Joyce Meyer Ministries: Did you know that you are a soldier in the army of the Lord? And you actually have authority over your enemies. We want you to discover that authority and begin to walk in it next on “enjoying everyday life.”

Joyce Meyer Online: I want to talk to you this weekend about spiritual warfare. It’s a subject that we need to talk about. I’ve called this series “armed and dangerous” because I think if we really know who we are in Christ and if we really understand the armor of God and the weapons that have been given to us, both offensive and defensive, and if we will begin to act like a soldier in the army of God, we are going to have so much more victory in our life. One of the biggest problems I think that we face today is a little thing, or a big thing really, called passivity. To be honest, a lot of the problems even that we have in our nation today are due to people being passive and not maintaining what somebody else gained for them years ago. A lot of men and women paid a tremendous price for us to have the freedoms that we have today but we’re losing many of those because of passivity.

According to Joyce Meyer that we sit around and say, “somebody should do something,” without ever asking if that someone ought to be us. We say “they” should do something without realizing we are “they.” We wish for things and we’d like to see things happen but we’re often not willing to do our part. You have to be very careful about a lazy, passive spirit because one of the main things the devil wants is for us to just sit around and want something but not be willing to do what we need to do to have it. You have authority over the devil. It’s just that simple. He’s under your feet because Jesus is the head and he said, “I have all authority over him. All authority in heaven and on the earth has been given to me.” We’re his body and so if Satan’s under the feet of Jesus, then it’s our feet that he’s under.

Joyce Meyer Ministries  – Now, like Lou was saying, being delivered from that… Watching Jesus be able to take that. And now in the locker room when I hear a cuss word or a swear word, I almost cringe.

Lisa: Joyce Meyer, there was a real turning point for John and me. When we were first married — and it’s actually kind of comical now — but as soon as we got saved, we started tithing. I remember I would save for like one week and I was given $100 and I was so excited. John was like, “actually, that’s 90 dollars; ten goes to God.” I was like, “you’re kidding me!” So we started tithing right away. We got married. We were part of a church. We not only tithed, we gave in every single offering. We were so excited. People were giving in offerings.

Joyce Meyer Ministries states we had given in the same offering and then the next day they’d be like, “oh my gosh, I like came home and someone bought me a mercedes!” I’d be like, “wait a minute! I have to pack my lunch and I can’t even afford to go out because I don’t have gas money. What is going on over here?” John and I had just gotten to a place where we had come to the end of everything, and we walked out to our car and our windshield had exploded from heat exhaustion. We just sat there and we were like, “oh my gosh, this is so bad. Joyce Meyer Online states we have a car windshield exploded. We have no money.” And we started to really complain against God. We were like, “you know what? We have tithed and we have given offerings, and these other people who don’t even need anything are getting money and this is not right!” John and I both actually sat down and cried together. We just sat there and we cried. We were like, “we don’t know if this is working.” I remember the next day, John was working at Rockwell international and I was actually working at a church, and we didn’t even know how we were going to get to work the next day.

Joyce Meyer – Man, I think there’s a number of challenges but I think probably the greatest challenge to witnessing is staying consistent in your own life.

Joyce Meyer said we don’t really show that we have forgiven ourselves until we have the joy from it by believing what Jesus did on the cross. It all goes back to the atonement. This is what God did for us, and we are to take this gift with both hands. Now look, when you forgive others, you give them a gift they don’t deserve. Now, I say give yourself a gift you don’t deserve. Joyce Meyer Ministries states to let yourself off the hook. We think, “I can’t do that. I feel guilty; I don’t deserve it.” This was my problem as I said last time. I let those years go by when I neglected my family, and the guilt I felt… I felt guilty in accepting the forgiveness, and then I saw this is what God wanted me to do. I’ve been set free and I’m passing it on!

Joyce Meyer Online: I recall one time when I was having another day of feeling guilty, which that was my story pretty much every day of my life… I’d been abused in my childhood and somehow decided there must be something wrong with me if people were mistreating me, and just carried that into my adult life and even into my Christian life, and the devil was just having a real party with it. By then Joyce Meyer was already called into ministry and I was having home bible studies in my home, having people come in and teaching them the word but I was on one of my guilt trips. I remember so vividly the Holy Spirit saying to my heart, “how do you plan to get over this?” Well, I knew the right answer: “I’ll just receive the sacrifice that you made for me when you died on Calvary.” It sounded so spiritual. He said, “and when did you plan to do that?” All of a sudden I started getting a revelation. Joyce Meyer Ministries thought, “oh, probably in two or three days.” “Well, if that sacrifice is good two or three days from now, why isn’t it good now?” and then he said, “I don’t need you to add your guilt to my sacrifice.” Either Jesus did a complete and thorough job or he didn’t. And the truth is we cannot do anything to make up for our mistakes, including feeling bad for years and years and years.

Joyce Meyer Online – I just want to ask you… First I’ll start with Kurt and then go to Lou: What is the greatest challenge to witnessing that you find in the sports arena?

So you’re here for a purpose, and Joyce Meyer don’t think you need to be confused about your purpose. I think it’s just so simple; it’s all over the bible what our purpose is. Our purpose is to live for his glory, wherever we’re at, whatever walk of life we’re in, whether we’re preaching or working in a hospital or working in a doctor’s office or working in a school, none of that matters. We’ve gotten too caught up in what we do. I said we have gotten way too caught up in what we do. Joyce Meyer Ministries states now listen to me — we get too much of our worth and value out of what we do. People strive to do something greater than what somebody else is doing. Or they’re always comparing what they do with what somebody else does. We hardly even ask each other how we are; we want to know, “what do you do?” “what do you do?” “what do you do?” “what do you do?” we all need to do something but I don’t think what we do is nearly as important as the attitude that we do it with. Joyce Meyer Ministries believe that God wants us to live with passion and zeal and enthusiasm.  And I want to say that I don’t necessarily think that’s something that you feel. I’ve been thinking a lot about passion, getting ready for this conference. I think when we think about passion, we think that it’s some kind of an emotion that just gets you hyped up all the time. And to be honest with you, that’s not even my personality. I’m a little bit more of a deeper person and a deep thinker. I’m pretty funny when I preach, but that’s pretty much where it stops. I mean, I’m not like real funny in my ordinary, everyday life.

Joyce Meyer Online – I appreciate you gentlemen taking the time to be here because I know you have plenty to do, and I really believe that what you’re going to say today is going to have an impact on some people’s lives.

Joyce Meyer Online. But it doesn’t work to just jump up and down and sing a few warfare songs in church or yell at the devil once in a while when your circumstances get really bad. We have to stop all that what I call “yo-yo christianity.” I don’t think that we should just go around occasionally trying to take authority; I think we need to walk in our authority. We need to just know who we are. Joyce Meyer always say I don’t go in my office and say, “alright, I’m here now and I’m taking authority.” When I come in, everybody knows that. We were created to have dominion. If you would go all the way back to Genesis 1, you’d see that God gave man dominion over all the other works of his hands. So hopefully Joyce Meyer Online want to give you a new view of yourself that you’re the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, that everything you lay your hand to is supposed to prosper. You’re more than a conqueror.

Joyce Meyer Ministries said the greater one lives in you. God is your strength; by him you can run through a troop and leap over a wall. Now that’s a whole different picture than all this, “well, I’m just hoping to make it until Jesus comes back to get me.” Amen? Amen.: The bible talks about armor. It’s in Ephesians 6. I don’t even know that we’ll get to those scriptures tonight but there’s armor that we have that if we wear it, it will protect us. You might call that defensive weapons. Joyce Meyer said this actually was the armor that they were talking about in the bible. This is the real stuff; just exactly what the roman soldiers wore. You can see it’s pretty mean looking stuff but it doesn’t do us any good just to have it on the stand here, sitting in our house somewhere; you’ve got to wear it.

Joyce Meyer Ministries – Kurt Warner: You sound a lot like my wife. She sits around having a lot of football conversations and doesn’t have a clue either, so I’m familiar with that feeling.

Now, I know that God is dealing with every person in here about something. Most of you probably know what it is. Maybe some of you don’t get it yet and you don’t understand that the grinding feeling you have in your gut is God. (laughing) you don’t need a hamburger because it’s deeper than in your stomach; it’s like way down inside and you’re like “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I don’t know what’s wrong. I just don’t feel right. I don’t know what it is. I’m just not happy. Don’t know what’s the matter.” well, God knocks at the door of our heart. There’s a scripture in revelation that many times we apply just to salvation but I think it needs to be taken a lot further; revelation 3:19: those whom I dearly and tenderly love, I tell their faults and I convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So, God says “because I love you, I’m going to tell you what’s wrong with you.” thank you very much! (laughing) sometimes I’ve even felt a little bit overly loved, like “could you go love Dave for a while?” (laughing) sometimes I feel like I’m getting all the love and nobody else in the house is getting any of the love. (laughing)

But listen to what he says: (Revelation 3:19) so be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal, and repent [changing your mind and your attitude]. (vs. 20) behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he will eat with me. (vs. 21) he who overcomes and is victorious, I will grant him to sit beside me on my throne. We’ll stop right there. Which door in your life is God knocking at? Is it the door of appetite?

That’s the whole point of commitment. Commitment is for our benefit; if helps you be somewhere where you can bear good fruit on a regular basis because now somebody else is depending on you. The best way you could get to church every week is to offer to take three other people because you’re a lot more likely to get out of bed and go if you know somebody else is depending on you and that you’re going to look kind of foolish when you start giving them all your excuses. Commitment is a protection for us.  We need to be committed to things. We don’t need to be over-committed because that can also be a problem but we need to have right, balanced, proper commitments. It’s part of our growth in God. How about the door of your possessions? What do you still have in your possession that God a long time ago asked you to give away? It might be your favorite this or that.

Do you think God won’t ask you for things that you like? Oh, yes, he will! And it’s not because he wants the thing; he just wants to see if you will give it. And don’t you really love it when God asks you to give one of your favorite things away to somebody you really don’t even like? That’s a flesh burner, I can tell you that for sure. (laughing) God has called us to be overcomers. How can we overcome?

The only way we can overcome things is if we stay in prayer and if we stay in the word. There’s no other way. Please listen to me. It’s really not as difficult as you think if you will dedicate the time to learn the word, to study diligently the word of God for yourself. I’m happy to preach to you and I love to do that but you still have to study for yourself.

The door of money? Did you get offended tonight maybe when I spent ten minutes or so talking about giving? Probably most of you didn’t but if you did, it’s not because I talked about it too long; it’s because god’s knocking at the money door in your life and it’s easier to get mad at somebody else sometimes than it is to obey god. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why people get aggravated when somebody teaches them how to give. The only people who could possibly get aggravated about that are the ones who don’t want to do it. I agree people don’t need to overdo it and I don’t think I do that; I don’t think I take an excessive amount of time trying to teach people how to give but if I’m going to be a teacher of God’s word, then I’ve got to teach you the whole counsel of the word of god. We need to stop getting aggravated at preachers when they preach something we don’t want to hear because most of the time it’s because it’s something God’s dealing with us about and we haven’t come to the place of full surrender.

If we hear about prayer and we’re one of the ones that aren’t giving any time to it, then we don’t like that message. Well, at least I have one person laughing over there. That’s good. (laughing) which door is God knocking at? The door of your time? The door of your attitude? How about the door of wrong friendships? Some people could change their whole life if they’d just get a new bunch of friends.

How about the door of sacrifice, God asking you to serve somewhere that’s going to take a little of your time and you’re just not sure you want to make that commitment because after all, if you make a commitment and you have to be somewhere every week, what happens if you don’t want to be there?

You have to have that time with God where you’re giving him time to take even the messages that people preach to you and put it all together in your life and make it a reality to you. One of the things that I suggest to people is study in an area where you’re having a problem. If you have a bad temper, you don’t need a tape on prosperity. (laughing) amen? If you are impatient and constantly just grouching at people, upset every time things don’t go fast enough for you and you’re making hasty, unwise decisions, then you really don’t need a tape on success or a cd.

I’m not supposed to call them tapes anymore. I’m always getting in trouble for calling them tapes. They tell me they’re not tapes. The generation today thinks, “tapes? What is a tape?” I started out with 8-tracks. I know what tapes are. (applause)

Thank you, we’re not all 20. Some of us have been through several cycles of tapes and tapes and more tapes. Man, it’s hard work to try to stay young when you get older! (laughing) we read something awesome I believe this morning and I’m not going to take the time to turn back there but in Matthew chapter 26, we saw how when Jesus knew that it was his time to go to the cross, this thing that he had been sent to do was now upon him. It’s interesting; you can know that something is coming a long way down the road but the closer it gets, the more it has an effect on you. Amen? (amen!)

Jesus knew what he came for but now here he is in the garden of Gethsemane and the time is very close and he’s going through an intense battle in his mind and emotions. His spirit’s talking to him. His flesh is talking to him. Yes, Jesus lived in a fleshly body and he was tempted just like we are. The bible says in Hebrews 4 that he was tempted just like we are, yet he never sinned. It wasn’t because he wasn’t tempted; he was tempted, but because he stayed prayed up and because he knew the word and because he depended completely on his father, and because he was full of the holy ghost, when he was tempted — even though he may have had a battle, which it’s very clear that he did in the garden of Gethsemane — he was able ultimately to choose the spirit and never the flesh, so he not only had life himself but he was able to provide life for all of us. When you make right choices, not only do you help yourself but it enables you then to be used by God to help somebody else.

Joyce: That’s so true. Victoria, what do you think about this area?  What are some of the areas where you think people need to seek to improve themselves?

Victoria Osteen: in discipline. I think we could all be more disciplined. Just like Joel was saying, sometimes we don’t take our time as seriously as we can, and we’re just always looking for something, always trying to… Where’s this, where’s that? I know those are areas that I’ve really helped myself and disciplined myself — put my keys in the same place. It sounds simple but really it can save you so much time and frustration when you just make small little changes in your life.

Pastor Joel: yeah.  It’s funny, Joyce, I read a study — I don’t have the exact figures, but a guy who studied offices and helps people be more productive said that if you turn to answer your phone on the credenza behind you, in a year you’ve wasted like 14 days. So it’s just being smart and working smart.  I think the other thing that goes back to our habits is a lot of our habits we’ve learned from our parents and the people who have raised us. You spoke a message one time on thinking generationally. I really liked that. I wrote a lot in the book about that; about so much is being passed down. Let’s leave the world a better place. Let’s leave my family line better off than the way it was before. I like to think about it like that:  I’m not only improving for myself, but I’m making it easier on my kids who are coming after me.

Joyce: That’s right because whatever your children see you do is actually more important than what you tell them to do. I think a lot of times we’re telling people something instead of modeling something for them. One of my passions is to really light a fire in believers — those who have faith in Jesus Christ — to get out in the world and be a good example. You’re talking about complacency. I’ve recently released a book called “I dare you.” the subtitle is about living with passion because I think so many people just kind of go through the motions. They just kind of get up every day and whatever happens, they try to deal with that.  They’re not really happy in life but they don’t want to take a step of faith to do any better. You can get passive. You can get in an attitude where you’re just putting up with stuff instead of saying, “I’m going to live the best life that I can live. It’s not all going to be done for me.” you can’t just expect God to do everything for you because we’re partners with God. He has a part and we have a part. Very often I think God is showing people what to do, but they won’t go to that next level of excellence. We just get too satisfied with mediocrity, and that’s not the way God wants us to be.