Joyce Meyer - My Favorite Scriptures - Part 2

The Word of God is full of power. And David said, "I will declare the decree of the Lord". So "Decree" means "Written down," and "Declare" means "Open your mouth". And so there's power in confessing God's word over your life, over your family, over your future. There is power in those words that will actually draw things out of the spiritual realm into the material realm where you live.

Now, just so you don't think that I've lost my mind and I'm just makin' up stuff, I have scripture to back up everything that I say. But before I knew these scriptures, before I even was aware of these scriptures, I know that I know that I know that this is God's will because back in the '70s, early in the '70s, God was dealing with me about being so negative. I was such a negative person. I'd been raised really bad, and my dad was real negative. And he just kinda taught us, "Don't expect anything good to happen, then you won't be disappointed when it doesn't". And so I mean, I had one sour attitude. And so God started dealing with me as he teaching me about not being negative, not being negative, not being negative.

So I was really tryin', and I mean, for like 6 months I felt like I had done really good, but nothin' was changin'. Doesn't it aggravate you when you feel like you're doin' really good and nothin' changes? And so I went to God, "Well, I don't understand. You told me not to be negative, and I haven't been negative, and I've stopped saying negative things, and nothing has changed". And this is what came to my heart: "Well, you've stopped saying negative things, but you're not saying anything positive". So you can stop doin' wrong things and that's good, but you don't get the result that God wants you to have until you start doing right things.

So led by the Holy Spirit, I made a confession list that had 65 different things on it that I wanted to see happen in my life. And I did my homework. I found a scripture to back up every single one of them. I'm not telling you to just go make stuff up that you want, "I'm gonna be a gazillionaire," you know? "I'm gonna marry the president". That's not the kinda stuff I'm talkin' about. I'm talkin' about, you know, "God loves me, and I love people". Write that down. I mean, I wrote down even things like, "I get speaking engagements all the time, by mail, by phone, and in person". I'd never had anybody ever ask me to come anywhere. Sixty-five things, and I can stand here today and tell you that every single one of those things has come to pass in my life. Every single solitary one has come to pass in my life.

Listen, let me tell you somethin'. If you don't ever learn anything else, learn the power that's in your mouth. Proverbs 18:21: "The power of life and death is in the tongue, and they who indulge it will eat the fruit of it whether it's [for life or death]". So you can either feed yourself death or you can feed yourself life. You can make yourself weak. You can make yourself strong. You can depress yourself. You can encourage yourself. I think that you can even make yourself sick by the stuff that you say if it's wrong stuff. What's in the heart comes out of the mouth. Start with right thinking, and it'll turn into right speaking. C'mon, you talk to yourself all the time anyway. You might as well start sayin' somethin' that makes sense.

You know, when you drop somethin' and break it, instead of hittin' yourself in the head and sayin', "I'm so stupid," you say, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". C'mon, don't ever say another negative thing about yourself out of your own mouth. Did you hear me? Do not ever say another negative thing about yourself out of your own mouth. You say, "I am wise. I am anointed. I've been set free. God loves me. Somethin' good is gonna happen to me today". And so i, twice a day, every day for 6 months, I would stand in my house and go over that whole list and confess those things out loud. And things started happening in my life.

Now, I know some people call that, "Well, name it, claim it". And you know what? C'mon, don't try to do anything you can't find scripture to back up. Romans 4:17, I'll show you that God did it first. I think I will anyway. "As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations". He was talkin' about Abraham. "[he was appointed our father] in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [he has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed". Do you see that? God does it. God calls things that be not as if they already were. When it's something that he knows that he wants to do in the future, he starts talking about it now as if it was already done. That's why he changed Abram's name to Abraham. Because "Abraham" meant "The father of nations". Amen?

You know what my name is? My first name is not Joyce. It's Pauline. And "Pauline" means "Little preacher". And my father, who abused me, named me Pauline. He didn't have a clue what he was doing. And "Joyce" means "With a joyful spirit". Amen? And so every time the guy that abused me would call me, "Pauline Joyce, get over here". "Little preacher with a joyful spirit, come here". I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I just think that that's something that God did in my life. You know, I don't know how many definitions you can find of different names, but I found one that said, you know, you hear about, "The Pauline epistles"? Well, Paul was little, and he was a preacher. And so "Pauline" is a derivative of "Paul". So here I am, little preacher with a joyful spirit.

Words have power. Ezekiel 37. "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley: and it was full of bones. And he caused me to pass round about among those bones, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the valley, and behold, they were very dry". Do you look around your life and everything is very dead and very dry? "And he said to me, 'son of man, can these bones live?'" or you might look around your life and say, "God, can anything change"? "And I answered, 'o Lord, only you know'"! In other words, "God, you can do it. You can change anything". Verse 4: "Again he said to me, 'prophesy to these bones,'" now, just imagine what that prophet must've thought. "You want me to talk to bones"? "O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord". Now, watch this: "Thus says the Lord God to these bones: 'behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live:" wow.

Man, look at your past and say, "You are not gonna hold me in bondage all of my life. I am a new creature and good things are gonna happen to me". Exciting! I'm so excited about God's word. I love the word. And don't just read your Bible. "Oh, I need to read two chapters a day out of obligation to God". No, your life is in the Word of God. "In him we live and move and have our being". "Thus says the Lord God: 'and I will lay sinew upon you and I will bring flesh upon you and cover you with skin, and I will put breath and spirit in you, and you [you dry bones] you shall live: and you shall know, and understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the sovereign ruler, who calls forth loyalty and obedient service]'".

Verse 7: "So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering]noise and behold, a shaking and a trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone". So as he began to prophesy, things started happening. "And I looked and behold, there was sinew upon [the bones] and the flesh came upon them and skin covered them, but still there was no breath or spirit in them". It's not done yet. "Then he said to me, 'prophesy to the breath and the spirit, son of man, and say to the breath and spirit, "Thus says the Lord God: 'come from the four winds, o breath and spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live'"'. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath and the spirit came into [the bones], and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host". From dead dry bones to an alive. How do you talk about your future? "Well, nothin' good's ever gonna happen to me".

"I'll never own a new car". "I'll never have my own home". "Well, I guess I'll never get married". "Well, my kid's just gonna end up, you know, no tellin's what. I'm just so afraid about what's gonna happen to my children". Don't talk like that. Don't talk like that. When your kids are in the crib, start saying, "You are a man of God, a woman of God, and you are gonna do great things with your life. God's gonna use you in a mighty way, and you're gonna marry a born-again, spirit-filled, husband or wife and you're gonna do great things together. And you are not gonna be addicted to drugs. And you are not gonna be an alcoholic. And you are gonna love God with your whole heart".

C'mon, it just takes a few minutes every day. What if you invested just 15 minutes a day confessing the word? "I am the righteousness of God in Christ. God loves me. And I am full of hope. And I'm expecting something good to happen to me today. And I'm expecting something good to happen through me today. I have power and authority over the devil, and he is not going to rule my life". You know, something that, there's so many people that are angry, and so many people that are so upset about so many things. And when Dave and I first stepped out of the job that, well, when I first quit my job at the church, Dave was still working in the engineering field then.

When we started what we call, "Our own ministry," it's not our own. It's God's. God put different things on my heart. And you know, we all say, "God spoke to me". And when I say that, I don't mean to make you think that I'm having this running conversation with God. God speaks to all of us in different ways. And really, mainly how he speaks to us is through a deep knowing. You know. And so God put on my heart that there were three things that we were to be careful to do in our ministry, and that if we did them, God would really bless us. And he said, "Keep the strife out of your life. Be a person of integrity. And do whatever you do with excellence". If you're gonna do it, do it right. Don't ever play games with the money that I put through your hands. Be honest. Do what you say you're gonna do. And don't have strife in your ministry. And don't have strife at home in your family.

Now, strife is bickering, arguing, heated disagreement, and an angry undercurrent. And can I tell you that a lot of churches today are full of strife? Everybody goes on Sunday morning and they smile at each other and say, "Praise the Lord". But there's all kinds of gossip, and bickering, and jealousy, and criticism, and judgment. And God's anointing will not rest on somethin' like that. And I tell ya what, I don't do much that's very fancy. I talk, and it needs to be anointed. I depend on God's anointing to make you wanna sit there and listen to me. Some of you have spent hours now, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, tonight. I mean, you've spent now, like, 8 hours listening to me. And so, imagine how totally boring that would be if God's anointing wasn't on what I'm saying.

You're interested because it's the Word of God and it makes sense to you, and you can literally feel... How many of you, when you listen to the word and it's anointed, you can actually sense it making changes in you while you're hearing it? And to me, this is just, like, I mean, you know, this is, like, better than goin' to the doctor when you're sick. Because here's the thing. We have diseases in our soul that you can't find medicine for. You can't go take a dose of something to get rid of jealousy. You can't go take a pill to get rid of fear. But there's power in the word to deliver us and set us free from all that nonsense. And so I want what I do to be anointed. And I wanna tell you somethin'.

Dave and I don't fight at home and then come in here smiling at you, and me get up here and preach. I will not do that. I will not do that. I don't care what kinda crow I had to eat. I would make things right with Dave before I got up here because I would be afraid to get up here without God's anointing on my life, amen? And this'll take me about 3 or 4 minutes to do, but then we'll close. Genesis 13, verse 7, you're gonna like this. I declare, "You're gonna like this".

All right: "And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle". Now, Lot was Abram's nephew. And Lot would've had nothing if Abram wouldn't have taken him with him when he left Iran. And because God's blessing was on Abram's life, Lot kinda got in on those blessings. So he should've been very appreciative of everything that Abram was doing for him. But now, all of a sudden, there's strife. Not between Lot and Abram, but between their workers and their workers. It would kinda be like if I was out here trying to preach to you, but my team that we brought from St. Louis was in strife here with the venue's team, and there was all kinds of strife goin' on back there.

Well, if I knew about it, I would say, "Get it fixed". I'd send Mike to get it fixed because what's goin' on back there can affect what's goin' on here. And I'm not gonna put up with that. I work too hard for that to happen. And so Abram knew the danger of strife, apparently. And so it says, "Now there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the perizzite were dwelling then in the land [making grass more difficult to obtain]. So Abram said to Lot, 'let there be no strife, I beg of you, between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are relatives'". And look what he does. He says, "Look, the whole land is before you. You pick the part that you want, and I'll take what's left".

Now, who would've done that? I would've said, "I'm takin' this, and you can have what's left". But see, he was goin' the extra mile to make certain that Abram could find nothing to fight with him about. I mean, that Lot could find nothing to fight with him about. Verse 11: "Then Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley," the best part, of course, "And [he] traveled east. And they separated. And Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the [Jordan] valley and moved his tent to Sodom and dwelt there. But the men of Sodom were wicked and exceedingly great sinners". So it sure didn't look like then that Abram had gotten the best end of the deal. Matter of fact, it looked like he had really been mistreated.

Now, c'mon, there's a message in this. Do you ever get in a situation where you feel like somebody took advantage of you, and you feel like you have really been mistreated, and kinda got the short end of the stick? Okay, now, you have two choices. You can get in strife. You can be bitter. You can be angry. You can gossip about them. Or you can do it God's way and you can trust God. And I want you to watch what happened. I'm gonna tell you what. If you will make a commitment to stay peaceful, to get anger out of your life, and to get rid of strife, there is no end to how much God can bless you in your life.

Now, watch: "And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had left him," now, just imagine. He's in this terrible situation. He's been taken advantage of. He's livin' in Sodom, where things are terrible. Lot's out with the best part of the Jordan valley, enjoying himself. "And the Lord said to Abram after Lot left him, 'lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, north, south, east, and west. And all the land which you see I will give it to you and to your posterity forever. Get up, and walk through the land, the length, the breadth of it, because I will give it unto you'". So here he gave up this little best part of the Jordan valley. He stood here for a while in a situation, looking like he'd been mistreated, looking like he'd been taken advantage of. But he's committed to doing things God's way.

"I'm not gonna be in strife. I'm not gonna get into that. I know that's not what you want me to do". And then suddenly, God said, "Okay, now, open your eyes. Look north, south, east, and west, and everything you see, I'll give it to ya". You know what? That's God's promise to you today too if you do things his way. Amen? You're not gonna go forward in God's plan for your life hating somebody from your past that has done you wrong. You're not gonna go forward feelin' sorry for yourself because you think somebody took advantage of you. Let me tell you somethin'. If we do things God's way, there is no devil in hell, and no person on earth, that can take advantage of us and keep us from having God's will in our life. C'mon, give God a big praise.