak English, but the devil’s native language is lies. So, when he speaks, it’s always lies. And the way that you can tell what’s in your mind is a lie or not is by knowing enough of the Word of God that you immediately recognize, «Well, I’m thinking this, but it’s not true because it’s not what the Word of God says».

And we learn how to go with the word no matter what we feel or think. If it doesn’t agree with God’s word, then it’s a lie. But I think that he’s saying to these people that were not yet born again, «You belong to your father, the devil». Wow. The devil works continually to deceive people to get them to believe lies. If we believe lies, then they become truth to us. When you really think about that, that’s amazing that you can go your whole life believing lies, and yet that becomes your truth. That becomes your reality. Like, for years, I thought that because I’d been abused sexually as a child, that I would always have kind of a second-rate life. That things would never be as good as they would have been had I been raised right.

And see, that’s the opposite of what the word says because the word says that he’s our redeemer, our restorer, he reconciles us, he balances our account, and it says that he will give us back double blessing for our former trouble. So, no matter how you’ve grown up or what has happened to you in your life or what may happen to you in your life, if you still believe in God, if you keep your faith in God, he will work it out for good. No matter how bad it is, he will work it out for good. The thing may not be good, but God can make it work out for good. What we believe is so important. What we think is so important. And the mind is probably one of the areas that people have trouble with the most, is their thinking. You have to really be on guard, especially in the morning when you wake up and you’re kind of half groggy, half there.

And I know maybe you’re one of those people that spring out of bed and you got your eyes wide open and you’re like, «Yippee»! Dave’s like that. And to somebody like me, it’s kind of annoying. It’s like, you know, just bring it down a few notches and let me have a little Jesus and a little coffee before we start trying to talk here. But if you think that stops him, it doesn’t. Proverbs 23:7 says, «That as he thinks in his heart, so is he». So, try to get on the right side of everything early in the morning. Just start with, «This is going to be a good day».

And start with thanking God for all that he’s done for you. We get so focused on what we want that we forget what we have. Let me say it again. We get so focused on what we want that we forget what we have. And we’ve got so much. Every one of us have so much. We have so many blessings. And do you think that you can make it through one whole day without complaining? It’s challenging. Because we find somethin' to complain about. So, I try to start my morning thanking God, especially prayers that he’s answered. I had a couple of prayers answered this week just in a very amazing way. And they were prayers that were answered quickly. I prayed and the next day it was done. And I don’t wanna take that for granted. I thank God for that. And satan wants us to even forget that we pray and say, «Well, that was luck».

No. Don’t ever give luck credit for what God is doing in your life. I believed that I had a second-class life and I believed that when I made a mistake, God was mad at me. That was a real stronghold for me because my dad got mad so easy about everything. And if you made any kind of little error at all, he was mad. And he always punished you in some way. And so, I thought, «Well, God’s mad at me». And so maybe if this bad thing was happening, «Well, that’s God punishing me». Or if this was happening, «Well, that’s God punishing me». Well, that’s not right according to the Bible. Because when you repent, you admit your sin to God, you receive the forgiveness that he’s already provided. So, you don’t have to talk God into forgiving you.

All you need to do is face your sin, admit it, tell God you wanna do things right, ask him to help you, and you don’t have to feel guilty after that. I would always feel guilty because I didn’t really realize what I was doing at the time, but I was actually trying to pay for my sin by feeling bad. And God doesn’t want us to do that, because Jesus did a perfect job. So, we don’t need to add to it. But how many of you know it’s really hard when you do something bad to not feel guilty after that? I mean, so you can maybe do the five-minute rule or something. You can feel guilty for five minutes, but after that you gotta let it go and go on. «As he thinks in his heart, so is he».

Satan is against anything that God is for. Anything. Righteousness, peace, joy, generosity, compassion, kindness. And he vehemently opposes any spiritual progress in our lives. I can tell you the devil really just kind of hates the fact that you’re here today. He don’t like you being here. But I love you being here, so that makes up for it. Amen. 1 John 4:4, «Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world». So, we’ve got the upper hand. We just need to remember it. «We’re more than conquerors through Christ who loves us».

This is just my own idea of what it means to be more than a conqueror, but if you come up with somethin' better, you can let me know. I think to be more than a conqueror means that you already know that you’ll have the victory before the battle ever begins. In other words, you walk with a confidence. You’re not afraid of bad things happening. You’re not afraid of trouble. You’re not afraid of what the enemy may do next because you know that even though you may have to stand your ground and fight the good fight of faith, that in the end, you will have the victory if you keep your trust in God. More than a conqueror through him who loved us. So, we need to… One of the ways that we can do warfare with the enemy is to always remember that God loves you. I thank God every morning. «Thank you that you love me».

I start that way. Start your day right, and the whole day will go better. If you start it wrong, then sometimes it’s hard to get over it. Amen? Colossians 1:13, «The father has not will or might, but he has already done this». And that’s a good thing to watch for in the Bible. You know, we’re often trying to get things we’ve already got. And if you read in the Bible, he says that he has done this, not he will do it. But it’s already yours in Christ. And we’re waiting for something we’ve already got. «[the father] Has delivered and drawn us to himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the son of his love».

I love that. He’s taken us out of darkness and put us into light. In other words, we have changed families. We used to have the devil as our father, but now we have God as our father. We’ve changed families. We’ve been adopted into the family of God. And I just learned somethin' recently that makes that mean so much more if you know what’s behind it. There’s so many things in the Bible the analogies are cultural. They’re according to, people understood things that Jesus said because they connected with the culture.

So, when Paul told them, «You’ve been adopted by God, you’re a child of God, he’s adopted you,» why adopted? Well, in the Roman culture, if you had a son born to you, and you decided you wanted to disinherit him, or even put him out of the family, you could. But if you had an adopted child, it was against the law to disinherit them, or to put him out of the family. So, see, we’re adopted by God. That means he can never, he’ll never turn his back on us. We’ve already gained a great inheritance through Christ. We’re joint heirs with him. God’s always going to take care of you. He’s always on your side. And even when you’re not so good, he still loves you, even on those days. I love the scripture that says, «When we are faithless, God is still faithful».

That’s pretty good, isn’t it? So always remember, you’re not fighting for victory, you’re fighting from victory. You already have the victory: you’re just walking it out. And boy, the devil doesn’t like it if you know that. And you’re not afraid of him. Our protection and defense is in the true knowledge of the Word of God. And the Amplified Bible, especially in Psalms, says in parenthesis, «Hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it». So, it’s not just a matter of reading a couple of pages in the Bible and that’s gonna give you victory, but you hear it, you receive it, and see a lot of people hear it, but they don’t really receive it. You love it. Do you love your Bible? I love my Bible. I give it a hug every now and then. And obeying it. It’s important.

You know, there are promises in the Word of God that are unconditional. Like, your salvation is not based on anything that you do. It’s a gift of God’s grace. But there are promises in the Bible that are conditional. And I think a lot of times people don’t wanna think about that. Just two I can think of. One, if you don’t forgive people that have hurt you, then God will not forgive your sins. Now see, you’ve gotta park on that for a while and think about it because do you know that there are probably more Christians that are mad at somebody than those that aren’t? So that’s a very important thing, forgiveness. Forgiving people is like a major thing in your life. And I forget who said this now, it was one of the, maybe it was Watchman Nee, he said that «Satan gains more ground in the life of the believer through unforgiveness than through any other thing». «Well, it’s just so hard. It’s just so hard».

Well, there’s nothing that’s too hard if God has told us to do it. And you know, when you get that through your head, that’s helpful because we use that excuse all too often. «Well, it’s just too hard. It’s just too hard». But God will give you the grace to do anything he has asked you to do, but you have to take some steps of faith and do it. And obedience. There’s so many promises in the Bible that are connected to obedience. «If you’re willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land». See, it’s not just, «Well, you know, God’s going to take care of me. He’s going to give me all these things». While you’re disobedient and do things that he’s told you not to do. And it’s even good to start with little things. See, don’t think that, «Well, that’s just a little thing, so, you know, that’s not bad if I don’t obey on this little thing».

I heard Craig Groeschel this week, I was listening to a YouTube teaching by him, and he was giving an example that he went to the grocery store and he had 12 items, but he was in a hurry to get out of there, really wanted to get out of there. And so, he wanted to get in the 10 items or less line. And he had this little tug of war going on inside of him, but he gave himself a few excuses and went. And the lady behind him said, «Oh, hi, pastor». And then she actually had counted his items. And she said, «Is 12 the new 10»? Or somethin' along those lines. And then, of course, he’s like, «Uh». And so, she said, «I’ll tell you what. You give me those two avocados, and we’ll call it even». But see, satan wants us to compromise and do little things and big things and gossip and judge and, you know, all kinds of things that we think don’t matter. And those are the things that open the door for the enemy and they shut the door to our blessings. Salvation is a free gift, but we’re not saved so we can disobey. God gives us the grace to obey him. I wanna say it again. Start with the little things.