Joyce Meyer - Don't Believe These Lies - Part 1

TOPICS: Lie

Well, thank you for joining me, today, on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". Today, I wanna teach you about, "What the devil doesn't want you to know". Well, the first thing he doesn't want you to know is that he even exists. And I don't know what your thoughts are, but I know, I went to church for a lot of years, and of course, I heard Satan mentioned and talked about. But I don't think that I had any real, true idea that he was a problem in my life, or that he tried to cause problems in my life. And I think a lot of people, and it seems like more and more today, people don't wanna think that there's a devil, or Satan, or hell.

You know, of course, some people don't even believe in heaven. But, you know, just because something is distasteful to think about, I mean, nobody enjoys thinking about the devil. "Well, there's this entity running around, Satan, the devil, demons, evil spirits that are trying to ruin my life," nobody enjoys thinking about that. But to stick your head in the sand and ignore it, is very dangerous. There are things the devil doesn't want you to know, and one of the first things he doesn't want you to know, is that he exists, that he's real, and that he is a problem. And we need to know his nature. We need to recognize when the enemy is at work. And we need to know that we have been given authority over him, by God, but we have to use it. There's a lot of things that God's given us, that we don't use. And we need to start realizing what all God has done for us, in Christ, and making use of them in our everyday life. Satan is our enemy. "He comes," the Bible says in John 10:10, "To kill, to steal and to destroy".

Now, the name of our TV show, "Enjoying Everyday Life," is actually based on John 10:10, that scripture. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy:" but Jesus said, "I have come", thank God, Jesus came. "I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full". Well, the Amplified Bible says that, "They might have and enjoy life to the full, to its overflowing". Now, you know, you may be walking around and breathing, and maybe, you call that living, but to be honest, that's not really living. That's not the quality of life that Jesus died for us to have. And I spent a lot of years not enjoying my life. And somewhere, along the line, I picked up the idea that God really didn't want us enjoying ourselves either. I don't know what would have made me think that, but it was kind of a weird idea. I felt like I was good, as long as I was working and accomplishing something. But this whole idea of enjoying every single day of my life was like, new to me. And it was so life-changing for me that I just decided to call my TV program that, and, I want you to get this. God wants you to enjoy every single day of your life.

Now, every day of your life is not gonna be "fun". There's work to be done. There's days when we have trials and tribulations, there are people that give us trouble. But really, if we know who we are in Christ, and we know where we're going to spend eternity, we can find a way, if we look for it, to find some joy in every single day of our life, even though it may not be a perfect day. Satan is full of evil. And he is a hater of everything that is good. And we should take time to ponder, really, just how wicked he is. And that he is the source of all evil, everywhere. Boy, have we got some problems in the world today, man, so much hatred, and bitterness, and resentment, and anger, and wars, and fighting. People blame people. And although, Satan works through people, he is the one behind everything that's going on, that's not good. And until we learn to stop hating people, and learn how to recognize the true source of our problems and deal with that, he wins. Because he's managed to hide himself and has people either blaming other people, or even worse, a lot of people blaming God for their problems.

When God is not your problem, God is your answer. I don't like it when we have destructive things happen in the world, and the world calls that an act of God. You know, God is not destroying things. Satan is the destroyer, not God. God is our healer. He's our restorer. He's the one who puts things back together and makes things good. The devil is a liar, period. That's all he does is lie. Actually, the Bible says in John 8:44, "The truth is not in him". But Jesus said, "I am truth". He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life". The Word of God is the truth. You're never gonna know what truth is, if you don't know the Word of God. That's where your victory comes from. You never know that Satan is lying to you, if you don't know what the truth is. John 8:44, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires".

Now, Jesus was talking to wicked people. "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language". Like, my native language is English. Maybe, somebody in Germany, their native language is German. Well, the devil's native language is lie. I think that's very interesting. That's his native language, "For he is a liar and the father of lies". The devil works continually, to deceive people, to get them to believe his lies. And here's a thing that is true, but so amazing. If you believe a lie, even though it's a lie and not really true, it becomes true for you because that's what you believe. There's nothing more important than what you believe. So, take some time and think about what do you believe? Well, you say, "I don't believe the devil's real". Well, you're gonna have a rough time in life because he is gonna walk all over you and take advantage of you, and you're never going to know that it's him.

Maybe, somebody says, "Well, I don't know that I believe there's a God". Well, I feel sorry for you, because where do you think everything came from. God has no beginning. He has no end. He's the alpha and the omega. And to be very honest, to me, of course, I know, maybe, this because I'm already a believer in God, it would take more faith for me to believe in evolution than it does to believe in God. Because the whole "Theory," which is what it is, interesting enough, it's called a theory. The Bible's not called a theory. The Bible is called the Word of God. It's truth. But the whole theory of revolution, I mean, evolution, just makes no sense. Everything came from big bang. Well, where did the band come from? I mean, you gotta find a starting point for everything, and God made everything that we see out of nothing.

What kind of lies do you believe? You won't know, if you don't know the Word of God. For many years, I believed that I would always have a second-rate life because I had been abused sexually by my father. I really thought I was ruined and that no man would ever want me. That I could never really have a good life. I believed that, every mistake I made, that God was mad at me, and that I had to try to do something to make up for that mistake. And so, I felt guilty, pretty much, all the time. I mean, I could even say all the time. I mean, I always felt guilty. I felt like I'd done something wrong, there's something wrong with me. I even like to say now, I didn't feel right, if I didn't feel wrong. If I had a day or two, when maybe, I wasn't feeling real bad about myself, then I felt bad about myself because I didn't feel bad about myself. And that's a lie because the Bible says, "There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ". And that, even though, we do make mistakes every day, we sin, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but all are justified and made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ".

And I made mistakes, but then I would drag yesterday's mistakes into today, and today's mistakes into tomorrow. And the Bible says, we have to, "Let go of the things that lie behind and press on to the things that are ahead". This morning, as I spent time with God, I purposely said, "I let go of all my mistakes of yesterday, today is a brand-new day. I'm going to enjoy this day. I ask you to do good things through me today". And you know what? I am finished looking behind me. If God wanted us, looking behind us, we would have eyes in the back of our head and we don't, we only have eyes in the front of her head. And that means we should be looking forward. And I know that I'm talking to some people, right now, that you are living in the past, you are living in your past mistakes, and the things that you think you missed in the past, and so you think that it's over for you, you're never going to have any kind of life.

But let me tell you something. God is the God of a second chance, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and however many you need, God will never give up on you, if you don't give up on him. Somebody needs to take that as truth, and it will change your life. You don't have to keep dragging around all of your previous mistakes. You can start fresh today. These things that I believed we're not in agreement with the Word of God. They were lies from Satan. But I didn't know they were lies, so they became my reality. What we believe is extremely powerful, I said it again, but I want to say it: I said it before, but I want to say it again. Proverbs 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he". Well, that says it. You know, if I think that you don't like me. Then, maybe, you do like me, but I will never enjoy the benefits if you liking me, because I already think that you don't. Or if I think that whoever's listening to me, share this teaching today, that you don't like this teaching, then, I'm gonna suffer and be miserable thinking you don't like it. When, maybe, you absolutely love it.

Satan is against anything that is for righteousness, for peace, for joy, for love, for generosity. Boy, the devil wants you to be stingy. Compassion, kindness, he vehemently opposes any progress, of any kind, that we're trying to make, in our life. He doesn't want you to make progress financially. Physically, he doesn't want you to get stronger. He doesn't want you to take care of yourself and be healthy. He doesn't want you to have good relationships or friendships. He doesn't want you to study the Word of God and learn who you really are, and what an awesome person you are. We are in a war. The Bible calls us soldiers in the army of God. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds". But guess what? God is on our side. 1 John 4:4: "Little children, you have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world". Wow. "Greater is he, that is in you, than he that is in the world".

Somebody, today, needs to be encouraged. Be God inside minded. When you're born-again, when you receive Jesus, as your Savior, he comes to live in you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God lives in you, and he's for you. The devil may be around you, he's coming against you, but God is for you. And he's in you. "Greater is he, that is in you, than he that is in the world". C'mon, I want you to believe, today, that you've got what it takes to live in victory. Romans 8:35-39, are some of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible. "Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution our peril or sword? Even as it is written, for your sake, we are put to death all the day long: we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter".

Now, let me explain that to you. God loves you. He loves you unconditionally. He will never stop loving you. No matter what you do, right or wrong, God can never love you any more than he does at this moment because his love for you is not based on anything you do, it's based on who he is. And he wants you to have a good life. Now, why do we sometimes look like sheep, being led to the slaughter? Because we do have problems in our lives. We do have trials and tribulations. We do have tragic things that happen. And you might be telling somebody how good God is and how much you're trusting him to take care of you, and they look at you, and think, "Well, to me, your life looks like a mess. You got all these problems. You look like a sheep being led to the slaughter".

Verse 37, "Yet in the midst of all of these things", c'mon, in the middle of all of these things that are happening to you, right now, that are uncomfortable, that you don't like, the Bible says, "We are more than conquerors". Well, what in the world does it mean to be more than a conqueror? I mean, how much better can it get than to be a conqueror? And I've prayed about that, and asked God what it is. And all I can tell you is what, I believe, he told me. I think, the Lord told me, that to be more than a conqueror, means that you know, you have the victory before you ever get the problem. In other words, I know that I'm not gonna live a problem-free life because in John 16:33, Jesus said, "In the world you will have tribulation".

Now, that's truth. Just like God wants to bless you and he want you to have a good life. You're also gonna have problems. Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that you have no problems. It just means that you never have to solve your problems by yourself because God is always on your side, and he's always there to help you. More than a conqueror means that you can live, you don't have to be afraid of the storms of life. You don't have to be afraid of problems, because you trust God so much. You know that you're a winner in life, and that, even though, you go through some very difficult things, and I know there are people watching, right now, and you are going through some very difficult things. But let me tell you, it will come to an end. It will end well. And even the things that are so hurtful and painful to you, right now, Satan means them for harm, but God intends them for good.

And Romans 8, also tells us that, "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose". Verse 37 says, "That we are more than conquerors, right in the midst of all of these things and we gain a surpassing victory through him who loved us". You know, if you wanna have victory, you've gotta be settled that God loves you. Every time you have a problem, you can't be saying, "Well, God, don't you love me"? God is not your problem, he's your answer. "For I am persuaded beyond doubt (i am sure)". Let me ask you. Are you sure that God loves you or are you still going back and forth and back and forth?

"(I'm sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". Don't ever let anything separate you from the love of God. Forty years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I went for a regular checkup, wasn't expecting any problems. Went to get my mammogram. Got a call from the doctor. He said, "They found something on your mammogram that doesn't look right. We need to do a biopsy". Well, I still wasn't concerned. I just thought, "Well, it's not gonna be anything, but go ahead and do your biopsy".

I was fully expecting to get a good report. But I didn't get a good report, you know. Maybe, you're not looking for trouble, but you get some anyway. Well, you may be surprised, but God is not surprised. He knew about it all along, and he's already got a plan for your escape. He's always got a plan. He's already got the answer to your problem. So, they called back and they said, "Well, the biopsy shows that you have a very fast-growing type of cancer. It's estrogen dependent. And so, we need to do a mastectomy".

Well, now, today, they probably would have done it a little bit different. But back in those days, they just took the entire breast. Well, that's pretty traumatic. The first thing that hits you is fear. But you know, one of the things that God spoke to my heart, 'cuz they couldn't do the surgery for 10 days. You know, it's always wonderful when you gotta wait all these days. Waiting is just giving the devil time to lie to you. Because during those ten days, he tried to tell me every kind of lie imaginable from, "I was going to die," to, "I was gonna have to take a bunch of treatment that was gonna make me sick all the time. That I was just going to look terrible. Wasn't gonna be a real woman anymore," and everything you can think of. And God, spoke to my heart, he told me some things he wanted me to say, and to only say those things. And one of the things was, "God loves me".

That's powerful, when you know that God loves you. Don't let anything separate you from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. Now, there were other things, I was to say, "God, I trust you. I believe this will work out for good". Well, it turned out that they took my lymph nodes out, and none of the cancer had gotten to my lymph nodes. So, when I went to the oncologist, she said, "You don't need any more treatment". Well, praise God. Yes, I lost something. But I had some more surgery later, and got things fixed.

And you know what? God has used that, I believe, to help lots of people. Maybe, you have been diagnosed with cancer, and you're dealing with that kind of fear, right now. Well, let me tell you, I just went and got my mammogram, and I have, now, had 40 years of being cancer-free. One of the fears that came on me was, "Well, you know, cancer always comes back". Well, it hasn't come back, and it won't come back. But even if it did, "To live is Christ, to die is gain". Don't let the devil cause you to live in fear all the time of something bad happening to you, because guess what? God is good. And God is on your side. And the devil is a liar and you don't have to listen to anything that he says. Thank you for joining us today, and please join us again, tomorrow.