Joyce Meyer - When You Lean On God You Take The Pressure Off Yourself (08/20/2019)
God gives every believer the measure of faith needed to fulfill His will—enough to trust Him fully, enter His rest, and live victoriously without constant struggle. Faith is not something we lack; it's a force we must release through prayer, confession, and obedient action. When we stop trying to figure everything out, forgive freely, and lean on God instead of self-effort, faith moves mountains, solves problems, and brings peace, righteousness, and joy.
The Measure of Faith Given to Us
The Bible teaches us in Romans 12 that unto every man is given the measure of God's faith. And actually, if you go ahead and study that, it's that God gives the measure of His faith for each one of us... to do what He's asked us to do in life.
Because... Jesus didn't die so we could all struggle. He didn't die so we could just have this hard, hard, hard life. And just struggle and be frustrated all the time. And He especially doesn't want us to struggle trying to make the Christian life work. Amen?
So He gives us faith. Faith is a word that we throw around a lot as Christians. And I know that, you know, even... Maybe sometimes we've heard so much about faith that... You know, even tonight when I said I was going to teach on faith this weekend... I didn't get the reaction that I would have got if I would have said... I'm going to teach on how to control your emotions.
Everybody went... You know... And... But I just don't think that we understand... Or maybe we just need to keep relearning and keep understanding... How important just that little simple child-like faith... Is to this whole walk with God... And how important it is to peace... To righteousness... To joy...
It's amazing the problems that are solved the moment that you decide to trust God... In everything.
Unto every man... Is given the measure of faith. So... Don't even try to say... Well, I wish I had faith. You have faith.
If you wouldn't have had faith, you wouldn't have come here tonight. Because... You had faith that if you came, I'd be here. You had faith... When you parked your car in the parking lot... That when you leave tonight and go out there, it'll still be there.
You had faith that you would get a seat. Have a place to sit. You had faith that you would enjoy this and... Get something out of it.
It's amazing how much faith we use every single solitary day. And why we have such a hard time putting faith in God is very interesting.
Every time you sit in a chair, you have faith that's going to hold you up. Now, see, I'm not sitting here going, oh my gosh, I hope this thing doesn't cave in, huh? No, it's like, I just sat down in the chair. I didn't even check it out first. It's a chair. Chairs you sit in, so I just sat down in the chair.
I came in tonight, and I had the faith that if I put all my stuff on this podium, that it would hold it up. You operate in faith all the time.
Every time you go out in traffic in your car, you better be in faith. Every time you send one of your teenagers off to school, you better be in faith.
So we do have faith. I've been doing quite a bit of study on faith again in the last few months. And I think really there's certain foundational subjects that we have to study and refresh ourselves in all the time.
Paul told the people that he never got tired of telling them the same things over and over. Because it rekindled their faith and stirred them up in faith in those areas.
Faith Ends Confusion and Worry
So, if you walked in here... If I were to come up here tonight and said, how many of you are confused? There would have been hundreds of hands go up, if not thousands.
And so I can just say to you that if you're confused, you're not operating in faith. At least not about that thing you're confused about. Because the moment you trust God, confusion goes.
Because when you trust God, you don't have to try to figure anything out anymore. And the moment you stop trying to figure things out, you don't get confused.
If I would have said, how many of you are worried? Oh, we would have had lots of hands go up. But, if we're worried, then obviously we're not in faith.
Now, that doesn't mean that we don't have faith in God. But I want to talk to you about something different this weekend. I want to talk to you about not just having faith. Every person has faith.
But I want to talk to you about releasing your faith. About releasing your faith. Because faith is a powerful force that changes things. It does things.
Faith is the only thing that can cause you to enter the rest of God. Which is the absolute most glorious place to be. Because you don't have to try to figure stuff out.
You don't have to try to change things that you've already tried a million times to change. And the more you try to change them, the more frustrated it makes you.
Because you can just finally say, well, God, I'm trusting you with this. And if you can't change it, then I guess it don't need to be changed.
How many years was I frustrated trying to change my husband and change my kids and change my neighbors and change me and change, change it? Oh, what a relief it was to me to find out that only God could change people.
And that I didn't need to be working on everybody else. I had enough issues of my own to work on. Amen?
How to Come to Real Faith
How do we come to this point of having this kind of faith that will let us enter the rest of God? Well, I'm not going to give you some fancy, super spiritual answer.
I'm just going to tell you what I think the truth is. I think that the only way you can learn to stop worrying and stop trying to figure things out. Stop being jealous of what other people have and all the crazy things that we do.
And I'm going to talk to you more about some of those things later. Is I just honestly think that in addition to studying the Word, I think that we just have to try it our way long enough. to finally just get worn out enough to just say, okay, God, I surrender.
Come on, we're going to talk about surrender this weekend. I surrender. I finally just said, you know what, God? You knew what you were getting when you got me.
Because you know the beginning, you know the end, and everything in between. You know every flaw that I have, every fault that I have, you know every weakness that I have, as well as my strengths.
And I just decided I was going to stop apologizing for myself 25 times a day. And just tell God, I'm willing, I'm willing to let you do any work in me that you want to do.
But I am not going to spend every day of my life trying to change myself. Now that doesn't mean that I don't operate in any kind of discipline or self-control.
But really, to tell you the truth, it's the Word of God that changes us. And you'd be much better, instead of trying to change yourself to just study the Word more and trust God to do what He says that only He can do.
I finally decided. Decisions are so important. I think a lot of people come to stuff like this, and they just listen and never make a decision.
I want you to make decisions this weekend. I want you to decide to do things God's way, and then I want you to leave here knowing that you can't do it unless He helps you.
And I want you to leave leaning, leaning, leaning, relying, leaning, trusting, leaning, and relying on Him. To do what only He can do.
You see, when I sit in this chair, I'm leaning on it. But, oh, glory to God. So wonderful. Whew. I might even preach from here a little bit tonight. You never know.
I mean, this is a pathetic example, but it gives kind of a little example of what it's like to lean on God. You know, as you lean on Him, then you take the pressure off of yourself.
And I might add, until we do learn to lean on God, we're not going to have any victory in our life.
Have Faith in God Constantly
Let's go to Mark 11:22. So you're ready for a little journey now about faith, right? How many of you see what I mean?
You know, we can talk... Oh, yes, I'm a faith person. Yes, yes. I go to a faith church. I have books on faith. Yes, yes.
Well, why do you worry? Why are you confused? Why are you jealous? Why are you upset? Because, you see, we can have something and never put it to good use.
God actually dealt with me about, I guess it was December, sometime in December, about even our giving. And He said, you've gotten in a habit of giving. That's what God put in my heart.
You've gotten in a habit of giving, but you don't release your faith with your giving anymore. You just do it. And of course, you know, when you give, you will be blessed.
But there's another whole level you can come into if every time you give, you release your faith. Now, God, I'm giving in obedience to your word. And this is what I'm trusting you to do.
You're going to see in just a minute that the three ways you release your faith, at least the three we're going to talk about tonight, so simple. If you get this, it can be life-changing.
Through praying, through saying, and through doing what you believe God wants you to do. You release your faith when you really pray. When you pray sincerely in faith, you release your faith.
How many of you understand your faith can't work unless you release it? Just having it doesn't do any good. You can have money in the bank and still starve to death.
You can have food in the refrigerator and go hungry. You can have a coat in your closet and still go out and freeze.
So having something is no guarantee that you're going to use it. And one thing's for sure, if you don't know you have it, and that's the sad thing about a lot of Christians, is nobody's telling them what they have.
And so one of the things I want to do is tell you a lot tonight about what your inheritance includes. And it's not something you have to keep trying to get. You have it.
You don't have to keep trying to be right with God. You are right with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And if you believe that, then out of that position you have, by faith in God, you will begin to behave more rightly.
Because you're not, you can't, you can't give away something you don't have. That's why it's so important to receive the love of God into your own life.
Because how can you love yourself and love other people if you don't have the love of God? You can't give away what you don't have.
Mercy is another good example. If you don't receive God's mercy, but if you're real harsh and hard on yourself and legalistic and every time you do something wrong, you're punishing yourself for your mistake.
And we do have ways to punish ourselves for our mistakes. We give up a lot of joy because we don't think we deserve it. But when you learn to receive the mercy of God, it softens your heart.
And you begin to be more tender-hearted toward other people because you realize that God has been merciful to you.
So, it's very important that we know what's ours. And I just want to teach you a little higher level of what we talk about in faith because the Apostle Paul said, it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me and the life that I now live, I live by faith.
So, there's this faith that we come into the kingdom by. There's the faith for our salvation. There's that initial faith to have our sins forgiven. And that's a beginning.
But my goodness, what a life is available to us if we'll learn to live by faith. I don't want to just believe that someday when I die, I'm going to go to heaven and live in the sweet by-and-by in my mansion and float around on clouds and that I'll finally be happy then.
And that all the time I'm here is just drudgery and pain and suffering and misery trying to make it through till Jesus comes back. I am so tired of that stuff.
Well, how are you today, sister? Well, I'm under attack, I'll tell you that. And I've just got such a burden. Well, then you need somebody to sit down with you that really knows the Word.
And give you some lessons because we don't need to be under stuff all the time. The Bible says we're the head and not the tail above and not beneath. And that we've already got the victory through Christ who strengthens us day by day.
And if we can ever understand how valuable faith is and that faith creates things and it changes things and it moves mountains and it solves problems.
And I love the song that, I guess, Martin, you write that song? I love that song that you wrote. And he's saying, you know, we can't give up our faith. You can't give up your faith.
And that's the thing that's important. Just because you release your faith, that doesn't mean everything changes just. .. Sometimes you've got to keep believing and you've got to keep holding on.
But God is faithful. And anybody who's walked with God for very long knows that. God is faithful. He may not do it your way, your time, but He'll do it.
God will bring us through and if He doesn't deliver us from something, He will give us the strength to go through it. And go through it with a smile on our face. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Have Faith in God Constantly
Mark 11:22. And Jesus, replying to them, said, Have faith in God constantly. Now we could just stop and preach on that the rest of the night.
Because you don't need to just have faith occasionally or when you have a disaster. But have faith in God constantly.
In Romans 1:17, there's a great scripture. It says that in the Bible we learn about a righteousness, which is a right relationship with God that leads us from faith to faith to faith.
I like that. There's little faith and there's great faith. And the way that your faith grows is by using what you have.
That's why I say that sometimes you just got to go through some stuff. Until you finally learn just how great God is and just how great you're not without Him. Hallelujah.
Matter of fact, I'll just tell you, without humility, you're never going to have much victory trying to walk in faith. Because you can't lean and rely if you still think you can do it yourself.
Apart from me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. And that means nothing. Amen.
I've been in front of crowds like this thousands and thousands of times. And I would never get up here assuming that everything was just going to go fine. Because it has before.
I make it very clear to God that I know it's an opportunity He's giving me. That He could have given it to somebody else. And that I appreciate what He's letting me do.
And that I know that I cannot do it without Him. And let me tell you something. No matter what your job is, it doesn't have to be preaching or a pulpit job.
I don't care if you clean toilets for a living. You need to lean on God to be able to clean them right and clean them happy.
Have faith in God constantly. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to the mountain, whoever says to the mountain, not who thinks about the mountain, or looks at the mountain, or complains about the mountain, talks about the mountain, but whoever says to the mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the sea, does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done For this reason, I'm telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe, trust, and be confident that it is granted to you and you will get it.
In God's economy, you've got to believe before you get. You don't get it, then believe you got it. Doesn't take any faith to do that.
Not one of you has to believe now for a seat. Because you've got one. You don't have to believe that I'm here because I'm here.
So once we get something, we no longer have to believe. But there's a period of time where we're going to ask for something, release our faith.
We pray. That's part of releasing your faith. Then we need to keep saying what we believe God is doing. Not ask for it, then talk like we're never going to get it. Amen?
How would you like it if you told one of your kids, they came to you and said, Mom, I need a new pair of shoes. And you say, okay, I'll take you real soon and we'll get those shoes. You didn't tell them when.
You just expect them to trust you that when the time is right, you'll take them to get the shoes. Now, how would you like it if they spent the next two weeks rocking around the house saying, I'll never get shoes.
I guess I'll go barefoot the rest of my life. I'll know I'll never have any shoes. Oh, I wish I had shoes. I'll never have shoes like anybody else. Why is it that we can understand that with our kids, but we don't understand it in our relationship with God?
You tell Him what you need. It's even great if you know enough of Scripture to back it up with the Scripture because your word says. And if there's nothing else, just say, well, your word says that I can ask you for what I need and you'll give it to me.
And then keep saying that you know it's on the way. Matter of fact, I can tell you, if mom planned to take that kid shopping in two weeks, but every time the kid walked by mom, they said, I know, mom, you're going to take me soon.
I'm so excited. You're such a good mom. Anytime you're going to take me. How much do you want to bet me that you'd move it up a week?
I'm telling you what, we don't get it, you know? Making sense?
Three Ways to Release Faith
So now we have the praying and the saying. Come on, we're working on our mountain. We got the praying and the saying.
And then he says, and whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, leave it, drop it, let it go. Because if you don't forgive others, then God can't forgive you and answer your prayer.
So here we have something to do. We have praying, saying, and taking obedient action that God gives you.
Now, we don't need to get into works of the flesh. That's our own idea of how to make something happen. But if I'm praying for something and I'm confessing and nothing's happening, nothing's happening, and then God reminds me, well, you know, you've got three people that you're boiling hot mad at.
So, go get it right. I mean, the Bible even says when you bring your gift to the altar, if you remember there, when you're trying to worship God with your gifts, that your brother has ought against you.
It don't even have to be that you're mad at them. God is so big on peace, he says, you go make it right.
But, well, now, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. See, the thing is, is where there's peace, there's blessing. Where there's peace and unity, there's anointing.
The power of God is there. And so we need to do anything that we can to be peacemakers, because peacemakers are the sons of God.
You might say, well, that's not fair. Doesn't matter, you can go do it in faith. God, you said to do this, I'm going to do it.
That's what we've got to come to here this weekend. This is what the word says. Doesn't matter how I feel. Doesn't matter how it looks. That's what I'm doing.
Your word is greater than anything I think, or feel, or don't see, or see, or anything else.
So, we release our faith through praying, saying, and doing what God asks us to do.
Faith Perceives the Unseen as Real
Now, Hebrews 11, we want to go there. How many of you already can tell that you probably need this tonight? And it's going to help you.
Oh, well, you don't all have your hands up. I guess you're tired. I don't know. How many of you feel like you need this tonight? All right. See, the better you respond, the better I'll preach.
Hebrews 11 gives us a definition of faith, as well as Colossians 1:4 gives us a different definition of faith. We want to look at them.
Now, faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title, deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of the things we do not see, and the conviction of their reality.
Faith perceives as real fact what is not yet revealed to the senses. So, this is telling us that we can have something in the spirit realm before we ever get it in the natural realm.
And you know the interesting thing? When you really believe in your heart that you have it, you get just as happy as if you were already looking at it. That's the absolute truth. You do.
Now, if I said to you, I got a new car last week. You say, Oh, show me your car. I said, Well, I can't show it to you. I don't have it with me.
Well, then I don't believe you have a car. If you can't show me your car, I don't believe you have a car. You don't have a car.
You can't show me your car. You don't have a car. And I said, Well, wait a minute. I do have the title. And so, you're like, Oh, well, you have a car.
Or if I say, if somebody says, You know, I bought a new house. And you say, I don't believe you bought a new house. Oh, yeah, I bought a new house.
Well, show me your house. Well, I can't show it to you right now because it's not right here with me, but I have a new house. Well, I don't believe you have a new house.
Well, here's the deed to my house. I have a house. And you say, oh, well, I guess you do have a house.
Well, just for a practical example, the Bible says this is what faith is. Faith is the title deed. It's the confirmation. It's the proof that I have what God says I can have.
And it doesn't matter if I don't see it, if I can't feel it, I've got it.