Joyce Meyer - Battle Strategies To Renew Your Mind (08/21/2019)
The preacher stresses that while many blessings are legally ours through Christ, actually possessing and experiencing them requires renewing the mind, overcoming wrong mindsets, and taking personal responsibility—unlike the Israelites who wandered 40 years in the wilderness due to bad attitudes instead of entering the Promised Land quickly.
From Legal Possession to Actual Experience
You know, it's one thing to have something by faith. It's another thing to have it in your experience. It's one thing to have it legally, as I call it. There are many blessings that are ours legally because Christ has died, His blood has been shed, He has sealed the New Covenant in His blood, and as a born-again believer, we are joint heirs with Him, and we have an inheritance. It's ours legally, it's ours. But it's the possessing of it that sometimes becomes an issue for people.
The Israelites came out of bondage in Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. It's equivalent to being a slave to sin. God sent them a deliverer, Moses. He has sent us a deliverer, Jesus Christ. And we have come out of slavery to sin. They came out of slavery to Pharaoh, and they headed for a place called the Promised Land. We come out of the bondage to sin, and we hear all about the promises of God, and we start learning how to appropriate them in our life.
Well, the Israelites had to go through a place that the Bible calls the wilderness. It was an 11-day journey as the crow flies straight across that wilderness. However, it took them 40 long, miserable, painful years before some of them ever finally entered. Most of them did not, by the way. Of the several million people that came out, or about a million and a half, I think, with children, very few entered the Promised Land. Joshua, Caleb, and some of the children that were not at the age of accountability when God finally got fed up with them enough to say, you're not gonna enter the Promised Land.
Why the Long Delay in the Wilderness?
Now, we look at their story and we shake our heads and think, how dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. If it was only an 11-day journey, how could it have taken you 40 years to get there? But we need to wake up and smell the roses tonight and realize that many of us have wandered around the same mountains over and over and over too long, and my word to you tonight is it's time to go through and move on quickly toward the Promised Land.
So, they thought their enemies were the problem. It was the Ishmaelites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and the Canaanites, and we all have our own brand of ites. It may be the bad husbandites, the grouchy neighborites, the sicknessites, the povertyites, the bad pastites, but we've all got our own ites. And we think that they are our problem, the devilites. It's the devil, if he would leave me alone. If this, if that, if something else.
But as I began to study many, many, many years ago and searched this out more deeply, I realized that very clearly from Scripture we can learn that it was not their enemies that was their problem because, you see, God was on their side. And if God be for us, who can be against us? There's nothing in this world that can defeat us if God is for us. And God was on their side.
He told them, if you will do what I'm telling you to, you can make a quick trip across this desert and enjoy my promises. But they did not do that. It wasn't their enemies, it wasn't the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, all the enemies that they ran in. It wasn't the giants in the land, it was their wrong mindsets and their wrong attitude.
Renewing Your Mind to Break Free
They did not know how to think the way God wanted them to think. You absolutely can think your way out of bondage and think your way into freedom if you learn to think the way that God wants you to think. It is impossible to have victory and think bondage. It's impossible to be happy and think sadness and depression. It is impossible to be free from sin while you think that you are in bondage to sin.
There's a great example of this found in Romans chapter 6. In Romans chapter 6 verse 2, Paul said, how can you live in sin when you're dead to sin? The Bible tells us that when Christ died, we died in Him. That He took sin to the cross and that we are dead to sin and alive to righteousness.
You know what that means? There's a part of you, the born-again part of you, does not want anything to do with sin. It's dead to sin. That's why now, when you sin, it bothers you. Before you were born again, it didn't bother you. You didn't care. You loved it. You enjoyed it. But once you get born again, now you have a new set of problems because you cannot comfortably sin anymore. It makes you miserable.
So, there's a part of you that doesn't want to sin. However, you're still carrying around the flesh, an unrenewed mind, wild, out-of-control emotions, and a stubborn will that has to be worked on by God and the Holy Spirit. That actually is our wilderness. Our soul, until it's renewed by the Word of God, is our wilderness.
We have to learn how to let God, who is in our spirit, invade our soul. He doesn't want to just live in this little place in the spirit. He wants to get out into your mind, into your emotions, into your will, into your finances, into your relationships, into your entertainment. And He wants to finally be seen through you as a bright shining light, so the world can say, that person's got something that I want. Come on, somebody give God prayer.
Thinking Like God Thinks
So, Romans 6-2 says we're dead to sin, but then Romans 6-11 says even so now, consider yourself dead from sin and alive to righteousness. I love that because the word consider is a process of your mind. So, you might as well say that in Romans 6-2, it says you're dead to sin, but then Romans 6-11, it says, so now think that you're dead to sin. Believe that you're dead to sin.
So, we'll say, I'm dead to sin, and sing songs about being free in Christ, but then we're afraid of sin. We say, we're addicted. We're this, we're that. I can't get over this. This is too hard. I can't overcome that. So, we stay trapped in that wilderness area.
We have to begin to think like God thinks and say what God says, and that's gonna help us fast-track through the wilderness and begin to live in the promises of God. You can control your thinking with God's help, a lot of help from the Holy Spirit, a lot of leaning on the Holy Spirit.
You can control your thinking, but not until you learn to actually take an inventory of your thoughts, and I call it thinking about what you're thinking about. Where the mind goes, the man follows. If you don't like your life, go home, have a meeting with yourself, and think about what you have been thinking about.
Instead of blaming it on everything else, have a meeting with yourself, and just ask yourself if it's time for you to get rid of your stinking thinking. Amen. Set your mind and keep it set on right things.
You know, one of the most popular scriptures that we use when we teach on the mind is 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down imaginations, reasons, and theories. Taking every thought captive under the obedience of Jesus Christ.
So we know there's a battle in our mind, wrong thoughts, reasons, theories that don't agree with the Word of God, and the Bible gives us the responsibility of locating them and casting them down.
Casting Down Wrong Thoughts Daily
Now, it's really not our responsibility by ourself, because when you start leaning on the Holy Spirit, all you gotta do is just say, God, I'm asking you to start making me aware when I'm thinking wrong thoughts. Just pray. God, make me aware every time I'm thinking wrong thoughts. Don't let me just sit around and think stupid stuff. Make me aware when I'm thinking bad thoughts.
And so as you begin to pray like that, you'll begin to realize, I don't need to be thinking that. I shouldn't be thinking that. That's not in line with the Word of God. And the way those strongholds in our mind is torn down is by being a diligent student of the Word of God, which is part of what you're doing here tonight.
I applaud you because you took a Friday night. I mean, party night. The work week is over. And you could have done all kinds of things. You could have been out spending your paycheck on something that wasn't gonna do you any good. Or you could have been in all kinds of places you didn't need to be. Or you could have stayed home on your couch because you were tired from working all week.
But here you are, out here, thousands of you all the way to the top of the building to study the Word of God and to worship Him. I applaud you. But I also have to tell you, and I don't mean to be discouraging, this is not enough to keep you walking in victory.
You'll need to get up and study some more in the morning. Then pray some. Then worship some. Go to church the next day. Maybe go to church the next night. Go to midweek service next week. Watch my TV program all five days next week. Get something on your iPad. Get something on your iPhone. Just keep studying the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word.
And pretty soon you begin to think in a completely different way. Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed, completely changed by the entire renewal of your mind so you can prove for yourselves what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.
I love you, Lord! Thank you, I love you too. Jeremiah 4.14 says, How long shall your grossly offensive thoughts lodge within you? I love that. Jeremiah 4.14, How long shall your grossly offensive thoughts lodge within you?
Developing a Positive Vision for Your Future
So, the first thing that I located, that I felt like was a problem for the Israelites, that contributed to them taking so long to get to victory, and also why many of them never made it to victory at all. And do you know, sadly, there are many people who do believe in Jesus and will go to heaven, but will never, ever, ever enjoy victory here in the earth. Do you know that? You don't have to have victory to go to heaven. You're saved by the blood of Christ. But to enjoy your journey, you need victory. And I think, to be a proper witness to anybody else, they need to see it working in your life. Amen?
So, the first thing that I saw that they did was, they did not have a positive vision for the future. They were always talking about the past. They thought their past dictated their future. And I'm here to tell you that no matter what has happened to you in the past, no matter what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly awesome future if you will learn to see in the Spirit.
The Bible says, in Isaiah 11, that Jesus did not see and decide things by the hearing of His ears and the sight of His eyes. He saw with spiritual eyes and He listened with spiritual ears. And we all have ears on our head and eyes in our head, but we also have spiritual ears and eyes.
With our natural eyes, we see what's going on around us. We see what's happened in our life. But with our spiritual eyes, we see what we can't see with these eyes. We look with an attitude of faith and we say, God says I can have a good future and I believe that I can have a good future.
Recently, I was in a Starbucks in some place in Utah and a woman recognized me and began to talk to me a little bit. And she said, I wrote your ministry and told you all about my problems and so on and so forth. And she began to tell me all about her problems.
She said, yes, I'll tell you. She said, in my life, I have been thrown under the bus. And of course, I didn't say this to her because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. But when I left, I thought, well, lady, I've been thrown under the bus too. But now I'm driving it. Amen?
Well, she just stopped and I've been thrown under the bus. And I can tell you, she will be sitting somewhere telling somebody the same sad story a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now. Only her story will get more and more bitter and will sound worse and worse because she had no hope for change in her life.
Seeing Your Future with Faith Eyes
And I tried to tell her a little bit, well, God can change things. You need to trust God. You need to believe in God. And all I got back every time was some kind of a wall or some kind of an excuse. Her case was a special case. It wasn't like any other case. There was nobody that had it as bad as her. She got thrown under the bus and all four wheels were sitting on her and she did not have any intention of getting out from under the bus.
Well, I decided to drive the stupid bus. And you can do the same thing. But let me tell you something. This is not something that somebody else can decide for you. This is something you have to make your mind up to.
I'd like us to look as an example at Genesis chapter 13. We see a man there, Abraham, who lost everything. And yet he ended up with more than he lost. Do you know that in God's economy you can lose every single thing that you have? And if you learn to see with the eye of faith, you can end up with more than you gave up.
Job lost everything, had such terrible troubles, and in the end God gave him twice as much as what he had lost. Abraham had blessed his nephew Lot by sharing what he had with him. And then they both became so prosperous, they had so many cattle and so many employees that they weren't getting along together. The employees weren't.
And so Abraham went to Lot, took the initiative, wanted to be a peacemaker. And he said, I beg of you, let there be no strife between us. You decide which part of the land that you want and I'll take what you don't take.
Now I think that's a pretty amazing, humble attitude right there. Because I would have said, I'm going to take what I want first and you can have what was left. Because you wouldn't have had anything if I wouldn't have given it to you. But Abraham was obviously a godly man. Probably one of the reasons why God was able to make a covenant with him and use him the way that he did.
So sure enough, if you read chapter 13, Lot chose the best portion of the Jordan Valley for himself. And Abraham had to take the leftovers. So he wasn't in very good shape. But in verse 14, it says, The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had left him, lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward. For the land which you see, I will give to you and to your posterity.
And in verse 17, it says, Arise and walk through the land, the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it to you. So, he's saying two things here, both are equally important. First, he said, look north, south, east, and west, and everything you can see, I will give it to you.
Now, he was obviously telling him to look with his natural eyes, but I believe that God wants to say to you tonight, look into the future, and what do you see by faith for your life? Can you see yourself being out of debt? Can you see yourself owning your own home? Can you see yourself with a new car? Can you see yourself with a better job? Can you see yourself being a blessing to many, many, many people? Can you see yourself living your dream, whatever that dream might be? As long as it's God's dream too, you can live that dream.
Can you see it? If you cannot see it, you will never have it. Then he said to him, and whatever you see, I will give it to you. Now you go and walk it out. You go take it. That means you've got to take some action.
Possessing What God Has Promised
I had a dream, a God-given dream to preach the gospel. It was something God birthed in my heart the first time that I heard a teaching cassette tape back in 1976. I just was so amazed that somebody could take one scripture out of the book of Mark and preach for almost a whole hour on it and keep your attention. And just this burning desire came in me to preach the gospel all over the world, which was very stupid considering where I was at at the time. So it had to be God.
I mean I was not, let's just say I was your least likely candidate to be doing that. So God will put things in your heart that do not make any sense to your mind. That's why you cannot live out of your unrenewed mind. You have to live in the mind of the Spirit.
God will show you things that are possibilities for you, but you, when you read the Word you have to take it that it's for you. Not just that it's for this special group of some special people, but every promise in the Word is for you. They're all for you. God wants to bless you. God wants to promote you. God wants to raise you up. God wants to use you. God wants to heal you. Amen.
But you have to see that. And you can't wait to see it with these eyes before you believe it. You have to see it with your spiritual eyes and then eventually you'll see it with these eyes. I live in Missouri, which is called the Show Me State. But in God's economy you have to believe it first, see it with the eye of faith, and then eventually you'll see it in the Spirit.
But also, even though by faith I claimed what I believed that God had spoken to me and given me. I claimed the promises as mine, I still had to go in and possess that land. Now, the word possess is an interesting word because if you study it, it means to dispossess the current occupants and then take the land.
So, there were enemies in the promised land. And they didn't want to deal with the enemies. So, they would not go in. They just kept wandering around and around waiting for God to do something about the enemies before they would go in and take what God told them to take.
Now, here's an interesting point. Actually, in two years they made it to the border of the promised land. And if I took you to Deuteronomy chapter one... Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 20. And I said to you, you have come to the hill country of the Ammonites, which the Lord your God gives us. This is Moses saying this. Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you, go up and possess it.
And the Lord the God of your fathers has said to you, fear not, neither be dismayed. Then you all came near to me and said, let us send men before us that they may search out the land, that they may bring us word again, by which way we should go up, and into what cities we shall come.
And the thing pleased me well, and I took twelve men of you, and I sent you in. These are what we call the twelve spies who went in to check out the promised land. And sure enough, verse 25 says, they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, it is a good land which the Lord your God gives us.
Watch verse 26, yet you would not go up, but you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord. Now I don't have time to go through all this, but later they decided, well now we will go up. And God said, no, don't try to go in now, because now I'm not with you. You should have went when I told you to.
And so then, they were on the border of the promised land, when God told them, now is the time to go in and possess the land. They would not go in, they rebelled against the Lord, and they wandered around for another 38 years out in the wilderness, and many of them died out there.
Seize the Moment When God Speaks
Now I want to teach you a little lesson tonight. When God tells you it's time to deal with something, then there's an anointing on it to deal with it then. And you can't put it off until a more convenient time, or a time when you think it's going to be easier, or a time when you feel like you're ready, because then you may decide, well you know I'm really tired of putting up with this, I think I'll deal with it now. Well you might find that God's not got that anointing on you at that time.
We have to learn when God touches things in our life, that we need to take it seriously. If you know God's dealing with you about a bad attitude, then deal with it. If you know God's dealing with you about unforgiveness in your heart, then deal with it. Don't make some silly excuse about how hard it is to forgive people.
I'll tell you what's hard, hating people. That is much harder than forgiving people. Forgiveness is easy compared to hatred and bitterness and resentment, and being full of that poison all the time.
If God is dealing with you about a habit that you have, that is a destructive habit, if God is putting His finger on it, then you do not have to even think that you can't do it, because God is never going to deal with you about something without giving you the ability to go all the way through to victory. But you've got to believe it.
I was sexually abused by my dad for many years, and when I walked away from his home, I thought I walked away from the problem. Little did I know that I had the problem with me etched in my soul. It was in my mind, it was in my emotions, it was in my will, and it affected every relationship that I had, my relationship with God, my relationship with me, and my relationship with other people. Your secrets will make you sick.
And when God begins to say it's time to deal with things, then it's time to deal with things. Well, my first marriage was a nightmare. I married a guy that had as many problems as I did, if not more, and he ran around with other women and was a petty thief and a con man, and so that never worked out. Five years of that nightmare, had one child, and finally ended up getting a divorce.
He went to prison and met Dave, who was born again, a Holy Ghost-filled Lutheran young man. I told you last night, wanting a wife, praying for a wife. He was dating three women. He was trying to possess the land. He could see it with the eye of faith, and he was going out to take it, let me tell you.
And he knew none of the three he was dating was right, and so he saw me washing my mother's car outside my house, thought I was cute, had on short shorts, my hair piled on top of my head, probably smoking my cigarette, and drinking my beer or whatever. And he said, hey, do you want to wash my car when you're finished with that one? I said, if you want your car washed, buddy, wash it yourself.
And he said, the thing that came to him was, that's the girl for me. Now, he was obviously either demented, or he was being led by the Spirit of God. But David and I only had five dates and got married. I mean, he had to move fast before he figured out what he was getting.
So we got married. About three weeks later, Dave looked at me and said, what is wrong with you? Well, see, I didn't know I had a problem. I thought everybody else was the problem. I didn't know I had a problem. And maybe that's your problem that you don't know that you're the problem.
I see you watching through that TV screen. I said, maybe that's your problem that you don't know that you're the problem. You thought I was just talking to all these pretty people here in this conference, but I'm not. I'm talking to you. Matter of fact, I'm doing this whole thing mainly for you. Gotcha.
You don't just get to lay there in your bed with your remote in your hand, and don't you try to flip the channel either, because I'll be on another channel. You can't get away from me in the morning. If you're going to watch TV, you're going to find me.
It's Time to Take Personal Responsibility
And so, I didn't know I had all these problems. Well, Dave and I went to church. You know, he loved God. I loved God. I believed in Jesus. I was born again. But I wasn't dealing with my issues.
So one night, Dave and I went to a church service, and there was a woman there giving a testimony who had been sexually abused by her father. Her story was so closely linked to mine that it was scary. She kind of handled her problems in a different way than I did. She went on to become a prostitute, and had a whole lot of problems. And then she met a godly man, and talked about how God dealt with her, and how she'd been healed.
Well, she'd written a book, and Dave bought me the book. Because by now, he knew that I'd been abused. I shared with him what had happened to me. And he gave me the book, and the next morning, I opened the book up, and I started to read her story.
And what, as she explained the things her father had done to her, they were precisely what my dad had done to me. And I felt pain come roaring through my soul. Because you see, I had all that stuff neatly shut off behind closed doors, and I wasn't dealing with it.
And I threw the book across the room, and I said, I am not going to read this book. And I heard the Holy Ghost say, so sweetly, but so strongly, it's time. It's time.
And maybe God would speak that to some of you tonight, or some of you watching by TV, or listening by CD later on. It's time. It's time to stop going around and around and around the same mountains, blaming somebody else for all your problems, looking back at your past all the time with no positive vision for the future.
Let me tell you again, that no matter what has happened to you in your past, no matter what is going on in your life right now, it does not have the power to keep you from having a great life if you will have a positive vision for your future.
The second wrong mindset that they had that I'd like to deal with is, somebody else needs to do this for me. Today, we call it an entitlement mentality. Somebody else needs to take care of this mess that I've made. Somebody else needs to do this. Not me. Somebody else. It's called irresponsibility. And boy, do we have a mess with that in our world today.
It's time to take responsibility. You say, well, what happened to me wasn't my fault. No, it probably wasn't. What happened to me wasn't my fault. But what I do about it is my responsibility. And what you do about it is your responsibility. Come on now.
It was not my fault that my father sexually abused me. That was not my fault. That was not my responsibility. But it was my responsibility to take hold of the Word of God that I said I believed. And to quit whining and feeling sorry for myself and looking back at the past and having a bad attitude, that was my responsibility.
It wasn't just something that I had to expect somebody else to come along and miraculously do for me. I needed to start obeying God and do what He wanted me to do.
Many Called, Few Chosen—Why?
In Matthew 20:16, the Bible says, many are called and few are chosen. Many are called and few are chosen. I believe many people are called to do great, great, amazing things. I really think that the world should be amazed at Christians. I really do. I think that we should be the world's heroes.
People need heroes. They need somebody to look up to. They need somebody to admire, somebody to point them in the right direction. Every little kid loves to play superheroes. My two youngest grandsons have every superhero costume that you can possibly have. I now even have one so I can play superheroes with them. I have my own superhero cape. It has a big J on the back of it with a lightning bolt through it.
If we provided the world with an example of Jesus, they would be encouraged and given hope. Many are called, few are chosen. Many are called to do great things, but few do great things. Why? Because very few will take the responsibility for the call.
It doesn't end with a call. That's where the work starts. First comes the call, then comes the work, then comes the sacrifice, then comes the never giving up. Then comes the going all the way through.
A lot of people are called to do great things. But we have a wrong mindset. We have a wrong mentality about what God's asking us to do. Everybody has equal opportunity. Everybody has all of the power of God available to them, but not everybody is willing to do their part.
One of the things we cannot delegate, and I am a great delegator, but you cannot delegate personal responsibility. Amen?
Now, in Joshua chapter 1, verses 1 through 3... After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, who was Moses' minister, Moses, my servant, is dead.
Well, that's a very interesting statement, because if you really know what went on before this, it was like, why in the world would God say Moses is dead? Joshua well knew Moses was dead. They'd already been mourning Moses for 30 days.
So why come along and say Moses is dead? Because there was something inferred in the statement that is not made plain on the printed page. And what was inferred was it's now time for you to take new responsibility.
Because you see, Moses did everything for the Israelites. He even did their repenting. They didn't even repent of their own sins. When they would act dumb and sin, Moses would go get on his face and beg God not to kill him.
And I think that we need to realize tonight that perhaps some of the old ways that we have done things are dead. And this is a new day. And God's saying, it is now time to deal with stuff. It is now time to step up into a new level of responsibility. It is now time to stop putting things off till another more convenient time. Now is the time. Amen?
How many of you don't want to go around and around the same stupid mountain one more time? Alright, well if you don't want to go around it, there's only one thing left to do and that's go through it. The only way out is through. Did you hear me? The only way out is through.
Moses is dead. So now arise. That means get up and get going. So now arise, take his place, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, the Israelites.
And I love this. And every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread, that have I already given unto you. Wow. Does anybody see what that's saying? There is so much still out in front of me in my life that I see with the eye of faith, but I cannot possess it just standing on the border of the promised land, moaning and mourning about how difficult it is.
God's already paid for it with the blood of his son. It's already been bought and purchased. Now he said, you go in and take it. Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread, that have I already given unto you. Amen. Amen.
I can't just stand over here and say, well, somebody else do it for me. Can't I just pray this in? Oh man, we need to pray. But you know what happens a lot of times when you pray, God goes and shows you something to do. Uh-oh.
Let me say it again. Sometimes when you pray, God shows you something to do. So then we pray again, hoping we'll get another selection.
Well, God, why? I don't, what happened to my joy? God, I don't know why I'm so unhappy. And then all of a sudden, you remember that you really treated somebody bad. And God's saying, now you need to go apologize. You need to humble yourself and tell them you were wrong and make it right.
See, when you pray, God shows you things. The Bible says, look at the ant. Having no chief and no overseer, it still works hard and does what's right. I love people that will do what's right without anybody making them do what's right.
Can you manage yourself? Are you a self-starter? Are you somebody that will do what's right when nobody is looking? Or will you only do what's right and what you need to do when somebody's making you?
Outlasting the Devil Through Endurance
I had a brother like that, and I say, I had a brother because he's no longer with us. Ten years younger than me, my only sibling. Early in his life because of a lot of the things that we were going through. He joined the Marines when he was 17, was in the Vietnam War, got addicted to drugs and never really got all right in his life.
We tried and tried to help him. He even lived with Dave and I for a long time. And as long as I would get him up to go to work, he'd go to work. As long as I would tell him what to do, he'd do it. If we'd sit down and study the Bible with him, he'd study. But anytime he got on his own, he couldn't manage himself and he'd go right back to where he was at.
And sadly, very sadly, my brother, who could have been part of this, traveled the world, helped people all around the globe, ended up dying in an abandoned building in Los Angeles about three years ago, right around Christmas time.
Doesn't matter who your family is. Just because his sister was a TV preacher and an evangelist and helping people all over the world, that didn't count for him. He had to take his responsibility. You can't get by on secondhand faith. It doesn't matter what your mama believes. You've got to find out what you believe. Amen?
Somebody else can't do it for you. It's time for you to get some starch and stand up and say, I'm going to possess the land that Jesus died to give me. If anybody can have what Jesus died to give them, I'm going to have what Jesus died to give me.
There's so many wonderful things in the Word of God that teach us what God wants us to have. And you cannot have an attitude that somebody else needs to do it all for you.
The happiest people in the world are the most active people in the world. Honestly and truly, I don't know what kind of problems I got. I don't have time to think about them. I mean, if I wanted to sit down and figure it out, I could probably name you 10 right now, but I don't have time to mess with that.
God says he'll take care of things, so we pray about them. We cast our care on him and stay busy helping somebody else. And somehow or another, it just works itself out.
You know what's been an amazing thing to me? Sometimes when God will not anoint me to solve my own problem, I mean, I cannot help myself. There's not one thing I can do to help myself in a situation I'm in. He will anoint me to go help somebody else. I kind of think that it sounds like a God thing.
When you can't help yourself, you can go sow into somebody else's life and then God will bring a harvest in your life.
Life is just too hard. It's just too hard. Just too hard. I'm so tired of hearing people say that. It's just too hard to forgive. Please make everything easy for me, Lord. I just can't take it if things are too hard. It's not going to work.
Deuteronomy 30:11, For this commandment, which I command you this day, is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off. This commandment, which I command you, is not too hard for you.
Can you say tonight, anything that God asks me to do, I can do it? See, some of you wouldn't even bother to say it. Everybody say, anything God asks me to do, I can do it. Nothing's too hard with God. All things are possible with God.
But the devil whispers in your ear, tries to put a wrong thought in your mind. This is never going to change. This is not going to change. This has been going on 20 years. It ain't going to change. You might as well forget it. Nothing good's ever going to happen to you.
That's when you just need to say, I'm not giving up. Learn how to say, I am not giving up. You really have nothing else to do other than press on. What else are you going to do?
John Wesley, the wonderful, amazing John Wesley, that we hear so much about and admire. Here is an actual excerpt from his own diary.
Sunday, May the 5th AM. Preached in St. Ann's and was asked not to ever come back. Sunday PM, May the 5th. Preached at St. John's and the deacon said, get out and stay out.
Sunday, May the 12th in the AM. Preached at St. Jude's, can't go back there either. May the 19th, Sunday AM. Preached at another church. Deacons called a special meeting and said, I could never return.
Sunday PM, May the 19th. Preached on the street. Got kicked off the street. Sunday AM, May the 26th. Preached in a meadow. Chased out of the meadow by a bull who was turned loose during the service. Even the bull got after him.
Sunday AM, June the 2nd. Preached out on the edge of town and got kicked off the highway. Same day, June the 2nd, Sunday PM. In the afternoon, preached in a pasture. 10,000 people came out to hear me. Yes.
Why? Just because he said, I'm going to just keep preaching. You're not going to shut me up. You're not going to make me quit. But I tell you what, to endure. And the Bible does talk a lot about endurance. I believe means to outlast the devil.