Hearing from God | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life

God speaks to us in our everyday lives! Join Joyce Meyer as she reveals some of the specific ways we can hear from God, today on Enjoying Everyday Life.

Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives.

With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way.

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If you take too much of a supernatural look at what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit, many times you’re gonna miss what god really wants you to do because in many ways, the way that god speaks to us and deals with us is a lot more normal than what you might think.
I do what I did 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’ve heard.
Okay. Well, we’re talking about divine guidance.
And in particular, how to hear from god. Father, we thank you for the word this afternoon.
And I pray that everything that needs to come out of me will that people will understand it, retain it, and be prepared to go home and do it.
Jesus’ name, Amen.
Uh, when we stopped this morning, we were talking about how to find god’s will for your life.
And, uh, that seems to be a big thing. For a lot of people.
How am I supposed to know what it is that god wants me to do?
And, Yeah. I remember one girl.
They used to work for me, and she was in her fifties, which was a very attractive woman, but she’d just never been married.
And never even really dated to any degree.
And, um, she said god told her I want you just to serve me with gladness.
Just serve me with gladness.
And so perhaps there are even people that god wants to station throughout the body of Christ that just are one of those kind of people.
They’re just They’re just there to be an uplifter and an encourager and to to give an example of being content.
You know, god uses us in so many different ways.
And I hope that you’re past the thinking that if you’re not on a platform somewhere, then you’re not being used by god.
Because to be honest, most of the work that needs to be done and is done out in the world is done one on 1 by people that are out there on their jobs in the marketplace, in the store, most of the people that need help are not coming to church.
I mean, now I’m sure we all need help in here today, but most of the people that are a lot more desperate for help than you are are out there.
They didn’t know to come in here today.
So we come together like this to learn and grow so we can then go out and be the witnesses that Christ wants us to be to change the world.
Every single Christian is called in the ministry.
Every single one of you are called in the ministry.
We all have the ministry of intercession.
It’s our ministry to pray for other people and we all have the ministry of reconciliation.
The Bible says, which is being that go between the help to bring reconciliation between the lost and god.
So you all have a ministry.
Finding out the particular way that god wants you to manifest that ministry may be one thing.
More than likely, it’s gonna be several things.
But I stop by saying that the only way you’re ever gonna find out is to step out and find out.
Don’t be afraid to try things.
It won’t take very long, and you’ll know if it’s just something that you can do, or if it’s the thing.
That god wants you to do.
You know, Paul was ministering for quite a while before god said separate under me now.
Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them to do.
So they were ministering for a long time before that happened, but then god set them apart for a special thing.
And I think a lot of times we’re so intent on being set apart that special thing that we don’t get the training that we need for that thing by doing all these other things that god may want us to do.
You might serve in the helps ministry. You might, I don’t know, be asked to help clean the church.
It might not be something that’s very, uh, attractive or anything that you feel is worth very much But a lot of times in our life, god runs us through the paces, I guess, I can say, to check our attitude.
Just to see, are you willing to do anything that I ask you to do, or does it have to be something big in order for you to be step out into something and it’s not right for you, that doesn’t mean that you made a mistake in stepping out into it.
It just means that you’re in the process of trying to find out what it is that god wants you to do.
I mentioned that, uh, a great man of god said that he had never in all of his walk with god at any really important juncture in his life had god tell him exactly what he wanted him to do.
He said, god always worked with me, but he made me get out there, try things, and pray about things, and do things.
So if if you take too much of a supernatural look at what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit, many times you’re gonna miss what god really wants you to do because in many ways, the way that god speaks to us and deals with us is a lot more normal than what you might think.
And so we’re gonna go ahead from that point and talk about some other things about how to hear from god.
First of all, I wanna say, if you won’t listen to the little things that god asked you to do, Chances are, you’ll never hear him tell you anything big.
Man?
You probably have heard some of these stories So I won’t labor with them too long, but when god started calling me into ministry back in the seventies, I already had 3 children, and certainly was not in a place where I could go to Bible College, but even though you can’t go somewhere to go to school to be trained for ministry, you can always go to the school of the Holy Ghost.
You can always ask god to begin to train you right where you’re at in whatever it is that you do.
Well, I was a housewife, and, Part of that time, I was still working a full time job, but after a certain period of time, because I wasn’t getting any time to study, I felt like god wanted me to quit my job and spend as much time as I could study in the Bible.
I had a dream in my heart, but there was no evidence that it was ever gonna happen.
A lot of times, you may wanna do something, but if you don’t take the time to for the preparation, then you’ll never be released into what it is that god wants you to do.
So in order for me to quit my job, we were gonna have to take a big step of faith because our bills were $40 a month more than what our income was gonna be.
And so back then was when I learned how to trust god for money.
And most of the things that he did for us were seemingly little small things, but they really helped me build my faith in god.
I I had a few friends and, you know, we did things like go to the farmer’s market once a week and things like that.
But I had a grocery store that was right down the street from my house, and so it seemed like I ended up in the grocery store two, three times a week.
And as unique as this might sound, god taught me some of the most profound lessons that I’ve ever learned that have helped me all my years in ministry in that grocery store.
And I I I really I’m telling you this because I wanna urge you to watch for how god is trying to teach you in the ordinary everyday affairs of everyday life.
You can learn some amazing lessons just as you go about your normal every day.
So One of the first things that god began to deal with me about was putting my grocery cart back in the space that was marked off for grocery carts.
And, you know, most people don’t wanna do that.
They wanna leave it out in the middle of the parking lot to chase somebody else’s car down or or it’s amazing how hard we will work at Trying to kick the wheels in a certain direction so it won’t roll.
It would take much less time to go put it back where it belongs.
But instead of doing that, we do spend all this time trying to get it not to go anywhere, and then it ends up running into somebody’s car anyway.
And It’s sad for me to say this, but it took me 2 years to get fully obedient.
So it’s I that I was a long way away from being worldwide ministry material.
I don’t know if you understand what I’m saying.
If if you’re not gonna obey god when he tells you to do something like walk with integrity or to do something with excellence.
You know, I something that we always do because we feel like that god deals with us to do it.
We stay in a lot of hotels And every time we leave our hotel room, we turn all lights out.
And because that’s something that I just felt like god put on my heart.
Now, you know, I could have the attitude or what do I care? I paid for the room.
They gotta pay the bills. But see, however you treat other people, you’re sowing a seed that’s gonna come back to you at some time in your life.
So I wasn’t in Bible school, but those were lessons that god was teaching me He was teaching me how to be excellent.
He was teaching me how to be honest.
Another thing that he taught me in the grocery store was We were on a very tight budget, $70 every 2 weeks for groceries.
And so I had to go with my coupons and my calculator and make sure that nothing went over.
And you have a tendency when you go to the grocery store, especially if you’re hungry, you’ll put a lot of stuff in your cart that by the time you get to the last aisle, you realize you can’t pay for all of it.
And so you have to pick through and decide what you can keep and what you can’t.
And I, like many other people, at that time, I would just take out what I didn’t want and just put it anywhere wherever I was at.
In the store. You know, that’s that’s why you find a head of lettuce in with the cleaning supplies in a grocery store.
It was people like I used to be that do that.
Well, you know, I didn’t wanna go all the way from the the milk and egg aisle, which is all the way over here on the end, all the way back over to the produce, you know, to put away ahead of lettuce.
Why? Because we’re lazy, and I just didn’t want to.
Now I didn’t care that somebody else was gonna have to clean up my mess.
So that was another thing that god taught me. It was like, nope. Take it back.
Put it back where you got it. You know, god can be he can annoy you. He knows how.
He knows how to annoy you. Put it back. Put it back. Put it back. Put it back.
Put it back. And you try to walk away from it.
It’s just like, just go put it back.
And another thing that I learned in the grocery store was to read the fine print on the coupons.
Like, I remember that they would very often have chickens on sale.
3 for a dollar or whatever it was.
It was a long time ago that you get 3 chickens for a dollar.
But And then I had you know, when when you become a Christian, a serious Christian, you start noticing the fine print.
That you’ve managed to ignore.
And I I never noticed that it said limit 3 per customer.
Well, I didn’t want 3 chickens. I wanted to fill my freezer full of chicken.
So I would take my kids to the store with me.
And Each one of them would get 3 chickens in their cart.
Dave would have 3. The kids would all have 3. I’d have 3. We’d all have our coupons.
And then the Holy Spirit started convicting me.
I mean, Do I have to get convicted about chickens?
Don’t I have don’t I have things much more serious in my life than than chickens, and he’d call me back to that fine print.
Well, I knew that I had a problem when I was in line one day getting ready to pay for my chickens, And I I thought, I don’t think I gave my daughter enough money for tax.
And my heart was pounding in fear.
That the clerk was gonna realize that I was doing something that I shouldn’t be doing.
And so I began to learn, you know, if you gotta feel like you gotta hide something or you feel like you, uh, are doing something wrong, then that means that you are.
Well, to be honest, I’ve been a Christian for a long time, but I didn’t know stuff like that.
Nobody was teaching me that kind of stuff. And I had somebody recently, actually, a a well known minister.
He was at a conference where I was teaching some things on excellence, And he said, I have never in my life heard that kind of stuff.
Now how can how can we be grown adults and not know what excellence and integrity is.
Yet many people in the world don’t, and that’s why the world is in the mess that it’s in.
And then one other thing I’ll tell you that I remember God teaching me, when I’d be out in the department store shopping, You know, how a lot of people, they’ll not close off the hangers and just leave them laying the floor.
And god started telling me to pick them up. And put them back on the hangers.
And I thought, now why should I clean somebody else’s mess up? That doesn’t make any sense.
But then I felt like the lord said to me, well, would you like to have somebody clean your messes up someday?
And so now god has provided and has for years years all the help that I need in order to do what I’m doing.
Let me tell you something. Sometimes when you are we when we disobeyed god in some of these little things, we don’t really realize that we’re creating a problem for ourselves that we’re gonna deal with later.
So when god tells you something little to do, keep in mind that anything god says, there’s nothing little about it.
So if god bothers to tell you about it, then that means it’s a big and an important thing in your life, and you need to just in obedience, childlike obedience.
Amen? Just like a little kid, It may seem silly, but childlike obedience, I think nothing bonds us together with god in close fellowship more than being a child of god who’s willing to do seemingly foolish little things just because you believe that’s what your heavenly father wants you to do.
So I’ll just say again, if we’re not gonna obey god in little things, then we’re probably gonna miss out on a lot of big things that we would like to do.
How about, um, if somebody gives you too much change Do you take it back, or do you think, oh, man, god’s blessing me.
See, now anybody anybody that knows the word of god knows that that’s just silly.
You know, more than anything, it’s a test to see if you’ll be honest.
Amen? I bought a pair of shoes one day, and I’d been looking at the purse that went with it and was gonna get the purse.
And I decided not to get the purse.
When I got home, the guy had accidentally put the purse in my bag.
Well, you know, in a way, it’s a little bit irritating whenever somebody else has made a mistake that now you have to spend your time and gas money to go correct, but I knew that I need to do it.
This is how we hear from god. How many times do you know what you need to do?
You don’t need a 3 part series preached to you.
You know, down deep inside, what you need to do.
Well, one of the main ways that god speaks to us is through just knowing.
There’s no need to try to explain how you know. You just know.
You just know that you should or you shouldn’t do that thing.
This is what makes our relation our personal relationship with god, precious and exciting.
When you walk with him, in your everyday ordinary, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, when you walk with him in your ordinary everyday life and you want with all your heart to obey him, and to be the kind of person that he wants you to be.
Don’t have your mind on being in some big ministry.
If you’re called to be in some big full time traveling ministry or to be on a platform somewhere or to do something magnanimous, that’s wonderful.
But I’ll tell you You’ll never get around to doing that if you don’t do these little things that I’m telling you to do.
That’s always gonna be part of your training. Because what does the Bible say?
It’s the little foxes that spoil the vine.
I’ll tell you another thing that causes us a lot of problems.
I won’t harp on this, but I think it’s one of the things that keeps us from hearing from god properly, and that’s having a negative complaining attitude.
I’ll tell you what, I think if any person could just get through one whole day without uttering one complaint, it would be an outstanding miracle from god.
Amen? I bet something that god has spoken to all of you, including me hundreds of times in your life.
You don’t need to say that. Nobody. I’m the only one.
Just, you know, just getting ready to say something.
Sometimes I’ll notice I’m getting ready to say something, and the only point is it’s gonna call it call attention to me.
Know, sometimes we wanna say something cute or smarter or funny, but it’s just really it’s to draw attention to ourselves.
When you can start getting really, really honest with yourself and really checking your motives for why you do things, you can start maturing pretty fast.
And I know that I have a lot of times in my life when god will just simply say, you don’t need to say that.
Now I’d like to stand here and tell you that I’m always obedient.
And anytime he tells me not to say it, I don’t, but I’m not that good yet. Thank god.
I’m not where I used to be. But I’m not where I need to be either.
However, I am happy that I’m still making progress.
This is all intended to help us be more obedient.
You know, the Bible says be still in no. That I am god.
And so a lot of that knowing, it but it’s a different kind of knowing. It’s not a head knowing.
It’s a a heart knowing. God will speak to us sometimes to just giving us an idea, but you can tell there’s something a little different about it.
It’s not just like a in your head idea. There’s something in it that kinda feels special. About it.
Oh, how the little things matter. We need that reminder.
Things like obedience, honesty, and being excellent with the small things teach us to be faithful to god with the bigger things.
Just like with a child, you know this as a parent as they grow, you can trust them with more.
Well, god is always faithful. So as we show him that we can be faithful, he will show us even more of his plan for our lives.
And that’s when we hear from him even more clearly.
God wants to show you the big plans he has for your life.
And Joyce tells you more about that in her new book finding god’s will for your life.
She breaks down what god’s word says about your purpose.
His will for us and how simply taking steps that are easy to do can help you discern where you should go next.
And practical ways you can hear god’s voice as you make decisions. What could be better?
We all want those things. Remember, God wants you to know. It’s not meant to be a secret.
He’s not trying to hide anything.
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Give what you can, but we want you to have this in your hands.
And we truly believe that god will provide that some of you will give a little bit more to help with those who can’t.
We want you all to have god’s word. Now coming up next, another beautiful example of how little things matter.
Will tell you about a creative way we can all reach out and help someone suddenly hit with extremely devastating circumstances.
Find out what it is after the break. These are volunteers at our medical and dental reaches.
And when you use the gifts that god has given you to do something for him, he always blesses you for it.
And we invite you to come along with us. What do you think? Should they should they do that?
Go to our website and find out more information, but volunteer for a medical, dental mission as soon as you possibly can.
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When disaster strikes, it can be devastating.
And it’s vital that we come together in unity to respond with the love of Jesus.
And as a partner with Joyce Meyer Ministries, you are doing that with the little things that are exceptionally important.
And making sure that they are ready to go at just the right time when people need them most.
But it’s not only the supplies you are providing, it’s also hope prayer and faith that they will get through this.
We’re all making a difference together. Watch this. It’s Vicki Stolldryer’s birthday.
And instead of receiving gifts, she’s decided to give to people she’ll never meet.
This ministry is outreach. It’s honor god and help people.
Vicky’s partnered with Joyce Meyer Ministries for more than 30 years, but today, she made it more personal with a blessing bucket.
A five gallon bucket filled with 26 essential items that you would need if you were displaced from your home, things like paper supplies, toilet tissue, hand sanitizer, anti perspirant hygiene products, toothbrush, toothpaste, first aid kits, a flashlight with fresh batteries, and all of that is topped off with a note of encouragement, a devotional, and a Bible because they haven’t just lost everything, but they’ve also lost hope in a lot of situations.
So we wanna able to restore that.
We are able to take our blessing bucket program outside of the Four walls in Danville, Virginia all over the country because of our partner with hand of hope in Joyce Meyer Ministries.
When natural disaster strikes, people are immediately without the things that they need.
So god’s pit crew work year round to create and package these blessing buckets.
Our hands is god’s hands, and it’s gonna reach out to someone who needs love and who needs to know that Christ loves them.
Donna Willis is also a long time partner. She couldn’t resist the opportunity to do something hands on.
Even this bucket out of assuring god and loving you.
To know that someone out there that I’ve never met care so much about me that they would make something like this for me.
Out of the kindness of their heart, out of donations, it’s just such an important thing.
Thank you.
When you partner with Hand of Hope, Joyce Meyer Ministries, you’re partnering with lots of other organizations like god’s pick crew.
We want you to know that not only are we praying for you, but god loves you.
And that is such a powerful tool. Yes. Everything in the bucket unique.
But being able to restore hope to somebody who’s lost everything, that’s really where becomes a gift that’s packaged with intent that makes huge kingdom impact.
We don’t know if this is Vicky’s favorite birth say or not, but it’s definitely one where the gift she’s giving will last a lifetime.
This is something that you can give to and be confident and trust them that they are going to impact not just people in our local area, but in the whole wide world.
For more information, visit joycemeyer.org.
This program has been made possible by the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.