Joyce Meyer - How Do You Trust God More Than Your Feelings? (08/18/2019)
Joyce Meyer teaches that entering God's rest is like a baby learning to sit up—it's a position of trust and peace, just as Jesus sat down at God's right hand after finishing His work, and we are seated with Him in heavenly places. She urges believers to walk by faith, not feelings or circumstances, trusting an invisible God with courage, and to live with eternal hope, knowing this life is temporary compared to heaven. The message calls us to live every day as if Jesus is returning soon, choosing faith, love, and unselfishness over fear and selfishness.
Entering the Rest of God
If you think about a baby, the first thing they do is learn how to sit up. And sitting represents entering the rest of God. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. When He ascended on high, He sat down. That’s actually very important. He sat down because He finished what He was sent to do, and He entered the supernatural, amazing rest.
The Bible says in Ephesians 2:6 that we, you and I, are also seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, what that means is we actually live in two places at the same time. Obviously, I’m here on the platform. You can see me. But internally, in my heart, in my soul, I’m seated in heavenly places tonight because I am truly trusting God and have entered the rest of God concerning everything that goes on here.
Living from a Position of Rest
So, my body’s here. But my heart is seated in heavenly places with Christ, trusting Him to do what only He can do. Now, you can live that way. You can live seated in heavenly places. You can parent from a position of rest. You can be in difficult situations, do all the crisis demands, and still be in the rest of God internally.
You know, your real life is in you. It’s not what’s going on around you. Your real life is in you. And you can have wonderful circumstances and know peace and be miserable. You can have lousy circumstances and have peace and have a wonderful life. So, let’s not look so much to our circumstances as to our heart. If our heart’s right with God, then everything else is going to work.
The Journey with God
Our relationship with God is walked out in a journey. And I, more and more, because now I’ve been walking with God for a long, long time, think a lot about my journey. And it’s amazing all the things that have happened over the forty years that I’ve been in a serious relationship with God. I was saved a long time before that, but I wasn’t serious.
And I like to talk about that because I think a lot of people just kind of go to church and go home, go to church and go home. You say, are you a Christian? Well, I go to church. Well, you know, that doesn’t really mean anything if it’s not affecting your life and you’re not living it out in your everyday life.
Walking by Faith
So, tonight we want to talk about what the Bible says about walking. First of all, in 2 Corinthians 5:7, it says we’re to walk in faith. To walk by faith, we must trust God more than we trust our feelings, more than we trust our sight, more than we trust our circumstances, more than we trust other people.
Walking by faith requires great courage because we serve an invisible God. It’s a little touchy learning how to hear from God, learning how to know what God wants you to do. And like it or not, anybody that’s going to walk in faith, eventually you’re going to have to kind of step out and find out if you’re hearing from God or not.
Learning Through Experience
So, we learn from the Word of God, and we learn by our experiences with God. I think it takes a lot of courage—real courage—to be led by the Spirit. Because sometimes when you’re being led by the Spirit, what you feel in your heart, really feel in your heart that God wants you to do, certainly doesn’t make any sense to anybody else. And it doesn’t even always make that much sense to your mind.
Being led by the Spirit means that you trust God to lead you by your heart. And you make choices. Come on, we’re back to choices. You make choices to do what you really believe God wants you to do, not what you feel like or don’t feel like doing.
Feelings Can Derail Us
If there’s anything that gets Christians off track, it’s feelings and emotions. When God invited me to live by faith, I was very, very frightened. I felt that God had led me to lay down a good full-time job in order to stay home with my kids and study the Bible because I felt like He was calling me to teach, and I didn’t know anything.
The only way we learn is by going through things. And so, I remember—I still vividly remember—I was walking down my little hallway one day. I hadn’t quit my job very long. I had a Bible study in my home. I’d been studying a lot for that. It was on Tuesday night. People were coming.
A Moment of Decision
And I was so scared about our money that my knees literally kind of started to give way when I was walking down the hall. Has anybody ever been that scared? And God spoke to my heart. He said, you’ve got two choices here. You can live by faith and let Me take care of you, or you can spend your life trying to take care of yourself.
I want to live that supernatural life where amazing things happen that nobody can explain except to say it had to be God in my life. And I really want you to understand just how frighteningly plain and ordinary Dave and I are.
The Fruit of a Faith Walk
I mean, when I think about where we started and I see what God is doing now, it’s like it’s been totally the fruit of a walk of faith. And so many stepping out—and that was good, I’ll take another step. Oops, that didn’t work, I’ll step back.
It’s been a life of gain and loss and hard times and good times and learning some very difficult lessons. But it’s been wonderful. Don’t trade the life that God has for you because you want to try to take care of yourself your whole life. You’re afraid to walk by faith.
Faith Pleases God
We need to walk by faith. Only faith pleases God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. This is the work that God requires of you: that you believe in the One whom He has sent. That’s our work—to walk in faith.
To get up every day and to go from faith to faith to faith to faith. Romans 1:17, in the Word of God there is a righteousness revealed that comes from faith and leads to faith.
Made Right with God
I believe by faith that I’ve been made right with God. Not because I do everything right. Not because I always feel right. Not because everybody else thinks I’m right. Because the Word of God says that I’m right with God. And you’re right with God through faith in Christ.
You’re right with God. You can stop worrying about what’s wrong with you. Start knowing that you’ve been made right with God through the sacrifice of Christ. And then let that righteousness that He’s put in you be worked out through you as you walk with God.
And every day you’ll get better and better and better and better. But if all you do is sit around and think about everything that’s wrong with you, you’re never going to make any progress.
God Knows Us Fully
Come on, you’re no surprise to God and neither am I. He’s not like, oh no, I didn’t know you’re going to be like this. Amen?
Boy, these scriptures are so good. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus—the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness—and of the love which you have and show for all the saints.
Known for Faith and Love
So, Paul said, listen, we’ve heard about your faith and we’ve heard about your love. You know, if anybody talks about me, I don’t want them just to say, oh yeah, she’s that well-known TV preacher. I’d like them to say, you know, Joyce is a woman of faith and she loves people.
These people were well-known for their faith and their love. Verse 5: because—why did they walk in faith and love?—because of the hope of experiencing what is laid up, reserved, and waiting for you in heaven.
Motivated by Eternal Hope
Why did they make the hard choices? Because they were looking for the thing that was to come. Now, to be honest with you, I don’t know in all my years of preaching if I’ve ever taught a whole message on heaven or eternity. But I feel that God wants me to talk about it a little bit more.
Because I think it will energize us to realize that what we’ve got right now is not all there is to it. And to be honest, if you get the very best version of this—whatever your this is—you get the best version of this that you can possibly have, and it’s nothing compared to eternity. It’s nothing compared to where we’re headed.
Seeing with Eyes of Faith
And I know that many times the things that are important to us are what we can see and feel and touch and experience right now. But we’ve got to learn to see with the eye of faith.
And you know what? I’m getting to the point where I’m not having such a hard time living according to what I don’t see. I’m walking by faith because, to be real honest, I’m not caring all that much anymore about what I do see.
If we’re going to call ourselves Christians, let’s walk like Christians. Let’s act like Christians. Let’s stand up for one another. Let’s defend one another. Don’t join in on the vulture party.
Living in Light of Christ’s Return
Because of the hope of experiencing what is laid up for us in heaven. Now, Philippians 4:5: Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness, your considerateness, your forbearing spirit. Why? The Lord is near. He’s coming soon.
How embarrassing would it be to be mad the day that Jesus came back? When Dave and I were first married and I just had such an awful temper—I mean, I was mad more than I was glad—and sometimes I’d get mad and wouldn’t talk to the guy for days on end or sometimes even a couple of weeks.
And one day he looked at me and he said, wouldn’t it be pitiful if this is how you spent your last day on earth? Just saying.
Live Ready Every Day
How would your life change if you thought Jesus was coming tomorrow morning? I mean, let’s think like this. Let’s begin to live like this. What is it that’s so important to me now that maybe wouldn’t be important at all if Jesus was coming tomorrow morning?
But no, He said, I’m going to come like a thief in the night, but I want you to live like I’m coming at any moment. That’s one of the reasons why He doesn’t tell us when He’s coming back. He wants you to live every day like it’s any minute. Amen.