Joyce Meyer - Steps To Total Restoration (08/19/2019)
Jesus didn't die for us to live halfway between bondage and victory—He wants us to go all the way through to full maturity and freedom in Him. Drawing from Hebrews 6:11, the example of Terah settling in Haran instead of reaching Canaan, and Revelation's warning against lukewarmness, the message calls believers to enthusiastic obedience, dying to self despite the pain, and pressing on with Holy Spirit power so we honor God by becoming fully like Christ.
No More Halfway Living
Most Christians end up halfway between bondage and victory. Jesus never died for us to be halfway to anything that He offers. He wants us to go all the way through.
Do you ever feel like maybe you are stuck kind of in the middle somewhere? You sure do not want to go back to what you came out of, but you are not quite sure you can make it all the way through to the finish.
I know I used to feel like that. It was like, my God, You have done too much for me to ever go back, but I am not sure that I can hang on until I get all the way through.
Don't Be Mediocre or Lukewarm
Do not be mediocre. Do not be lukewarm. Jesus has some very scathing words in Revelation 3 to say to the lukewarm. He said, I would rather that you be hot or cold, but if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of My mouth.
I do not think that means that lukewarm people lose their salvation, but I think it just means it is very distasteful to God when we are not totally on fire for Him and the things that concern God.
I have been reading a lot of books recently by a man named A.B. Simpson, who has gone home to be with the Lord almost a hundred years ago, and one of the things he said that impressed me was that one of the first signs of a Spirit-filled life is enthusiasm. I love that.
Enthusiasm for Spiritual Growth
We need to be enthusiastic about spiritual maturity. We need to be enthusiastic about growing up in God. We need to be enthusiastic about even dying to self, because every time we die to self, we get a little bit freer and we glorify God just a little bit more.
Be enthusiastic about obedience. Do not groan when the minister says, today I am going to teach on obedience. Do not groan when the minister says, today I am going to teach on discipline and self-control.
I can go to a conference and say, well, today I am going to teach on discipline and self-control. You have not heard anything yet—you hear about 15,000 women groan.
We need to say, great, awesome. I am enthusiastic about that.
Embrace God's Correction
The Bible says in Revelation, even when God is correcting us and chastising us, that we should be enthusiastic about it.
There is no place worse to live than in deception—thinking that everybody else is the problem when really, it is us.
Jesus never intended us to be halfway to the best that He offers.
Let us look at Hebrews 6:11. But we do strongly and earnestly desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity all the way through.
Everybody say, I am going all the way through.
In realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of your hope until the end.
Experience God's Promises Fully
So, he is saying, if you want to really realize—if you want to do more than just talk about the promises of God—if you really want to experience those promises in your life, then you have to go all the way through with God.
Well, what keeps people from going all the way through? We are usually pretty okay until it starts to be costly, until it hurts, until it is not convenient, until it is not comfortable—until maybe we are the only one that is trying to walk that path that we know, and it gets kind of lonely. And then we turn around and go back in the other direction.
Do not settle someplace where that is really not the best place just because going on is uncomfortable.
The Lesson from Terah and Abraham
Well, let us look at Genesis chapter 11 and verse 31. This caught my eye many years ago, and it teaches me a lesson.
You know, we think about Abraham and how God called Abraham out—He wanted to make a covenant with him. But I do not believe that Abraham was the first man that God made that offer to. I think that God was just looking for somebody—anybody—that would go all the way through.
Verse 31: And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his grandson, and Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together to go from Ur of the Chaldees into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
The Danger of Settling Short
That is sad. I do not know if you know it or not, but that one little but there is where they gave up.
They were on their way somewhere, but when they got to this other place, maybe they were tired. Maybe the journey had taken longer than they thought it would. Maybe some of the other folks had quit a ways back, and they did not want to be the only one that was going to press through and pay the price to go all the way through to the victory.
Who knows what makes a person give up? I wish that I knew what that thing is in people—that some people will take hold of God way down deep inside them, and they will press through anything to have victory. And other people are so wimpy and whiny that it does not take hardly anything, and they quit and give up.
Only You Can Choose
I wish that I could tell you where that little magic button is—where that little place is. And I wish that anybody that was missing it, I could implant one in them.
But it is something that is inside of you that only you can find with you and God, and only you can make the decision.
That is why the Bible says, I set before each one of you life and death. Now you choose.
The story I told you last night about me and my brother—we both had the same level of education. We both grew up in the same house. My circumstances really, in the natural, were much worse than his.
And he never could or would not get hold of that determination—whereas I did. Not because I was a special case. Because the promises of God are for whosoever will.
Believe the Promises Are for You
If I cannot get you to believe that, then you are never going to have victory. Because if you think it is for everybody but you, then you are not going to have what God wants you to have.
You will always live halfway between bondage and victory—limping along, looking at everybody else who has made it, and being jealous and resentful.
We honor God by going on to full maturity in Christ. Even if you do not want to do it for yourself, do it for Him.
We honor God by going all the way through.
Destined to Be Like Jesus
Romans 8:29 says we are destined—for ordained—to be molded into the image of Jesus Christ.
Now, you know, the Bible calls us clay and God the potter. And if I am this piece of clay, what is happening to me right now is not very comfortable. My shape is being changed. My form is being changed. I do not think I like it. I do not know that I was ready for this.
It is your destiny to have your character transformed so you can think like Me and want what I want and act the way I act and think the way I think and feel the way I feel.
Your Destiny Brings True Happiness
When something is your destiny, I do not care what you do—you are never going to be happy without it. Do you know that?
You either will—and I either will—do the will of God or I will be miserable.
You think you are going to be happy if you get your way? You will not be happy if you get your way if your way is not God's way. It just will not work.
God is smarter than we are. And His idea is better than ours.
Saying Yes to God's Molding
There is too much of me. So here is what has to happen. The attitude has got to go. The stinking thinking has got to go. The big mouth has got to go. The selfish self-centeredness has got to go. The anger has got to go. The unforgiveness has got to go.
We are called saints, not saintlets. The Bible calls us saints and priests of God Almighty. Warriors.
The Cost of Becoming a Saint
If I want to go from being a saintlet to a saint, could you please tell me, Joyce, what is it going to cost me?
What are going to be the consequences if I say yes? What is going to happen if when you leave here today, you really say sincerely to God, okay, God, I do not even really know what I am saying yes to, but do I have the guts to say yes?
Mold me into Your image. Make me what You want me to be. If I am asking You for anything that is not Your will, God, please do not give it to me. Your will be done, not mine.
God Takes Your Yes Seriously
If you say that, once you say it, you do not get it back. God is like one of these final contract guys. Your words, your bond—you said it, that is the way it is. And He goes to work.
And oh, we would love it if He works on everybody else, but sadly, He works on us.
Is it going to hurt? Will it be safe? Well, you know, I have never seen a comfortable, padded, convenient cross yet.
The Cross Means Death and Resurrection
The cross always means death. But it also means resurrection.
What do we think when we look at the cross? We cannot just think resurrection. Thank God for Sunday, but you have got to go through Friday to get to Sunday. You cannot bypass Friday and have Sunday.
On Friday, Jesus hung on the cross and suffered, but on Sunday, the cross was empty. Hallelujah. He is risen.
What happened during that period of time between Friday and Sunday? He took the keys of hell and death away from Satan.
Jesus Did It for You
For this purpose was the Son of God manifest—to destroy the works of the wicked one. He did not need to do it for Himself. He did it for you. He did it for me.
Why did the Holy Spirit come? To give me the power to go all the way through with God.
You do not need Holy Ghost power to give up. Anybody can do that. But we need power to go all the way through with God.
Dying to Self Is Painful but Worth It
Dying is a rather painful thing. I could say in one of my sermons, I had to die to my reputation—and everybody claps. That sounds so spiritual.
But it was about a thousand trips to hell to get to the point where I do not care that much what people think anymore or what they say. I am going to follow God and do what He says—even if it means I do not have one person on this earth who is for me.
Stop slamming on the brakes every time it gets uncomfortable.
Choose Discipline Over Regret
Every one of you has something. Most everybody in this room today can think of something right now that God is trying to get you to go ahead and go all the way through.
I am encouraging you today to do it and get it over with.
When going on is hard, say this: I can have the pain of discipline today or I can have the pain of regret tomorrow.
Practical Steps in Dying to Self
If you are going to say yes to God and no to self, then it means that you have to get mentally prepared to suffer.
I believe I can tell you the truth that God has got something so wonderful on the other side of that cross waiting for you.
You can either have the pain of going forward or you can have a worse pain, which is staying where you are at the rest of your life.
I would much rather have the pain of progress than the pain of stagnation.
Every time you go through and you come out on the other side, man, it is a celebration and a victory.
True Freedom Through Obedience
It is not freedom to have to get mad every time you do not get your way.
Freedom is when I want Dave to do something or not to do something and he says, no, I do not want to do that—and I can say, okay.
That is freedom when I do not have to be mad for four days and start three arguments and get all upset and feel sorry for myself.
Overcoming Fleshly Reactions
When God started dealing with me about not having a smart aleck attitude and talking back to Dave all the time—I always had to have the last word.
My only job really was to shut my mouth.
It was like when I would get angry, it was like all this pressure would build up in me. And the Holy Ghost inside is going, no.
If I would give in—ah, it relieved the pressure. But then I had to go one more time around that stupid mountain.
When I finally got to the point where it was like, help me, God, help me, help me, help me—I honestly remember one time running down the hall of my house, locking myself in the bathroom and sticking my face in a bath towel and going... because anything you do not feed will die.
Deny Yourself Means Obey Promptly
Every time we give in to the flesh, we feed it. That is what the Bible means when it says deny yourself.
It does not mean that you cannot get your fingernails done and you cannot get a pedicure and you cannot have a new pair of earrings and you have got to have a lousy life.
Deny yourself means if God is saying to zip your lip, then zip your lip. If God is telling you to lose the bad attitude, then lose the bad attitude. If God is telling you to go apologize to somebody, do not argue with them for 10 weeks—just go do it.
Set Your Mind for Victory
Set your mind and keep it set. I love that in Colossians 3.
My husband is great at mindsets. He thinks about things ahead of time and he sets his mind.
Dave was not feeling too good earlier in the year—he was kind of having these spells where he would get real jittery and hyper like he could not really calm down and settle down.
Long story short, we found out that he is just real sensitive to sugar. And so, all of a sudden now, at least for six months, he is not supposed to eat any sugar or anything that has got sugar in it.
Preset for Victory
As God is my witness, I am going to tell you the truth—I have not heard that man murmur or complain or even mildly mutter about not being able to eat sugar in that whole time. Nor will I hear him murmur and complain.
I say to him, do you miss sugar? No. He said, what is the point? I cannot eat it. What is the point in missing it?
But see how we feel is connected to how we think. So when you get the right mindset, then the rest of it just follows along with it.
He is already preset for victory.
Go All the Way Through with God
If you are going to grow up in God and get over being a saintlet and become a saint, you better get some mindsets.
This is not going to be easy. It is going to cost me. It is going to hurt. But I am going all the way through with God.
I am going to be somebody that He can be proud of. I am going to be somebody that puts a smile on God's face.
I am not going to be halfway between failure and victory. I am going all the way through.
Come on, can anybody get this spirit with me today? I am going all the way through with God.