Joyce Meyer - Living In God's Timing

Let me ask a question, has God been dealing with you about letting something go and you're still hangin' on? It could be a friendship that's really just not a good friendship for you. Anybody? Uh-huh. Could be a bad attitude. How about maybe really just somebody that you love that you just keep trying to change them or get them to do what's right and God's been telling you to let it go and give it to him? Alright, so I just don't see how we can have anything but fun here today.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3:1-8. We're talking this weekend about using our time wisely, and I do believe that there are certain seasons for things where there's a particular anointing from God to do a certain thing. And so if this is a season where God is dealing with you to let go of some things, then it's wise to do it in that season because when God is saying the time is now, it's gonna be easier to do it when God is dealing with you about it than it is to have to do it at some other time. Amen?

"To everything there's a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven: a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend, a time to sew, a time to keep silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace".

Father, we thank you for helping us live in your timing and not miss what you have for us in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.

John chapter 15, verses 1 through 8. I love John chapter 15. I've studied it. I've read it and reread it and I just really enjoy it. Starting out in verse 1, Jesus said, "I am the vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Any branch in me", that "In me" means people who believe in me. "Any branch in me that does not bear fruit that stops bearing he cuts away (trims off, and takes away)". So it's God's will for us to bear good fruit and just like if there's a branch on a tree that everything else on the tree's bearing fruit but this one branch is just not bearing fruit, a good gardener's gonna come along and prune that off.

If there are areas in our lives that are not bearing fruit, then God will deal with those things and he'll trim them off of our lives or he'll cut them off. It would be nice if we could see what God sees and really be in agreement and say, "Oh yes, God, that's good. Let's get rid of that thing". But as we all know we sometimes hang on a lot longer. It's amazing how long we hang on to things that are hurting us. But let's just think of how not smart that is. How long we hang on to things that are hurting us and really just stealing the life that Jesus wants us to have, but somehow or another we're so afraid to let go of what we have because what we're gonna get, we still don't kinda know or understand. Don't ever be afraid to let God do what he wants to do in your life.

"He cuts away (trims off): and he cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit". So I kinda saw something years ago that helped me. Looks to me like here you're pruned if you do and you're pruned if you don't, so either way pruning is a fact of the Christian life. So the long and the short of it is we might as well just let God have his way because he loves us so much, now get this, God loves you so much that he is never going to leave you alone to do your own thing your own way. Amen?

God chastises us. He teaches and trains us by various means out of his love for us. And I could take you to Hebrews 12, gotta lot of stuff in it about chastisement. It's God dealing with us, teaching us, and training us. He does a lot of it spiritually. He does a lot of it by using his word. But as I said yesterday, when you love your children, you would love to give them your word and have them just do what you say. But if they don't consistently, after a while you will touch their circumstances. Now that doesn't mean that God is mean and he does a lot of things that hurt us. But I think we all realize that sometimes there are things in our life that they are difficult for us and we fight giving things up or we fight the changes that God tries to make. But then later on we realize, "Oh man, that was the best thing in the world for me after all".

So today I'm really hoping that by God's grace, I can help all of us to trust God even more and to realize his great love for us that anything that happens in our life, God will ultimately work it out for our good as long as we trust him, and I believe that. That's just not a cute scripture to confess. I believe that no matter what happens or where it comes from, if we keep loving God and we want his will, he will take that thing and use it to our purpose.

You know we all want to hear from God. We want to know what God is saying, and God speaks to us in a lot of different ways. The still, small voice is probably the greatest way, just that inner knowing. You just know and you don't even know how you know, you just know. But God also does speak through our circumstances. And so many times when I'm trying to make something happen in my life and it's just not happening and I'm wearing myself out trying to kick down doors that it's obvious God is not opening, God is trying to let me know through that circumstance, this is not for you. This is not for you. "Well, it's just the devil".

Well, yes we do need to resist the devil, but let me tell ya something, if God's got something in his will for you to do. Ultimately there's no devil that can keep it from happening as long as you keep your eyes on God. So let's just don't give the devil more credit than what he actually deserves, amen? So going on now in John. "You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you the teachings that I have discussed with you. Dwell in me, and I will dwell in you. Live in me, and I will live in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in and (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me".

Now how many of you want to bear a good fruit in your life? All right, the only way that a branch can bear fruit is if it stays connected to the vine. Now I've done projects in my meetings where I've brought a living plant out here and on the first night, I've broken off a branch and laid it somewhere here, and we can watch it throughout the weekend slowly whither up and die.

The only way that we can have the life flowing through us to bear good fruit, whether that's the Fruit of the Spirit in simple things like getting along with your family, getting along with people at work, getting out in the world and being a good witness, or whether it's other things, the strength that we need to go through difficult things, the strength that we need to do the will of God, the only way that any I'm a branch. The only way that any branch can bear good fruit is if it stays connected to the vine. That's why I stay on this thing all the time about spending time with God, spending time with God, spending time with God and realizing that our walk with God is not just a Sunday morning event.

Now, you know, a lot of you have taken your weekend to come to this conference, so you kinda probably know that but I'm not just talking to you, I'm talking to the millions of people around the world watching by television. And I don't know what kind of relationship that you have with God or if you even have one at all, but I probably would be pretty safe in saying that there's a good number of people watching that you do have a love for God, but your relationship with him is religious. It's one of just following prescribed rules and regulations. You maybe read a little bit of your Bible every day. You pray a little bit every day. You go to church on Sunday morning and you feel like that you've done your thing and now you're okay with God.

Well, you know what? Maybe you're okay with God but you're not gonna bear any fruit with that kind of life. You're gonna be up and down and all over the place emotionally and the only way you're ever gonna be happy is when you're getting your way and that only lasts for a few minutes at a time. You're not gonna be a great witness in the world, you're gonna be frustrated all the time. You're gonna be struggling all the time, you're gonna be hard to get along with.

Am I right so far? All right, but when we stay connected to the vine, there is a secret life force that we do not understand and we cannot explain that comes to us from that vine, the vine being Jesus, and without struggling, without frustration, we can bear fruit. You see so many Christians, and I was one for a long time, "I'm trying to be patient". "I'm trying to be happy". "I'm trying to be peaceful and I'm just so frustrated trying to be peaceful". Let me ask you a question, have you ever seen an apple tree out in an orchard going, "I'm trying to make apples"? "It's apple season, come on, trying to make apples". So we're not gonna bear good fruit through just trying and struggling.

Now I believe that there is an effort that we make, but it's an effort in the Holy Ghost and so it's totally different kinda thing than just a fleshly effort. It's really just then it's like, my effort mainly is staying connected to Jesus. My effort is a spiritual effort. I'm believing, I'm trusting God. Let me tell ya something, every day, every moment of your life, you need God's help. There's not a moment in our lives when we do not, when we are not desperate, you understand me? Desperate for God's help. If I were you, I would probably say no less than a hundred times a day, "God, help me. God, help me. Just help me".

You don't even have to know what you need help for 'cause I can guarantee you you need help for something. Just, "God, help me". And I wish that I could explain the mystery of it to you, but just to sit down, don't worry so much about what you do when you spend time with God. "Well, if I spend time with God, what do I do"? truthfully, and I hope this, you know, is not doctorally insane, but I don't really think it matters so much what you, "Do". I think the thing that's important is that you have come to him, you're giving him time and by coming to him you're saying, "I'm afraid to start this day without you. I don't trust myself. I need you. Help me. Strengthen me".

Now obviously when you add studying the word to that and you learn principles of prayer and confessing the word, yes, there's a lot of spiritual disciplines that we can practice in that time, but I think that too often people worry about what they're supposed to do, and they have this set formula, and they try to follow it every day, and it won't be long and you're gonna get really bored with it. But if you follow the Holy Spirit, there will be creativity and variety, and you're gonna enjoy the time and you're not even really gonna know what happened, you just know that you were and God was and there was a connection that you don't understand and now all of sudden, you've got a brighter outlook on today than you had when you went to spend that time. The more time the better, but let me tell you something, if you've got 2 minutes, you can get a divine hookup in 2 minutes if that's all you've got.

When you're about to go over the edge at work, go to the bathroom, lock yourself in a stall and just let me tell ya something, Dave, when he was... How old were you? Eighteen. When he was 18, Dave was baptized in the Holy Spirit sitting on the pot at work. Now what kind of a thing is that to tell people? You never know where God may show up. But you know what he did? He'd been searching for something more with God. He was frustrated, kinda with Christianity as, "Usual". He knew there was more than just going to church and going home, going to church and going home, and he didn't even know what it was but he'd been seeking something with God. He went into the bathroom at work, he sat down, closed the stall door and he said to God, "I am not getting up. I am not moving from this spot until you touch me and give me whatever it is that I'm missing".

Now I know some of you are thinking, "What is she talking about"? And you know what? Dave also received a physical healing that day. His eyes were healed. He had to wear glasses prior to that and God healed his eyes, and for a lot of years then he didn't have to wear glasses. God definitely touched the man in a profound way. "If you abide in me," not just go to church on Sunday morning, not just watch your favorite tv preacher every morning. Whoever that is. "But if you abide in me and my word abides in you," if you live in me, if you dwell in me, if there's a relationship, "You will bear much fruit". Amen?

And really I might even go on to say that when you abide in him, even when it comes to the pruning, and the things that God is dealing with us about, and the things that he wants us to let go of, it's not so bad after all because there's a divine strength that comes to us, enabling us to do things God's way. Amen? Alright. Verse 5, "I am the vine: you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from me cut off from vital union with me you can do nothing". Boy, do we ever need to get a deeper revelation on that. "If a person does not dwell in me, he's thrown out like a broken-off branch, and he withers: such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

If you live in me abide vitally united to me and my word remains in you and continues to live in you, ask whatever you will, and it will be done for you". Somebody say, "Wow". And the last verse, "When you bear and (produce) much fruit, my father is honored and glorified, and you prove yourselves to be true followers of mine". Let's all be people who really want to bear good fruit. Let's don't be the kind of person that just our whole walk with God is just to get him to give us what we want. Let's be more concerned about what we can give to God, how we can represent him, how we can be an ambassador for Christ. If you came here just for me to give you three more secrets on how you can get what you want, you know, I'm not bent in that direction.

I believe that if we totally give ourselves to God, he will give us what we want. It may not be what we thought we wanted, but it will sure make us happy. It will be the thing that nobody else can give us and we will be so fulfilled. Now to be honest when we first start a relationship with God, we're all a pretty good size mess. You know we may have sweet, little hearts, but we got lots of dead branches. We got lots of stuff that we're just dragging around with us because we're used to that needed to be dealt with in our life. And in Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible says, well, let's just look at it, Hebrews 12, 26 through 29. I'm so glad that you love the Word of God enough to come out and it's just wonderful. Thank you.

Verse 26, "Then at mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he has given a promise: yet once more I will shake and make tremble not only the earth but also the starry heavens. Now this expression, yet once more, indicates the final removal and transformation of all that can be shaken, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain and continue".

So I believe that God will shake everything in our life that is shaky. Come on. Everything in our life that is shaky until all that remains is a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord bearing good fruit in every season that he might be glorified. Amen? And I don't know about you, I mean I wish that I could say you can get that by just praying, you can get it by just reading your Bible but honestly I just think we're a little more stubborn than that. I really think when it comes right down to it, God has to deal with us about some things. And as we all know it's not always real pleasant, but it turns out so good in the end.

So don't be afraid of God when he begins to deal with you in your life. If things seem to be going a different direction than what you want them to go just say, "God, I trust you. Your will be done and not mine". Let's real quickly look at proverbs 3:13. "Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skillful and godly wisdom, and the man who gets understanding drawing it forth from God's word and life's experiences".

You know what? I have a lot of knowledge in my life now and I thank God for what I know. And, I've gotten it two different ways, from studying this book and from being alive on planet earth 71 years and walking through a lot of things, having a lot of experiences in my life. I know what it's like to be abused and what you have to do to overcome that. I know what it's like to hate somebody and have a good reason to hate them, and I know the agony of living in hatred and unforgiveness. I also know what it's like to totally release them, to let it go, and to watch God work in your life. Come on.

So please believe me when I talk to you about these things, all those messages that I have recorded, the books, the cds, the dvds, I didn't just come up with some little idea out of a sermon book. That's my life out there on that resource table and I'm telling you God is no respecter of persons and what he does for one, he will do for another. And you can have a great, amazing, wonderful life but it's not gonna be by doing everything your way. It's gonna be letting God have his way. Somebody give God praise.

When it becomes time for the baby eagle to fly, which God intends for all of us to fly, amen, to soar with the eagles, it would be nice if mama would just come and say, "Well little baby, it's time to get out of the nest and fly". Well, that little baby eaglet is not gonna get out of that nest. She's got a good thing going there. She ain't about to leave. And this is true what I'm telling you, so the mother eagle begins day after day to pull things out of the nest and get rid of 'em, the comfy things, the feathers, the pieces of foam rubber she's collected from off the ground, the bouncy, soft, cuddly stuff. And pretty soon the little eagle is left with nothing but the base of the nest which happens to be made out of thorns, some rough, old branch that's strong and sturdy but not very comfortable.

So let's just say for the sake of talking about it, by then little baby eagle's climbed up and kind of looking over the side and thinking, "Well, I don't know. This is not so comfortable anymore. Maybe it is better out there". So mama does the baby a big favor. She comes and swoops, picks her up, flies up in the air and drops her. "Ahhhhhh"! Right before she hits the ground, mama swoops down. "Oh mama, you love me after all". Come on, is anybody getting this? Takes her right back up... "Ahhh"! And that process is repeated, repeated, repeated until she finally begins to... And that's what God wants from us.

You know in Isaiah chapter 3, verse 1 the Bible says that God removes props out from under us. Let me ask you a question, what's got you propped up? See, God wants us to be rooted and grounded in the word and rooted and grounded in the love of God so that nothing can steal our confidence. And although we can feel fear that fear doesn't stop us, that we're bold enough in God to keep going forward. And that even if our best friend turns against us, it may hurt us but we still got Jesus in our life.

Come on, now. What does it take to keep you propped up? What does it take to keep you strong in the Lord? Is it a group of Christian friends that you have that make you feel good about yourself? Is it a certain job that you have that makes you feel good about yourself? Let me tell you a little story. After teaching home Bible studies for 5 years, the second phase of my ministry was I worked at a church in my city for 5 years. And I learned a lot there, went through a lot of good times, a lot of difficult times. I kind of found out that you're not really fit to be in authority till you know how to come under authority and that wasn't necessarily a real easy thing for me.

So can I just throw out to you that if you're waiting for a promotion into your own thing but you don't know how to come under the authority where you're at.... Well, whatever, you can do with that what you want to. And so God began to deal with me that he wanted me to leave my job there and start this ministry. Well, I was very frightened and the word we kept hearing was "Take your ministry, go north, south, east, and west," but the problem was nobody knew me north, south, east, or west. I mean I had a nice little ministry in St. Louis, and I was on one local radio station but that was it. And so where am I supposed to go north, south, east, and west?

Well, you know when God really wants you to do something, if you just keep dragging your feet, you can get so miserable inside. Anybody know what it's like to have God just deal with you, and deal with you, and deal with you, and deal with you? And, you know, things that I once liked like staff meetings and group gatherings and stuff, I mean I hated everything I was doing there. I dreaded it. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to go to church anymore. It was just like blah. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know what's wrong with me".

Well so finally long story short, I don't have time to tell it all. God got through to me and so I left my job with a dented desk and a calculator and started a meeting, north St. Louis, east St. Louis, west St. Louis, and south St. Louis, one on each end of town. God said, "Go north, south, east, and west," and I like a little kid just tried to do the best that I could. Now, however I found out something that I didn't know while I had that job. You know, sometimes when you have something, you don't really know how much you're depending on it until God shakes it and moves it.

What is your confidence in? Will you still be confident if you lose your friends? Can you still be confident in God if you make a decision to go on and grow with God and you get rejected by your current group? Can you handle that and still go on with God or are you gonna cave in and go back to being a people-pleaser? Come on, I'm only talking to people today that want to go on with God. I'm not talking to anybody that wants to remain a baby eaglet. I'm talking to people today that are makin' eagle applications. Amen? Do you wanna fly or you wanna flap? It's up to you.

So you have to keep in mind that when I worked at the church, I was, you know, fairly popular there. I mean I did most of the preaching when the pastor was gone. I was an associate pastor. I taught in Bible college. I had my ladies meeting once a week that several hundred people came to and that was a pretty nice event in town. I had a parking place out front with my name on it. Boy, we like seeing our name. Come on now. I had a seat on the front row that had my name on it. They put out a sign every service, "Joyce Meyer, Dave Meyer". You didn't sit in my seat. I had an office with my name on the door. I had a nameplate on my desk. My name was in the bulletin every week as one of the staff. You see, I was important. Come on, is anybody home today?

And so when I left, my name wasn't on a parking place anymore. I had to go find one like everybody else. My name wasn't on a seat, I had to sit wherever I could. I didn't know what was going on. I wasn't invited to the group gatherings. I wasn't invited to the different special things the leadership did. So when I would go to church on Sunday morning, I felt so out of place, so like nothing. And see, that's not God wants for you and he didn't want that for me. He stripped away or dealt with me long enough until I walked away from all of that because God was elevating me to what has now become this, but I don't know if we realize sometimes how tempted we are to run back to what we had rather than pressing on to what is ahead of us.

Come on, I'm talking to somebody today. Alright, many of you right now are in what I call the middle. You've had a beginning, you're headed somewhere, but you're in the middle. Don't give up in the middle. And let me tell ya, my meetings were smaller after I left the church. I worked harder. I was alone a lot and from looking at it, I thought this is a promotion? I mean I wanted to run back to what I had. How many women keep running back to some guy... That talks to you like you're a dog, puts you down, maybe even beats you up, uses you, abuses you. And you get away, and then you get lonely, it gets hard. He gives you a few sweet words and you run back.

Listen, I want you to stay anywhere that God wants you to stay and I don't advocate running away from hard things, but you are worth more than having somebody beat you up and abuse you and take advantage of you. And you listen to me, you are not helping that person by letting them do that. If you don't want to do it for yourself, at least do it for them. "The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy". Jesus said, "I came that you might have and enjoy your life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows".

You have got value. You have no idea how many times I almost ran back to that job which was an open door for me. I could have went back at anytime, but I'm so glad that I did the harder thing. It scares me sometimes to think about what we give up by not pressing through. You know, Philippians 3 Paul said, "One thing I do with my one aspiration, forgetting what lies behind and pressing toward the upward call". Pressing toward the upward call. You know there was a time in my life when God dealt with me very strongly about some things he wanted me to do with my parents, and I didn't understand it at the time.

Why would God ask me to spend money and take care of two people that really never did anything for me? Buy my parents a house, get 'em furniture, take care of 'em, make sure they get groceries, make sure their grass is mowed, pay for them to be in assisted living care eventually and on and on. Why in the world would God ask me to do something like that? It just wasn't fair. But you know what? God does that with us all the time. Long story short, I can't explain it to you but something amazing happened in our ministry after I finally totally let go of that bitterness and totally let go of that resentment and was willing to walk in real love with my father and we grew.

I'm trying to tell you that God has got promotions for you, but there's some things that you cannot take to the next level. You know why? New level, new devil. See, there might be things down here that you could get by with just like the baby eaglet but honey, if you want to come up here, there's something that's gotta get off that bus before you go to this stop. Amen? I taught home Bible studies for five years and then I felt like God was telling me to lay those things down. And he said, "Behold, I do a new thing". Ooh, I was excited. "Yeah, praise the Lord. My dream's gonna come true now". And God's idea of a new thing was for one year I did absolutely nothing. He just kinda put me up on a shelf.

You know, have you ever gone from bearing a little bit of fruit to bearing no fruit? So I was bearing a little bit of fruit and then I was bearing no fruit but then eventually I bore abundant fruit. Okay, well, let me tell ya about the little fruit. See, I was teaching 25 people in my living room and now, of course, you know I get the privilege of teaching people all over the world every day. So from 25 and in between I worked at that church and, you know, a lot of different things. But I had some things in me here that couldn't go here. I had some fears, some insecurities. I spent too much time comparing myself with other people. And God wanted me to be me and God wants you to be you. God's not looking for a copy of anybody. He wants a brand-new original. Amen? Do you hear me?

A brand-new original. You might as well be yourself because everybody else is taken. And you might as well learn to like yourself and appreciate yourself. You can even love yourself in a balanced way because everywhere you go, there you are. So I've heard this story and I believe it's true. I'm not a botanist but I think the story's true. A person who say has an orchard of peach trees, you know everything starts with a seed. So you plant a seed and eventually you get a tree and you wait for fruit. And so you've waited and waited for fruit.

Now just relate this to your own life. You've waited and waited for fruit, now all of a sudden it's time and so you see these little, tiny, cute, baby, fuzzy peaches come out on the branches. "Oh, praise God, fruit". But the orchard grower that is really smart goes and picks 'em all off and won't let 'em bloom that year because if he keeps them from bearing that little, tiny fruit... Then in a year or two, and maybe next year he does the same thing. Maybe the fruit's a little bigger next year but he's like, "No, still not what I'm after," so he plucks those off. I mean, now, if you were the tree just think, "You've gotta be kidding. I mean I have waited so long, and I have worked so hard. And I have stood here, and stood here, and waited, and waited, and now I finally get peaches and you're gonna pick 'em off and throw 'em away"?

Now, you know, if you don't have any spiritual understanding then you're not tracking with me at all. You're like, I mean, you're like, "This woman has lost her mind". We've talked about everything from Dave being on the pot to throwing peaches away, to... It oughta be illegal to have this much fun on Saturday morning. But the orchard grower who does that, man, if he can wait that out for 2 or 3 years, man, the best, the biggest, the healthiest peaches you have ever seen in your life. Okay, so I got my little Bible study so I'm having little peaches. I got my little 25 people coming every week. We sit in the living room floor. I teach the Bible. They go home. They come back the next week. It was just so cute. It was just a sweet time in my life. And God said, "Okay, stop this. Behold I do a new thing".

And so for the next year, I spent trying to be like my neighbor. And, you know, you probably heard these stories I'm not gonna bore you by telling them all again but she was miss arts and crafts and I was just like nothing like a normal woman. I mean, you know, I wasn't that great at decorating. I mean, I'm the kinda person I bring the furniture in, I put it there, it's gonna be there 20 years from now. You know she's moving her furniture around all the time and every month you walked in, her house looked like a brand-new house. And she mowed the grass and she'd paint while her husband was gone. And she made her own plant hangers and just did all kinds of stuff, and I couldn't even start the stupid lawnmower.

And if Dave wants a button to stay on his shirt, he better sew it on himself 'cause it ain't gonna stay on if I do it. But the devil started telling me, I said the devil started telling me, "You need to stop all this I'm gonna change the world stuff and just settle down and be a regular woman". Come on. "You need to be like everybody else". Is anybody out there? So my neighbor started at me to learn how to sew and she had a garden and thought I should have a garden laughs. What a miserable, wretched year. I wanted to be somewhere casting out a devil and here I am trying to can tomatoes. Could anybody have the courage to follow their heart? And man, if you're anointed to can tomatoes, go for it. It's not that there's anything wrong with that but we can't be like everybody else.

So anyway, the sewing didn't work out. That was crazy and the garden didn't work out. It was time to can the tomatoes and a bunch of bugs came in and ate holes in my tomatoes overnight. She lived right next door, I mean no further than from here to the other end of that platform and they didn't eat her tomatoes. And mine were destroyed, and I had even prayed over my tomatoes because I was a woman of faith. Come on now. You know, I'm sorry, I didn't get to go to Bible college. I just went to the school of the Holy Ghost.

So, I called her. We were supposed to can that day and I said, "Well, our crops are ruined". She said, "What are you talking about"? I said, "Well, my tomatoes are full of black holes". And she went out and looked at hers and called me back she said, "Mine are fine". And I went to God and I said, "What is going on? I prayed over my tomatoes". And he said, "I never told you to grow tomatoes. I have no responsibility to protect your tomatoes". Come on. Maybe you're trying to grow your own version of tomatoes and it's not working out. Whoo, this is fun today. Maybe the thing you need to let go of this morning is this idea that you're not okay just being you.

Come on, I said maybe you need to let go of self-hatred, and self-rejection, and being self-critical all the time. And maybe you need to realize today that God created you with his own hand in your mother's womb. He gave you your personality. He gave you your talents, your weaknesses. Let me tell ya something, God wants you to be who you are and you cannot go to the next level that God has for you until you decide that you are gonna be yourself. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.