transcript

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

Speaker 2:
[00:05] So when you're in a battle, you need to hang on to that word even stronger than you ever would before. And wear the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness covers your heart. I do what I do because I've seen God's power transform my own life, and He will do it for you. The key to everything is found in God's word. I'm Joyce Meyer, and I believe that God can heal you everywhere you hurt. 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. See, 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. Maybe what you should do when you're reading your Bible is every time you see an if or a but, draw a red circle around it. Then all the people of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they will hear you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground in the land he swore to your ancestors to give. The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you will lend to many nations and you will never have to borrow. What you say matters. What you say today shapes tomorrow. And people can say what they want to about name it, claim it, but we should claim the promises of God. You know, I don't think you claim I'm gonna be a millionaire, but anything that God says, you can say. So if you make a confession list, be sure you put a scripture beside it that backs up what you're saying. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. Here it is again. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day, and carefully follow them, and you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. See, I do think that we read stuff like this, and we're done, and all we really got of it was all the blessings that we're going to have, and we don't really go away with the if. Dress for Battle, Revelation 16, 15. Very funny scripture, unless you know what it means. Behold, I'm going to come like a thief, blessed, happy, and to be envied is he who stays awake, alert, and who guards his clothes, so that he may not be naked and have the shame of being seen exposed. Now, does he want us to sit in our closet with a shotgun? And guard our clothes? What in the world? I mean, what? If you didn't know some other parts of the word, what would you think when you saw that? Stay awake and guard your clothes. I mean, I like my clothes, but I've never sat. But see, the Bible uses the term put on and put off a lot. Tells us to put on love, to put on Christ Jesus, to clothe yourself with mercy, kindness, kind feelings, humility, put on humility, put off pride, put off the old man, put on the new man, put on the full armor of God. Well, really, that put on just means do it. And put off means don't do it. It's pretty simple. So, he's not talking about these clothes, he's talking about our spiritual clothes. Now, let me ask a question. About how long does it take you to get ready in the morning to go out? Hour and a half. Hour and a half, wow. What about you? About an hour. Hour. I'm doing pretty good. I'm at about 45 minutes. Okay. So, what if you spent an hour and a half getting ready spiritually? See, we'll spend all kinds of time trying to get cute. And nobody cares anyway. I mean, if you are cute, they're just jealous. So, we're not all the time. And I do believe, because of who we represent, that we should always do our best to look good. I'm very strong on that. And I know we live in a very casual society today, but I still haven't crossed the line to be able to really like it. I guess I just come from a different era, and it's harder for me, because I was used to people getting dressed up to go to church, and you didn't go to the grocery store in your pajamas, that's for sure. And you see people do that. But we need to always get dressed spiritually before we get dressed physically. If there's any way you can, arrange your life so you can spend the first part of the day with God. Now, I realize if you have little kids at home, that's hard to do. You may have to wait until you've got them off to school or whatever. But God understands that. However, as soon as you get to the point where you can, anybody can spend time with God if they want to. You know what we end up doing? We end up doing what we really want to do. We get right down to it. We make time for whatever is important to us. If it's really important to us, we'll find a way to do it. The Bible says the Spirit of God clothes Gideon with himself. He was calling Gideon to do something that Gideon wasn't so sure he could do. Judges 6.34, but the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with himself and took possession of him. And he blew a trumpet and the clan of Abaniser was gathered to him. God, you can close me with yourself anytime you want to. That's a great thing to pray. As far as I'm concerned, that would be about the greatest blessing you could have. Amen. Job 29, 14 through 16. I put on righteousness as my clothing. See, it's all over the Bible. I put on righteousness. You know, one of the ways you can put on righteousness is just to remind yourself every day, I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I haven't earned it, I don't deserve it. It's a gift of God's grace, but I will walk in that righteousness. I will hold my head up high and go before God as a righteous man or woman and ask for things that I know I don't deserve, but God told me to come boldly to the throne. And I go in Jesus' name, presenting all that Jesus is. I put on righteousness as my clothing. Justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy. I took up the case to the stranger. So, I don't know here if Joe was saying, this is the way I was before I got attacked, or if he's saying I'm still doing this even though I'm under attack. But I think when we're under attack is the best time. And so, we have a tendency when we're under attack to want to withdraw and isolate ourselves. And that's the worst thing you can do because you need the body of Christ around you at that time helping you stay strong. Don't go into battle without your armor. David went to battle against Goliath with his armor on, 1 Samuel 17, 38 through 39. Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put on a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to them. And he said, I cannot go in these, he said to Saul, because I'm not used to them. So he took them off. But David had armor, just a different kind. David said to the Philistine, you come against me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. And he defeated this giant with a slingshot and a stone. Because he knew who was going to fight his battle, and it wasn't going to be him. He realized that ordinary armor wouldn't work for him, so he clothed himself with God. Well, his armor was spiritual rather than natural. A strong man cannot defeat you unless he first takes away your armor. Luke 11, 22 says when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he will take away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder. Are you dressed for battle? Let's look at it, Ephesians 6, 11 through 18. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against all the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, not if, but when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything the crisis demands, you can stand firmly in your place. Stand then with the belts of truth buckled around your waist, and the belt of truth is what? The word of God. And I love it, in the Amplified it says, tighten your belt of truth. So when you're in a battle, you need to hang on to that word even stronger than you ever would before. And wear the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness covers your heart. You're not guilty and condemned, you're right with God. God is pleased with you. Oh, that makes the devil mad when you say that. God, thank you that you're pleased with me because I'm in Christ. If you read everything in the epistles that it says you are in Christ, you'd be shouting for joy from now until Jesus comes. And put on your shoes of peace. Walk in peace. In addition, take up the shield of faith. The Amplified says lift up the shield of faith. That means that you have to release your faith. Faith is a power that God gives you a belief that you have. And how do you release your faith? By praying, by saying, or by doing. I release my faith when I pray the word. I release my faith when I say the word. And I release my faith when I take action in faith. Just because you have faith, it doesn't mean it'll do you any good if you don't use your faith. Take the helmet of salvation. That means think like a Christian. And the sword of the Spirit, which is again the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Now, if I were you, if you haven't already done it, you need to study, study, study Ephesians 6, 11 through 18. And make sure you understand each piece of that armor. And make sure that you're putting on righteousness. That anytime you feel leftover guilt for something that you've already confessed and asked God's forgiveness for, then you know that's just the devil trying to get a stronghold in your life. So that's when you open your mouth and say, my sins are forgiven, and I am the righteousness of God in Christ. You talk to yourself anyway, you might as well say something that makes sense. If you love righteousness, and I do, I love not only knowing that I've been made right with God, but I love doing the right thing. I want to do the right thing. Psalm 45 seven says, you love righteousness, and you hate wickedness. Therefore God your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. If you love righteousness, that's a great promise. Righteousness is first of all a state of being, and then it's something that you do. But see the thing to realize about God is he's never going to ask you to do something that you don't have in you to do. How could I give you a drink of water if I didn't have any water to give you? Well, how can I behave right if I don't have any righteousness? So God gives us everything that we need, and we just have to learn how to use it. He gives us peace, but we have to learn to walk in that peace and not let the devil steal it from us. He gives us righteousness, the joy of the Lord is your strength. We have joy, but if you think a lot of bad thoughts, good joy is not going to come out of you. Start every day, this is going to be a good day. I'm full of hope today. I believe something good is going to happen to me. And if you can't talk that loud when you first get up, which I can't, I can barely open my mouth. Dave says, how are you? And I go, hmm. I have to get somewhere and have some Jesus and some caffeine. I've never been what you'd call a morning person. Good morning, how are you? I've got a daughter like a, good morning, how are you? I'm like, get out of my face. Go somewhere else and be happy. If you're clothed in guilt, shame and condemnation, then you're not reigning as a king in life. You must daily put on righteousness as a robe or a covering. Become a servant of righteousness by conforming to the divine will and purpose, thought and action. It's Romans 6, 18. And remember, you can behave right because you are right. You are right with God. You can stay in peace because God has given you peace. The joy of the Lord is yours, and Satan is not after your stuff, he's after your joy. Because if he can make you sad, you become weak. How do you feel about yourself? This is a big thing and it's another four-part seminar, so I won't have time to do that. See, I found out that most of my problems stemmed from the fact that I didn't like myself. And I didn't like myself because of the things that have been done to me. I thought I was flawed, something was wrong with me. And that's why God tries to get us to understand that when we're born again, we become new creatures and old things pass away. All things become brand new. Are you confident? Do you like yourself? Do you believe God loves you unconditionally? How quickly do you recover your position in Christ when you make mistakes and sin? Do you make every effort to do what is right? Do you strive to treat people right? And if you realize you have mistreated somebody, are you very quick to go back and ask for their forgiveness? Be sure you stay in peace. Where there's no peace, there's no power. Where there is peace, there is power. That's why we feel so strongly about keeping strife out of the ministry, and keeping strife out of our marriage, out of our family. Because where there's strife, the Bible says there's confusion and rebellion in every evil work. So if a family raising a bunch of kids, if those kids are rebellious and confused about who they are or what to do with their life, maybe it's because there's strife in the home that nobody ever dealt with. You see, a lot of people don't realize those things are a problem. I mean, I grew up in a house of strife. That was all there ever was, was upset and anger. I mean, dysfunction to the max. And that's one of the reasons why it took me so long to be a peaceful person. I wasn't even used to peace. Matter of fact, when I first started getting peaceful, and this will sound stupid, but it's true, I was bored. Because I was accustomed to something being stirred up all the time. And I had to learn how to really love peace, how to enjoy peace. So, Satan is your enemy. And Jesus is your defense. But you're strong enough to defeat him, and to keep him at bay. Remember, the word, the name, and the blood. I pray for everybody watching, and all the people here, that you would recognize when Satan is trying to take advantage of you, and that you would say no, and not let him into your head space. Help us to recognize, Lord, when we're starting to think thoughts that are gonna take us down a wrong path, and to cast down those wrong thoughts. Keep us always full of faith, full of hope, and walking in peace. Let us reign as kings in life, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. God bless you.

Speaker 1:
[22:04] Stay tuned. Joyce will be back in a moment.

Speaker 3:
[22:08] 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:
[22:27] 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 4:
[22:44] 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 5:
[22:53] 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:
[23:02] 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 3:
[23:20] 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:
[23:42] 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. Through your generosity, lives are being changed. Hope is restored and people find freedom. Every gift matters. Give as God leads you.

Speaker 3:
[24:12] 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:
[24:40] Our stories, they matter. Your gifts, your passions, even your quirkiness, they were designed with intention. He can use every twist and turn of your journey to create something new. Out of brokenness, beauty. Out of struggle, a life transformed. Join us for the 2026 Love Life Women's Conference and discover how God can bring transformation to your story. With Joyce and her guests, Christine Kane, Lisa Harper, and worship with Natalie Grant and Hope Darst, October 22nd through the 24th in Tampa, Florida. Register today and save. Go to joysemeyer.org/lovelife. Register now.

Speaker 2:
[26:14] When I was actually praying about what God wanted me to pray for you about today, I felt like that He just reminded me that there's a lot of people in the world that are lonely. And if you're one of those people, then I want to pray for you today. Father, we come to you in Jesus' name, and you know, loneliness is a very painful thing. And a lot of people are lonely, they don't have family, or they're estranged from family. Maybe they've moved to a new place and haven't made friends yet, but whatever the reason, I know that you don't want people to be lonely. And so I pray that you will provide people with the right friendships. If it's somebody that's not married yet and they want to be, I pray that you'd provide that right person for them. If it's someone who is estranged from their children, I pray that that rift would be healed and they would have a good close relationship. And Father, I pray that people would realize that you're always with them. They're never ever a time when they're by themselves, although many times they feel that they are. And I also pray, Lord, that people that are lonely would not just always wait to be invited, but they would be the one who does the inviting. Many times, we're lonely because we sit in an isolated place waiting for somebody to reach out to us, but we can reach out to others and solve our own problem. So I pray that you will lead and guide people and they will not suffer from loneliness. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for being with us today, and I pray that you'll have a great day. And get ready to be overwhelmed with new friends.

Speaker 1:
[28:05] 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.