Joyce Meyer - The Cure For The Insecure

TOPICS: Confidence

This morning, I want to talk to you about the cure for the insecure, because we have an epidemic of insecure people in the world today that are wearing masks and putting on phony personalities and trying to do things they don't even want to do, that they're not equipped to do, that they're not gifted to do, trying to be like somebody else that they think they ought to be like, being hurt and wounded all the time, every time everybody doesn't applaud for them. And I can tell you, Jesus died so we don't have to be insecure. We can be secure in him. We can know that even though somebody else may reject us, that God never rejects us. He never rejects us. We are made acceptable in the beloved, according to Ephesians 2:6.

So if you've wondered about whether or not God accepts you, he'll never accept you based on your good works, but you are made acceptable through your faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 14:17: I want to talk to you a lot today about righteousness. What does it mean to be given the righteousness of God through your faith in Jesus Christ, a most amazing thing. "After all the Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting the food and the drink that one likes, but instead it is righteousness (that state which makes a man, a person acceptable to God) and heart peace and joy in the Holy Ghost".

So the Kingdom of God, this kingdom that God is offering us to live in, which by the way, is an invisible kingdom, but nonetheless a kingdom and he is the king over that kingdom. It's not about us getting everything that we want. This scriptures refers to it as food and drink, but I'm gonna amplify it a little bit and just say that although God wants to bless us, he has not called us into a relationship with him just so he can give us everything we want, and many times we're asking for things that really would be the absolute worst thing for us, but we don't even know it. We wonder why God's holding out, and we need to just thank God that he's wise enough to only give us what he wants us to have, and not everything that we demand.

You remember the prodigal son? He asked for his inheritance and the father gave it to him, and actually way down the road it turned out to be a blessing, but initially he found out that that really wasn't the thing that he needed or wanted because he wasted it all anyway. He wanted his inheritance, but he didn't have the maturity to know how to handle it. And so there are a lot of things that God has, let's say, in the bank for you and for me, things that have been bought and paid for by Christ. It may be a higher position in your company. It may be being able to exercise your gift or talent on a broader level. It could be any number of things. It may be more finances for you. It may be a position of power for you. God wants us to have the best of the best. We are his children and he wants us to have the best. Why would he want all the sinners to have the good stuff while we grovel around in the dirt eating scraps?

Some of you kind of think it might maybe a good idea, but you're not sure. Well, I think that's because for so long, we've just felt we don't deserve anything and, you know, that serving God is all about doing without everything. So I'm just here to tell you, God wants you to be blessed, but he wants something else that's even more important, and we need to have these other things really before we even get all the so-called natural or material blessings. So the Kingdom of God is not about me getting everything that I want. It's not about having the right label in my clothes or driving the right car or living in a big house or having the right position or the right friends.

The Kingdom of God is... the greatest benefit of the kingdom is righteousness, knowing who you are in Christ, having peace with yourself, not going around under condemnation all the time. Just, "God is not mad at me. He loves me, even though I'm a rascal sometimes. I'm forgiven, completely forgiven. Every day is a brand-new day, a brand-new start. God's mercy is new every day and I like myself". It's peace and joy, righteousness, peace, and joy. Now, we might say that the stuff are like kingdom benefits, but the kingdom is not things. The kingdom is knowing who you are in Christ, having the peace that passes understanding, having the peace of not having a guilty conscience, and joy unspeakable, and enjoying your everyday life. Jesus said that he came that we "Might have and enjoy our lives, and have it in abundance, to the full, until it overflows".

So after spending many years as a Christian, I mean, I received Christ when I was 9 years old, and so I've been born again a long time, but I went through a lot of years of not even knowing or understanding what had even happened to me. I went to church with some relatives that we were visiting, and I went wanting to be saved. And the pastor didn't have an altar call that night, and I was so disappointed, but I had two of my cousins with me. They were there with me and I grabbed them by the hand and I said, "Let's go. We're gonna go down and get saved". So I kind of laugh about that, because I was telling other people what to do a long time ago. And I went to the pastor and I had tears streaming down my face, and I said, "Can you save me"? And so I received Christ.

I mean, I had a cleansing of my soul. Not knowing anything, though, the next day I cheated in a game of hide-and-go-seek, and I thought I lost my salvation. And it's kind of a funny story, but isn't that really what happens to us a lot of times? You know, we get a new beginning with Christ and then we do something wrong and think, "Oh, I've lost it". So then, you know, we think we need to recommit and rededicate and redo it all over again and, you know, get saved again. And really, even though you're born again, you're going to make mistakes. You're gonna cheat in a game of hide-and-go-seek, so to speak, once in a while in your life, because although we're dead to sin, that new part of us, that born-again part of us, wants nothing to do with sin.

Romans 6:23 says you are dead to sin. Sin is not dead. Sin is still alive and well on planet earth. And the devil right there, when I was a 9-year-old child and I had my head against my grandma's white-boarded house, and my cousins were off hiding, and that old devil tempted me to peek. And of course, I didn't know anything about resisting temptation, so I peeked and I really thought I lost my salvation. So from then until I was, like, in my 20s, it's amazing how the devil can lie to us and steal from us things that really we haven't lost, but if we believe we've lost them, then that's our reality.

And I wonder how many people sit here, how many are watching by tv, and maybe you one time had a good relationship with God, and then you made some kind of a big mistake, and the devil said, "That's it. God doesn't want anything to do with you now. He's mad at you. Forget you. You can never come back". Well, the devil is a liar, and don't let him do to you what he did to me, and cheat you out of 10 or 15 or 20 years of your life before you wake up and realize that it was a lie and a deception, and that God has loved you all the time. He never stopped loving you one iota.

And just the very fact that you have this program on right now, watching by TV, or you've put this CD in your CD player, or you happen to be one of the people who decided to come here today, or maybe somebody drove you here today and you weren't even really sure that you wanted to come. Let me tell you something, God is trying to speak a word to you today that he cares about you. God has got a good plan for your life. It doesn't really matter where you came from. The only thing that matters is where you're headed. Come on, we've all got a past. The devil reminds us that we've got a past, but I'm here today to tell you that you've got a future. We've all also got a future, and don't ever discount yourself.

And so, when I married Dave and he asked me if I would go to church with him, of course I was glad to do that. I wanted to go to church, and I spent a good number of years then being a religious person. And I know that I was born again but I didn't really know anything about the importance of having a relationship with God. Then when I learned about faith and how I could believe God for things, I mean, I was believing God for every "thing" you could imagine. I mean, everything from a bigger house to a promotion to a fur coat to on and on and on. I mean, dumb stuff. Last thing in the world I needed: I needed some character. I needed some maturity. I needed to grow in God. I needed the fruit of the spirit, and all I was doing was asking God to give me a bunch of stuff.

And then I learned about Romans 14:17. The Kingdom of God is not about that stuff. Just put a hold on stuff for a while. You don't even like yourself. You don't know who you are in Christ. I was going around all the time thinking God was mad at me. I had such a guilt complex. I mean, I drug my sack of guilt with me everywhere I went. I took it to church. I took it to the grocery store. I took it everywhere. I went to bed with it. I got up with it in the morning. I didn't feel right if I didn't feel wrong. I don't know if anybody here has got a case as bad as I did, but I'm telling you, when I did start getting a little bit of peace, I thought, "Something's gotta be wrong with this. This ain't right. I should feel bad about something".

And I know a lot of it came from being abused by my dad in my childhood sexually, and I just always thought there was something wrong with me. And when you have that record playing in your head long enough, "What's wrong with me, what's wrong with me, what's wrong with me, what's wrong with me". Does anybody ever hear that? "What's wrong with me, what's wrong with me, what's wrong with me," then sometimes it takes God a few years of working with us to get our mind renewed enough to realize that when God says, "I've made you a new creature through your faith in Christ," that you are a new creature and that all things do pass away and all things do become brand new.

And so I went on a journey 'cause I didn't have any righteousness. I felt guilty all the time. I sure didn't have any peace, and anybody that was around me, I wasn't giving them much peace either. How many of you know if you're not peaceful that you can affect a whole lot of other people around you, if they let you. The only one I didn't really affect much was Dave, 'cause he didn't let me make him unhappy. And of course, I didn't have any joy and I was not enjoying my life.

And so I decided that I was gonna lay aside the wrong pursuits and really start going after what God wanted me to go after, and I went on a journey to really learn who I was in Christ. And I'd like to be able to tell you that I had a bunch of people teaching me this stuff, like I'm trying to teach you this weekend, but I didn't. I had to dig it out for myself, so it took me a lot longer than maybe it will have to take you. And I thank God now for what I know, and I tell you, every time that you learn a little bit of truth, you need to thank God for that truth that you've got, because it is a truth that sets you free. And I'm trying to share a lot of truth here with you this weekend. I'm not just sermonizing. This is not hype. This is not some kind of a Holy Ghost cheer leading session where I'm just trying to get you all excited and then send you home. I want you to go home holding your head up with a spring in your step, not listening to the lies of Satan, and knowing that you are a precious child of God. He loves you. God is not mad at you, and if I were you, I would go look at myself in the mirror about 10 times a day, point your finger at yourself and say, "God is not mad at you". And you do it until it becomes a reality in your life.

See, the thing is is these things that God's offering us, these kingdom things, righteousness, peace, joy, security, confidence, all these wonderful things, boldness, these are all things for your soul. And no matter what you have to hang on your body, no matter what group you're in or what car you drive, whether you have your name on an office door or a little name plate on your desk... we get so excited about silly stuff. We think it's so important. If you're miserable inside, then none of it makes any difference. Do you understand me? I mean, some of the most famous people in the world are some of the most miserable people in the world. That's why many of them end up strung out on drugs and staying hyped up on something all the time, because they've got everything that people seem to think that would make you happy, and yet they're not happy, because you cannot be happy if you don't have righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And I'm not talking about a peace that you have when everything's going your way. I read you my list last night. I made a list in 42 days of just different things that happened to me, and in 42 days, I had 34 different so-called trials and tribulations, and I wouldn't even remember 'em if I wouldn't have written 'em down, and I only wrote 'em down to get 'em in a message, and the thing is is because now I do have that peace and I know that God loves me and I know that he's gone before me, and I know that he can take care of any mess behind me, and I trust God to work all these things out one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. If you're waiting to have peace until you don't have any stinky circumstances, you're gonna be waiting a long time.

And I'm telling you that you can have righteousness. You can know that you're right with God. I'll even tell you that you can sin and not feel condemned... Now, obvious, you know I'm doing everything I can to teach people not to sin, but 1 John 2:1 says something beautiful. It says, "My little children, I write this to you that you may not sin". Everything in the Bible is written to us that we may not sin, that we know that we can overcome sin, that we can grow into new levels of holiness and behave better all the time, but it is a journey, and while I'm on that journey, I may make a few mistakes. You know what? I'm not as bad as I used to be, but I'm not as good as I'd like to be, amen? Thank God I'm not where I used to be, but I'm not where I want to be.

And I always like to say, "I'm okay and I'm on my way," and the enemy doesn't like that because he wants you to feel like that you're never gonna be okay until you've arrived, amen, and that's just not the truth at all. God's got a good plan for our life. He loves us. He knows where we came from. He knows where we're headed, and he's never gonna give up on us. So we need to learn to really trust God for the things that are the most important in our lives, not a bunch of stuff, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and to stop chasing after things that really have no ability to make us happy, and to learn who we are in Christ, how we can have peace even when our circumstances are not'...

Cause you know what? Whatever circumstance you've got tonight, chances are a week from now you won't have it, or 2 weeks from now, or maybe it's a year from now, but you might have another one. You're like, "Well, that's not very encouraging". Well, it's the truth, and the thing is is we can rise above it. Paul prayed that he would know him and the power of his resurrection that lifted him out above all the things in this world while he was still in the body. Let's really learn how to walk in the Spirit and care more about spiritual things than we do natural things.

Let me just ask you, what are you spending most of your time seeking? This is just between you and God. Everybody doesn't need to shout out, but what is it? "Well, I'm believing God for a husband". Well, you might need something else before you get that. You might need to know who you are in Christ, because if you get a husband and you're depending on him to make you feel like you've got worth and value, now you're gonna be mad at him every time he doesn't tell you you're wonderful and give you a compliment. Come on, now. Is anybody home in the house today? You say, "Well, I'm believing God to give me children". Well, maybe you better get a little foundation of peace in your life first, because you don't want to have kids 'til you know about peace, amen?

And so we need to learn how to believe God for the important things, and not going around believing God for a bunch of stuff that will come in due time. Those are kingdom benefits. They'll all come in due time. We need to put on righteousness. Know who you are in Christ. It's so important to understand that phrase "In Christ".

And you know, I told somebody a couple nights ago when I was studying, I said, "You know, I teach so much, and I've been teaching so much for so many years". I mean, this is not like something I do occasionally, you know, I mean, I'm at this all the time. And every once in a while when I get out on the road and I get tired, I think, "I think I've said all this before," and I wonder if people just get tired of hearing the same thing. And of course, I know it doesn't sound the same to you, but the thing that I have to keep in mind is that there are people sitting here today and people watching by TV that this is all brand-new news to you. You've never heard anything like this in your whole life. And I mean, you're like, "You've gotta be kidding. God's not mad at me? You've gotta be kidding. I can be right with God? I can believe that I'm right with God? I can have peace? I can have joy? You've gotta be kidding". And so I'm just gonna keep on telling it to people and keep on telling it to people 'til there's no more people left on the earth that are in bondage.

You cannot enjoy your life if you feel like God's mad at you, you just can't because no matter what fun thing you do, there's always gonna be something in your soul that's just sucking the life out of you. Amen? No matter what kind of promotion you get at work, you're not gonna really enjoy it because you're gonna be under pressure all the time to impress somebody. Can I tell you that you are not free 'til you have no need to impress anybody? Hallelujah.

See, I actually enjoy what I'm doing because I'm not under pressure while I do it. I have no idea what I'm gonna say next. I'm as surprised as you are. I mean I got a message, it works sometimes and sometimes it don't but, man, I'm so dependent on God, it just scares the living daylights out of me if I think about it. See, you can't enjoy life you don't have any peace. So let's just start down here and say, okay, if you're not enjoying your life, why? So we kind of try to bypass the things that we need to have and we skip in the middle, and we jump all the way over to here to "I know why I'm not enjoying my life, because I need a promotion at work". Come on now. "I know why I'm not enjoying my life, I need a bigger house. I know why I'm not enjoying my life, I'm not married and I'm tired of being alone and if I was just married, I would enjoy my life".

Yeah, well, maybe. Hey, I love being married but, you know, it doesn't come without going through some things once in a while. We're pretty much through all that. You know, just if you're married, just stick it out. Kind of get the one you got trained, you know? Dave and I get along so good now, and I look back at all the dumb stuff we used to fight over. And you know it used to make my so mad, he still does it. Now, I just don't get mad. I just go enjoy myself, have a good day. All right, are you with me? "I'm not enjoying my life". I mean, the world is full of people like this. They're a gazillion, bazillions of people that are not enjoying their life, they're not happy so they think, "It's your fault I'm not happy. If I had more money, I'd be happy. If I was in the right social group, I'd be happy. If I had more of this and another one of that and if I was more appreciated, I would be happy".

And I'm telling ya, you're just skipping through the real stuff because really what you need is to know who you are in Christ, to like yourself, to feel good about yourself on your good days and on your bad days, then you can have peace, then you can have joy, then God can give you all this stuff! Hallelujah. I pray that God doesn't give you the things that you want until you know that you're confidence is not in them, your security is not in them, your joy is not in them. You gotta get grounded in God first, then you can have anything that God wants you to have.

Righteousness, wearing our robe of righteousness or as Ephesians 6 puts it, the breastplate of righteousness, is the only way to defeat the devil. Let me tell you, we are in a war, and it is a spiritual war. Let's go to Ephesians 6, verse 11. "Put on the whole armor of God the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies, that you might be able to successfully stand up against all the strategies, the deceits of the devil". So we see that there's a battle going on of lies, deceits, strategies and if you don't think that deception is running wild in the world today, you need to open your eyes and take a look. I mean, some of the things that people are doing that they think are not a problem and even some of the things that believing people are doing and they think, "Well, God understands," it's scary. I mean, it's really downright scary.

One pastor said to me recently, he said, "I'm so tired of people coming to me to try to find out if they can do this and still go to heaven. Can I do that and still go to heaven? Can I do this and it will be okay with God"? The world is not our standard, and the word of God has not changed since it was written. Amen? And we're in a greater fight today than we've ever been in before. And a large part of it is a fight for morality. We need to have a standard in our life. Do you have a standard for your life? As a young person, do you have a standard for what kind of parties you'll go to? "I will not go to parties where there are drugs, that's my standard. I will not watch this kind of stuff on television. I will not go to these kinds of movies. I will not hang out and become close in relationship with people who do these things". Are you gonna fight for your life? Because if you don't fight for it, nobody else is going to.

Psalm 1:1 says, "Don't sit passive and inactive in the pathway of sinners. Don't sit down to rest and relax where the scornful and the mockers gather". Hang out with people that love God. Now make sure that you still have an influence in the world. Don't avoid all sinners and unbelievers. We need to get around them enough to have an influence on them. But what I always say is hang out with people as long as you're affecting them, but if they start infecting you, then you better move. We're in a war and God has given us the armor that we need. We need to see ourselves as a heavy-armed soldier. We've got all the equipment that we need.

Verse 12, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, we're not contending only with physical opponents, but we are against the despotisms, the powers, the master spirits who are the world rulers of this present darkness. We wrestle with the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural sphere". The devil is behind all evil. Some demon is behind all evil. Every time somebody hurts you and is unkind to you, it's not just them, the enemy is working through them. He's found a way in them to get at you. "Therefore put on God's complete armor". And I don't have time to go through all this, but he starts in verse 14 and he says, "hold your ground, having tightened the belt of truth". That means when you are in a battle, you need to hang on to the word of God like never before. "I believe the word. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I don't care how I feel. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care how long it takes. I believe the word of God. God is faithful".

And the second thing it says is "Put on" and "Put on" is an action word. It's something that I have to do. I had to put my clothes on this morning. I didn't just stand in front of the closet and hope they jumped on my body. It's a very simple analogy, but we miss it. Put off the old man. Put on the new man. Put on love. If I put something on that don't look good on me, I take it off and put on something else. But I can tell you there's a lot of believers that are going out spiritually dressed in a way that does not look good on them, and they need to go back home and change clothes. Amen?

"And having put on the breastplate of integrity and moral rectitude and right standing with God". Then it goes on to talk about your shoes of peace and the helmet of salvation, and all that's another whole series too which we're not after. My point is is if you want to defeat the devil, you better know who you are in Christ, and you have to learn the truth and when the devil lies to you, you need to open your mouth. Don't just wait to get a sermon from somebody else. Know the word enough that you can open your mouth and say, "Devil, you are a liar. God is not mad at me. I am forgiven, and I'm not... do you understand me, devil? I am not, not, not gonna live under condemnation".

I remember walking around my house literally almost screaming at the top of my lungs, "I am going to enjoy my life"! That was a real battle for me because I never got to be a kid. I mean, my dad started sexually abusing me when I was just a little girl, and so I never really got to be a kid. And I was never comfortable in his presence. Do you know what it means to me to be comfortable with God? I was never comfortable around my dad because he was always angry and you never knew about what. And some of you don't know what I'm talking about. You had a good start, but some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. But I tell ya, don't get a chip on your shoulder and feel sorry for yourself. Let God give you double for your trouble. Let God bring justice into your life. Amen? Let him give you beauty for ashes and stand up and testify and tell people what God has done for you. And if he's done it for you, he'll do it for them. That's how we spread the good news of Jesus Christ, becoming living epistles read of all men.

What is righteousness and who is righteous? Well, first of all, God is righteous, and he gives us his righteousness, not just some righteousness, but the Bible says that he gives us his very own righteousness when we believe by faith that Jesus died for our sins, paid for them and set us completely free. It's almost too good to know what to do with it, isn't it? It's taken my whole life and it's still sinking in. How can anything be this good and be free? Now, you know, that doesn't mean that I can just live this sloppy life of intentional sin and then try to apply this part of the message. The Bible actually says in 1 John 3:9 that anyone born of God cannot knowingly, habitually, intentionally continue in sin. You cannot because you've got a new nature and that new nature keeps fighting with that old nature.

And as you continue to learn more about the word of God, you get freer and freer and freer, and you're living more and more and more and more out of that new nature and the devil just gets madder and madder and madder. He is the accuser of the brethren. He's always gonna tell you you're not doing good enough. You're not doing enough. You're not enough. You're not, you're not, you're not. So learn enough of the word to know what you are in Christ. "I am anointed. I am a child of God. I do have gifts and talents. My name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I am forgiven," and on and on and on and on.

What does it mean to be right with God? It means that you're not wrong with God. Great revelation. When you receive Christ, you receive rightness, the wrongness is gone. I don't have to say anymore what's wrong with me. I can actually say, there are some things now that are right with me and they're growing every day. Righteousness talks about power and authority with God. It indicates freedom. It means that we have been made just or we have been justified and when you're justified through the blood of Christ, and I love this, it means to be just as if you never sinned.

I didn't make this up. I got it out of the Greek dictionary, if that impresses you, I don't know if it will or not but... you know if a preacher don't know what they're talking about, they can just say, in the Greek says, and everybody's impressed. Righteousness cannot be bought. It cannot be purchased with good works. We don't try to be good to get righteousness. We make an effort to be good because we are right with God. It is our new nature, so how could I get up every day as the righteousness of God in Christ and just want to do something bad? I don't want to do anything bad. I want to do what's right. But thank God when I do make a mistake, 1 John 2:1, which I didn't finish quoting... every once in a while God reminds me of what I left and I go back. "My little children, I write this to you that you may not sin, but if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for all of our sins".

Like I shared on Friday morning. Hate sin, I hate sin. God hates sin, but he loves sinners. I hate my sin, but I love myself. Can't you imagine that that makes the devil furious? Let's say that just for practice. Say, "I hate my sin, but I love myself". Doesn't that feel good? My goodness, I'm glad I'm gonna leave this town happy. And listen, when you know who you are in Christ, the result of that is no condemnation, no guilt. You're no longer tormented with guilt. See, once you get the clear understanding "I'm a child of God, I've been purchased with the blood of Christ because I have faith in Jesus, just child like faith. Jesus, I believe that you did what you said you did. I believe it. I believe it". Because of that the Bible says that you are now become right with God. No man is made right by his works. He's only made right through his faith in Christ. And that means that God loves me, he accepts me.

And see, when you know that good news, there's no way that you can purposely just live a messed-up sloppy life. And I just have to say, and you know I guess I better be careful. I don't want to make anybody mad. I'm not anybody's judge, certainly not the jury. But maybe some of these people that claim to be Christians and they got their bumper sticker and the cross around their neck and they're living like the devil, maybe what they got is a little bit of dead, dry, religion, but they don't really have a relationship with Christ. Maybe they're not really born again. Maybe they're still in that religious state. How can you understand what God has done for us as a free gift and not want to respond to that with "My God, my God, what can I do to glorify your name? What can I do to get this message to somebody else"? How can I be satisfied to live a sloppy life and just hope I can get by with it and maybe sneak in the back door of heaven?

Let me just simply say to you today, if you have not fully surrendered your life to God, if you still got all these areas that you're keeping closed off for you, why don't you just do yourself the biggest favor that you could possibly do yourself and just totally surrender today? And I'm gonna tell you ahead of time, you ain't gonna like some of it in the beginning. But oh, man, are you gonna get happy later on. Whoa, are you gonna get happy later on because everything, everything that God tells us to do is for us. We don't read the Bible for God. We don't pray for God. We do it for us. "I need help, God, help me. Thank you. I need a job, God, could you give me favor when I go out to look for one"?

You know, God can even get you a job that you're not even qualified for and give you the gifting to do it. But, you know, people are not gonna pray for favor if they don't think they even deserve, you know, the bottom of the bucket. Thank you God for giving me favor. You think, man, I pray for favor with you guys every time I get up here. I'm not dumb. I'm not gonna try to make you like me. God can make you like me. You don't have to be guilty all the time. Why don't you get into agreement with God? How about getting into agreement with God? Let's just start agreeing with God. Let's agree with God about our past. It's over, dead, buried and gone.

And I'll tell ya something even better about your past. Are you ready for this? You don't even have to regret it. "Well, surely I should regret the life I lived". Well, you can if you want to but if you spend today in regret, it's gonna steal part of your day. You might as well just say, "You know, God, I've all done that. I can't do anything about it, but I'm gonna give it to you and I think you can take my mess and make a miracle out of it". My whole ministry's made out of the fact that I was all messed up, so hurt by other people that I thought I was useless and worthless. And then I found out who I was in Christ, my, my, my, my, my. You don't have to regret your past. God can take anything and do something with it if you give it to him, anything. God can take anything and do something with it.

My gosh, I might just have to come up there and get you and shake you or something, I don't know. Agree with God about your future. Get into agreement with God about your future. How about agreeing with God about yourself, who you are in Christ and what you've got going for you? How about agreeing with God that you've got authority over the devil and you don't have to let him walk all over you? How about agreeing with God that you are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ? Wow, we having a good time. Stop agreeing with the devil. The devil says, "You're stupid". You say, "I'm stupid". Devil whispers in your ear, "Eh, you'll never amount to anything". "Yeah, I'll never amount to anything". Don't just let the devil whisper lies in our ear and then speak them out of your mouth. Know the word well enough that when the devil lies to you, you know that it's not true.

I told somebody this morning I said, "You know, I mean honestly, you know, I gotta be real and tell ya, you know, I've been doing this a long time. And, you know, I'm pretty feisty but when I first wake up in the mornings out in these hotels, especially by Saturday morning, I'm pretty tired". And you know when you're tired, your mind can go in the ditch real fast. And so it's like every single time the dumb devil tries to say the same thing to me, you'd think by now he'd come up with something new and creative.

So this is what I heard this morning sitting over in the hotel in Portland, "I just don't know if I can keep doing this much longer". I am so tired of hearing that. How long do I have to keep doing it for the devil to get the understanding that I'm not gonna quit? It is just like wasted words, and we need to get to the point where when we hear that junk from the enemy, it's just like background noise. It's like, "Give it a rest, devil". "Well, surely you don't think you can just walk around and not feel guilty". Well, I've repented. I've asked God to forgive me, and I'm more than ready to go in a new direction. I'm depending on God to help me. I know who I am in Christ. So yes, I don't have to go around feeling guilty all the time.

Okay listen, if you don't have a revelation on this, I want you to say a hundred times a day, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ". Go ahead. Let's all say it now together, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ". And how about believing this, and I'd like to kind of leave you with these words just so you leave comforted. How about if we believe what the Bible says that God is always with us? He never leaves us nor forsakes us. I don't have to feel God to know that he's with me. We get too much off into that feeling thing. "Well, God, I don't feel that you're here". Well, he's already said he is. God's with you all the time. He's got you covered. God's got your back. Amen? Come on, as long as you keep believing, there's no way that you can fail. God is going to take care of you, and God is not mad at you. Come on. I said, God is not mad at you!