Victoria Osteen - Protect Your God-Sized Promises
Just want to encourage you today that you have the power of the living God on the inside of you. Do you ever get tired of hearing that? I don't either, and I think we constantly need to be reminded that God's power lives in us. You see, you're equipped this morning, and I want to announce that. You're equipped for your unique assignment. God has left nothing out that you're going to need for anything that he's called you to do, and not only has he thought about you, I like what Cindy said, that his thoughts for you, his plans for you are good.
See, he thought about us. He knew our assignment, and he put everything in us that we would need, every gift, every talent, our personalities, our dispositions. Everything is just right, and then he did something one step greater. He put his power in us. He put his power in us. See, you have the living God on the inside of you if you are a believer today. So I don't want you to feel ordinary, because we all do. Sometimes it's just an ordinary life. We go to work. We come home. We eat dinner. We do it again. We get up in the morning. We go mow the lawn. We do this, we do, it can feel ordinary. But I want to tell you something. God didn't save you, he didn't call you, he didn't choose you to be ordinary. He called you to be extraordinary, and you got to understand, because you house the living God, you are extraordinary. You're set apart. You're called by God, and he has assignments for you to do.
You see, it's so interesting because sometimes people don't recognize the call of God on our life. They don't understand the call of God. Or like I said, we may feel ordinary. We wonder if we're accomplishing what God even wants us to accomplish. See, so often, we determine the power of God within us by what's going on around us. "You see, if I was maybe doing a little better, if God liked me a little more, this wouldn't be happening". Or "Maybe if I could just get a little closer to God, I wouldn't be going through this trial".
But can I tell you something? That's the way man looks at things. In fact, God told the prophet Samuel, he said, "You're going to anoint the next king of Israel, and I want you to know this one thing about this anointing. You're going to anoint the man that I call, but I don't want you to begin to look for what you think would be the king. I don't want you to look for the man that's the right height, the man that's in a certain position, the man that has the talents that you think would make a good king". He said, "Because I don't look at things that way. That's the way you look at things". He said, "You look from the outside. You respond to life from the outside, but see, I am a God of the inside".
Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. See, you're qualified today because God chose you to be qualified. He looked at your heart and he said, "That's my child". You know what I love about that is that God is the God of second chances. God is always inside of us working from the inside out. He's working on our thoughts. He's working on our actions. He's working all the time. God never sleeps, he never slumbers. He's always at work in the heart of a believer. David said it like this. He said, "You teach me wisdom in my innermost parts. That's where you're speaking to me, God, in my innermost parts".
You see, God communicates with us in our innermost parts, and I want to remind you today that you house the greatest power in the universe. I don't want you to neglect or not protect what's on the inside of you. You're not ordinary, you're extraordinary. You walk with humility because you know the God that you serve, but he hasn't made you like anybody else. He's separated you. So I just want you to get this in your heart today because I think when we realize what we carry, we'll protect what we carry. We'll acknowledge what we carry. We'll allow what we carry to teach us wisdom in our innermost parts. We'll understand that we don't have to react to the boss when he's putting us down, when he's trying to make us feel less than. We can understand that the critics don't have to define us, because God is teaching us all the while in our inmost parts.
I want to just use one of the greatest mothers, since it's mother's day, right? I want to talk about one of the greatest mothers in the Bible. In fact, this mother was the first mother that God lived in, the first mother that God lived in. Her name was Mary. You know Mary. You know the story of Mary. She was the mother of Jesus. She was a young girl. She was about to get married to the man of her dreams. Now, somebody might not think she was anything special if they looked on her from the outside. They could've said, "She's just a girl. She has a lot to learn". But you see, God wasn't looking at Mary's outside. He wasn't even looking at Mary's plans. He was looking at Mary's heart, and he had a unique assignment for Mary.
You see, that's so interesting because God wasn't concerned about Mary's plans. God wasn't concerned that she was about to get married. The invitations were already out. The caterers were coming. The venue was already paid for. You see, he wasn't looking at all that. He was looking at her heart, and he had a special assignment for her. Have you ever been interrupted by God? Well, Mary was interrupted. The angel came to her and announced that she was a highly favored woman and that she would give birth to a son. She said, "How can this be? I'm a virgin. I've never known a man", and he said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and God will empower you to bring forth this son".
You see, that's what happens when you know who you are, you know you got God on the inside of you, he empowers you so you can bring forth the things on this earth that he wants you to do, the plans that he's already established. See, I don't know how it all works, but I can tell you that God is always working. He's always working, and, you know, Mary, instead of giving a lot of excuses, saying, "Can we do this a little bit later? It's kind of inconvenient, God. I've been waiting for this man a long time. You don't know. All my girlfriends got the man of their, I've been waiting for this man a long time". Mary said, "Be it unto me as you said". She literally made a decision that she was going to embrace this seed that God had just planted, the seed of promise, and that she was going to accept it, no matter if it interrupted her plans or not.
No matter how difficult it was, she said, "I'm going all the way with God", and I love that about Mary, and as I was reading the story about Mary, I just want to get to some practical things that Mary did, and I think these things can help us. We've heard them before. But you know, we think that Mary just had it easy. "Oh, Mary, you know, she was chosen by God to have the Son of God. So I'm sure, you know, she had everything she needed". But I can tell you, it was rough? It was rough to birth the promise of God. It was rough to do what God had called her to do. But God said she was favored and highly blessed.
So I guarantee you, she was favored and highly blessed, no matter how difficult it was, no matter how many battles she had to fight, no matter how many times she had to talk herself into it, because God said she was blessed and highly favored, and God says you are blessed and highly favored. You are blessed and highly favored. You may be going through some difficult times right now. Your plans may be interrupted, but I want you to hear that loud and clear. God chose to live in Mary, and God chose to live in you. God chose to live in you. That's powerful, that's powerful. Because Mary fulfilled her assignment and brought fulfillment to the scriptures, God chose to live in his people.
I believe that was a foreshadowing of what God wants to do in the earth. He wants to live in his people. But as soon as Mary accepted that seed of promise, the scripture says that she immediately went to her cousin Elizabeth's house. Now, her cousin Elizabeth was married to a man named Zachariah, and they were promised, even in her very old age, that she would have a baby. She was pregnant with her baby when Elizabeth got there, and when Elizabeth saw Mary, the scripture says that "She immediately began to encourage Mary". She immediately began to speak faith into Mary.
Now, where am I going with this? 'cause, see, that was a long time ago. But let me tell you what I believe God is showing us, one thing he is showing us. When he puts a seed of promise in you, you need to protect that seed of promise. You need to get it into an environment that it can grow. You need to get into a good church, where the people know what God does and they can speak encouragement to your heart because that's exactly where God had Mary go. He had her in an environment where that environment knew the power of God.
You know, it's interesting, and this is just a side note, but I don't know if you all find this as interesting as I did, but the Bible says that Mary was at Elizabeth's house for three months. You know, it's interesting because when a woman gets pregnant, that 12-week period is very crucial. Many times you can miscarry before that 12 weeks. In fact, you know, some people don't even like to announce that they're pregnant until after the 12 weeks because that kind of is a safe zone, and, you know, "Okay, it's probably going to be okay", and I get to thinking, "Isn't that interesting, that God had her there for 12 weeks"?
See, he didn't want her to miscarry this seed. See, he wanted to keep that seed in an environment that it could grow in a strong foundation. See, think about what God said to you. Think about the dreams he's put in your heart. Think about him being on the inside of you. What environment do you put yourself in? Do you let people talk down to you? Do you put yourself in an environment that God wouldn't want to be in? Are you careful? Do you protect it? You see, there were many naysayers when Mary showed up pregnant.
See, she was a virgin, and God did an immaculate birth in her, but the people didn't recognize it. I'm sure they were saying, "Hmm, did you hear about Mary and Joseph? The wedding's off. What's Mary been doing"? But you see, God took her out of that environment, and he put her into a protective environment, and I just want to suggest to you and I today that we begin to put what's in us in a protected environment. It's not easy to birth the promises of God. Listen, Mary had to go out of her way. Mary had to change her plans. Mary had to do some things that maybe a lot of people wouldn't want to do, but Mary was willing to see this thing to the end. It also says that "Mary treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart".
See, that tells me that Mary fought discouragement, that Mary fought the critics, that Mary fought the hardships by pondering all of this in her heart, by just imagining and talking to God about all that was about to happen and all that would happen in the future, and see, that's what we need to do. We need to not just run around telling everybody our problems, not just try to get man to fix us. "Oh, can you help me"? No, we need to ponder what God has spoken to us. Get his word. Build a foundation of truth so that when we go out to birth what God is putting in us, we'll withstand the challenges that are out there.
You know what? This is mother's day, and I just want to honor Mary. I want to just say, "Mary, God saw your heart. You saw it through. You fulfilled the scriptures", and I just honor the fact that God chose Mary among all the women. She was qualified, and can I tell you that God has chose you among all the people, and he's qualified you? He's chose to live in you today, just like he lived in Mary. Protect what he's given you. Birth what he's put in you, and I believe you'll see God do the impossible, just like Mary did, amen? Amen, he's an awesome God.