transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] This program is supported by you, our viewers and our partners.

Speaker 2:
[00:06] God actually uses circumstances, including difficult people, to refine us, to crucify our flesh, and to prepare us for our promotion. I'm Joyce Meyer, and I believe that God can heal you everywhere you hurt. Well, thank you for being with me on Enjoying Everyday Life. And you know what I believe? I believe that you will enjoy your day more because you spent this time with us. I started yesterday teaching a series on Armed and Dangerous, because we have an enemy. Our enemy is not our circumstances. It's not the people that are hard for us to get along with. Our enemy is Satan. And he works through people, but he is the enemy. And we need to realize that, you know, our fight is really not with people or with our circumstances. It's with the enemy. And I love Romans 12, 21, that says you overcome evil with good. So the best way to respond when the enemy is coming against you is to turn around and do something good. See, that $2300 that the company basically, they have a sign on their website that we always make the customer happy no matter what it takes. And Laura, when she was, my daughter, when she was talking to him about this whole deal, she said, well, you know, this was partially your fault as well as ours because you didn't, you didn't tell him that this was a dark, dark gray. And he told you it was a light gray, you know, that we needed a light gray. Anyway, as I was saying yesterday, they kept our $2300, the piece of glass they sent won't work for us. And so we spent about two days trying to convince them. And then I thought, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not, they can have it. I'm going to keep my peace and God will take it away from them and get it back to us no matter how many hands it has to, has to pass through. But see, I recognize that Satan is the enemy and he's trying to use it to steal my peace. And you know, money is not worth giving up your peace over. Now, they're in the wrong, but I'm not going to convince them to do anything different. We tried everything. You do what you can do. In Ephesians 6, it says, having done all the crisis demands, you stand firmly in your place. And so it's not that we don't ever try to solve anything or do anything, but when you've done all that you can do and nothing's working, then you stand strong in God knowing that he will take care of it. And so we were talking about three weapons that we have that sometimes I think we forget about, and they're probably the three most powerful, the word of God, the name of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus. And so the blood of Jesus, we need to learn to put the blood on our life for protection by faith. Exodus 12, 12, and 13. On that same night I will pass through Egypt, and I will strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. Now this is back when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and it was time for him to let them go. The time had come. And so, they kept not paying attention to any of the plagues that he sent. And so, he said, I'm going to destroy all the firstborn of all the people and animals. But he told his people, the Israelites, they lived in a place called Goshen, and he said, you slay a lamb without spot or blemish, and take the blood and put it on the lentil and the doorpost of your house, and stay inside the house, eat the lamb, and when the angel of death comes, he will pass over you. So, that same thing's got to still work for us, except we don't have to actually get a bucket of blood and do any painting. We can just have faith in the shed blood of not a lamb, but our lamb of God, Jesus. John said, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then he says, The blood will be assigned for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. And we are completely, everybody say completely.

Speaker 3:
[05:33] Completely.

Speaker 2:
[05:34] Cleanse from sin by the blood of Jesus. Not a little bit, but completely. First John 1, 7, If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. We enter boldly into the holiest place by the blood, of the Lamb. It's all over the Bible. We just have to make sure that we don't take it for granted and forget about the power that's in it. Sing songs about the blood of Jesus. Read scripture about the blood of Jesus. Read a book about the blood of Jesus. I don't know what they're calling it now, but I wrote a book on the word, the name, and the blood, long, long time ago. Do you know what, did they change the name of it?

Speaker 4:
[06:30] The Greatest Gifts, isn't it?

Speaker 2:
[06:31] What, what is it? The Greatest Gifts. The Greatest Gifts or something. I'm not particularly crazy about it when they change my titles, but, you know, I just work here. So, the Greatest Gifts, the word, the name, and the blood. Hebrews 10, 19, Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy pace by the blood of Jesus. You know, it's only because of the blood that we can come into the presence of God and make our requests of Him. Even though we're imperfect, we go in Jesus' name and we're presenting all that Jesus is when we do that. It was the blood of Jesus that defeated Satan on the cross. It's the blood that now sits on the mercy seat in heaven, demanding mercy for sinners at all times. Satan hates and fears the power that's in the blood of Jesus. You remember, Jesus would not let anybody touch him after his resurrection until he took his blood into heaven and put it on that mercy seat. And then he came back. And that blood is still there today. Jesus' blood ratifies the new covenant and is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. When we take communion, the grape juice or the wine, whatever you use, is, stands for the blood of Jesus. And the cracker, the bread, stands for the body of Jesus that was broken for us. And wine or grape juice stands for the blood that was poured out for us. And Jesus had to do this in remembrance of me. So, we need to remember those things. And I can probably tell even just from looking at you and I'm not putting it off on you, because I do the same thing. Some of you look like, yeah, I need to remember this. I haven't thought about it for a while. And you know, that's what the enemy likes. He likes us to forget about some of the most important things, and then just focus on things that don't make all that much difference. Hebrews 10, 19. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, all the old covenant blood sacrifices pointed to the blood of Jesus being poured out. He is our final sacrifice. There is no longer any sacrifice needed to atone for sin. He did it once and for all. Never needs to be done again. And you know, I had a real hard time with guilt. I started feeling guilty when I was little and was being sexually abused by my dad. And I had a false sense of guilt that followed me around. And I felt guilty, didn't even know what I felt guilty about. I just, I was thanking God this morning when I got up. And I used to get up with that guilt every day, and now I never do. And God spoke to me one time, and this helped me get over it. He said, don't you realize by feeling guilty that you're trying to pay for your sin? And he said, Jesus paid a full price. He doesn't need your help. So, I mean, what else are we doing other than trying to pay by feeling guilty? So, remember that your sins have been paid for completely. One of the things that you learn as you study our church doctrine is that we've not only been redeemed, but we've been reconciled. And that literally means we don't owe God anything. Our account is balanced. I like that. Because every day I used to act like I owed something and was trying to pay the bill. Didn't even know for sure what it was. The blood of Jesus is powerful. It was the blood of Jesus that defeated Satan on the cross. It's the blood that now sits on the mercy seat in heaven, demanding mercy for sinners at all times. Satan hates and fears the power that is in the blood of Jesus. In prayer, you can ask to be cleansed and protected by the blood of Jesus. The first piece of music that our ministry ever protected, we did a little cassette tape with all songs about the Word, the Name and the Blood. And the guy that did it, we didn't have any fancy equipment, he did it in the supply closet. Because that was where you could get the best sound. And we sold thousands of those. Because there's power in hearing those songs. So, probably good for you to get a good CD, or download, or upload, or whatever you do, to get some good songs about the blood of Jesus and just play them. The blood of Jesus is an offensive weapon that functions in the spirit realm. Jesus' blood ratified the New Covenant and is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26, 28, For this is my blood of the New Covenant, which ratifies the agreement and is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. We have a covenant with God sealed in the blood of his son Jesus. It cannot be broken. We have a legal contract with God. Signed and sealed in the blood of Jesus. By the blood of Jesus, you are armed and dangerous. Now, I said before, our war is not with people or circumstances. We wrestle not with flesh and blood. Ephesians 6-12 says our struggle is not, not against flesh and blood. We need to get that. It's not people. And people are always fighting people. But it's really not people. Yes, they may be doing wrong things, but it is the enemy influencing them. And that does not mean they don't have any responsibility, but it does mean you're not going to change them. You can and are supposed to pray for them, and you can resist the enemy, because he's trying to use them to aggravate you. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So the scripture is telling us that our war is not with flesh and blood, but with all these spiritual enemies. Satan works through circumstances and people, but our position is to resist the devil. You know, it's not, resisting the devil doesn't have to become this big job where you're just like, I will be here. You know, when you feel worn out at the end of the day from resisting the devil, it's by believing in things like the power in God's work, or the power in His name, that I can just simply say, the name of Jesus, and He's gonna flee. The blood of Jesus is working for me today, it's on the mercy seat. James 4.7 says, Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and He will flee. Now, remember, it doesn't just say resist the devil, and He'll flee. Your authority comes in the first sentence, submit yourself to God. Sometimes we like to just read part of stuff. We don't like to read the ifs and the buts. I'll do this if you do that. God actually uses circumstances, including difficult people, to refine us, to crucify our flesh, and to prepare us for our promotion. Dave tells me all the time that God put us together just so he could crucify my flesh. It's funny, but it's true. Because, see, I was a controller and a manipulator, and he wouldn't, he wouldn't let me do that. But he remained loving and he just, he didn't get mad. He understood some of the issues I was going through, but he was like, look, I'm going to be happy. And I'll love you anytime you receive it. But if you want to be unhappy, you'll have to be unhappy by yourself because I'm going to be happy. Well, that infuriated me. It just infuriated me. But by the grace of God, I stuck it out and over a period of time, seeing how he reacted to my foolishness, began to change me and I thought if he can have peace, then I can have peace. If he can enjoy his life no matter what, then I can enjoy my life no matter what. If there's anything that we need to strive for, it's to be stable in front of unbelievers, like all the time being the same, whether we have good circumstances or rather we don't. Amen. What is Satan really after? Well, he doesn't care about our stuff, he really doesn't. He's got all the stuff he wants. He wants us to disobey God. He wants us to live in fear and run away from the will of God. He wants us to backslide. He wants us to lose righteousness, peace and joy. He loves to upset us. I say he sets us up to get us upset. Because, you know, different things upset different ones of you that might not bother me and there are probably things that upset me that might not bother you. But the devil knows what upsets all of us. And he knows exactly what to use. And as I said earlier, he very often waits until you're tired or weak or not feeling good or you've already had a lousy three or four days. And then he comes against you. He wants us to be depressed, discouraged and in despair. Despair means to be hopeless and without a way out. And we're never like that. Because hope is the anchor of our soul. He wants us to be negative and hopeless and say so. He wants us to complain and exploit the goodness of God. Did you know that complaining is a sin? It's become one of what I call acceptable sins. There are certain things that we've gotten so loose on that the Bible clearly says is sin that we just don't think all that much about. You know, everybody does that. Jealousy is another one on that list. Complaining is sin. The Bible says in Romans 14, 23, whatever you do without faith is sin. Yeah. Sit and think about that for a while, you think, well. He wants us to be confused, get into reasoning, have no faith, be double-minded, doubtful, and filled with worry and anxiety. In short, the devil wants us to act like the world. But we have power and authority to remain calm during crisis. Psalm 94, 12 and 13. Blessed, happy, fortunate, and to be envied is the man whom you discipline and instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law, that you may give him power to keep himself calm in the days of adversity until the inevitable pit of corruption is dug for the wicked. Who is going to keep you calm? See, you missed it. That you may give him power to keep himself calm. It's up to us to keep ourselves calm. Okay, it's up to us to keep ourselves calm. Well, I can't help it. You know, that is the biggest, dumbest excuse that we all make. I can't help it. Yeah, you can. You most definitely can. And there's an example that I use. Well, we'll just say this. Say you're having a big argument in your house over something stupid. Husband, kids, everybody's into it. We're all just mad and having a fit. And let's just say that I come to your front door, one of your kids answers the doors and come back and says, Mom, it's Joyce Meyer. Let me ask you a question. How quick could you get over your fit? Joyce, what are you doing here? Praise God. And everybody would all of a sudden just get real friendly. So we can, we can keep ourselves calm because we would not act that way around somebody we wanted to impress. So you can't use that excuse. I can't help it. We can love people that are our enemies. Wow. You believe that? You can love people who have hurt you. You know why? Because love is not a gooey feeling. Love is a decision about how you're going to treat somebody. That's really the long and short of it. Love can produce feelings, but that's more the romantic kind of love. Real love, the agape kind, God kind of love is a decision about how you're going to treat somebody. God treats us good, even when we've been bad, amen? One of the worst things that you can have is unforgiveness in your heart. It's like really causes a lot of problems for the believer. Romans 5 17 says, We are to reign as kings in life. Wow. For if because of one man's sin, being Adam, death reign through that one, how much more surely will those who receive God's overflowing grace and unmerited favor and the free gift of righteousness, which puts him into right standing with himself, reign as kings in life to the one man, Jesus Christ. So if one man, Adam could do all the damage that he did, how much good can one man, Jesus do with what he did? You were born with the DNA of a king. In my case, I prefer queen. The blessing God promises is very exciting and filled with promises of power and authority. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. Hallelujah. The Lord will grant that your enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come against you one way and flee from you seven ways. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns. I don't have a barn, thank you, but I'll take a blessing on everything else. And on everything that you put your hand to, God will bless everything you put your hand to. Think about that. The Lord your God will bless you and the land he is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath. If you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him, if... Say, you can't just stop at all the, I'll bless you and keep you safe, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.

Speaker 3:
[24:07] Some days feel like a storm you never saw coming. Life spins out of control. Worries, responsibilities, heartache. You're doing your best to stay strong, but the battles never seem to stop. But what if the battles were never meant to be yours?

Speaker 2:
[24:26] You know, the moment I stopped fighting and trusted God with the battle, everything began to change. I wrote, your battles belong to the Lord for anyone who feels worn out from trying to fix everything on your own. Because when you surrender the fight to God, you don't lose.

Speaker 5:
[24:43] Now, I'm reminded that everything that I've ever gone through, He's always been my protector. He's always made a way where I saw no way.

Speaker 6:
[24:52] He's building me for such a time as this through my set of circumstances and getting me to the other side to show His power and His glory.

Speaker 2:
[25:01] This book will help you stop carrying what God never asked you to carry and learn how to trust Him right in the middle of real life.

Speaker 4:
[25:09] Knowing that I'm not in control of everything and just that stress relief of giving everything to Him and having that peace that surpasses understanding.

Speaker 3:
[25:19] Request Joyce's book, Your Battles Belong to the Lord and bring hope and encouragement into your life. And when you do, we'll include growing in spiritual maturity, showing you how to grow in faith, peace and strength. Get both books for your gift of $35 or more. Call us today at 1-800-331-8000, or visit us online at joycemeyer.org, or use the QR code on your screen.

Speaker 2:
[25:41] Well, when you surrender your battles to the Lord, it doesn't mean you do nothing. God does his part, and you do yours by growing spiritually. That's why I wrote Growing in Spiritual Maturity, to help you build a strong, everyday relationship with God. And remember, your faithful support helps share this message with others. To your generosity, lives are being changed. Hope is restored, and people find freedom. Every gift matters. Give as God leads you.

Speaker 3:
[26:11] As a thank you for your gift today, we want to send you Joyce's books, Your Battles Belong to the Lord, and Growing in Spiritual Maturity. Together, they offer encouragement for the battles you face and guidance for growing spiritually in everyday life. Request both books with your gift of $35 or more. Call us today at 1-800-331-8000. Or visit us online at joycemeyer.org or use the QR code on your screen.

Speaker 1:
[26:37] Ready to transform your story? Let's celebrate your style, quirks and potential.

Speaker 2:
[26:44] God has got a plan for you. I want you to get that tonight.

Speaker 1:
[26:49] Every journey is unique and God's hand is at work.

Speaker 7:
[26:53] We are talking about eternal transformation from the inside out.

Speaker 1:
[26:57] Come discover the beauty where struggles become strength as God moves you toward a life transformed.

Speaker 7:
[27:04] Today, he's making all things new.

Speaker 1:
[27:07] Join us for the 2026 Love Life Women's Conference with Joyce and her guests, Christine Cain, Lisa Harper and worship with Natalie Grant and Hope Darst, October 22nd through the 24th in Tampa, Florida.

Speaker 2:
[27:24] My story, your story. They are vital. Together, let's discover the beautiful road they can take. I really hope to see you there.

Speaker 1:
[27:33] Register now at joycemeyer.org. Real life, real friends, no pretense. Joyce Meyer's Talk It Out Podcast. Join Joyce, Erin Cluley and me, Ginger Stokke, along with some amazing friends as we honestly share the hard stuff, laugh through those unpredictable moments, and learn to apply what God says about it all. Watch or listen to new episodes every other Tuesday, wherever you get your podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's program. We are so grateful to our Joyce Meyer Ministries partners who make this and all we do possible, including sharing God's word and offering help to people in need all over the world. This program is supported by you, our viewers and our partners.