Upgrade Your Life Now!-FULL SERMON | Joyce Meyer

In the powerful sermon titled “Upgrade Your Life Now!,” Joyce Meyer shares her personal journey of overcoming deep wounds and how God’s grace transformed her life. Through her inspiring message, she emphasizes the importance of letting go of past hurts and embracing the abundant life God has planned for you. Watch as Joyce teaches that no matter your circumstances, you can rise above and experience true peace, joy, and righteousness.

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.

and I want to tell you that no matter what has happened to you you have got the edge today you know why because God is on your side if God be for me who can be against me if God is on my side Whom Shall I [Music] Fear what is a wounded soul well first of all I want to start by telling you a little story about me and Albuquerque where we happen to be today 56 years ago I was abandoned by my first husband in this town in albuquer New Mexico I was sexually abused by my father for many years always really felt like nobody

would ever want me or love me and so the first young man paid any attention to me I grabbed him up because I thought I’d never have anybody I knew down deep inside it wasn’t right when I did it but desperate people do desperate things and desperate people do stupid things amen so we got married I was 18 I think he was 19 and um he was a used car salesman and back then they would pay people to to like if somebody here wanted a certain kind of car and there was one of them in St Louis or wherever the car dealership here would

pay somebody from there to drive the car here and so that was part of how he made money was he would drive cars to places well the plan was he was going to drive that car here and then he was going to work at the car lot and I was going to get a job and we were going to live happily ever after so we checked into a motel and uh I I don’t remember where this was I I got a little job down the street that I could walk to in some kind of an office I always did office work and he uh he went off to to work I think another friend had

driven down here with us a friend of his and long story short after I don’t know 10 days probably no more than that he just didn’t come back he just went one day and didn’t come back now I was married to this guy for 5 years but it was a totally crazy crazy ride he did the same thing to me one time in Oakland California and I’ve also been back there and done a conference and I think it’s just um interesting that 56 years ago I was abandoned in this city totally alone had no money to even get home on had to call

a friend and borrow $75 for a bus ticket you couldn’t take much with you on a bus so what what things I did have which wasn’t that many I remember I had some quilts that my grandmother had quilted and I had to leave a lot of that stuff here and I was about as low and lonely and felt about as hopeless as anybody could have felt at that time 18 years old had just gotten away from an abusive father now I’ve married this guy that is starting to show signs already that that’s not going to be much better than

what I had and here I am now 56 years later the Arena’s full of people coming to hear me speak and and I want to what I want is for what I’m telling you to give you you hope that you could be at the lowest place in your life right now you could be hurting so bad maybe your husband or your wife has walked out on you or those of you watching by TV from home you may just feel like that your whole life is over and little do you know it may just be beginning and let me just say this to you you have no idea the amazing things that God has planned

for you but you cannot walk around wounded your entire life and taking those wounds out on other people and have the life that God intends you to have so if you would come under the category of a wounded Soul which I think pretty much today in our society almost everybody does in some way shape or form then I want you to make a decision today that it’s time for you to learn how to live the life that Jesus died for you to have to let go of the things that are behind and to start fresh and to ask God to take everything that’s ever been done

to you that was unjust or immoral and somehow work it out for your good and turn it into something that can actually help other people is anybody up for that today okay so you know we are a spirit we have a soul and we live in a body you’re looking at my body but to be honest you’re not looking at the real me I look at you I see your body just because you got a smile on your face doesn’t mean you’re happy man just be just because you look good on the outside you know we get so good at pretending and we’re very

good at trying to make everybody think we’ve got it all together and I tell you what we are walking around in the midst of hundreds of thousands of people that are literally falling apart on the inside and they they’re trying to make up for it by getting something on the outside we think that we need more of this or promotion or a bigger house or a a bigger car or we need to get married or we are married and need to not be married or you know whatever it’s always something it’s always something else but

what we really want the simplest way that I know to say this is people just want to be happy I mean truly genuinely peaceful and happy and the Bible says the kingdom of God is Not what it’s not about what you eat and what you drink which really is talking about we might as well say the kingdom of God is not about stuff it’s not about what you own the kind of house you live in it is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost so God is not offering us a perfect outside life you’re going to have problems just

like other people in the world have problems you’re going to have trial and tribulations you’re going to have things to deal with you’d rather not deal with but what he is offering you is Right standing with him how wonderful is it to not have to feel wrong about yourself all the time I mean after being abused by my dad I spent years with a record playing in my head that simply said what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with me anybody else ever hear that record I mean the devil has sold

millions of copies of that one to most of us what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with me and then other people would say what’s wrong with you what’s wrong with you and I you know it’s so wonderful now to know that I’ve been made right with God through the blood of Jesus Christ and that that I can be for myself and not against myself we we really want that righteousness and it has to come first a right relationship with God has to come before you can have peace and you got to

have peace before you can have joy and I can tell you no matter what it is that you came in here thinking you wanted or thinking that you had to have in order to be happy if it was anything other than those three things then your thinking is all messed up and you’re wrong cuzz really it doesn’t matter how much money you have if you’re miserable doesn’t matter how big your house is if you don’t have any peace it doesn’t I mean you can be the president of five companies but if you hate yourself then what do you have so what

we really want is this inside part of us our soul to be healthy and whole you have a Blood Bought right to have a good relationship with yourself and I hope before the day is over you will decide to become your best friend instead of your worst enemy amen you need to be friends with yourself if you’re a good friend to yourself then you’ll get over caring so much about what everybody else thinks all the time so we are a spirit we have a soul we live in a body our body is gradually falling apart day after day and it will one day turn back to

ashes and dust thankfully we’ll get a glorified body I bet that’s going to feel good and it is our spirit and our soul that will go on and endure forever so to be honest if you’re born again everything in your spirit’s good I mean I mean God had to fix that up before he could come and live in there he actually had to make you holy in the deepest part of your being in order to dwell in you because he can’t dwell anywhere that’s not holy and so the whole job that’s going on now this

this this whole journey that we’re on that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help us make is to get what’s in our spirit all throughout our soul immersed in our immersed in our soul this knowing who we are in Christ this knowing we’re loved and loving other people and all this wonderful fruit of the spirit love joy peace patience goodness kindness all the wonderful amazing things that God has deposited in us at the new birth no wonder the Bible says if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things

pass away and All Things become new that doesn’t mean you’re going to look different when you look in the mirror and it doesn’t even mean that your soul is made new immediately but it means everything in your spirit you have you now have a seed everybody say seed seed you now have a seed on the inside of you of everything that you could ever possibly need to have the best life that you could possibly have so as we water that seed with the word of God I don’t know if you even realize what a favor

you have done Yourself by taking this Saturday to come and do what you’re doing because what you will hear today if you let it can be lifechanging it’s more valuable than anything you could go out and purchase for yourself or any party you could go to or anybody that you think is important that you could go hang out with having a healed Soul being right on the inside having peace and joy are the most valuable things that you could ever have and that’s what our world is missing I’ve made this journey and I’m

still making it every day so it qualifies me not only as a teacher of the word but because I’ve lived through this and experienced it to tell you that there’s no devil in hell that is big enough to keep you from the best that God has for you if you’re determined to have that best and if you will do your part I want you to make a decision today that you are not going to live your life wounded and [Applause] broken amen and you’re not going to live your life with a chip on your shoulder because you had a bad beginning and

feeling sorry for yourself because you didn’t get all the breaks that everybody else got number one thing we got to learn today no matter how you got to where you are let’s just say that not one bit of it was your fault which is probably not accurate but let’s just say that none of it was your fault that you the life you have right now the mess you’re in right now is all because of things that other people did to you and I’m sorry about that but step number one toward wholeness is right now today you have to take 100%

responsibility for your life and where you’re at it may not be your fault that you got here but you’re the only one that can cooperate with God for your life to get you out of here and into the place where God wants you so today we give up all blaming amen all self-pity poor me we’re going to get rid of all the ifon if only I wouldn’t have been abused if only I wouldn’t have married that guy if only I wouldn’t have been born into such a ridiculously dysfunctional family if only I would have got a chance

to have more education if only if only let me tell you something there’s two little words in the Bible that I absolutely adore and they’re called but God Joseph’s brothers hated him they sold him into slavery he spent 13 years in prison for something that he didn’t do I mean here’s a guy who seems to be trying to do the right thing and every time he turns around he’s getting knocked down but but the Bible says in Acts that although his brothers hated him and all these things happened to him it says but

God was with him and he found favor everywhere that he went are you out there today and I want to tell you that no matter what has happened to you you have got the edge today you know why because God is on your side if God be for me who can be against me if God is on my side Whom Shall I Fear I’m one example just one and I’m sure there’s many others in this [Music] room one example of what God can do with a a totally broken messed up seemingly hopeless situation if you just let him in and everybody say and

and you will begin to learn what God wants you to do and do it you can have everything in your Bible underlined in three colors but if doesn’t do you any good to know something if you don’t do what you know to do and the Holy Spirit has been given to us because we’re all different well we’re all going to experience healing in a little different way uh the holy spirit is the only one who knows when the time is right for us to deal with which issues in our life and if we will let the holy spirit guide

us he will show us one step at a time if you’re going to start out on this journey you might as well make a decision that you’re going to have to learn how to wait well because it’s not going to happen overnight matter of fact I still am being healed I still am learning things on a regular basis and based on what I can find in the Bible that’s going to continue until the day Jesus comes to get us we have to be lifetime Learners your soul is that secret part of you that inner life that only you and

God really know anything about your soul is your mind your will and your emotions tells you what you think what you want and how you feel and we talk about our soul a lot believe it or not you hear people more than anything talk about what they want what they think and how they feel I want to think I feel I want to think I feel I want to think I feel and if that part of us is wounded and we let it run our lives we are in serious trouble because when you’re wounded you don’t think right you don’t feel

right and you don’t want what’s right you can be wounded and all you want is venge when that’s the worst thing in the world that you could spend your life working toward because it’s never going to get you what you think you want cuz what you want is righteousness peace and joy and you can only get that from God so if your Soul’s been wounded through abuse unjust treatment rejection shame sh guilt other painful things and you haven’t dealt with those things then you are not functioning in a healthy and a

normal way you may not realize you’re not you probably are like me you think everybody else has got something wrong with them oh yeah that’s what we think what is your problem you’ve probably heard me tell this but it still amazes me I remember one day when I was praying for Dave to change God you’ve got to change Dave I can’t live with this man like this you have to change him God deal with him change him and one day I was into pretty intense prayer about God changing Dave and I heard the Lord whisper Dave

is not the problem but it really confused me because if it wasn’t Dave I couldn’t imagine who it was I mean look at me I tell you I did not have a clue I just I thought when I walked away from my father’s house that I walked away from the problem see you can walk away from a problem physically but you take it with you in your soul and so you still have it until you deal with it your secrets will make you [Applause] sick man I was so messed up Lord I was a mess and I’m praying for Dave to change this inner pain that people carry

around with them usually shows up two major ways it shows up is in relationships people that have wounded Souls have a very difficult time maintaining good healthy relationships oh you may find somebody that will put up with you but that doesn’t mean it’s a healthy relationship or it will show up in your physical body and I think there are more people that have real symptoms in their body that nobody you can medicate it and maybe help it but nobody can ever really I mean you can medicate that symptom but

the pain you have inside will just show up in another symptom somewhere else in your body come on I I’ve been there done that you know and you can go from Doctor to doctor and then they’re finally going to tell you it’s stress and that’s going to make you mad because you don’t it’s not stress don’t you understand I’m sick and really you are but it’s a sickness in your soul and the only way that your soul has of trying to yell help me is to show up somewhere in your body so sometimes when you have physical

things that nobody seems to be able to find a reason for come on anybody go to the doctor over and over and nobody can figure out what’s wrong with you and you just think what is the matter with you people I heard here I hurt there I have this I have that what do you mean there’s nothing wrong with me don’t you love the mystery illnesses I get a lot of the mystery illnesses it’s like I have no idea what’s wrong with you we’ve never heard of that we’ve never seen that and I finally learned that sometimes it’s

coming from something inside let me tell you something I’ve come to the conclusion that in our society today we are so far off we don’t even know what normal should be I mean the pace at which we live the noise level in our lives let me tell you something we’re either going to live in the world till Jesus comes to get us but take some steps backward words about being part of it we can’t live on the world’s system and survive there’s too much noise there’s too much expected there’s too many things to do

we were not created to do five and six things at one time matter of fact I don’t even know I don’t even know what normal would be anymore and I don’t think any of you do either but I know one thing we’ve got to somehow find a lifestyle that’s going to allow us to have some peace and some real joy we only get one trip through here and we got to learn how to enjoy it people with Wounded Souls want to control [Music] everything is anybody here tired of trying to run the whole world I mean is anybody exhausted from

trying to control everybody and everything okay well today you could give it up because I’ve got a secret to tell you you’re not control anyway never have been never will be but you know what people that are wounded they don’t become controllers because they’re mean they don’t even really understand what they’re doing that you know I was a controller but I did it for fear of getting hurt see I grew up with a father who controlled everything and everything that he did was for his benefit and

everybody else got hurt so I thought I learned that if you stay in control then you’re the one that doesn’t get hurt and so people that are controllers are not necessarily Wicked they may just be afraid that if they don’t stay in control somebody’s going to take advantage of them and you say well they will well here’s the thing I’m not going to stand here and ask you to trust people because people will hurt you but we can trust God see you give up trying to control everything and you put yourself in God’s

hands and you say well God even if they mistreat me it’s actually your problem because you’re the one that’s got to fix it somewhere we get got to get out of the middle of all this and turn ourselves over to God and say you are my Vindicator and you’re the one that’s going to have to fix what’s wrong in my life and I am finished trying to control everything you show me what you want me to do and I’m going to do what you want me to do and I’m not responsible what everybody else does

anymore does anybody need this today just maybe one or two people our wounded people get very good at living a life of pretense never expressing their true feelings or thoughts about anything they just simp simply do what they think everybody wants them to do so they can keep them happy and then after you do that for a while then you begin to resent all these people that are controlling you when you’re the one that’s letting them do it Dr Henry Cloud said you’ll have what you tolerate it’s time for some of you to

start standing up for yourself you’ve never done it in your whole life and you’re bitter because of it but you have what you put up with sooner or later you got to say I deserve respect and you’re either going to give it to me or we’re not going to be hanging out so much anymore now the Bible has a lot to say about attitude and people that wounded usually have bad attitudes um for one thing they’re usually pretty negative they’re usually almost afraid to think that anything good might happen

because they’ve had such a long history of bad things happening that if you’re anything like I was you get to the point where you think to expect a problem you’re protecting yourself you don’t want to get disappointed anymore does anybody know what I mean it’s like so you just have a sour attitude but even though you may not be able to change all the circumstances in your life your attitude belongs to you it’s yours and yours alone and nobody can make you have a bad one if you refuse to have

one and I tell you when you start having a good attitude then God can start doing things for you amen that will Amaze you the Bible has a great deal to say about attitude and attitude is just the the the thought response that you decide to take toward a situation or a circumstance of what has happened to you like for years I hated my father for what he did to me and one day God whispered in my heart hurting people hurt people and then I realized that he hurt me because somebody had hurt him and it made it so much easier for me

to start working toward forgiveness if you’ll have a good attitude God can show you things he can tell you Secrets he can make you understand things that will set you free the Bible says let the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus be in you let him be your example in selfless humility well two things that wounded people have a difficult time with is being unselfish because we’re afraid if we don’t take care of ourselves nobody else will and humility is out of the question because you see humility as weakness and

you think if you humble yourself then everybody’s going to walk all over you am I right so far see real life starts listen to me when you’re not trying to prove anything anymore and then I want us to look at verse 6 Philippians 2:6 in the Amplified Bible these are pretty cool it says who although he existed in the farm an unchanging essence of God as one with him possessing the fullness of all the Divine attributes the entire nature of deity think about Jesus God himself coming down here willingly to get in a human body

the best analogy I could think of is that would be like me agreeing to go be an ant and that’s a poor example he laid aside his he didn’t lay aside his God in this because he never got rid of it but he he set that part of him aside and he took on a human farm so it could relate to us and pay the price for our sins but I let let’s finish reading reading this he did not regard his equality with God as something that he had to grasp as if he did not already possess it or was afraid of losing it look at

that as if he did not already possess it or was afraid of losing it you see Jesus could do what he did because he knew who he was he wasn’t trying to prove who he was he knew where he came from he knew where he was going he knew he was on assignment from God and he God was able to come here and take on the form of a servant see and people who know who they are can do any job and not feel belittled by it come on if you know who you are in Christ you can be the janitor and know that you are just as important as the CEO of the