Deal with Rejection-Joyce Meyer

began to realize that I had many many many problems in my soul that were left over from the abuse in my childhood you see very often if we're in a circumstance it's hurting us or maybe as a child you grew up in a situation where you were being hurt maybe you weren't given love and attention maybe you had a lot of verbal abuse some some angry person telling you no good all the time or always finding fault with you and saying critical things to you you'll never amount to anything why can't you be like your brother why can't you be like your sister whatever it is that angry people say or maybe you were sexually abused like I was by your dad your mom somebody else in the family a neighbor maybe was one or two times maybe it was many years like what I went through maybe you were physically abused I know people that were locked in closets denied food beaten unmercifully because they had mentally ill parents or angry parents it's amazing the horrible things that people do to other people but one thing that has really helped me is to remember that hurting people hurt people hurting people hurt people I don't think there's very many people who just get up every day and think well I'm just gonna see how many people I could make miserable today I really think that people many times are acting out of their own pain and what Satan wants of course is for someone to hurt us and then for us to be angry and bitter and resentful have a chip on our shoulder spend our life feeling sorry for ourselves get into all kinds of addictive behaviors and then spend our lives hating somebody else and hurting somebody else so they can then turn around and do the same thing and then there it goes from generation to generation to generation but I'm here to announce good news to you tonight that if you've been hurt in the past it does not have to go beyond you to anyone else you have the privilege of speaking the name of Jesus and believing in the power of to not only completely heal you and make you just as if it never happened to you but to never let it go on to anybody else in your generation and that is wonderful good news amen give God a big player in those early years I needed so desperately to believe the promises of God as I was trying to study this and and walk it out in my life I'm not going to tell you that if you've been hurt really bad and you've got a big mess in your soul your mind is messed up your emotions are messed up you don't know how to make right decisions maybe you want to be in control of everything or maybe you've become real passive and you don't want to make any real choices you just kind of float through life and wait to see what's going to happen day after day it's going to take some time and some diligence and some study and some prayer to walk out this healing that is yours by virtue of the blood of Christ well we have legally as a gift from God we have to learn how to apply experientially in our everyday life and sometimes people get confused because they say well but you said Jesus set me free well then why am I not free you said I'm healed by the stripes of Jesus so why am I still in a mess you said that he would give me beauty for Ashes but why is my life still falling apart because all of those things are they do belong to every one of us every person watching my TV you've ever been hurt anybody's ever abused you misused you you've been abandoned you've been betrayed you had peers in your life and make fun of you you've been rejected whatever it is and you're emotionally wounded right now you're you're what I would term a broken hearted person the good news is is Jesus has already set you free he has already sent you free now pirate part of my job as a teacher in the body of Christ is to teach you how to walk out of those prison doors that all those prisons that already have open doors to teach you to see what's yours and to believe it enough to reach out and begin to put it into action in your life it's a wonderful journey absolutely amazing wonderful journey how many of you think you understood what I just said at least to some degree okay and it helps to understand that because then you're not wondering well well if I'm a slave what's wrong with me well you know you can be saved but maybe you haven't renewed your mind yet I was saved but I mean my mind was a garbage pit I didn't know how to think right I was critical and judgmental and suspicious and angry and and many of my thoughts were dark and lonely and I didn't know that every time I read this I was learning how to think different if we know how valuable this is we'll spend a lot more time in it than just a few seconds a day maybe on a good day amen my emotions were a mess I didn't know how to get along with people I was just I was a nightmare in relationships and my will was messed up I went from one extreme to the other I either had to be in control or if I got to some run somebody stronger than me then they would control me so I would bounce back and forth from being control to being in control and being controlled to being in control and that's not the way that God wants us to live and I'm kind of giving you a little picture of some of the problems that I had because I want you to know that even though I was saved and going to heaven I was miserable because I needed healing in my soul in just a moment but first we have a guest today who really understands what Joyce is talking about he endured pain for a long time due to abuse in his life until he discovered choices he needed to make to experience freedom Tony Gilmore is here with us pastor Tony thank you so much for being here I know that as Joyce is talking about those those hurts and those choices that we have to make and and facing things that hurt so badly in her childhood that you really understand that totally a you know growing up in the household with a mother who suffered from a bipolar disorder there were some pretty sketchy days you know I remember a particular incident at the age of 14 coming home from school arms of freshman and walking in the door and my mother hadn't been on her medication she comes barreling out of the kitchen with the butcher knife and the yells I brought you in this world I'll take you out you know as a 14 year old having no real idea of what the disorder was doing to her I've run out of the house and it would be begin to be a series of times where I would actually run away from home just to be safe until my dad got home from work so it was it was pretty scary yeah how did that shape the way you saw yourself you know it caused me to begin to live with the mindset of trying to please her I begin to think that I could control what was going on with her if I was a better patty yeah if I could keep her happy and so it started a series of mindsets that would cause me to make decisions to not only please her but live to be a people pleaser for everyone I was around and so it shaped how I would be probably for the next 16 years or so yeah at what point did you begin to just be angry you know just feel like if you had treated me differently maybe I wouldn't be suffering the way that I am or maybe I wouldn't be having these problems you know it's interesting as a teenager you you can't even think in those terms I was just angry with everyone and I didn't know until I had become an adult how angry I was at my mother and so I saw every person as an opportunity or an adversary if you would to my future and so everything I did was self-preservation I honestly believed that that day at the age of 14 when my mom came in and threatened my life I stopped living and started surviving and so everything I did was just to survive that they or the moment or whatever I was walking through and you talk about suffering that really is suffering there's no joy in a life like that there's no hope there's no promise it was interesting because the feeling of abandonment even though she was right there in front of me was something that you know a young man needing the love of a mother there's there's nothing like that and to have that as a void in your life well let's just say it would cause a series of decisions and events for the next 16 years that would leave me at a place where I almost wanted to take my own life yeah I was interesting I was saved at the age of 21 but it would take nine years for me to get free going to church service listening to messages but there was a compartment in my heart that I held captive from God but I was actually I give it my life to him but I only part of it yeah it was at 30 that I made the decision okay I'm giving you everything was it because that that pain was too much to face that you didn't want to give that to him or was it because it you didn't have the trust to do that why do you think we hold things back I would say both I would say that I didn't trust him enough to share those intimate details which is crazy when you think of it he knows it all but in my human thinking I was like no I can't let God know this part and then the pain was so real and I was afraid to face the pain because looking back at the was so terrified that all I could think to do was to continue to try and just mask it by acting certain ways and just living life as if it didn't happen but it would always creep up if even ever had a couple of months where I thought I was okay it would always find its way back anyway it had a destructive pattern in my life and at the age of thirty I was like now it's enough yeah so I went to a Christian counselor and you know I mean in my community where I grew up counseling was like okay what's wrong with you you something's really wrong with you that you're going to counseling but I made the decision that I wanted to be free so I found a Christian count whatever attack whatever it took yeah she had me do something unique she asked me because at the age of twenty my mother had actually passed so you fast forward those ten years she said I want you to write a letter to your mother and I want you to sit down and talk to your father and in that letter I said everything to my mom that I was too afraid to say why did you do this to me why were you this way and at that moment I experienced the level of freedom that I didn't even think was possible I remember sitting and talking to my dad and saying to him why didn't you protect me you knew everything that was going on and he apologized in that moment and I said these words to both of them in the letter to my mom and to in the conversation like that I forgive you how hard was that it was so hard because I was saying something in that moment that my heart wasn't really sold out too but I was making the decision that day because I realized something that my unforgiveness wasn't holding my mother in prison who's no longer here or my father in prison it held me in prison and I was ready to be free so in that moment every time I thought came back of unforgiveness I would confess I have forgiven them they have no debt towards me I have fully released some of it for me it was one thought one action one day at a time and eventually great I was totally free and had been free for the past 16 or so years from that moment so there were steps it that you had to take yeah I mean God walks you through it he never leaves us but he does ask us to face some hard things he does so for you it was getting help yeah it was emitting what you were dealing was right forgiveness was it also taking some responsibility for what you needed to do well that was the one thing that God pointed out to me in my time with him during that moment when I was thirty is now it's time to stop blaming you can no longer blame your mom's illness you can no longer blame your dad for not being there the way you wanted them to because you're a grown up now and the decisions that you've made have been your decisions and ginger if I can say there was one thing that totally shifted the trajectory of my life it was saying these were my decisions these things were my fault and I am no longer a victim to life yeah at that moment I begin to walk life out in such a way that I took control by the power of God and he has drastically changed everything over the past 16 years since then and there are a lot of people watching right now who you need to do that also as hard as it is and it has to be so default when the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of change or however that phrase goes you will get to a place where you're ready to do something different and that's where I was and what I didn't realize was on the other side of all of the things that I wasn't willing to face there was a destiny there was a peace there was a joy that I never thought was possible in my life and now I have made the commitment with my life to make sure that everybody I come in contact can experience the same thing that I've experienced yeah thank you so much this is my pleasure we really appreciate it because what pastor Tony is saying is exactly what we all need to face if you're asking that question why do I continue to suffer you need to ask those same questions and decide are you at that point where you're ready to do whatever it takes to allow God to walk you through it I wish to die every single day I felt like I belonged to nowhere I wanted to die my mom was teaching in Los Angeles I never knew who my father was my grandparents decided to take over custody meanwhile my dad sneaking off to the bathroom to shoot heroin at church God wasn't real to me my aunts and uncles did not care for me at all it wasn't a day that didn't go by where I was either getting tossed around knives being pulled your mom didn't want you and that's why we had that take you in I was just tired of feeling like I was an accident my dad gave me my first line of cocaine he started becoming a very bad evil man he molested my sister on several occasions tried to molest me when I was 12 my aunt's told me to admit that lived in front of us and I began to start cutting cocaine I would overdose ecstasy drink bleach death this is when I became very suicidal I just rather be dead what I said was God if you want me to live you're gonna have to do it because I can't don't have the strength to pull myself out of this I was really crying after that house I got if you're not gonna let me go then you're gonna have to help me the next day that's when I seen Nancy on TV and with CeCe Winans mercy was different because it was their patience their willingness not to give up on me mercy wants the girls to feel like they have the best of the bet I think the best lessons that I learned at Mercy were one that I'm not bad that I have a hope you know I didn't have any before I wanted to die mercy is not a typical place you're gonna see lives changed hope renewed you're gonna see that I believe I'm a living testimony I believe I am well Nancy those stories are absolutely amazing and the great thing is is they're their stories of real-life people that are being restored God is taking what Satan meant for harm and he's actually working it out for their good and the good of many other people in the kingdom of God I found in Isaiah something that just absolutely was so so important to me when I was in my time of recovering is something I love to share with people that says that God will give us double reward for our farmer trouble just think about that double for your trouble I wonder how many people are watching today how many how many are out there right now and you would love to have double for your trouble you're tired of having trouble trouble trouble and you would love to be one of the ones that would like to have double blessing for your farmer trouble well you can because the promises of God are for you therefore whosoever will but it's not always an easy road tell us to help others she's a trophy of God's grace she yeah yeah when God's grace comes into our life and we learn how to receive that and it does have to be received and it has to be received by faith it's something that God puts in your heart and I believe even today is people watch there's hope that's trying to shine into some people's hearts and I just really want to encourage you to go ahead and just take that chance that yes this same kind of good thing could happen to you it doesn't have to just be stories that you hear about everybody else's life although those are very good and powerful because they give us hope but I want you to go ahead and believe and even say right now if God can do anything for anybody God can do something for me would you do that right now if you're a person that's in need and you're watching this program come on this is for you today God's got this on for you if God can do anything for anybody God can do something for me I believe if you get hold of that that you're on your way to double for your trouble a man for God is not surprised by anything no that happens in our life and actually before it happens he's already got a solution that is cut away to undo it before it ever happens God's already got away for it to be turned around and all we really have to do is believe him and I want you to believe right now that you're not forgotten no matter who you are no matter where you're at in the world today you are not forgotten and I believe the Spirit of God prompted you to turn this program on today just to give you that word that you are not forgotten maybe you've been praying about something for a long long time and you feel like God's not hearing you God hears you God's got a plan for your breakthrough we're going to take a short break and when we come back well once again Nancy it's just amazing how God is restoring lives through the power of God and His Word and every year for 28 years 29 years we've had a women's convention in st. Louis it's the only convention that we have that we say is just for women although occasionally we have a man threatened to put on a dress and come in anyway and you've been at a large majority of those probably the last 20 years and this year you're going to be our speaker or one of our speakers I don't know why it took me so long to invite you but I guess just needed to wait for the right subject and this year we're doing the whole conference on restoration and I am so excited about that whole thought that there's nobody that's beyond God's reach and if God can do anything for anybody God can do something for me and so tell us a little bit about some of your experiences what the woman's can sing the things really can happen in people's lives through the Word of God you know I've been thinking as we've been talking today and you know a lot of people know my story but I'm sure there's people watching that don't and just for what happens to people but the good news is is there would have been many times in my life where I would have wished to have been a different person I wonder how many people are out there right now thinking I wish that I could just have a whole new identity just wipe out everything and just have a whole new identity but the truth is is I did get a new identity their past they can choose to be forgiven they can choose to forgive you know I really even like to say it like this Nancy I don't think that our healing is completely complete right until we are reaching out with that healed part of us to help someone else absolutely I've got a little three word phrase hurt healed ready to help everybody gets hurt mm-hmm anybody who wants to can be healed through a relationship with Jesus Christ but then we need to take that next step which is an act of our will to now let this wonderful thing that God's done in our life be a shining light to give hope to other people and that's really all we're trying to do here today you know it's not about us it's not about just the girls at Mercy it's not about just me this this program is on for you we're here for you and for maybe somebody you know that's hurting and we do want you to come to the Women's Conference this year and every year but first Joy's teaches on hope in a broken world Bible hope is a positive expectation that something good is about to happen at any moment in my next on enjoying every day life I called this if it's broken God can fix it I started one day just running references on the word restoration and you know to restore something means to make it new again our even to make it better than new again and I I like I kind of like that idea because you know when you buy something brand new it's like there's just like there's no scratches no nothing I mean they just you just think you just want to sit there and look at it but when you have a piece of furniture that's maybe 20 years old refurbished it still is just gorgeous but it might have a little nick here or a little chip out somewhere else but to be honest if we look at those pieces of furniture like our lives I think those little Nicks and chips are what give us character if it's a piece of furniture it actually makes it a little more interesting kind of wonder what all it went through in its life to get to that position I think that we learn from every one of our mistakes every single mistake that we make we learn from it and that's what gives us character how many of you believe that you have learned and grown spiritually through the hard things that you've gone through in life it also means to get an overhaul maybe somebody's here tonight you don't need a little repair you need a whole overhaul means to repair the fix to rebuild or to rehab but then the article that I was reading said but the Bible definition that what the Bible is trying to convey about restoration is this to receive back more than you lost I chose a good news message tonight a final state better than your original condition Wow God blesses people for their faith by giving them more than they had before and I've said this many times but I'm sure there's some people here tonight that probably feel the same way I don't know how to work this out to where it makes any sense but I actually believe that I have a better life and I'm a better person because of what I went through in my childhood then I would have if I would have had this nice wonderful life you know have you ever been hurting and you're trying to talk to somebody about your pain and it's obvious they don't have a clue what you're talking about because they've never went through anything and you can tell because they're busy wanting to say something but it's never what you need to hear there's nothing that I eighths me more when somebody starts preaching one of my own sermons back to me and I and I get well you know you saying here's anything come on practice what you preach and but when you when you've been hurt when you've gone through something really really difficult and somebody comes to you for help there's a whole new level of understanding and a whole new level of compassion that you can't give to anybody if everything is just a theory in your head and nothing that you've ever had to put to practice in your life so sometimes when God could you could get you out of something faster but he doesn't one of the reasons he lets you go through things is to equip you and qualify you to actually be in his service and have the credentials to actually help people now we're gonna look at Deuteronomy 33 through five in the message Bible and I may read this twice this is so good God your God will restore everything you lost he'll have compassion on you he'll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places you were scattered no matter how far away you end up God your God will get you out of there and bring you back till the land that your ancestors once possessed it will be yours again he will give you a good life and make you more numerous than your ancestors were there's a couple of parts of this I really like God your God will restore everything that you have lost everything is everything it's not everything except your thing and he'll come back no matter how far away you are he will come back and he'll find you and he'll collect you and he'll bring you back to his heart and he'll restore everything in your life that has been broken the Bible says that God gives us beauty for Ashes that he heals the brokenhearted maybe there's somebody here tonight that you need restoration from a broken heart somebody's hurt you wounded you a broken relationship somebody did something to you that you would have never ever ever believed that that person would have done to you and right now you feel like you could never trust anybody again let me tell you something don't ever let what one or two or three or four or five mean people do to you get you into an area where you distrust every person out there it's miserable for you and it's not fair to them Isaiah 61 7 boy when I was going through the healing process with God from my sexual abuse from my father I hung on to this scripture man I hung on to this this was one of my favorite go-to scriptures when I felt like I couldn't make it one more day Isaiah 61 7 instead of your farmer shame you will have a double portion and instead of humiliation your people which was shout for joy over their portion therefore in their land they will possess double what they forfeited and everlasting joy will be theirs I call it when you hang out with God you get double for your trouble I mean so I remember the shame I remember the humiliation the hiding the feeling like I was always so different than everybody else but you know what those things now I have to really try to go back and remember them because God has given me such an amazing life and such an amazing opportunity to help so many people and so the devil thought he was winning but actually he gave me equipment to go around the world and help everybody else now let's talk about hope for a minute hope is a great motivator it's amazing if you get out of bed hopeless you don't do anything but if you have even just a couple of drops of hope it'll help you keep putting one foot in front of the other it'll just help you keep going and the devil does not want us to have hope he wants us to be hopeless and one of the things he wants you to think is that you've made mistakes that can never be corrected you've messed up relationships that can never be corrected you've done things that can never be forgiven you've just been sick far too long to ever really get a healing you've had money problems for so long you've just given up and said well I guess I'll just always have money problems but tonight God wants you to stir Hope up in your heart again and I hope hope is not just one I hope that's not what hope is Bible hope is a positive expectation that something good is about to happen at any moment in my I'm gonna say I'm gonna say it again because this is dynamite if you can take this home with you and live this everyday the devil will not be able to defeat you I don't care what happens he can come against you one way and flee before you seven ways hope hope is a positive expectation it's something good it's gonna happen at any moment in your life and you said well what if I go to bed tonight nothing good happen well then get up the next morning and start all over again [Applause] you let the devil know that you're not gonna shut up until he goes away so Zechariah 9 12 talks about being prisoners of hope well we know what a prisoner is a prisoner is somebody's locked up in a place that he can't get out of so I would assume then a prisoner of hope it's somebody who's locked up with hope and they can't get away from it and here's what it says return to the stronghold of security and prosperity oh you prisoners of hope today I am declaring to you that I will restore double your farmer prosperity to you as the firstborn among the nation's so we've got scripture after scripture after scripture that says that God will give us double blessings for our farmer trouble but that's if we do things his way amen you know there's a lot of things in our lives that we do not understand and I just kind of got a hold of this a few weeks ago and I actually shared that a couple weekends ago I was preaching at Lakewood Church in Houston and I shared it but it's too good to pass up here I don't know why I never noticed that but I didn't until recently and I was listening to somebody who called attention to it you know there's so many things we don't know and we get so bothered by the stuff we don't know we worry about it we try to figure it out we answer other people we try our best to figure out all the things that we don't know and most of the time we only get ourselves more confused in Romans 8:26 it says we don't even know how to pray as we ought to we do not know everybody say we do not know we do not know how to pray as we ought to so the Holy Spirit comes along and prays through us with utterings and groanings yeah we don't even know how to hardly get out of our mouth I guess that's one of those [Music] but the very next verse says but we do know see verse 26 we don't know we don't even know how to pray our situation is so messed up we don't even know how to pray we don't know but we do know that all things work together for good to [Applause] those who love God and are called according to his purpose so here's my question for myself and for you why don't we talk more about what we do know than what we don't know I don't know why I'm in the mess I'm in I don't know why I was abused as a child I don't know why I was 62 and I've never had a date I don't know yeah well a lot of giggles so you must have needed it but see hope now if your person of hope and you're 62 and I've never had a date you may meet somebody in this building tonight [Applause] because there might be a 63 year old man here anyway I better get back on course we know that God loves us we know we're gonna go to heaven and we're gonna live for eternity we know we're not going to hell [Applause] we know that Jesus is coming back soon and very soon and we know that all things work out together for good we don't know but we do know so why not focus more how about in this year 2018 you focus more on what you do know than what you don't know and I think you'll have a much better year so God restores our hope he's always ready to give us hope back a favorite scripture of mine is Romans 15:13 may the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing through the experience of your faith that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in his promises he is the god of Hope and nobody can take your hope away from you if you won't give it up I really like this next one some of you will appreciate it more than others but you'll know who you are the minute I start talking God promises to restore our youth [Applause] now come on I mean at least if you're 50 or more you love that maybe if you're 40 and if you're 20 you're putting and going to the next subject but let me tell you something you may be 20 now and I may be 75 but someday you're gonna be 75 and don't think for a minute that you won't if the Lord tarries every year you get a little older every year gravity takes a little more effect and one of these days you're gonna look in the mirror and all the stuff that used to be up here you're going to have all gone down there and that's when you learn to dress to hide things Psalm 103 236 bless affectionately praise the Lord O my soul and don't forget all of his benefits it forgives your sins and he has all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit who crowns you lavishly with loving-kindness and tender mercy who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the soaring eagle [Applause] and then and I love this from Paul 2nd Corinthians 4:16 therefore we do not become discouraged spiritless disappointed are afraid though our outer self is progressively wasting away yet our inner self is being progressively renewed day by day so what's that really telling me that's telling me that old is an attitude more than it is a number of years so let me just give you a few hints I guess I'll talk to the ladies first don't reach a certain age and then decide you have to start dressing old [Music] [Applause] now I you know I don't think if you're sixty you need to go around trying to dress like you're 12 or 16 but you I hope I don't get myself in trouble doing this but you you can go into a department store my son did this to me one day he took me shopping and he said okay now I want I want you to watch this mother he said you can shop in all these areas any of these areas you can shop in but he said now I want you to notice what starts to happen here and you can see it everything becomes a little more boxy it becomes a little more I don't know just older looking he said mother you may never shop in that part of the story you may only shop over here see they all things are trying real hard to hide how old I am but I tell everybody anyway so don't talk old I'm told everything is falling apart everything hurts I can't do that now I'm too old keep a sense of adventure the older you get the more determined you oughta be to try something new every once in a while come on just get out of the box and do something new I don't even care if you drive to work a different route at least at least it'll be something new you know if you if you wear black socks every day of your life or get to try some Brown lines do something there's something to scare yourself how many of you know that old is a mindset you just you keep a young mind you keep a young soul and actually your body will perform better if you do that the older you think the older you're gonna look and the more you talk about it the more other people are going to agree with you [Laughter] so God restores our youth I like that I really like that fathers there's anybody here who needs their youth restored especially to have a youthful attitude if they've gotten a sour attitude an old attitude give up attitude I pray that you would give them a brand-new fresh attitude tonight and they would be young on the inside in Jesus name Amen well you can see more of Lisa's story on our website and YouTube you know anything that's broken in your life God can fix it that means that whoever you are or whatever you've been through it's never too late because Jesus loves to make all things new we're offering you a book today that I wrote that I think is just see just to get up out of your discouragement and have a brand new beginning and you're gonna be a winner in life and have all that God wants you to have god bless you and have a wonderful day well no matter what's happened in life there's no excuse to stop and park on our journey with God there's still time for us to be all we can be for his glory I hope today you'll be encouraged to move past any pain that has caused you to settle and not seek the fulfillment of your goals and later we're going to chat with my special guest Pastor John Gray and discuss ways that we can move beyond pain and go after our goals all right how many of you see my sign that's the title of my message tonight no parking at any time some of you have had your life--and park for way too long and it's time to get it out of park put it in here and put Jesus in the driver's seat and get going we're gonna start with Genesis 11 and verse 32 and Terah took Abram his son lot the son of Haran his grandson and Sarah his daughter-in-law her son Abraham's wife and they went forth together to go from her the Chaldees into the land of Canaan but now you know that word always creates a problem always you can see that they started out for somewhere but when they came to her ran they settled there they settled I've come to kind of despise that word because I think far too many people settle they settle for a life that's so much less than what Jesus wants to give them they settle for sand at a job that they can't stand just because they'll make a few more dollars there than they would if they went and did what they really loved they have a dream for their life they have a goal and it gets a little tough it gets a little hard and so they settle and how many women even settle for a guy that they know is not really right but they're just kind of desperate and afraid they'll never have anybody so they get themselves into another mess that lasts for a lifetime because they didn't want to wait for the right thing and I think it's time that we stopped settling and we start going all the way through with God all the way through to the place where we start out to go when we get started wouldn't it be kind of foolish if we started this conference and halfway through decided well but it's been enough we worked hard enough this weekend we just we were just kind of settle right here and not finish the rest of it you'd all think we were about half crazy but yet people do that all the time in their lives and then verse 32 says and this is the part that I think is really important and Terah lived 205 years and Terah died in Haran so actually here's the thing that I've learned he started out to go to Canaan but he settled in Iran and he died were settled he died where he settled now you might keep breathing but if you settle for less than what's really in your heart those are gonna be something in you that's gonna die something in your soul is gonna sour and give up because we all all of us if you're a Christian God has put a desire in you to not be mediocre to be all you can be to be excellent and to do something worth doing other than just walk it around the planet and just breathing and taking up space amen but it takes a little bit of courage doesn't it he died where he said well years ago when I was first well really at that time all I had was a home Bible study in my home and I was getting ready to ghost look to a little it wasn't a Bible College thing but it was a three night a week thing at my church where you we were gonna learn more about the Bible they called it the elijah program and somehow somewhere during that time i got really tired and worn out we had kids and we're trying to do all this stuff and one night i had a dream and i dreamed that I was driving in my car and I saw a bridge up ahead and there was a little bit of water covering the bridge it wasn't a lot of deep water but it was it was some water that was gonna make it a little bit difficult to drive through and I noticed that people were some were turning around going back in the other direction a lot of people were pulling off to the side and parked and so I pulled off to the side and park and I kept in my dream I would look at the bridge and the water and then I'd look me and that I'd look at the bridge then I'd looked behind me I was trying to make a decision about whether to go on or to turn back and when I woke up immediately God showed me what the dream meant he said in life and on this journey that I've called you on there's going to be lots of places in the road where you can pull off to the side and park but you can also decide to go all the way through and finish your journey and I'm going to tell you some of you have pulled off to the side of the road of life and you have parked somewhere it's time for you to get it in here and get going again because God gives dreams and he doesn't take them back they're still there waiting for you there's still time for you to be all you can be the best person that you can be the greatest person that you can be and you can do that for God's glory amen now God promises us healing and restoration and we're gonna talk fair amount about that this weekend you know we cannot always avoid the pain that won't wounds us but we can choose to not let it ruin the remainder of our lives many people in here have been hurt some very badly and some of you have done some really bad things in your life and I think that a lot of times people park at the point of their pain how many people get hurt by their parents and they never really ever get over that you might have somebody who was adopted for whatever reason their parents didn't want them they weren't able to keep them or let's just take it to the extreme they didn't want them they didn't want them and they can spend their whole entire life my whole life trying to recover from that and many of you know Chris Kane's story and you know I don't want to get into whatever she might be gonna share in her messages but even if I do she'll share it better than me you know she found out when she was what 30 33 that she was adopted she never knew that and make a long story short she finally got ahold of her birth certificate and her birth certificate said unwanted and unnamed unwanted an unnamed and looking her now look at what she's doing now she didn't park at the point of her pain my father sexually abused me for as many years as I could possibly remember I didn't park at the point of my pain I decided I was gonna go ahead and have a life I remember meeting a woman in a restaurant in Utah and soon as she saw me and recognized me she wanted to tell me her story and so she's telling me how bad things are and how bad things have been and she said I tell you Joyce life has just thrown me under the bus I said you know what it did me too but I decided to drive it come on I'm here starting to shape some of this stuff off it's time to stop just living your life with a chip on your shoulder acting like everybody owes you something because you went through some pain there's no doubt if you've been hurt you are owed something but I'll tell you what God is the only person that can pay you back nobody else can and as long as you're trying to collect from the wrong people you are going to be miserable and stay miserable God is in the business of healing and restoration your entire life does not have to be ruined because somebody hurt you way back when or last week or last night or and even if you did some terrible things there are people sitting in here tonight and I'm sure people watching by TV they like Miss Shepard you you've done something wrong and you're hiding it you're hiding from it maybe you didn't hit somebody with your van and run off but it could you maybe maybe you hurt somebody maybe you're in prostitution maybe you had several abortions and now you wish that you wouldn't have done that you know regret is pretty much useless we can be sorry for the things that we've done but then we need to receive our forgiveness and we need to go on I mean living with regret will just suck the life right out of you amen and if you've done wrong things in the past and you're still holding that against yourself it's time for you to say I am gonna shake that off I am gonna you know when I think about sometimes the things that were done to me when I was a child to be honest at this point I feel like I'm thinking about somebody that I used to know a long long time ago it's like that's that's so much not me or I don't sit around I mean now sometimes it'll come back to my mind and I have to decide no been there done that not going back there but you you have to make decisions you can't just go by what you feel all the time God promises to heal and restore this is such a great scripture for I will restore health to you and I will heal your wounds says the Lord because they you know let's stop for a minute and talk about they it is amazing how much value we put on what they think and what they say and what they do and one day several years tho I got to thinking who are they we let them run our life and we don't even know who they are they have called you an outcast it doesn't matter what they call you it's what God calls you that matters saying this is iron hood of no one seeks after and for whom no one cares I love something 2710 even though my mother and father have forsaken me the Lord will take me up and adopt me as his own child hallelujah acts 9 34 and Peter said to him and he is Jesus Christ the Messiah now makes you whole I love the little amplification that the amplified bible puts in places like this he does it now and I want to say to you tonight the Lord Jesus Christ now makes you whole you don't have to go home full of holes bleeding anymore tonight you can make a decision to receive God's love and healing and restoration and you can go home whole you don't have to stay parked at the point of your pain and ruin the rest of your life well I'm getting ready to say something and I want you to make your mind up before I say it that you're going to believe it so here it comes Jesus wants to make you whole and he wants to do it starting right now choose to receive his love his healing and his restoration don't stay parked in your pain and settle for less than the best that God has for your life today I have a special guest Pastor John a lot of my testimony I guess probably some of you haven't but I'm not going to retell it again about the sexual abuse from my dad but it was a long long long long time lots of years not an occasional thing all the time was an awful awful awful mess and so I was pretty broken by the time I left home and I like to tell this because I think a lot of people do this I thought when I left home that the problem was over I thought I left the problem but the thing was I took it with me in my soul I got away from being abused anymore but I still had the mess inside of me and I looked ok on the outside but boy was I messed up inside and there's so many people even in the church like that because a lot of people turn to God because they are hurting and then we just kind of get together in our churches and just hurt each other and you know we need to learn to let people heal and to let people be honest and to let people talk without judging them and to to not tell their secrets to be able to listen to what somebody says and not go blabbing it everywhere Amen we need to be able to trust people but so I left home and I married the first guy that showed any interest in me because I was afraid that nobody would ever want me and this is the part of the story that for some reason I don't really ever tell it's not that I mind to tell anything as you know I'll tell my business yours you know I tell Dave I wasn't married to him I couldn't even preach I tell his stuff all time yeah so I married this first guy that came along and he said he loves me neither one of us knew what love was he had probably more problems than me if that was possible and you know people with problems very often marry other people that are all messed up and so he was a car salesman and back then I don't know if they still do this or not but if somebody bought a car and they had one like they wanted in another state they would pay somebody from there to drive that car to where the person was I don't know now if they just truck everything around but he was gonna drive a car to Albuquerque New Mexico and he was gonna and then we were gonna live there and he was gonna work as the car salesman there so we drove this car to Albuquerque and after 30 days he just didn't come home one night we were actually living in a motel he just didn't come home just left me there 18 left in Albuquerque no money what am I gonna do now so I didn't want to call my dad and asked for help because I knew what that would mean and so I finally found a friend that sent me 75 dollars to buy a bus ticket and had to leave most of what I had which really wasn't anything anyway and came back home well I was just dumb and so every time he would come back and tell me he was sorry I'd take him back come on we got any other dumb women in here every time come on I mean I can't even tell you how many times I did that he'd come back home I love you I missed you so much I was so wrong and you know I I was in a bar the other night and I heard him playing this song and it reminded me of you and I realize how much I missed you and I would just you know because I was so desperate for anybody to love me come on desperate people do goofy stuff and so I'd take him back again well then the next trip we made was to California Oakland California anybody here from Oakland okay well so we were we lived with some car salesman guy friend of his out there for about two weeks next thing I know he disappears again this disappears again now I'm out in Oakland California I'm 18 and a few months now I guess and so I got a job and I lived in a in a one-room apartment Motel type thing and I'd walk to work walk back walk to work and walk back and finally got another bus ticket came back home left all my stuff out there what I mean came back home every time I came back I'd have to go live with somebody that I knew well so finally toward the end of our five-year I can't call it a marriage because it it didn't even remotely consider that but toward the end of the five years that we were married I got pregnant had my son David who's sitting down here tonight with my lovely granddaughter and his lovely wife and my lovely grandsons running around here somewhere and I named him David which was not that guy's name but it was the name of the guy that God had for me [Applause] you don't have to take a detour and so while I was pregnant I want you to get this while I was pregnant he left me and lived with another woman two blocks down the street from where we lived and every morning when I would go to work I see his car parked in front of her house and he was telling everybody that the baby wasn't his so when I was like as pregnant as you could be I was over nine months I had to quit work they didn't even want me there anymore I didn't have anywhere to go home was just not an option for me didn't have anywhere to go so my hairdresser took me in and let me live with her and her mom until I had the baby chorus when I was in the hospital had the baby he came back again oh I love you so much I'm so sorry I've been so dumb and of course you know silly me I took him back again sometimes I can't believe I was ever that dumb but I was and um so when we left the hospital with the baby we had nowhere to live so he called a woman that was a Christian woman that used to be married to one of his brothers I still remember her name was Carol she was a kind woman and she took us in and we lived with her for a few weeks and the next thing I know he's off with another woman again sorry you know so the point is can you imagine now here here I am now can you imagine could you imagine by looking at me is there any evidence at all that I ever had that kind of life is there any evidence no none at all you know what I got up I made up my bed and I went on with life see if you're thinking that you're always going to be stained and you're always gonna you know something's always going to be I mean I remember when I used to believe that because I'd been abused I would always have a second-rate life I actually believe that I remember thinking my life can never be I mean maybe it could be okay but if my life could never be what it could have been if this wouldn't have happened to me but you have to realize that sometimes the very things that God uses the most are the things that happen to you that are so bad and so painful and so unfair but they help make you the person that you are and I'll tell you one thing if they don't do anything else they give you a boatload full of compassion for other people that are hurting now let's look for a minute at Daniel's three friends Shadrach Meshach and Abednego now even though this is in the book of Daniel it's not about Daniel it's about his friends Shadrach Meshach and Abednego but you know the friends that you have are very important and to be honest a lot of times the friends that you have show a lot about you and who you are and Daniel was not only a man of excellence and integrity but he had friends who were excellent and had integrity and these were men who would not compromise you know what the word compromise means it means to go just a little bit just a little bit below what you know is right just a little bit we don't need to compromise in our lives there's too much compromise out in the world we're living in a day at a time when we need to stand strong for Jesus now this Daniel 3:20 actually 26 and 27 we're gonna read 27 first and the sad traps the deputies the governors and the king's counselors gathered around together and saw these men these men who had been thrown into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down and worship the king they saw that the fire had no power up on their bodies nor was the hair of their heads singed neither were their garments scorched or changed in color our condition and here's my favorite part nor had even the smell of smoke clung to them no evidence they were in the fiery furnace and when they came out there was no evidence come on now no evidence it's time to let God get rid of the evidence in your life it's time to stop dragging around your ass just give them up and get Beauty instead come on see here's the thing you got to get this week and you can't keep the old stuff and get the new stuff come on I said you can't keep the old stuff and get the new stuff you can't keep a bad attitude and get the good life that Jesus wants to give you you can't keep self-pity and get powerful mmm and some people to be honest the things that have hurt them become their identity they're like their badge that they wear and carry around all the time look at me I've been hurt look at me I've been hurt you know what I'd rather say look at me I've been healed look at me I've been healed look at me there's no evidence that I ever went through the junk I went through look what God has done for me don't you just love Jesus I'll tell you what I am just whacking madly in love with Jesus he is just so wonderful who would not want to be a Christian I cannot believe that anybody would not want to be a Christian my gosh it's so much fun you know I don't want not having much fun at it well maybe that's because you don't know how to be a right one yet amen Jesus I tell you what I'll bet you the devil is so stinking mad about this conference I bet you that he can't hardly stand what's going on in here tonight because we have got people from every kind of denomination that you could possibly imagine in here I mean Jesus all right not even the smell of smoke had clung to them verse 26 says though and I love this Daniel 3 26 then Nebuchadnezzar came near the near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and said Shadrach Meshach and Abednego you servants of the Most High God come out and come here then they came out of the midst of the fire let's think about another situation when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he walked up to that tomb and he said come out you know I think Jesus is saying that to a lot of people here tonight and if I could shout and get by with it I would but I can't cuz I gotta save my voice tonight it's time to come out it's time to come out of those messes and come out of that pit come out of that pity party and come out of living in the past it's time to get away from where you've been parked all your life it's time to go and do something that that is amazing with your life amen come on when you're living less than your potential you're just you're not happy and I can tell you what happens unhappy people make other people unhappy I mean you do if you'll listen to me tonight your family will be so glad to get you back I mean they won't pay you to come here next year when Jesus told Lazarus to come out then he said to him take off your grave clothes but I think it's basically the same thing it's like how many years was I Christian but I was still wearing the grave clothes of the past it's time to let go of everything that's ever soured your life brother it's something that was done to you or something you did and it's time now Jesus Christ maketh the hope come on I said now I said now come on I see you're way up there on the top I said now right now not some other time right now Jesus Christ makes you whole another thing that is very very very detrimental to people is how you feel about yourself and I found this out many many many years ago and it was so good when I did that my main problem was I felt bad about myself because I had been abused I took the blame got to be something wrong with me why is it that when somebody don't like us there's always gonna be something wrong with us why is that if a woman is married to a man that leaves her there's gonna be something wrong with her there must've been something wrong with me or one of your kids turned out bad well there must have been something wrong with me we need to stop just I mean there's enough stuff that we actually do without taking a bunch of false guilt and false blame on us all the time and letting the devil just load us down with a bunch of junk that's not even reality it wasn't my fault my father abused me it wasn't my fault that the first guy I married too was a first-class jerk I didn't make him the way he was I didn't make my father the way he was amen a lot of things even that we do wrong we do wrong out of ignorance you know I'm sure that I wasn't a perfect mother but really when I look back for the little I knew I was actually pretty on top of it yeah I mean Wow could I have done some nut ball stuff so I want to tell you another little story in the Bible that has really helped me and I hope it helps somebody here tonight you know under the under the Old Covenant urn - back in the Old Testament they made covenants with people and it's kind of not like what we do today you know people giving you their word today doesn't mean too much anymore but back then boy she had a covenant with somebody you kept it not only with them but even to their children and even grandchildren after that and so David who became the king and Jonathan who was Saul's son the previous king had a covenant relationship and that basically means anything that's mine is yours anything that yours is mine anything you need you got it I'll help you with anything we need more covenant relationships don't you think so and so Saul was dead Jonathan was dead and David is remembering this covenant and he still wants to bless somebody from Saul's and Jonathan's bloodline so he went to his servant I'm in 2nd Samuel 9 and I'm reading in verse 1 and David said is there still anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I might show kindness for Jonathan's sake I love them I kind of look at it like this it's like God looking around the room tonight and saying is there anybody that I can show kindness to for Jesus sake they for Jesus sake God's not good does and kind us because we deserve it the relatives that David was gonna bless he he'd never done anything he wasn't he even in the covenant relationship David just wanted to bless him for Jonathan's sake and God wants to bless you for Jesus sake and sometimes all we got to do is learn how to receive it just stop fighting him off and so they told him about a boy named of fish chest and they said but he's crippled in both feet and actually what happened was when they were running from the house when they heard that salt I mean that David had become King they'd been lied about David and they were running from the house they fell down the steps with the boy became crippled in both of his feet and he was living out in the place called Lodi bar which meant without pasture so it was not such a great place and so he was told about this mephibosheth and so David ordered him to be brought to the palace and when he when he brought him in verse six Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul came to David and fell on his face and did obeisance and David said mephibosheth and he answered behold your servant and I thought about this a little bit today and I don't know that I'm a hundred percent right but I'm just gonna pretend like I am and I always say it's my meeting I can pretend I'm right if I want to so you know you almost look at that and you think that he bowed down in worship but I'm not so sure part of it wasn't fear I think he was a afraid say he knew whose grandson he was and he understood covenant he knew it extended to him and if he wouldn't have been fearful he would have already been knocking on the palace door long before that saying I came to get what's mine amen and not in any kind of an irreverent attitude but when we when we pray that's kind of what you're doing you're going to get what's yours not because you've earned it or deserved it but because Jesus says amen that's why you don't need to beg God to do things for you that he already wants to do more than you even want to receive them who can I bless for Jesus sake and boy I got ahold of that and I'm like Here I am pour it on God I'll take all you want to give me I know I don't deserve it but if you're looking for somebody to bless you Here I am and David said well yeah I guess I must have been right cuz David said fear not verse 7 for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather and you shall eat always at my table now watch verse 8 this shows the problem and the crippled bowed himself and said what is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I am that was the image he had of himself and probably part of it was because he was crippled and lame in both feet and probably part of it was because he lived in lo debar you know sometimes your circumstances can even affect you and make you feel like you're a lot less than what you really are and I know I talk about this a lot but I just want you to do a little heart check tonight and just ask yourself how you feel about yourself because see if you don't really love yourself in a balanced way I'm not talking about being in love with yourself but if you don't really love yourself in a balanced way then you're gonna miss out on so many things that God has for you because you're always going to be shrinking back in fear from something or thinking that you don't deserve what God wants to give you the more you like yourself the more you don't like other people amen the more mercy that you receive from God the more mercy you'll have to give away the more love you received from God the more love you'll have to give away you can't give away something you don't have in you and then you got to have it to give it well many of us have been hurt in life but the good news is is Jesus wants to make you completely whole he came to heal us everywhere that we heard and he wants to start doing it right now so let go of everything that has soured your life get away from where you've been parked and go do something amazing with your life and do it for the glory of God today we're offering you eight teachings on CD listen to it it just gets better and better and better so god bless you and have a great day [Music] well turn to the person next to you and say what do you think well you know the truth is is most of us would not want somebody to know what we're thinking would we what wouldn't it be scary to think about your mind actually being a movie screen ooh that would not be so good but you know what we think is extremely important especially what we think consistently now I'm not saying that every little thought that floats through your mind becomes a reality in your life but certainly things that we think consistently the Bible actually says in proverbs 23:7 as he thinks in his heart so in C or as he thinks in his heart so does he become so I like to put it a different way where the mind goes the man follows we all know that if you think about something long enough like your favorite dessert you're probably going to go get it even if you have to get in your car and make a trip it's amazing if we think about something long enough how it affects all of our emotions and all of our desires and our if you think about what somebody did to you that hurt you for a long period of time pretty soon you're going to be upset you're gonna feel knots in your stomach you're gonna get tense in your neck and so our thoughts affect us I actually could call this Christianity 101 because our thoughts are really the foundation for so many things in our life and certainly they are the foundation for any kind of victory that we ever hope to have in our life now some of you came here this weekend looking for victory you came looking for a breakthrough you came looking to not just hear about the promises of God but you actually want to walk and live in those promises and I can tell you that unless our thinking changes nothing else in our life ever changes can anybody say amen to that do you agree that we probably have more trouble with our mind than anything else okay but you can learn to do your own thinking it is a process takes determination it takes study but we can learn to do our own thinking and we can actually come to the point where we pretty quickly recognize with the help of the Holy Spirit when we have stinkin thinking and when we're actually thinking according to the will of God we will become what we consistently think Romans 12:2 is a very wonderful and a foundational scripture in the Word of God let's look at it together do not be conformed to this world don't be like the world don't act like the world don't think like the world there's many things that the world does that they think is fine that we cannot and should not do and I think that also this weekend we need to make some decisions about where we're going to stand in these days that we live in do not be conformed to this world this age fashioned Afrin adapted to its external superficial I might as well say meaningless customs but be transformed don't be conformed but be transformed changed by the entire renewal of your money so if I want to be changed if you want to be changed then my mind has to change before anything else in my life is going to change and God will help me with that God will help you with that he will teach us how to think and the Holy Spirit is so wonderful that he comes to live inside of us and he will even remind us when we're not thinking right and then he will even remind us what we should be thinking if we have enough of the word in us to rise up and confront the wrong thing you know I spent years judging other people I can remember one of my favorite things to do was go out to the mall sit on the bench and just sit there and judge everybody as they walked by I mean I enjoyed it it was like well look at that stupid hair day well man how could that girl get a guy like that you know is this like I didn't know these people and I would just judge them and criticize them come on don't tell me none of you have ever done it how many of you like the people watch man thank you and now honestly when I have judgmental thoughts which I do because the devil offers all of us stinkin thinking all of us and get this he always will this is one area that's never going to just get good and we're never going to have another temptation or never have to stand against any kind of wrong thoughts so if you've been a Christian 40 years and you're still having some problems with your mind here and there are sometimes you find yourself saying I feel like I'm losing my mind really in a way we are losing our mind when we give the control of it over to the enemy and we don't resist wrong thoughts that are coming against us and the best way the very best way to resist wrong thoughts is to open your mouth and speak out loud a portion of Scripture that you have learned that you know confronts that wrong thought and the thought stops immediately because what if you're speaking that's going through your mind so the things the enemy is trying to put in your mind has to go away so some days I have to speak the word almost all day long there are times when we have little attacks there's times when we have major attacks I mean Satan is going to use every opportunity to bombard your mind with every lie and every kind of negative thinking that you've ever heard of in your whole life amen when I was writing the book the mine connection I was sitting out of town at a place where I do some of my writing and I was having a physical issue and it was annoying and it wasn't going away and then I got some kind of news from somebody that I didn't particularly care for and I'm trying to write this book on all this positive thinking you know and I'm telling you the truth for two days I felt like my mind had been kidnapped I mean I actually felt like the enemy just came in and took it and I couldn't find it I couldn't get it back no matter what and I'm gonna teach you tonight what to do during those times I'm gonna teach you how to fight the devil and win actually I'm going to teach you how to fight like a Christian amen do not be conformed to this world but be transformed and changed by the entire renewal of your mind by its new ideals and its new attitudes so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you now I wish that I had the words to tell you and convinced you what an amazingly good plan that God has for your life I mean the plan that God has for you is so awesome none of us could believe the great plan that God has for us if he were just to open it up all to us at once but I think that if you compare all the Christians in the world to the number of people who actually really fulfill their destiny I think it's probably pitifully few now I'm not saying that there aren't any there's probably even a lot but compared to all the believers in the world all the people who say I'm a Christian around the world the people who actually walk in victory who actually spiritually mature grow up and become what they're supposed to be in God do all that God wants them to do and have all that God wants them to have I think let's just say at least there's not nearly as many as there should be how many of you agree with that there's not nearly as many as there should be the renewing of our mind according to the Word of God is one of the most important things that we need to deal with in our life every day very few days go by that I don't say God put a watch over my mouth list I sinned against you with my tongue and let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight and every day of my life I confess the Word of God out loud it's part of meditating on the word to remind yourself over and over and over what God's promises are for you God has a good plan for your life perhaps you experienced some victory but then back in the bondage and then a little more victory and then back in the bondage or maybe you haven't had very much victory at all in your life well you know that was certainly the case with me for eight years I went to church every single week with Dave and our children and I was a pitiful mess and during those eight years I never one time heard a message about the power of my thoughts are the power of my words and I wonder how many people go to church week after week after week year after year after year and never hear anything about what their own thoughts are doing to them many of you that would be your testimony here tonight I can't stand here and assume that all of you have heard messages like this over and over but because I know some of you have never heard these kinds of things and I remember how jaw-dropping it was to me when I began to hear these kinds of things and even began to learn that I actually couldn't do my own thinking now I didn't have to just sit and meditate on whatever fell in my head that with the help of the Holy Spirit I could actually say no I'm not going to think that because I know what that's gonna produce in my life and I will think this because this is what God tells me to think amen how many of you have found this life-changing but even if you know these things how many of you don't mind hearing it again and if you don't need it I'll just preach to myself because I need it that's for sure I talked about how I could sit and just judge people and judge them and judge them and never even be convicted by it but at all but now I know the Word of God that says judge not lest you be judged and I've studied judging other people and I've read the scripture that says to mind your own business and and I've studied about love and so now if I start to judge somebody which I did just you know not that long ago these judgmental thoughts matter of fact I was actually sitting in a meeting somewhere and one of the people was on the platform I was having a little opinion about and but immediately the Holy Spirit rose up in me and I said and this is what I do I said to myself see I've learned to preach to myself I said to myself Joyce it's not in your business you need to talk to yourself hey man what I've learned to do is talk myself off the ledge how many of you can feel when you you know like if somebody's getting ready to jump and kill themselves you know or jump into trouble they'll send in a negotiator to try to talk him off the ledge well we've got the Holy Spirit and he is the negotiator that is always ready to talk us off the ledge amen and that's exactly the way that I stay sane I don't have I have all the same temptations that everybody else does but I'm learning daily more and more how to listen to the Holy Spirit and I don't care what I think or what I feel or what the world says or who says what he Trump's everything else and when he says it's wrong then it's wrong and if he says it's right then it's right so the more you study the word the more you're going to be convicted I don't have you know what conviction is it's not condemnation conviction is not condemnation conviction is good news it's the Holy Spirit saying let me help you before you get in trouble amen and the more you study the word the more you're gonna have conviction and you should thank God for it and the quicker you're gonna have it and the minute that conviction comes you don't need to feel bad that you were starting to have a bad thought that's the temptation of Satan he tries to put that on everybody just because you have bad thoughts fall in your head that doesn't make you a sinful terrible person it just means that the devil is doing what the devil does he is lying to you but you have great help living on the inside of you and if you will open your mouth and talk back to the devil well I would feel kind of dumb just walking around my house talking back with the devil well I'd rather feel dumb doing that then I have a dumb life so that was my experience I just had very little victory if any maybe a little here and a little there but not much struggle struggle frustrated all the time I'd never heard any teaching about the power of the holy spirit that could be mine I've never heard I really was never taught to study the word can you imagine being in church eight years and not being taught really to study the word for myself and it was never taught a message about my thoughts and I thank God that that changed for me but for so many people it never does change and one of the things that I found out that was so wonderful is what the Bible says about us being new creatures in Christ new creatures in Christ second Corinthians 5:17 everybody say in Christ a woman wrote recently and she said I hear Joyce talk about being in Christ all the time and I don't know what she means and I thought I was doing a good job explaining it but either I wasn't explaining it good enough or she didn't watch the program where I explained that something was wrong we were we were missing it somewhere but that's one of the most important phrases in the Word of God is to learn who we are in Christ and be able to distinguish that from who you are by yourself and in yourself If any man be in Christ he is a new creature he's a new creation altogether the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away behold the fresh and the new has come new creature new beginning new opportunities new power new desires everything becomes a new now it actually means that it's possible everything becomes possible when Christ comes to live on the inside of you so I thought I'd do a couple of examples maybe to help us understand so what does it mean to be in Christ well you might spend 20 30 40 50 years in the world and boy by then you're you're pretty rooted in this mess you know I don't know that you could ever get yourself out of it I don't think I could have gotten myself out of it we need some Holy Ghost help to come along and get us out of this and put us in something else and to be saved by grace literally means that we don't have to do anything to be saved except believe that Jesus is who he says that he is and that he did what he said that he did if you believe that he died for you was raised from the dead you truly believe that in your heart and you confess it with your mouth the Bible says you will be saved so at the exact moment that you're saved you get replanted in another life amen just that quick and that's just almost too good to be true now who in their right mind would want to just keep jumping back and forth from pot to pot all the time once you get out of that then you need to stay put in Christ but there's something that has to happen for this to all work right the moment that you're in Christ all these things become possibilities a new creature a new beginning everything is new the past is gone brand new beginning and then there's all these new creation realities we are the righteousness of God in Christ God will meet all of our needs we're talented and gifted and we're anointed and oh it's just all so wonderful and we hear about it in church and we get so excited and then we go home we can't seem to make any of it work amen boy we hear a message about how important our words aren't so we make a decision we're gonna halt go home and we're gonna just say all good stuff and it just never works it just doesn't work until until we've been in this long enough that we get rooted come on rooted and grounded in this new life and getting roots takes time getting rooted in something means you got to stick with it for a long time I'll never forget the woman that came to me put her hands on her hips she right down there at the altar the stage wasn't this high so I was pretty level with her and she said I want my money back questioner I want my money back I said what do you mean you want your money back she said listen I've been doing what you said to do for two weeks and nothing has changed I want my money back I'll tell you what it was all I could do to keep from laughing right in the woman's face I got all honey honey honey honey you've been doing this for two weeks try 20 years 25 years 30 years try after five years not feeling like you made any progress at all but actually we are making progress but sometimes when you've got such a huge mess in your life like a 40-year mess I don't know why we get frustrated with God if he doesn't straighten out overnight what has taken us 40 years to do amen so everything new is inside and it's got to make its way from the inside to the outside now I have a list here called knowing who I am in Christ and I actually wrote this list and if you put into your little computer knowing who I am in Christ the first thing that will pop up is this list by Joyce Meyer I think that's cool I have made the Internet amen and you know there's no way that I could sit here and read all this to you because you wouldn't you wouldn't focus long enough but it's three and a half pages worth and I think that you should get on the internet and get yourself a copy knowing who I am in Christ and it should come up first but I'm just gonna read you a few of these things that the Bible says if you're a believer how many of you are believers in Christ okay if you're a believer all of these things are already yours I don't care if you look like they're yours I don't care if you act like they're yours I don't care if you feel like they're yours or if anybody else believes they're yours they are yours and until you know they're yours regardless of what it looks like seeing God's economy you believe at first and then you see it you can't wait to see it and then believe it you believe it first and then you see it you're believing becomes you're living though as long as you believe you're a mess you're going to continue to be a mess when you start waking up the morning you lay in your bed you think I'm anointed I have gifts and talents God loves me I am the righteousness of God in Christ and then the devil kind of you know got that little demon sitting here on your shoulder well you're the righteousness of God in Christ remember what you did yesterday come on how many here know what you did yesterday yeah you know what you did yeah you know what you did and you know really you just need to learn to get to the point you say thank you for reminding me because now I just remember how good god is to forgive me and wash it all away and if you think that I'm just making up some weird story I'm not this is the way that I live and unless you're willing to learn to live like this you're not living according to the Bible and you're not ever gonna really experience the freedom that you want to have you got to learn how to fight like a Christian and the way you fight like a Christian is you fight with the Word of God because the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit amen so first one on my list is I'm complete in Christ so that means I'm complete if I'm single I don't need to have a husband to be complete I'm complete if I'm a widow I can hang out with married people I don't need to feel like everybody else feels I'm complete if I don't have a college degree matter of fact I'm complete if I didn't even graduate high school we are complete not in the way we look or the job we have or who we know are the label in our clothes or what side of the tracks we live on we are complete in Christ amen so now you're getting just a little bit taller I can feel it see when you start to know who you are in Christ you go from this I mean you got to get man by the time you go out of here tonight you're gonna be like don't mess with me I'm God's kid I'm alive with Christ I like that one whoo I'm alive I have the peace of God that passes understanding I have the greater one living in me greater is He that is in me than he that's in the world I am the righteousness of God in Christ I am sanctified I am redeemed I am justified I am holy all of these things we are in Christ now rooted what does it mean to be rooted well a tree that has deep roots will not blow over under storm will it the wind doesn't blow it over it might blow a few leaves off of it but it's not going to blow over and likewise when you're rooted in the truth of God's Word like for example if you if you are rooted in the love of God and that's one of the things that the passo Paul prayed for the church was that they would be rooted and grounded in the love of God and that they would know the love of God to such a degree that nothing could ever take it away from them nothing no kind of suffering no peril no persecution nothing threatening nothing they've got nothing that nothing can separate you from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus amen and I can tell you when you're going through literal hell and you can sit and say God I don't understand this but I know you love me I know you love me I know you love me I know you love me let me tell you it will strengthen you and it will get you through stuff that you would have never ever thought that you could have went through because the love of God is the healing for our brokenness and it gives you strength and power and I remember 20-some odd years ago when I had breast cancer and thank God I don't have any cancer either now praise the Lord but when I had when I had cancer back then there were a few things that God said I want to hear you saying all the time and one of them was I know God loves me not God why don't you love me or well God don't you love me but I know that God loves me being rooted and grounded in the love of God another thing the Bible says in Colossians 2 7 is have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in him fixed and founded in him being continually built up in him established in your faith just as you were taught and abound in it and overflowing it we need to be rooted in these in Christ principles how many times have I said out loud out of my mouth I don't know maybe a million I am the righteousness of God in Christ coz I'd say I started out and I felt terrible about myself I'd been sexually abused by my dad and I grew up feeling like I was no good and that it was my fault and that I just felt terrible about myself how many of you spent a lot of years feeling terrible about yourself well you need to start confessing who you are in Christ God loves me I'm his special child I'm the apple of his eye I am God's favorite and see that's true because with God were all his favorites but he really means that when he says you're his favorite God's got his eye on me you need to say things like that God loves me I'm in Christ I'm born again I'm filled with the spirit I have gifts I have talents let me taste them if you'll begin to think differently about yourself you'll begin to act differently and the great things that you have on the inside of you will begin to blossom and come out amen and I love this one be rooted in your faith rooted and grounded in your faith I believe this is what I believe and change in my mind I don't care what it looks like I don't care how long it takes this is what I believe I'm not changing my mind and we need to really be firm in that in the days that we're living in this is what I believe and I don't care what you say you are not going to get me off of it I will go to the grave believing this because let me ask you a question when it comes right down to it what do we have besides God and what is going to be left besides him when all of this is over nothing and we don't need to be bowing down to the world we need to be standing firm in faith that God is alive and that he will take care of us and meet our needs and then first Peter 5 9 now this has been talking about how the enemy comes against us every chance he gets withstand him be firm in faith against his own self I love that when the devil comes against you don't wait three weeks to rebuke him don't even wait three hours the Bible says resist him at his onset can I give you a little phrase that will just be very beneficial to you shut up devil can everybody that shut up devil thank you be firm in faith against his onset rooted established strong immovable and determined knowing that the same identical sufferings are appointed to your Brotherhood the whole body of Christians throughout the world so really in essence what are you saying is look everybody's going through something no matter what we're going through there's somebody that's going through something so much worse and we will come out on the other side you will come out you may not get what you want but if you don't get what you want you'll get something better and it might not seem better to you in the beginning but let me tell you something God knows what he's doing we need to be rooted and grounded in these things that we say that we believe and when we are nothing is going to take them away from us rated and grounded in God's love you know what we have an enemy the devil who is a liar I said he is a liar I said he is a liar wonder what he's been lying to you about just this week or even just today and I wonder how long you listen to it without ever one time really coming against him you can't hope the devil will leave you alone you got to make him leave you alone amen and he needs to get it through his head that the longer he hangs around the longer he's gonna have to listen to you praise God amen the more he comes against you the more he's going to hear you talk about how good god is he is relentless but we have to make our minds up that we're gonna be just as relentless you cannot be a lazy Christian and have victory I said you can't be a lazy Christian I have victory some people are so lazy they won't evolve in our mouth and confess the word it's time to possess the land now let me tell what the word possess means because we like to shout about that yeah it's time to possess the land yeah well here's what the word means this is enlightening possess means to occupy by driving out previous tenants and possessing in their place come on let's get this again when God told the Israelites to go in and possess the land he didn't take him in quickly he took them the long route and the Bible says because they weren't ready for war see when you are determined that you're gonna possess what Jesus died to give you you better get ready for war because the devil is not going to take a nap and just let you go in and do everything that God wants you to do you're gonna have a fight on your hands a wide door of opportunity opened unto me and Paul said with it many adversaries and we need to know how to fight like a Christian you don't have to be frustrated you don't have to be angry you don't have to be worried all you need to know is those are one thing he cannot stand against and that is word of god he can't I'm convinced he cannot to possess to occupy by driving out previous tenants and possessing in their place to cease to rob to impoverish to expel to ruin to cast out to destroy to diss possess to drive out to make poor let's all get together and make the devil poor to make poor and to take possession of now does that sound to you like a lazy lukewarm a pathetic pathetic Christian is going to be able to do that no we've got to know who we are we have to not give up in hard times and I'm telling you what if anybody in this room really knew what I was like and what I had gone through before God got hold of me for me to be where I'm at today didn't just happen overnight and it wasn't easy but I'll tell you one thing it was a lot easier than staying in bondage and I want to encourage you if you feel like you're getting nowhere tell the devil to shut up some days you're even going to feel like you're going backwards you're gonna feel like that like you're going backwards just like my gosh I'm acting worse now than I ever have in my whole life well you know some days we have days like that I do some things occasionally just like I can't believe I did that I know better than that but you know what I also know better than to do I also know better than to waste three more days feeling bad about it amen yeah well you don't read The Clapper or not I said I also know better than to waste three days feeling bad about it no I'm sorry I'm sorry and in one way I do feel oh my god I'm just you get disappointed in yourself but you know what you're no surprise to God he knew what he was getting when he got you and he knew every mistake that you were gonna make before you ever made one of them and he's already got good plans for you the Israelites wandered around 40 years in the wilderness trying to make an eleven-day journey I don't know how long you've been wandering in the wilderness but I can tell you it is time to possess the land you know it's very important to know who you are in Christ because the enemy will always attack your identity welcome to enjoying every day life you know I've shared very transparently and honestly about my life for many years he's likely heard of the deep wounds that I suffered but hopefully you've also heard about the healing that God has brought to my soul and I firmly believe that God wants that for every single one of us you may be feeling abandoned hurt and perhaps even at the lowest point in your life right now but you have no idea the amazing things that God has planned for you so today as we discuss healing the soul of a woman gingers here with me and we're going to tackle some of the questions that you sent in on this subject and I hope by the end of the program you'll be encouraged and make a decision that you will not live wounded anymore well you know ginger there's a lot of people walking around hurting and many of them have learned to put a smile on their face and pretend that everything is okay that is very but they're deeply wounded on the inside sometimes it's from real tragic things that have happened but sometimes it's just the day-to-day stuff and trying to deal with people and pay bills and you know there's there's just a lot of people that are discouraged today no really discouraged you're right and I I think that sometimes people have a full understanding of what happened to them they they had a traumatic event and they they understand that they're wounded but they just don't know what to do about it right or how to let God in to help and then there are others of us that just feel like I don't know what's happening why am i this why am i angry why am i discontent and sometimes it comes down to like you were saying saying just life's little bitty tears and wounds that happen along the way that add up and before you know it right you have a wounded soul things that we just don't deal with we probably need to make sure that we deal with issues as they come up yeah and make sure that we haven't just stuck it somewhere in our soul in a convenient place and think that we're just going to ignore it and it'll go away so I know you've got some good questions from some our wonderful friends and partners so let's see if we can help somebody this first question comes from Patty and she says I've had a lifetime of not being listened to or believed and abused when I get stressed or have to deal with something I go into every encounter angry and ready to do battle before I even open my mouth I have overcome a lot but this is a challenge how do I learn to trust well learning how to trust people can only happen if you trust God with those people I was just looking at a scripture this morning that I have actually on my wall in my office it's in Peter and it says talking about Jesus he trusted himself and everything to him who judges fairly as I know I went through this I remember even when God was dealing with me about trusting my husband Dave and I had such a difficult time trusting men because literally almost every man that I was ever around for very long seemed to want to get yeah they hurt me they you know they did things that were improper or they didn't consider me they didn't think about me they were they were selfish and I remember saying to God how can you ask me to trust a man he said I'm asking you to trust me and he judges fairly so if somebody is mistreating us and we put our trust in God we can we can truly trust that he will deal with that situation that doesn't mean that you don't speak up for yourself but we trusting God is the answer to all this and then she said that she spent a lifetime with nobody listening to her or paying any attention to her and the first thing I thought of is well that's really not true because God listens to her and pays attention to her all the time I know sometimes that may initially not seem very comforting because you can't see God and you don't have the same kind of conversation with him that you do with others but there's also a possibility sometimes we you get hurt enough in one area and you then begin to imagine that everybody's doing that to you so I really want to encourage her to not ever put things from her past on new people that she comes into contact with now I did that I was blaming every man for what a few men did to me and I had to realize that that wasn't fair to them you can't make somebody else pay for what somebody did to you and the whole thing about healing the soul and I'll just be honest with you it's a process it's not something that's gonna happen overnight it will take some major steps of faith of stepping out into things that that may really frightened you like taking a chance on being hurt you know there's really no way to have love if you're afraid of being hurt because we all do hurt each other but the healer lives inside of us and so I hope that she joins all the rest of us on our journeys of healing and I do know one thing for sure everything that God says is true and it is ours but we have to not give up that's exactly what Satan wants us to do well there is a really important like a salve and just knowing that God understands those wounds even when we don't but he loves us through them that he wants to heal us yeah that's a big question for a lot of people does God even want to heal me can he heal me and and seeing the way that he's healed you right seeing the way that he's healed other people it's incredibly encouraging to know that we're not alone in what we're facing I love love love love love the fact that God is a God of justice yeah that's really important to me because we we want justice we feel like we're do something somebody owes me you know I shouldn't have been treated like that but God is the one that will bring justice we trust him to be our Vindicator and to do it in his timing and in his way yeah and I was just listening to a teaching this morning that said don't don't don't waste one more day of your now time and your future grieving over something from the past that you cannot go back and do anything about so it's just time for a lot of people to just let go and I always say I didn't have a good start but I'm determined to have a good finish well I'll tell you there's there's probably not one person living who hasn't experienced some type of wound to the soul right and whether they they have an experience like yours where they were deeply wounded or they had an experience like mine where it's just kind of the wear and tear of life and the rejection of friends or whatever it may be those things still are deep wounds and so we we all need this so so here's another question this is from Whitney she says I was sexually abused as early as I can remember I know God was there and feeling the same pain that I was feeling but now to be honest I have kind of a God owes me attitude how do I heal from that well the truth is is she is do something and God is the one that will pay her back now god never owes us anything but I get what she's talking about my problem was as I tried to collect from everybody else and all I was doing was frustrating myself and driving people out of my life I couldn't maintain any kind of decent relationship because I kept trying to get them to pay me back you know I felt like I'd been cheated I didn't get to have a childhood I'd been mistreated I felt sorry for myself and so God will pay you back and actually I mean I love the promises in Isaiah that he will give us double recompense for our farmer trouble I mean how good is that yeah God God actually can take that is a person that's been wounded and we think oh if only that wouldn't have happened to me but God can actually take that and make your life better than it would have been if it wouldn't have happened and so I just encourage her to uh it so it's okay to say god owes me not in a not in a disrespectful way you know because really God so good does he doesn't owe us anything and if he if he never did anything except send his son to the cross to die for our sins and that's that's all but the fact I think instead of saying God you owe me would be to say god I know you're I know you're going to pay me back because you promised me that you're my Vindicator yeah rachel is asking how do I ask for God's guidance and power over my struggle with addiction I'm afraid of relapsing well how she asks us she just asks very very plain and simple we don't have to be fancy with God we don't have to try to pretend to be something that we're not and I can understand her fear of relapsing perhaps she's done it in the past but there's a scripture that says you know many of the afflictions of the righteous but God delivers him out of them all our righteous man falls down seven times and gets back up again and so I'm a very big proponent of not giving up and of course being afraid just invites that failure into our life so be honest with God you know I I want to I want to trust that I can get beyond this but I I keep falling back into the same thing and so sometimes I'm so afraid of failure that I don't even want to try but I'm gonna try and I'm going to try as many times as I have to try until I finally get a victory you know we need to be a lot more aware that Satan is our enemy then we are we forget that that he's the enemy he's the one that's trying to make her think that she doesn't know how to pray and he's the one that's trying to make her afraid that she's going to succumb to the temptation again but the good news is is even if she did God still loves her and he's not going to give up on her and so she needs to be more determined than the devil is you know the Bible talks about enduring to endure and this is just my definition but I believe to endure means to outlast the devil and I think that's something we have to make clear with the enemy as no matter how many times you knock me down I'm going to get back up again because the victory is already hers she's just in the process of applying it in her life well here's another question that I think a lot of women may relate to it's talking about an addiction of a different kind it says how do you deal with the addiction of needing to be in a relationship how do I learn to be happy with just myself and God well I know that it's not easy for people to just say well you've always got God he's always with you he'll never leave you nor forsake you and to be honest a lot of the things that we deal with involve our temperament more than we like to or may realize it and so we have to take into account maybe part of her issue is is that she just needs people more than what maybe somebody else would so God will take account for that but maybe the type of relationship that she's looking for is more the issue you know what I would recommend just as a good dose of medicine is stop thinking about the people you need and think about the people who need you that's great yeah so I'm going to say that again stop thinking about the people you need and start thinking about the people that need you there's a world full of hurting people that could use a compliment any single one of us can go out any day and we can be used by God I mean in powerful ways just by giving people compliments they don't have to be people you know they can be strangers and my goodness how many people elderly people sit in nursing homes and never even have anybody to come by and say hello to them one of our partner care people told me the other day that he went to visit a woman in a nursing home that's been up $10 a month partner with us for 15 years Wow and he said she was so blessed and excited that it just was absolutely amazing and so there are there are there is something you can do besides sit home and be miserable and the best way to get over feeling discouraged or depressed or whatever is to just get out and do something so maybe don't think about saying it again but don't think about the people you need think about the people that need you and if you get your mind off yourself yeah then God can bring what you want to pass because it seems almost like the more we chase what we want the more it outruns us that is so true but the more we chase what God wants yeah every morning I say God if there's anything I can do for you today show me what it is and I always say show me somebody that I can be a blessing to today I don't think we should ever go through a day without being a blessing of some kind yeah to somebody that is great encouragement and I think sometimes part of our problem in relationships is we've been hurt before we've been hurt by relationships and sometimes we're trying to replace God by other relationships with what only God can give us that's right because after we are hurt one of the most difficult challenges may be forgiveness so watch as Lisa shares with us about learning to forgive and love someone who just wasn't always there for her the way he should have been I grew up in an emotionally and physically abusive household my mother was incredibly emotionally violent and then my father was detached he was an alcoholic I never knew what I was going to come home to I never knew he was gonna come home like you know it was so amazing is I still wanted a relationship with my father when I had children I began to think maybe now my father will engage and I remember there was a time period where John and I loaded up our four boys and we drove all the way down to go see my father knocked on the door and my father didn't answer there was just this little note and he said I'm sorry I changed my mind I don't want to see you guys it was like God you know I feel like I am utterly and completely fatherless not because I don't have a father but because my father doesn't want anything to do with me or with us he said your dad has let go of any right to be your father he said but baby girl if you need something you just call out to me and at that point my expectations for my father changed I was no longer looking for him to be what he couldn't be to me because I was getting that from my Heavenly Father a year before my father died my oldest son and I went and visited him he was in an alcohol-related dementia center and I thought what do I say to this man who is on the edge of eternity and this is what I heard tell him he was a good dad I thought no no I'm not telling somebody on the threshold of death they're a lie he was not a good dad I'm not telling that and I heard him again the Holy Spirit said Lisa he was as good as he knew how to be tell him he was a good dad so I grabbed ahold of my dad's hands and I brought him up you know between us I had full attention and I looked him in the eyes as a dad you were a good dad he began to shake it was like a thousand volts of electricity shot through that Sicilian man where he's weeping and crying and he formed the only two words he spoke the entire time we were there he kissed the back of my hands and he said thank you and when he said thank you my dad wept and cried over my hand and nodded as my son prayed him into eternity and we put him to bed that night and that was the last time that I ever got to see him I don't know who it is you're afraid to love I don't know if it's a father I don't know if it's a mother I don't know if it's a brother or or somebody that violated you but I'm just gonna tell you that you will never ever regret forgiving other people none of us deserve the mercy we get we all deserve judgment and yet God gives us mercy so how can we do anything less for others be courageous and love and forgive well that story of forgiveness is the hardest one I mean all of us have been hurt in one way or another and it may not have been something like Lisa talked about or something like you've talked about but it may be and there are a lot of people out there with those really deep wounds but there are others that it's it's been a friend that's rejected us it's been a co-worker that's hurt us badly and if you hold on to those things they fester and become that wound that can totally destroy our lives forgiveness is hard and you understand it you know I was just sitting here thinking I bet that there's not very many days that go by in our life that we don't need to forgive somebody yeah because we're just all you know you just got a lot of wounded people bumping into other wounded people and you know there's so much stress in the world today and sometimes you even need to forgive somebody you don't even know you know you've been sitting waiting for a parking place you got your blinker on in somebody's un's and it takes it knowing full well that that's right you know I just I made a decision a long time I'm not gonna let those kind of people steal my joy I just say I forgive you and going about my business and we we really need to be experts at forgiving and we need to do it quick so well we're not finished today so don't go away but right now I want to tell you about my book healing the soul of a woman you know I wrote this because I want you to experience the beautiful redemptive healing power of God in your life and we have a project called Project girl where we're working with women that have been hurt in many many many different kinds of ways whether it's abuse or abandonment or they're not allowed to be educated or parter they've been hurt by a man they were married to that left and got involved with another woman I mean there's the devil has endless ways of trying to hurt us and actually the devil hates everybody who loves God but I think he's got a special hatred for women because it was a woman who gave birth to the Savior and so I really like this book now that might seem obvious since I wrote it but I write my books and then I go back and read them trying to read it like a reader and when I got finished with this when I thought you know this this is really good and so we're going to offer this book to you for your gift to the Ministry of any amount obviously we ask you to always do the best that you can and all the proceeds are going to go to project girl so everything that you give is going to go to help a woman that's hurting that needs to be rescued and needs to know the love of God and so we're excited about that now ginger I think you've got another little story you want to tell well you always talk about how hurting people hurt people mmm-hmm I think the opposite of that is also true that healing people with God's help can help heal other people yeah and so that's why as you're talking about proceeds going to project girl right we are able to help women right here in the United States who are watching your program that that this will help provide so that can hear the truths of God's Word understand their value and how much they're loved we can help women in other countries who are so marginalized who don't have opportunities for education who have to walk all day for water and that's one of the stories that I want to share with everyone now the opportunity to really change a life is rare and this is one of those opportunities there's a little girl named Maria and she's in Tanzania and a very very remote village and we met her when we went out there because we at first put a well in this area and the girls in particular could never go to school because they were walking the entire day for water and and she was able to finally stop doing that because there was a well with clean water that was safe she was able to go to school and get an education and and she accepted Christ early and on fire for the Lord but when little Maria was born she was sick and so as was the custom there they took her to a witch doctor and we have a picture of Maria that will show you Maria went to the switc doctor as as a newborn infant and you see the gold earring in her ear right there the witch doctor put that earring in her ear that little hoop as an infinite told the family if she ever takes this hoop out she will surely die and it was really a sign that she belonged to him mm-hmm well after we were able to come in and give her this opportunity to go to school and provide her with clean water tell her about Christ she was growing and growing in Christ and was praying and and was kind of still struggling in school and and really felt as she was praying that God told her it was time to take out that earring now this is when we first met Maria and we knew that one day she would take out that earring but it would have to be her choice right it wasn't something we could tell her to do it had to be her decision so after praying about school and and struggling she really felt like God said take that earring out so she decided to take the earring out and began to flourishing she's one of the top students in her school that's awesome she's eight great witness to the entire village so here she is now look at that big smile without the earring that's flourishing doing well the entire village now knows that she no longer is branded by that witch doctor that she belongs to God and and this is a great example of how Maria's life was changed how we can help change so many other young girls lives by sharing the truth of God's Word who are really trapped in in darkness otherwise and so you know I I know there are so many people who are watching right now who feel they're trapped in that same way and I I really believe that God can use the book that you've written hilling the soul of a woman to really help them you gave me the chance to read it and it was really an encouragement to me and I'm not one who has any of those deep wounds that are obvious but so many of those little scratches and narwhals and scars that add up it was hugely inspirational and just really encouraging to me so I think it's going to help a lot of people well I'm really believing that this is gonna be just like a manual for healing the soul and that God's going to use this book for hundreds of years yeah into the future and so I do really want to encourage you to to get the book I believe that you can use it and I believe that you know people that you should get one far and so just thank you for being with us today and it's always remember one of the greatest things that you can do is not only get help from God for yourself but reach out and help somebody else it's part of how we receive our healing we have to trust God to heal us and then we sow seeds by working to help somebody else you are now the hands and feet of Jesus and he needs you thank you for being with us today we love you so much and we look forward to all the great things that God's gonna do in your life and your testimony that you're going to and then and tell us about it burst out of Joyce's passion the sea

Channel: C Mary S

Views: 186,087

Rating: 4.7037807 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Christ, Joyce Meyer, mistreat, devalue, abuse, criticize, judge, wounded, ignorance, fault, real problem, life, circumstances, issue, reality, root of the problem, inside, attitudes, perceptions, grace, God, pit, depression, rejection, beginning, finish, valuable, gifts, abilities, worth, value, security, treat, peace, free, opinions, truth, care, love, Christian, future, hope, enjoy, freedom, angry, discouraged, depressed, hopeless, problem, mind, will, emotions, relationships., enjoying everyday life

Id: JhJhAWn2evg

Length: 145min 33sec (8733 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 09 2019