If at First You Don’t Succeed – Pt 1 | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life Teaching

God loves you so much! On this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer shares why it’s so hard for some of us to believe it, and what God’s love looks like in our everyday lives. You might be surprised!

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.

I’m Joyce Meyer, and I believe that god can heal you everywhere you hurt.
If at first you don’t succeed, you’re normal.
Hey, man?
Everybody is gonna go out of here feeling better about yourself tonight than you did when you came in.
How many of you walked in here tonight feeling guilty about something?
K.
So that’s that’s better than 50% of the people and probably some of you too tired to put your hand up.
So you You just didn’t. You know something? I want you to remember this.
We’re not built for guilt. That god has not designed us or put us together in such a way where we can function properly with guilt.
And guilt can have some very adverse reactions even on your health.
They’ve actually proven that when people feel guilty that they produce hormones that lead to disease.
I remember being in a mental institution one time going there to minister with a group of people and I still remember there were a lot people walking around saying it was all my fault.
It was all my fault. It was all my fault.
You know, you’re forgiven before you ever even sin.
Because Jesus already paid for all of our flaws and weaknesses, and all you need to do is repent.
Wanna turn around and go in the right direction and then just receive what god has already provided.
I think sometimes we spend a lot of time asking god for things, but we don’t spend any time receiving.
I’m gonna suggest to you tonight that at least three times a day, you say out loud, God loves me.
And then stop and just kind of swallow those words.
God loves me.
When I was trying to get over all the abuse that I went through, and I had felt bad about myself for so many years.
And there are people here tonight that you just feel bad about yourself. You don’t like yourself.
You spend way too much time comparing yourself with other people and trying to be like other people, the devil has assured you that you’re some kind of an odd ball because you’re not like everybody else.
Well, thank god you’re not like everybody else.
What a boring place it would be if we were all just our life.
And I would hear that God loved me, but it wasn’t I wasn’t getting it.
You know, you can you can hear something and know that you need it but you still don’t feel that you’ve got it.
And I’m pretty big on confessing the word or declaring the word because I believe that every time you hear something, even if you hear yourself say it, that it helps renew your mind.
And whenever you make a good confession or a bad one, it drops back down in your ears and goes back down on the inside of you.
So I think what we believe about ourselves is way more important than what anybody else believes about us. Amen?
And so one of the things that I did, one of the things and there were many, but one of the things that god led me to do during that period of time, and it took a fair number of years for me to overcome what I went through in my childhood.
But one of the things I did is I would go and look myself in the mirror and a full length mirror and point it myself and say god loves you.
And you need to do that until you get that revelation.
And the Bible says if we know we’re love that we won’t live in fear.
Perfect love and only god can give us that cast out fear because we know that if he loves us enough, to send his only son to die for us and suffer the way he did that surely he will take care of us in every situation that comes up in our life if we will trust him.
Amen. You are in good hands.
It’s normal to be imperfect and make mistakes.
Now Matthew chapter 22 verse 36 through 39.
So as teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
And Jesus replied, love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the 1st and the greatest commandment.
And there’s a second that is like it love your neighbor as you love yourself.
So I believe that the love that god has for us and gives to us is meant to be a cycle in our life that we work with god to complete.
God loves us we receive that love which equates to loving yourself in a balanced way.
Yes, I said you should love yourself in a balanced way.
If god can love us, then surely we can love us.
It’s a day on candid conversations.
We are going to talk about what we all need, what we’re all moving toward in life, and that’s to be more like Jesus.
But when we hear the word holiness, It almost sounds like an impossibility.
How could I ever have holiness in my life?
And so I think it’s good to just talk about it and explain and and even talk about how how god has brought that along in your life.
Well, it’s a process that is being worked in and are worked out in our life from the moment that we are born again until the moment that we die.
But god never requires us to do anything or to be anything without giving us what we need to do it.
That’s a relief, isn’t it? I mean, that lifts some weight off.
So the this this will help explain, but it’ll also leave a question.
In Hebrews 10, verse 10, it says by the will of god, we have been made holy, have been made holy, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
1st 14, the same chapter says for by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever, those who are being made.
Holy. So wait a minute.
Like, verse 10 tells me that I’ve been made holy, And verse 14 tells me that I’m being made holy.
So this is something really good for people to understand.
When we’re born again, Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us.
The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us.
We could never manifest holiness if we didn’t have holiness in us. God makes us holy.
The Bible says that we are sanctified, which means to be made holy.
We’re justified, which means to be made just as if we never sinned.
Were redeemed, bought back from the enemy, all these wonderful things by the blood of Christ.
Let me let me ask you about that because so often we think I can’t get there or have that because of all of the unholiness in my life.
And that’s not how it works. You said the Holy Spirit comes in. Mhmm.
No matter what the mess is that we’re coming into, the holiness of the Holy Spirit comes in when we accept Christ.
Right. I have to explain this so people can understand it.
Yeah.
So He comes to live in our spirit, the deepest part of our being.
When you’re born again, when you truly give your life to Christ, There is not one thing wrong with you in your spirit because god cannot live anywhere that’s not holy.
So He cleans us up. He fixes up.
Uh, we get a good scrubbing inside with the blood of Jesus. And, were made perfect.
I mean, you know, how many people who love god don’t wanna be perfect? We wanna be perfect.
Well, All the fruit of the spirit is in us.
The Bible tells us that the fruit of the spirit is in us. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness.
Well, if it’s in me, then why don’t I always manifest it?
Because I have been made I’ve been given all the equipment that I need to produce it, but it takes time for it to get from my spirit through my soul, out through my body, where people can see it.
And that’s the process of spiritual growth.
So if you read, there’s a long definition in the Greek about holiness.
And it says that we are made holy by miraculous, by miracle. We’re made holy.
All the sin is washed away. The slate is wiped clean. We’re made holy.
But then the holy spirit, the Greek says, is the agent in sanctification.
We are sanctified, but the Holy Spirit is the agent in sanctification that then works that process out in our life.
As we main thing study the word.
As we study the word, we see everything that god wants us to be.
It says it it’s like looking in a mirror.
And so I look in that mirror and I see what Jesus is.
But I also see what I’m not.
But I hope I can explain this in the amount of time that we have.
Just like the Bible says that I am the righteousness of god in Christ.
He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in Christ, but I don’t always do the right thing.
But I’m still god views me as the righteousness of god in Christ as long as I am pursuing that righteousness.
So it’s not about having arrived. It’s about pursuing.
We’re constantly pursuing for what god has put in us to be brought out of us where the light that’s in us can be seen by the world.
It takes time, really. I mean, it took me a long time to finally get this because I would see, you know, that I’m right with god.
Well, then why do I act so stupid? You know, I’ve got patience. Well, why am I so impatient? Right.
But then once you once you get it and you understand who you are in Christ, That’s god sees us as in Christ.
If we believe in him, he sees us in Christ, and he counts it as done. Yeah.
And what he wants us to do is just keep working toward it, not like works of the flesh where I’m frustrated worn out all the time, but I want to do what god wants me to do.
Yeah. And thankfully, he sees our heart.
Exactly. So So much is about our motives Right.
And our heart and that who Christ sees us at as who he has made us is not all of the individual things that we do along the way.
He he takes those and help us.
So so I think of one example that that I’ve heard you give, and I I I just think it helps so much because you’ve talked about you teaching bible studies early on, and you were a Christian loving Christ and and learning so much, and god was continually changing you.
You weren’t where you are today, and later you’ll be somewhere that Right. That you aren’t right now.
So you were teaching those Bible studies and puffing away your cigarettes and wearing your short shorts.
So, you know, I I think that gives us so much so much hope for what god can do in us So I guess how do you explain that as part of the process of becoming holy?
Well, one thing that’s very important and here again.
You know, we’ve got about 12 to 15 minutes here, and it’s it’s a very very difficult to explain all this.
And that length of time because it’s like our brain goes. You know?
But We tend to believe that we are what we do.
Yeah. But god wants us to call ourselves what we are in him.
And to believe. I if I believe I’m impatient, I’m gonna continue all my life to be impatient.
Mhmm. But even if while I’m being impatient, I believe that I am patient. It’s in me.
It hasn’t made its way all the way out yet, but I I haven’t. I’ve got it.
I’ve got what it takes. Yeah. To be everything that god wants me to be.
And he sees me that way. Even though I’ve not arrived yet, he sees me that way as long.
And I think this is important as long as I am diligently pursuing the will of god, and I want to be what he wants me to be.
I have something online that people can look up for themselves.
It’s it’s who I am in Christ.
By Joyce Meyer, knowing who I am in Christ by Joyce Meyer.
And if you look in the Bible and everything that Christ says that you are, It doesn’t line up with what you do.
Right.
But, you know, I came up with this saying a long, long, long time ago.
You know, we always look at our do, but god wants us to see our who.
He wants us to see who we are in Christ, the Bible says when he died, we died.
When he rose from the dead, we rose. He’s seated in the heavenly place in the Christ Jesus.
Were seated with him. Well, no. I’m not.
I’m sitting right here in chair talking to you, but No. The Bible says I’m seated in heavenly place.
So, see, we’re we’re a spiritual being and the spiritual part of us is the part of us that’s gonna live on.
Yeah. And the spiritual part of us is right now already in heaven where we’re ultimately going to be with a new body.
And
It it really is online.
I know. It’s just like it’s almost wonder if we’re gonna cause more questions today than than we are answers, but I’ve got so many teachings on this subject and books on this subject.
And if people really wanna understand
Yeah.
Then they’re going to have to study. It’s such comfort in this.
Romans 6, 7, and 8 are very important chapters in the Bible, and they really kind of explain all this, but you have to study it and study it and study it.
And you your mind has to be renewed You know, the Bible says in Romans 417 that we serve a god who calls things that do not exist as if they already existed.
So he called Abraham the father of many nations before he ever had a child.
So he wants us to believe that we are who he says we are even before we see it manifested in our life.
We’re so accustomed to believing what we see. Mhmm. But faith believes what it cannot see.
And by believing what it cannot see, it will eventually bring it out of that spiritual realm into the natural where you can see it.
Okay. Now this is maybe a silly example, but it’s a practical one people will get it.
I started smoking cigarettes when I was about nine years old because all the kids in my neighborhood were older than me, and they all smoked.
And so I’ve started smoking. Well, when I became a serious Christian, started teaching the bible study, I felt like it probably wasn’t the best thing to do.
You know, I’m not saying you’re gonna go to hell if you smoke, but, you know, it’s It’s not good for you.
It’s not healthy. And many people do look at it as a sin.
It’s it’s kind of Funny. We have our 3 sins, smoking, drinking, and cussing. You know?
And there’s there’s so many other things. Yeah.
There’s so many other things that that we do wrong, but it’s like so I I just knew I needed to quit.
I but I had a really hard time with it because I had said all my life, if I ever quit smoking, I would gain weight.
Because I gained weight easy, and so I was afraid of gaining weight.
If I ever quit smoking, I know I’d gain weight.
If I ever quit, I I gain weight I had said that no tells how many times.
Well, our our eyes said I could I could never quit smoking. I could never quit smoking.
Well, I started learning this principle.
I’m telling you about about calling things that be not as though they are.
So I would drive home from work at night smoking a cigarette. And saying, I don’t smoke anymore.
I don’t they stink. They’re expensive. It’s not good for me. I I don’t smoke anymore.
I hate the thoughts of even smoking. And, you know, within 2 weeks, I had quit.
Now wow. I’m not gonna tell you that’s a Magic Sean that’s gonna work that way for everybody because you gotta you gotta but I believed I believe what I’m telling you here.
Every morning, I make confessions. And I say, you know, I still have a little problem with impatience.
I I am patient, but I’m still getting there.
And so every morning, I have this list of confessions that I make and I start out by saying I am the righteousness of god in Christ.
I am a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away. All things become new.
I love to give.
I’m a blessing everywhere that I go and on and on and on I go. Yeah.
I call myself who god says that I am. I don’t call myself according to what I do because Yeah.
My who will never change my due can continually. Change. And
That’s really good.
I used to read that scripture. I think it’s in Matthew 548.
It says be perfect for your father in heaven is perfect.
And I would just be like, I just felt so defeated because I like, how can I be perfect?
Yeah.
That’s not even a reason
to ask.
Yeah. But then the amplified Bible, which I happen to love, because it brings things out that I would never know if I didn’t read Greek, which I don’t.
And the amplification of that be perfect, even as your father is perfect, says growing into complete spiritual maturity.
The process.
The process. See, there’s a process of getting if if we look at it like our spirit is the deepest part of us, The next layer is our soul, which is our mind, our will, and our emotions.
So what does the Bible tell us that first thing that has to happen before we can ever see the plan of god for our lives manifested in Romans 12.
It says, we must have our minds completely renewed by the word of god.
So I have to learn to think like Jesus says that I am and that I have what he says that I have and that I can do what he says that I can do.
Yeah.
You know, you may start out believing I’m a failure at everything I do, but god says I can do all things through Christ.
You strengthens me. But I have to I have to study that in the word enough, say it enough until all of a sudden it’s no longer information.
It becomes a revelation. And I’m like, yeah. I get it. Yeah.
And then it can finally move to that outside layer where people can see the change in our life because what’s in our spirit has made its way through our soul and cannot shine.
Let your light shine. Yeah. Don’t hide it, but let it shine because we live in a dark world.
And Jesus was the light of the world. Now he says you are. The light of the world. And, um
This is really life changing.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. There’s so
many levels.
And I I went to church for years years years years years years years.
And I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried till I almost died.
And I just couldn’t change, but I god, what he’s asking me to believe.
And so I tell people In fact, I’ve got this little song I sing. I’ve got it.
I’ve got it. I’ve really, really got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got it. And you see, we do.
And you’ll read it. Once you once you hear this, you will see it all over like the Bible says, you have died to sin.
It doesn’t say you will.
Consider yourself therefore dead the sin.
This is in Romans 6. So consider as a process of my thoughts.
So even while I’m sinning, I can say I’m dead to sin. I’m dead to sin.
And the more I believe that the more the less attractive sin becomes, and the less I do sin because I believe now that I’m dead to it.
Right. So
And then before you know it, you’ll you’ll reach a point where you look back at where you were.
Oh my gosh.
And say, thank you, lord. You know?
I told Damien.
Not there.
Dave’s been married to 20 different women in the 56 years that we’ve been married.
Because I was just such a mess. Gosh.
I was a mess because I’d been abused by my dad sexually and abandoned to the abused by my mom.
And married the first guy that came along and had another 5 year night, Mara.
I mean, I just was so messed up. I didn’t even know what love was.
I couldn’t I couldn’t love anybody. I didn’t even know what it was.
And then we started having kids and just had money problems, and I was just always upset.
Always, always, always, always, always upset.
And when church every Sunday, though, but I was hearing a lot of doctrine, like I heard, that I was sanctified and justified, but I had no idea what any of that meant.
Mhmm. You know, you have to explain it to people in practical terms that they can understand.
And it it goes against everything that seems to make any sense to us because like I said, we are so accustomed to living by what we see and how we feel and what we think.
Yeah. And we have to learn to live according to what the word says no matter what we think or feel, and we learn to believe what god says we have before we see it.
We live in the show me state. So yeah. That’s very true.
Yeah. And one of the reasons that that I love this so much that I think is so important for me and for people is that it takes holiness from being that thing that we feel is condemning because we can never get there to being a wonderful gift
Yeah.
That god has already given us and that that we’re moving closer to all the time.
And if you read Roman’s 7. I really encourage people to study Romans.
I mean, really the whole book of Romans is fantastic, but but start maybe in chapter 45, 45, 67.
In chapter 7 verse 15, Paul says What is wrong with me?
The thing I wanna do, I can’t do. And the thing I don’t wanna do, I’m always I’m always doing.
Then he goes on saying, but if I’m doing it and I don’t want to, then is it really me doing it?
And he he’s talking about his spirit man versus his flesh.
And really, that’s the way we all think.
Spirit man versus his flesh. He’s like, what’s wrong with me? I wanna do the right thing.
I do the wrong thing. So in his spirit, he wants to do the right thing, his flesh, he wants to do the wrong thing.
And but then he he ends the chapter by saying, oh, wretched man that I am.
Who will deliver me from this body of death? Oh, thank god.
He will through Jesus Christ chapter 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
And so then I’m thinking, uh-oh, well, there we go again. I gotta walk after the spirit.
Well, really, what he’s talking about there is walking according to the spirit and how you handle your sin.
In other words, if I handle it according to the way god tells me to, and I and I admit it.
I know I send, but I know there’s good things in me, and god, I want your will I want what you want, and I believe that you’re gonna help me tomorrow’s gonna be a better day.
I’m not gonna quit. I’m not gonna give up. You will eventually get there.
It’s no longer about condemnation.
So I hope it wasn’t confusing, and people can understand what I said.
I think it was wonderful. I think it’s a great conversation. Thank you so much.
Alright.
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The mind actually is the battlefield.
That’s where we win or lose the war with Satan.
He said all he gets to is the last day. Today’s mine.
You start asking god to heal you, and he will restore.
It’s the god of all comfort, and I am so grateful I know how to call on god.