Finding True Freedom in God

Welcome to Fifteen Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series how to succeed at Being Yourself God created each one of us to be different He knows all of our faults and weaknesses, yet still loves us exactly as we are When we begin to understand God's unconditional love and who we are in Christ, then we can stop trying so hard and just enjoy each moment as it comes Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching The greatest gift that you can give to the world is a healthy you phhysically healthy, mentally healthy, and emotionally healthy. And I believe when somebody doesn't like themselves It's equivalent to being emotionally ill. It's not the way that God wants us to function in this life. You are not supposed to have negative feelings about yourself That's another reason why we have to deal with religious spirits because all they do is make you feel guilty and bad and give you five more rules to follow every time you listen to them and you're already not following all the others. and so all you feel is worse than you did when you went The word that I preach is a strong word and it will bring correction to your life. But when you leave, you will feel better than you did when you came in. And you should. You should not go to church and go out feeling like a rat and a bum and a no good, nothing that will never amount to anything Amen Love the Lord, your God with all your hearts, all mind and strength. loveove your neighbor as you love yourself Now go to first Peter, chapter three These are a couple of our main scriptures Our text for this evening, first Peter, three eleven starts out in verse ten and says, let him who wants to enjoy life Keep his tongue from evil and his lips from guile Well, in our exhortation time, I already talked to you a little bit about that about the importance of what you say about yourself and how important it is to say what God says about you and not just say what other people have said to you or what you think or feel or what the devil's telling you It's evil to speak negative about yourself. Actually when the Israelites were sent out to spy out the land of Canaan So many of them came back and said, we can't do it. There's giants. and you know they're going to defeat us. The Bible says that their report was evil in the ears of the Lord. They gave an evil report When we start talking negative, It's an evil report. And so he says, if you want to see good days, if you want to have a good life and see good days, and the amplified says, good retather apparent or not. So he's saying, even if you have circumstances that should make you miserable, you can see good days. But here's one of the things you have to do. You have to keep your tongue from evil Then he goes on to say Ververse eleven Also, you should turn away from wickedness, shun it and do what's right And then it says you should search for peace seearch for peace And then he goes on to say, and don't merely desire peaceful relationships with God, with yourself, and with your fellow man, but pursue and go after them. So here we see two places. One it says, love yourself. anotherother one says, be at peace with yourself. You need to love God, you need to be at peace with God You need to love your neighbor, you need to be at peace with your neighbor, and you need to love yourself and you need to be at peace with yourself. And I know by the Spirit of God, and I know because of all my years in ministry and I know by my own experience That although everybody in here tonight does not have this problem, there are probably more people here that have this problem than those who don't. And certainly watching by television, there are millions all over the world that you just basically can't hardly stand yourself. And you're in a little private war with yourself all the time, constantly taking an inventory of everything you've done wrong, ever did wrong, every mistake you make every weakness you have. and by doing that, you are just making the devil happier than you can even imagine. Because as long as you let H do that to you, you will never have the life that Jesus died to give you. Some of you need to come to terms of peace with yourself For every mistake you've ever made, you need to ask forgiveness, and then you need to not just ask for it and keep begging for it and begging for it, you need to receive it Receive it. I think a lot of times religious spirits. How many of you know what I mean when I say religious spirits? You know, it's just See are things that seem religious, but they're not necessarily really spiritual. For example Thinking badly about yourself and putting yourself down seemeems humble and religious. Well I'm just no good. You know, I'll never amount to anything. I'm just so blessed that God would even you know accept me at all. And although that's true, the point is is once you receive Christ as your Savior, you're a new creature. You're not that old person you used to be. You're a new creature in Christ And if you're a new creature, why do you want to keep Walking like an old cge. So even when we pray, sometimes we pray just to sound religious I don't you know the guy in Luke eighteen were? The Pharisee, you know, he prayed he said, Oh, God, I thank you that I'm not like this other man Because he doesn't do this and he doesn't do that and he doesn't do this. And then the sinner said, Oh, God, forgive me for I'm just You know, a sinner in the Bible says, he went down and was justified, but it said the other guy, the amplified says, he was praying with and to himself He wasn't even talking to God. He was just talking to admire hisis conversation. And you know what? I have to be honest In the early days of my ministry, especially, God had to teach me this that when I pray in a room like this, I better make sure I'm praying and not just trying to impress you. with fancy sounding words. When we pray, we gott to connect with God, not the audience. Come on And So you know just I mean, just a sincere, simple prayer and then receive it. And see, I think a lot of times what this religiosity, this religious thinking and, you know, religion can be described as What we think God requires, which usually is not what God requires at all You're gonna see as we go through the weekend that, you know, many times we still think that he just wants us to sacrifice everything, including having a happy life and joy. And although the Bible does talk about sacrifices and Losing the lower life to have the higher life and not being selfish and self centered, that doesn't mean you're not supposed to enjoy your life. And it doesn't mean every time you make a mistake, you've got to beat on yourself for the next three weeks But see, it's freedom when you make a mistake and you sincerely repent and then you just go on That doesn't make the devil happy. He wants us to try to pay. By being miserable for a week So what you have to do when you pray is you have to receive. Don't just pray, Oh God, I'm I'm just no good. I just Oh God, forgive me, Oh God, please, please, please, forgive me, God, I'm soorry God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Oh God, I'm sorry, forgive me, forgive me. And then get up the next day, Oh God, forgive me. I'm so sorry, God, I'm so sorry, God, forgive me, forgive me. And you know, we think that sounds , but you know, I've learned and I've studied all this stuff out. I may not give you every scripture and verse for everything I say this weekend, but it's in there, believe me. And in my books and tapes, you can find all that. But you know I've learned when I pray, the Bible says, ask and receive that your joy may be full Ask and receive that your joy may be full So you say, Father, I ask you to forgive me for my sins. I'm sorry that I did that. I know it wasn't the right thing to do. And Lord, I'm not even going to promise I won't do it again because if you don't help me, I probably will do it again So I'm leaning on you, I'm depending on you, and I wantna come up higher. Now I receive your mercy, I receive your grace, I receive your forgiveness, and then I usually just get quiet for a little bit and I just take it in I receive your love I receive a new beginning I receive a fresh start. Thank you, Lur See, now, I can be in right relationship with God, I can be in right relationship with myself. And if I do that, then I can have a right relationship with everybody else too. Do you know how many people are hard to get along with just because they carry a constant burden of guilt all the time? Let me tell you something, someome people are addicted to guilt. I was, I didn't feel right unless I felt wrong Can anybody in the house relate to that Come on, let's kick over some religious cows this weekend Freedom. He whom the son is set free is free indeed Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty We never use our liberty as a license to sin But you don't have to live in a little box that somebody else created for you, always telling you, this is the way you must do everything. And if you don't do it this way, then not only are we displeased, but God is displeased too Do not let people do that to you. You are gonna have to fight your way out of that and you're going have to fight for your freedom And in Galatians five one, it says once you've got it, stand fast, therefore in the freedom Whwith Christ hath made you free, and do not be ensnared again in a yoke of bondage which you have once put off God wants you to enjoy your life Very plain in the Bible John fifteen eleven says it, John sixteen, twenty four says it. John ten ten says it. Jesus came that we might enjoy our lives. And you cannot enjoy your life if you don't enjoy yourself. And I believe the high call on every believer's life is to enjoy God I really believe that that's the high call in our life is just to enjoy God To have a relationship with God and just enjoy him. And you know what, if you are just petrified all the time, that God is mad at you because you're not keeping all the rules. Come on. You know, one person comes to church and says we should pray an hour every day. and the next person comes through and they says we should pray the Lord's prayer an hour every day. and then somebody else comes and says we should intercede four hours a day and you got to do it from five to nine. And then somebody else says you should speak in tongues thirty minutes every day. Now I came tonight and told you you need to confess scriptures out loud every day so And see, the point is we need to do all of those things But you have to be led by the Holy Ghost. If you make a law out of them, And if you want to know the absolute truth, I think there's a little something wrong when we're counting up how long we pray Were another b R. I mean, you got done forty five minutes ago and you haven't said anything that made sense since then 'Cause all you're doing is talking to yourself Trying to sound religious and putting your time in so you can write in your journal that you prayed an hour today I don't know how long I pray Some days I pray five minutes, some days I pray an hour. I don't know. I don't even pay any attention anymore. And I used to be one of those clockwatchers and record keepers, you know. But don't you agree with that? Isn' there something a little wrong with that when we got to count up you know, well, I did this fifteen minutes, and I did this twenty minutes, now I did this ten minutes. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ, Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death Enjoy God It's the high call in your life to enjoy God. I remember all the years that I always just vaguely, vaguely See, the devil likes to put vague fears on us and vague thoughts, not just things that are so blatant that we might catch him, but it's just like this vague little feeling that you're just not quite pleasing God. You ever feel that I mean, you're faithful, you're diligent. you pray every day, but somehow you just got this feeling you didn't do it right. Go on, do you ever feel that? Yeah True joy and freedom comes from knowing we're totally loved and accepted by God. Although we'll never be perfect, we have right standing with God because of Jesus. Therefore, our confidence must be in Christ. Jeremiah seventeen seven says, Most Bessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is By faith and our confidence in God, we can succeed at being all He wants us to be. Most people want to be successful, but what you have to decide is whose definition of success are you going to follow In my new book, The Pathway to Success, I want to walk with you toward a life filled with meaning and purpose the way God sees it God has given everything we need for a life that's fulfilling to us and pleasing to Him. And I want to help you discover it. The pathway to success. Visit joyysmeyer d. org and order your copy today Thank you for listening to fifteen Minutes in the Word with Joyce