Joyce Meyer - Ephesians 6 Bible Study [FULL] (08/21/2019)
As Paul wraps up Ephesians, he says it all boils down to this: be strong in the Lord, draw your strength from Him every single day, and put on the full armor of God to stand firm in the spiritual battle against the enemy. We've learned so much about who we are in Christ and how to behave, but without God's power and protection, we'll never make it—victory comes from leaning on Him completely and wielding the armor He supplies.
In Conclusion: Be Strong in the Lord
All right, now I'm getting ready to read verse 10, but I want to do a little synopsis first. Paul wrote this letter. He's coming to the end of it. We've only got 14 verses left, and you're going to have studied the entire book of Ephesians with me since Thursday night. And boy, we have had so many instructions in this book.
By now, a person could just be totally exhausted. It's a good thing we've got to get some sleep at night, right? I mean, we've been told to behave right, to talk right, to think right, to know who we are in Christ, to understand our righteousness. I mean, we've learned so many things, and I love this part.
Draw Your Strength from Him
Here's what Paul says. This is so good. "In conclusion, be strong in the Lord." In other words, you're not going to do any of this if you don't stay strong in the Lord. "Be empowered through your union with Him. Draw your strength from Him, that strength which His boundless might provides."
Let me tell you something. It is so super foolish to get out of bed and just try to behave. Let me tell you something. I can lay in bed and make all my plans for holiness, and they last until I put my feet on the floor, and that's the end of it.
We Need God's Help Every Day
So even though your heart is right or my heart is right, you still have to have a boatload of help from God, and you have to have it every single day of your life. I mean, I'm sure sometimes I sound like I've got something wrong with me. There's no telling how many times every day I say, "God, help me. Help me, God, help me."
And I'm not even real sure what I need help with at that moment. It could be putting my contact lens in. It could be combing my hair. It could be getting up to preach. All I know is I am useless without Him. I can do nothing apart from Him. And I need God's help in everything that I do. Amen?
Let God Into Every Room
Now you see, this is what keeps a lot of people from entering into a real full-on relationship with God—because they don't want to depend on God that much. They want to have enough of God to stay out of hell but not enough to walk in victory.
And if you want to really have the kind of relationship with God that Jesus died for you to have, then you've got to let Him into every room in your life. No blocked-off rooms. I mean, He gets to get in everything. He gets in your thoughts. He gets in your words. He gets in your sex life. He gets in how you dress. He gets in your money. He gets in your choices. He gets in your friends.
The Trade-Off Is Worth It
But I tell you, the trade-off is amazing. Yeah, it's a little hard in the beginning, but I'll tell you, it's not really that hard anymore. Once you understand that you're just not going to be happy if you don't do what God tells you to do—that things are just not going to work out right if you don't do what God tells you to do—has anybody learned that yet?
You are not going to be happy if you don't do what God tells you to do. And you know what? To be honest, I'm pretty good at reading people at this point, and I can see—I can see—I still got some people out there. You've got your arms crossed, and you have dug in.
Learning to Depend on God in Little Things
Well, I get it. You know what? There's so many things that God has taught me over the years, and a lot of them are just little things. He used little examples to teach me how to depend on Him in everything.
I mean, I remember the first time I was bowling and wasn't bowling very good. And it was after I had really gotten a more serious relationship with God, and He was teaching me this thing about leaning on Him all the time. And I felt like the Lord said, "Well, if you want to bowl better, why don't you ask Me to help you?" And I thought, "Well, that's stupid. Nobody's going to ask God to help them bowl."
Our Independent Attitude
Not being able to get my hair to do what I wanted to. "Well, why don't you ask Me to help you?" I am a grown woman. I'm not going to ask You to help me comb my hair.
You see, our problem is we've got this independent, "I do it myself" attitude. Come on, if you've got kids, you know how it is. They get to be about two: "I do it myself. I do it myself. I do it myself." And sometimes—now listen—the only thing you can do is just let them go try to do it themselves, and then they'll come back. And that's the way we are with the Lord.
Get Ready for a Fight
Let Him into every room in your life. Is anybody understanding what I'm saying? "In conclusion." Don't you love that? I never really understood the importance of those two words "in conclusion" until I taught this whole thing. And then I get here and He says, "In conclusion, be strong in the Lord." And I'm like, "Well, for crying out loud, I guess we need strength if we're going to pull all that off." Amen.
Ephesians 3:16: "May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality."
Strengthened in the Inner Man
Paul said, "I pray that you would be strengthened with all might and power in the inner man so you can get out there and have a spirit-filled personality and behave the way that you ought to behave out in the world." You can't do it without God's strength.
And then Isaiah 40:31: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and they shall not faint." We can't do it without help from God.
Well, then the very next thing that happens here is He starts telling us, "Get ready for a war." Yeah, get ready for a war.
God Supplies the Armor
Here's how much God loves you. Here's how I want you to behave. You're going to need to be strong in the Lord to do it. Now get ready for a fight. This is so good. It just lays the whole thing out and shows us the whole plan, and we have better understanding.
"Put on God's whole armor." Get ready for a fight. If you—you know, on Thursday night—or I think it was Thursday night—we had about 85% of the people in here stand up saying they wanted a deeper, full-on relationship with God and they were willing to turn away from things that were separating them from God.
Well, you think the devil just rolled out a red carpet and said, "Oh, yay. Yay, yay, let me help you"? No. Opposition.
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
You have to be willing to fight the good fight of faith and say, "Devil, I don't care what you do. I made a commitment to God, and with His help, I'm going to go all the way through with God. All the way through with God."
I'm not going to tell you it's going to be easy. I will tell you that it will get easier. But there's a fight in the beginning. Anytime that you're going to make progress, the enemy is going to oppose you. Amen.
"Put on God's whole armor, the armor of a heavy-armed soldier, which God supplies." Thank God He gives us everything we need to fight the fight.
We Wrestle Against Spiritual Forces
"That you might be able successfully to stand up against all the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only with physical opponents, but we are wrestling with powers, master spirits who are world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural sphere."
In other words, there are little demons filling the atmosphere that we can't see, and they hate Christians. They hate everything that's good, and they oppose it and come against it. But guess what? Well, we have more power than they do.
Jesus Stripped Satan of Authority
Jesus stripped Satan of his authority. The devil still has power, but he really doesn't have any authority unless we give it to him—doing things like getting angry and staying angry, which the Bible says opens a door for the devil. Remember Ephesians 4? "Don't go to bed mad." Come on, behavior. Don't go to bed mad.
We can't fight the devil if we're going to throw doors wide open for him and invite him in. So we start by doing our best to do what we believe God has asked us to do, knowing He's going to forgive us for our mistakes, knowing He's going to help us, leaning and relying on Him.
Wear the Devil Out
But we just keep it up and keep it up and keep it up and keep it up and keep it up and keep it up until we finally wear him out. Don't let the devil wear you out. You be persistent and wear him out.
"Therefore," verse 13, "put on God's complete armor." Put it on. Now you're going to see here in just a few minutes what I'm talking about. I can't think of a greater way to end this series of teachings than talking about the armor of God and how we will put it on. We will be protected from the assaults of the enemy.
Put On the Armor on Purpose
"Put on" is an action word. It's something you do on purpose. It's not something you wait to feel like doing. You do it on purpose. I have to put my clothes on in the morning. I don't go in the closet and say, "I'd like to wear that," and it jumps on my body. I have to choose it and put it on on purpose.
"Put on God's complete armor that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day of danger and, having done all the crisis demands, now you are to stand firmly in your place."
So you do what God asked you to do, and He will do what you cannot do.
Do Your Part in the Crisis
There are things that we can do. I'll give you a couple of examples. I really felt like I needed an increase in energy. I worked pretty hard, and I felt like I needed an increase in energy. To be honest with you, I don't want to just give all you guys all my energy and then have nothing left for anything else.
So I started praying for more energy in January of 2015. And what God gave me was a desire to start walking and add that to my already full exercise regime—at least I thought it was. And I cannot believe how much energy that has added to my life.
Pray and Do What God Shows You
Now, I walked quite a long way, and I'm not going to try to impress you with what I'm doing, nor am I trying to get you to do what I'm doing. But I'm just saying that a lot of times you'll pray for something, but then you're not willing to do your part.
It says, "Do everything the crisis demands." Whatever's going on in your life, ask God if there's something you can do. And if there is, then do that part and then wait patiently and abide in Him, waiting for Him to do the part that you cannot do.
Guard Your Spiritual Clothes
"Put on God's complete armor." Now then He starts going into these pieces of armor. Before I get to that, I want to read you a scripture out of Revelation. In Revelation 16:15, it says, "Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed, happy to be envied, is he who stays awake, alert, and who guards his clothes."
Now, what kind of a... what is that saying? He's not saying I need to stay up at night and get a shotgun and go sit in my closet and guard my clothes. You know what God is telling us? He's talking about spiritual clothing.
Tighten the Belt of Truth
And you're going to see what they are. They're righteousness, peace, faith, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation. And let me tell you something—when we put our spiritual armor on, Satan can see that we've got it on or that we've got it off.
And that means where the Bible says, "Tighten the belt of truth." Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to tighten the belt of truth? It literally means that when you are going through a trial or you're having some kind of a difficulty in your life, man, that's when you need to hang on to the Word that you have more than any other time in your life—because that is the truth. The truth is the Word of God.
Hold On to God's Promises
And so when you've had a loss in your life, that's when you need to believe that God will give it back to you multiplied many times over. When your kids are in trouble, that's when you need to believe that if you have trained them up in the way that they should go, when they're old, they will not depart from it.
Come on. If you've been faithful in giving and now you've got a financial need, that's when you don't go with your emotions and start saying, "Well, this giving thing doesn't work." That's when you hold on to the belt of truth and you say, "God is faithful, and He will meet my need." Amen. Amen.
The Breastplate of Righteousness
Well, the enemy will come against us, but if we open our mouth and let him know that we know the truth, then he begins to back down. But if we just get in our emotions and start going with how we feel and saying a bunch of stupid stuff out of our mouth that doesn't agree with the Word of God, then it's a problem.
Then He says, "Put on the breastplate of righteousness." The breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness—a breastplate covers your heart. It's talking about your conscience, how you feel about yourself, how you feel in your relationship with God.
Don't Live in Guilt and Condemnation
You know what? You're not going to defeat the devil if you're full of guilt and condemnation all the time—if you go around feeling bad about yourself and all you do is think about all your failures and everything that you've done wrong in life.
You know, the Word of God says that we should look away from all that distracts unto Jesus. You know, staring at what's wrong all the time can distract you from your walk with God.
God knew what you were going to do wrong before you ever got into a relationship with Him, and He's not at all shocked or surprised. And not only that, He already knows all the things I'm going to do wrong that I haven't even done wrong yet. Amen. And He still loves us. Amen.
Know Who You Are in Christ
Righteousness. Do you know who you are in Christ? That was the first three chapters—knowing who you are in Christ, knowing that God loves you unconditionally. So now we're all the way at the end of the letter, and Paul's saying again, "Now look, you're going to have to fight a fight."
So what happens if I'm trying to behave well and I just have a total flesh day? That ever happen to you? You just have a total flesh day? You've laid in bed and planned to be holy? You've gotten up and prayed to be holy?
Put On Righteousness After Failure
You know, I used to say—and it was actually the truth—I could get along with everybody until somebody came home. Man, I just was so sweet if the house was empty and there was nobody there but me—it was good. But when the people came in, that's when it got a little bit testy.
Okay, so now what happens if I'm reading Ephesians, I'm trying to do this behavior thing well, and I just have a total flesh day? I mean, I'm mad at everybody. I'm selfish, I'm self-centered. I have just a regular female fit. I mean, I'm a mess.
Well, then the next thing that's going to happen is the devil is going to come at me with condemnation. Come on now. Now this is when you need to put on righteousness.
Reinitiate Your Faith
The Bible says that you can put it on like a robe. Job said, "I clothed myself with righteousness," or "it clothed me." The Bible says that Gideon was clothed with the Spirit of God. The Bible says, "Put on Christ. Put off the old man. Put on the new man. Put on love. Put on mercy."
See, we can put these things on—just like I go and decide to put my clothes on, I can put on things of the Spirit. And that doesn't mean that I have to feel that way. I may not feel righteous, but I can put on my righteousness by actually reinitiating my faith in what God has said to me of who I am in Him.
You Are Right With God Because of Jesus
And I say, "Yes, I had a bad day. I'm sorry, Lord. I should not have acted the way that I acted today." And maybe I even need to go and apologize to somebody else, so I do that too. And that's where you have to say, "But devil, I do not receive your guilt and your condemnation because I am the righteousness of God in Christ." Amen.
And you may have to do that every day of your life. But the good news is you're not right with God because of right behavior. You're right with God because of what Jesus has done for you. And you're so excited about what Jesus has done for you that that makes you want to behave right. Isn't that good?
God's Love Is Unchanging
Don't get it upside down. Don't spend your life trying to behave right so you can get God to love you. He already loves you. Matter of fact, God's never going to love you any more than He does at this moment right now.
Yeah, every time I say that to a crowd, I get just about what I got here—like... He's not. He's not. You know what that's from? Because we still have that little bit of mentality: "Well, surely if I behave better, God will love me more." No. Love is not something God does. It's who He is. God is love. And love just is what it is. And so God just loves you.
Jesus Is Coming Soon
And I'm telling you, He's never going to love you any more than He does right at this moment. But you can love Him more. We can continue to grow in our love for Him. And the more we grow to love Him, the more we're going to want to obey Him. And the easier it's going to be. Isn't this so good? It just gets easier and easier and easier.
Jesus is coming soon. Amen. The Lord is near. Let's make sure that we know what's important.
Focus on Eternal Things
How many of you are giving way too much of your time to something that's not important at all? Well, you're the only one that can change it. Amen.
Everything that we see is already in the process of decay and on its way out. Don't ignore your family working two and three jobs just trying to make money so you can have a bigger house. All you got to do is go drive to a neighborhood where the houses are about 75 years old, and you'll see that yours is in the process of decay the day you move into it.
Go drive by a junkyard. Take a look at all the piles of junk in there and then just tell yourself, "Somebody gave up their life to get this. Somebody lost their family to get this." And now all it is is a pile of junk somewhere.
Spend Time with God
But there are things that endure forever, and those are the things we need to give ourselves to—things that are here for eternity. Spend time with God. You don't have time not to spend time with God.
Well, what do I do when I spend time with God? Do whatever you want to. Pray, laugh, cry, listen to music, dance, run around the room, look out the window, lay on your face—but just say, "God, this is my time with You. I have set this. I'm separating myself from the world, and this is my time with You." And then you sit down and talk to Him. And also learn to listen.
Questions and Answers on Ephesians
All right, are you ready to go? Oh, I'm ready—so ready. Got some good ones for you. Okay, I bet you do. These are all your questions, Winston-Salem. So I was out there—some of my friends were out there—and getting your questions for Joyce as she's been teaching on Ephesians, which is all about behavior. So there's a lot of questions from all of us.
Best Way to Study the Bible
The first one is about Bible study more in general. Lori from Kannapolis, North Carolina, says, "You've been teaching Ephesians by looking at it chapter by chapter. You've also talked about topics like relationship with God and our behavior. So what's the best way to approach Bible study—to look at topics or to take it verse by verse?"
I think either one is okay. I suggest you be led by the Spirit. For a long, long, long time, I did a little bit of both. I would read some things out of the Bible every day—Psalms, Proverbs, different things like that. But for a long time in my life—and I still do this a lot—I studied topically, and I began 40 years ago studying what I was having a problem with.
Study What You Need
In other words, if you've got a bad temper, you don't really need to study success. Amen? Because it's not coming. Yeah, because it's not coming.
And honestly, I think that the Word of God is just like medicine. Matter of fact, the Isaac Leeser translation—which I don't... he lived a long time ago but said some good things—He said of Exodus 15:26, "I am the Lord, your physician; your medicine is My Word." And I love that.
And so I tell people, you know, if you've got a headache, you don't stick a Band-Aid on your head. You take an aspirin. And if you cut yourself, you don't go put a Tylenol in it. You use a Band-Aid. We've got enough sense to know how to apply physical, natural medicine, and you can apply the Word of God the exact same way.
Why Is Change So Hard?
If you get up some morning and you just feel like you're going to quit and give up, then go get yourself a bunch of scriptures that talk about keeping on, keeping on, and not being weary in well-doing—and you look at them and you read them out loud, and you do it until the devil stops aggravating you and you can go ahead and do what God wants you to do.
Good, thank you. Teresa from Clemens, North Carolina, asks, "Why is it so hard to change our behavior yet so easy to slide back into bad behavior?"
Well, here's the long and the short answer. To be honest, we live way too much by how we feel and not enough by decision.
We Do What We Really Want
I mean, your will is the strongest part of your soul. And I can tell you that I believe this—I believe that people do what they really want to do. I mean, you're not going to like this, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you really, really, really want to exercise, you'll find a way to do it.
I mean, that's just one example. If you really, truly, really want to get out of debt, then you'll stop spending money you don't need to spend, and you'll take as long as it takes, and you'll pay on those bills and pay on them and pay on them and pay on them until you have freedom over here on this end.
But nobody can have everything they want and keep everything they've got. Nobody gets to do it all.
Follow the Narrow Path
And if you learn how to—yeah, we all have feelings, and some of them are good and some of them aren't. But I think if you really think about it, our feelings, our emotions probably are the biggest culprit that keep us from doing what's right.
And that's why it's so easy to slide back into doing what's wrong—because it's easy. That's why it's easy to do what's wrong—because it's easy. You stay on the narrow path that leads away to life. There's not a lot of room for fleshly behavior. You get on that broad path that leads to destruction, and it's easy to be on that path, but it makes us so miserable later on.
Be an Investor in Right Choices
So be a person who is an investor. Do the right thing up front, and you'll get a great result over here. And let me say in Ephesians the pattern is clear: First you develop a great relationship with God. You know who you are in Him. You love Him. You let Him love you. You're not trying to have good behavior to get God to love you. You want to have good behavior because you love Him.
Even being thankful helps you have good behavior. The more you're thankful for what God has already done in your life, the harder it is to disobey Him. And just keep on keeping on. If you're not where you want to be yet, keep growing.
Walking Worthy of Your Calling
All right. Amy from Richmond, Virginia, says, "Ephesians 4:1 says to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. How do I do that when I sometimes feel so very unworthy of the responsibility that God has given me, asking questions like why didn't God choose someone else more worthy than I am?"
Well, good news: God didn't pick you because you're qualified or worthy. He picked you because you were available. You said yes.
God doesn't choose people with ability. He chooses people that make themselves available. "Here I am, God; send me."
God Chooses Available Vessels
And you know what? I would be the last person in the world in the natural that should be doing what I'm doing—especially on the broad scale that God is letting me do it. I mean, it's like I still shake my head.
But I remember when I was still in a denominational church—I loved God, I wasn't learning much, but I loved God so much—and I remember they had Mission Sunday once a year. Once a year they talked about missions, and we always sang this hymn, "Here am I; send me, send me." And I remember when I would sing that song how I felt in my heart. And I meant it when I said to God, "Here I am. Send me, send me."
And look where we're at today. So you just better be careful what you say to God. Because when you say, "Use me," the only thing that you've got to understand is if you say, "Use me," then He's got to do a little work in you before He can do some work through you. Amen?
Breaking Cycles of Wrong Patterns
So always remember, God doesn't call you because you're worth it, because you're qualified, because you're smart, because you even know what you're doing. God calls you because you're an available vessel that loves Him. And that's all He requires. That's beautiful.
This is a question that really came from a lot of different people. And as I was out in the crowd, I really realized that talking about behavior, there are many people who just feel desperation. And you've answered this in different ways, but I just want to encourage the many people who feel so trapped in a cycle of doing the same wrong patterns over and over and over—how do they break out of that cycle?
Seek the Holy Spirit's Counsel
Well, you know, you always have the option—if you really feel like God's leading you that way—to get some professional counseling. However, I would caution you not to live on counseling your whole life. Make it a temporary thing to get some help, to get some direction. But always let the Holy Spirit be the counselor in your life.
And in Psalm 1 it says, "Don't take advice from the ungodly." So don't go find somebody that's ungodly. I mean, I had one counselor tell me—a psychologist—that this was before you really got to know the Lord. And she was watching me on television, and she was trying to counsel all these people. And she said, "I finally just realized I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I started giving everybody your books when they come in for counseling."
So you want to make sure that you go to somebody that actually knows what they're doing. However, I had a boatload full of problems, and I never went for any kind of professional counseling, and I don't think that you have to do that.
Soak in God's Presence
But if you find yourself in the same trap, doing the same thing over and over and over and over, I'm going to say something that's going to sound really weird: Just give up trying for a little bit and just go back to just soaking in the presence of God—just spending time with Him, just letting Him love on you, letting Him strengthen you.
Being a Christian is not about behavior modification totally. That is part of it. But first you have to spend time with God. And I really believe—I mean, I am so sure because of what I've seen in my own life and what I've seen with other people—if you are not going to hang out with God on a regular basis and spend time in the Word of God, you are going to struggle your whole life, especially if you've got some real strong issues or some addictions in your life.
Continue in the Word for Freedom
But either God's Word is true or it's not true. And it says that if you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples indeed, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Amen? Amen?
So don't get caught in the trap of just trying to change yourself, trying to change yourself, trying to change yourself, trying to change yourself. I remember when I first got a revelation on the grace of God. Grace is not only God's undeserved favor but it's God's power coming to you, helping you to be what God wants you to be.
And you dare not leave Him out of the loop. Trying won't get it. You have to believe that only God can do the work in you that needs to be done, and you dare not step out one more day trying to have good behavior without praying and seeking God and asking Him all throughout the day to help you and to strengthen you. Amen? Amen.
Thank you very much. And thank you for your questions.
We Are Soldiers in God's Army
We're in a spiritual battle. We are soldiers in God's army. God supplies us with all the armor that we need to be victorious in our life, but we must put it on.
Tighten the belt of truth when you're in battle. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. Wear your shoes of peace. Anybody here need a new pair of shoes? And I'm not talking about leather shoes either.
You know, shoes are for walking. That means we walk in peace. We stay in peace.
Jesus Left Us His Peace
You say, "Well, I just wish I had some peace." Well, John 14:27—Jesus said, "My peace I leave with you. Not as the world gives do I give unto you, but My own special peace I now give and bequeath unto you." And then it says this in the Amplified Bible: "Stop allowing yourselves to be upset and disturbed. And don't permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled."
So we have peace. We have to stop getting upset about all these things that don't make any difference. We pray. We trust God. It may not all happen exactly when we want it to.
Let me say again what I say often: Enjoy where you're at on the way to where you're going. Don't not enjoy your life because you're not where you'd like to be. And not only that, enjoy yourself where you're at.
Enjoy Yourself
You have not reached the place of perfection yet, but enjoy yourself. I'm so glad that I learned about 20 years ago to enjoy myself—myself, me. I like me. It makes the devil mad if you like yourself. He doesn't want you to like yourself. If you don't like yourself, you're in for a hard ride because you're never going to get away from yourself—not for a second.
"And having shod your feet in preparation," verse 15, "to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news of the gospel of peace."
Love Stable People
I tell you what—I love, love, love, love, love to hang around with stable people. I love people that are the same no matter what's going on in their life—where they're not just up and down and up and down and up and down. And every time you get together with them, all you can do is hear about their problems again and again and again and again.
And it's not that we can't share with each other—we need to be there for one another and let people share and have compassion. But don't let your problems be the main focus of your life.
You know what? And I don't want to be discouraging—when you get rid of the one you've got, it probably won't be long; you'll get another one. So if we're going to make our problems the focus of our life, then we're never going to really see anything else around us.
Keep Growing in the Word
And I know somebody's sitting out there saying, "But you don't know what I'm going through. And you don't know how hard it is. And you don't know." Yeah, I do know. I do know. I didn't just go make all these messages up. I've had to live this out in my life.
We are fighting a very, very, very real enemy. The belt of truth—if you don't like where you're at as far as knowing the Word, then keep growing. If you still experience way too much guilt and condemnation and you really have not yet learned how to put on righteousness, keep growing.
Don't feel bad about yourself. Don't condemn. Just keep growing. You know, that's the great thing about God—I can always just keep growing. I can always shake off the things behind and press on to the things that are ahead.
The Shield of Faith
Do you study God's Word? The shield of faith. Wow. God has given us faith—"Unto every man has given the measure of faith." Everybody say, "I've got all the faith I need."
You know, let's learn to live by faith. Let faith be mixed with every single thing that you do. You know, I got up here in faith this morning to bring you the Word. And when I leave, the first lie the devil tells me about "It wasn't any good" or "Nobody listened" or whatever, then I'm going to say, "You're wrong. I know it was good." I walk by faith. Amen.
Release Your Faith
And when you go home and you've got all these things to do that you didn't get to do because you were here, the devil's going to say, "Well, that didn't do you any good." You're going to say, "You're a liar. I got so much—I don't even know what all's in there." And you know what you did? There are things that you have heard this weekend that you would not remember even right now, but when you need them, they're going to come out at just the right time and help you.
I love what the Bible says—it says, "Lift up the shield of faith." Lift it up. See, faith is something that God's given us, but it has to be released in our lives. And you know how you release faith? Through praying, through saying, and through doing. Those are three of the ways that you can release your faith.
The Helmet of Salvation
You can open your mouth and you can say, "I trust God. God is going to meet my need. I'm not where I need to be, but thank God I'm not where I used to be. I'm growing."
The helmet of salvation. Here we go. Think like a Christian. We have been given the mind of Christ. God has given us a right mind to think with. It's the mind of the Spirit.
In Romans it says that we have two minds—a mind of the flesh and a mind of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit. Don't live in your head. Think with the mind of the Spirit. Think according to what you believe God would think—not according to what reasoning tells you.
Believe for Better Things
It's unreasonable for me to have thought that I could do what I'm doing, but I thought with the mind of the Spirit. And I believed that God could do something better for me than what I'd had all of my life before.
How many of you can believe today that you've got better things in your future? Well, actually, you can't ever have it if you don't believe it.
Don't be a garbage dump for the devil's negative thoughts all the time. I love Psalm 27:13—I love this scripture. David said, "What would have become of me had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living?"
The Sword of the Spirit
What in the world will happen to me if I don't think and believe that something good is going to happen to me? And I'm trying to get people to say 20 times every day, "Something good is going to happen to me. Something good is going to happen through me."
And then the sword of the Spirit. The Bible says to wield the sword of the Spirit, and that is the Word of God. My gosh, there's so much power in His Word.
Just listen to Hebrews 4:12: "For the word that God speaks is alive and full of power, making it active, operative, energizing, and effective. It is sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrates to the dividing line of the breath of life and the soul, the immortal spirit. It exposes the deepest parts of our nature—exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of our heart."
Speak the Word Out Loud
You know what happens when you hear the Word? Man, it gets down in there and shows you stuff that you wouldn't even have ever believed that was there. How many of you know the Word can operate on you?
I always say the worship is like the anesthesia—kind of put you in a half-comatose state so I can come in with the Word and try to cut out some of the junk. Well, it's the truth, isn't it? The Word of God operates on us.
Read the Word. Love the Word. Receive the Word. Study the Word. Do the Word. Speak the Word of God out of your mouth.
Every day of my life I speak the Word out loud. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many scriptures I just confess out loud every day—just while I'm doing things and getting ready and taking a shower and doing my hair and whatever.
Meditate on the Word Day and Night
And you know, that was something that I was a Christian for many, many years and I never did that. And it may be a whole new thought to a bunch of you today. You might think, "Just stand around in my house and speak the Word." Why should I do that?
Because it's, first of all, it keeps your mind renewed. It encourages you. It runs the devil off because it is the sword of the Spirit. And we're talking about doing warfare here and having armor.
You say, "Well, what kind of things do you say?" Oh, I take my walk in the morning and I'll say, "Everything I lay my hand to prospers and succeeds. I'm the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. I lend to many nations, but I never have to borrow."
Then maybe my phone rings and I answer the phone, talk to my daughter for a while. Then I'll walk a little bit more and say, "Wow, I give and it is given unto me—good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. All my needs are met according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." On and on and on.
Talk Back to the Devil
The Bible says, "Let him who has My word speak My word faithfully." How many of you spend time on a regular basis just speaking the Word of God out loud? Oh boy, I'm glad I'm talking about this because that was about 30 of you.
Okay, I got to sit down. We got to chat. I mean, I am so serious. This is one of the most important things that you can do. It's part of meditating on the Word of God. And the Bible teaches us in Joshua 1, "Meditate on the word of God day and night that you might observe and do according to all that's written therein. Then you shall make your way prosperous, deal wisely, and have good success."
I might feel kind of silly just walking around in my house talking to myself. Oh, nonsense. You talk to yourself all the time anyway. It's just time to say something that's worth listening to.
Instead of walking around in my house saying, "I'm so sick and tired of this place—stupid, stupid. These kids—all they do is leave junk all over the house. And everybody—I just do all the work all the time, and everybody else is not having a good time." Don't tell me you don't talk out loud. You talk to yourself.
It's time to say stuff like, "God loves me. Oh, God loves me. And He has got a good plan for my life. And I've got authority over the devil, and he's not going to run my life anymore." Come on. Come on.
If you think I'm just a fruit loop up here, go and read Luke chapter 4. Remember, the devil said to Jesus, and Jesus said to the devil, "It is written," and He quoted the Word. You better learn how to talk back to the devil. Wield that two-edged sword. Get it out and use it. Amen.
Cover Everything with Prayer
And last, cover everything over with prayer. Pray about everything—all kinds of prayer, in every place, in every situation.
You know what? The Bible says you have not because you ask not. Start asking. God's not going to get mad at you for asking. The worst thing that can happen is it's not God's will and you won't get it. But one thing is for sure—if you ask for nothing, you're likely to get all of it. Amen.
So if you ask for a lot, even if you get half of it, it's better than the nothing you've been getting. And more than anything, ask God, "Help me with this, Lord. Help me. Help me, help me, help me." Because apart from You, I can do nothing.