Joyce Meyer - Not in Your Own Strength - Part 2

The Bible never tells us to work for our salvation, it’s a free gift. Ephesians 2:8 and 9, tells us plainly that, «It’s by free grace that we are saved through our faith, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast». Beautiful scripture. But the same way we’re saved, is the way that we must live. And when we’re born again, when we’re saved, when we receive Christ as our Savior, a seed of everything that we need to live a godly life, or to be transformed into the image of Christ, is planted in our spirit, because the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us.

So I like to say we become pregnant with everything that God is, but being pregnant doesn’t mean you give birth. There’s a time of growth, and a time of learning and maturing. And we don’t work for our salvation, but there’s a scripture in Philippians 2:12 and 13, that says we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. I’m actually gonna read it to you from the Amplified. It’s a little bit long, but try to stick with me and get this. «Therefore, my dear ones,» this is Paul, «As you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show]» if I were there, «But much more because I’m absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation».

Well, what does that mean, fully complete? I mean, don’t we get a full salvation? Yes, you do, but to complete it and work it out means to learn how to take what’s in you, and let it change your soul, your mind, your will, your emotions, and then work through your body so people can see Jesus through you. There’s so few Christians that actually behave like Christ. We can go to church. You can go to church all your life, and never really mature and be transformed into the image of Christ. That takes maturity and growth, and it’s gonna take going through some things that you’re not gonna enjoy. It’s gonna take some suffering and some pain. So he says, «(cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling, with (self distrust),» don’t trust yourself to do it, lean on God. «… (with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation…»

That’s what we’re talking about, how to avoid getting into temptation. «…Timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ)». To be honest, you could take that one scripture, this is in the classic Amplified translation of the Bible. You could take that one scripture and you could just study that for a week, and you might fully get out of it, what it means. If I were to try to just narrow it down into something smaller, I would say, «My dear ones, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, but don’t trust yourself to do it. Realize that it’s only in God’s strength that it can be done. It’s him that does the work in you. So be serious, resist temptation, submit yourself to God, keep a tender conscience and, '(timidly shrink from anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ.)'» verse 13 says, «[not in your own strength] For it is God who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for his good pleasure, satisfaction, and delight».

Okay, I’ve worked 48 years in the ministry and I’ve worked hard, but I could not have done it had God not given me the grace to do it. So, there’s really no success that we have, can we take the credit for what we’ve done? And when we do, we almost always will follow up that bragging or that pride with failure. Because pride comes before the fall. «A haughty spirit comes before the fall».

You know, we have examples in the Bible of king Nebuchadnezzar who started out giving God the praise for everything. God did this, and God did this, and God’s so great. And only 31 verses later, he’s building a monument to himself and taking the credit. And he fell into the sin of pride, and became like, he lost his kingdom and became like a wild animal out in the desert. And thankfully, it says when he came to himself, when he realized what he had done and he repented, then God restored everything to him that he had lost. God is so good about restoring to us what we’ve lost.

So remember, always, always, always, always, always ask God for his help. I think, «Help me, Lord»! Is one of the most frequent prayers that I pray. And you can pray about everything. I even ask God to help me put my contacts in, and get 'em in right. I can’t think of anything in my life that I don’t need help with. I know I need help with being patient. I know I need help with behaving godly. I know I need help to forgive people when they hurt me. What about you? Do you need help with anything? Or are you one of those people that can just do it all on your own?

Now, you know, I’m a type «A» personality. Could be pretty self-sufficient if I didn’t know better. But God taught me from the beginning, if you don’t, anything good that happens through you, you have to realize it’s only because I’ve wrestled with you long enough to get a little bit more of you to work through. It’s not you, it’s me working through you. Always give God the credit for the good things that he does. And you know, when somebody compliments you, you can receive the compliment and just say, «Thank you». We don’t have to say, «Oh, no, no, no, it’s God, it’s not me».

Just say, «Thank you,» but then make sure that you give God the credit when you’re by yourself. Corrie Ten Boom said that, «Every compliment she got, she considered it like a rose in a bouquet. And she collected the bouquet all day long, but at the end of the day, she would give the bouquet to Jesus». And I think that’s so beautiful. The Lord God is our strength. He makes us able to walk and make progress even during difficult times. Habakkuk 3, talks about an animal called a hind, h-i-n-d. And it’s actually a type of deer who has feet that are formed in a certain way where it can just bound up a mountain. And the Bible says, «The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery, my invincible army: he makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] And make [spiritual] Progress».

Listen to this, «Upon my high places…],» what are your high places? «[trouble, suffering, and responsibility.]»! Wow! Well, most of us would not think that was a high place. We’d think that was a low place. But he’s saying, when you can have trouble, when you’re suffering, or you’re taking on extra responsibility, if you can be like that hind, then you can be stable and keep making progress. See, the hind is stable even in rocky places where most people would fall. And that’s what God wants out of his people. He wants us to show his strength to the world by letting it work through us. And he wants us to verbally give him the credit.

Isaiah 40:31, such a beautiful scripture that we meditate on a lot, and probably most of you know it. «They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles: they shall run, and not be weary: they shall walk, and they shall not faint». Do you know that word «Wait» actually is translated «Hope»? In many translations it says, «They that hope in the Lord». Waiting on God for some people seems like a passive thing where you just sit and wait on God. That’s not what it’s talking about. You may be inactive physically, but you should be very active spiritually. That’s your time to pray, to trust God.

And hope is such an important part of this, because when you’re waiting on God to do something in your life, you don’t wanna become hopeless. And the kind of hope that God offers us, is not like some worldly kind of hope where, «Well, I hope, may happen, may not». No, the God kind of hope, is a hope that expects God to do something amazing. Expectation that something good is going to happen at any minute.

Now see, if you live like that, you’re gonna be happy the biggest part of your time, because most of our unhappiness comes from wrong thinking, from getting down in the dumps about our thinking. Do you know, maybe you’ve come to the end of something, but it’s never too late to dream again. It’s never too late to have a new dream or a new vision. It’s never too late to start over. If you’re still alive and on this planet and breathing, then God has a purpose for you. Yes, God has a purpose for you. And maybe some of you have come to the end of something. Maybe someone that you love has died and you find yourself by yourself, but you’re really not by yourself because God is with you. And if you’ll let him lead you and guide you, he will lead you into high places, wonderful places, new things, new opportunities.

Now, one of the things that we really need to do all the time, but especially when we have trials and tribulations, is to be careful about what we think and what we say. And if you don’t think that you need to pray in these areas, then you really need to hear this message. Don’t think or say that you’re in a trap that you can never be free from. Believe and declare the blessings of God in your life before you see them come to pass. Faith is the title deed of the things we hope for, the things that we have not yet seen.

Once you have a manifestation of what you want, you don’t need faith anymore. Faith is for the times of waiting. We wait. And God is your strength during those times. And you can make spiritual progress during those times. But when you feel like God is not working in your life, that’s the best time to open your mouth and say, «God is working in my life, and I’m gonna see the results of what he’s doing at any moment».

Trust God every day and verbalize that you trust him. Declare that every day you’re getting closer and closer to a victory. Your victory is already a reality in the spirit realm. You’re just waiting for it to manifest in the natural realm. And I believe that our words, when we agree with God, if there’s a promise in the Word of God, and I declare that promise, I believe that verbalizing our faith in God can help pull things out of the spiritual realm, into the natural realm where we live. But what if I’m always saying, «Well, this is never gonna change». «This just isn’t working». You know, «Faith isn’t working». «I don’t know why I’m not getting my breakthrough». None of those kinds of things help you.

There’s a wonderful scripture in Psalm 103:20. This scripture means a lot to me, and I hope that you get it, because your victory is already a fact in the spiritual realm. But you have to cooperate with some spiritual laws that God has set in motion, if you want to actually see that victory in your life. And one of those spiritual laws is saying what God says. Now listen to this. «Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord,» this is Psalm 103:20, «You his angels, you mighty ones who do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word».

What’s that literally saying? That when we’re speaking the Word of God, angels go to work on our behalf to help bring those blessings to us. Angels are not gonna work when you’re crabbing, and complaining, and murmuring, and being negative. We tie their hands when we do that. But they’re gonna work in our behalf when we call those things that be not as though they are. We serve a God who calls things that are not as if they are. Romans 4:17, «As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations». He’s talking about Abraham. «[He was appointed our father] In the sight of God in whom he believed,» now listen, this is about God, God «Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things…As if they [already] Existed».

Wow, wow, wow, wow! God himself calls things that be not as though they are. God himself speaks words into the spiritual realm, that manifest in the natural realm, the fruit of what we’re saying. Think about what you’ve been saying. Some of you may say, «Well, it’s no wonder I’m having problems in my life». Psalm 19:14 says, «Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, o God». God doesn’t want to hear negative stuff. The devil loves it when we’re negative. Don’t be negative. Always be positive. Don’t say, «Well, I doubt this and I doubt that». Say, «I believe God. I trust God. I believe that he’s working in my life». You know, I spent a lot of years of my life asking God, «Why, why, why this? Why, why? Why was I abused? Why didn’t you deliver me? Why didn’t my mother do something about it? Why, why, why»?

And I’ve changed my «whys» into, «God, I trust you». Because you can ask why a thousand times and never get an answer that’s gonna suit you. Maybe God will give you an answer, but most of the time, he doesn’t. But I can say, «God, I trust you». And I can watch him turn that situation around in my life. A couple of years ago, I had a blood clot in my back that damaged the nerves in my left, my right hip, my leg, and I could only pick my leg up about this far off the bed. And, you know, they were pretty concerned, because those nerves don’t always heal themselves. And so, it was important what I said, and important how I behaved. And they put me in a hospital, a rehab hospital.

And one of the first things I said is, «God, help me do this right. I wanna be a good witness for you. I don’t wanna get cranky and crabby. I don’t wanna start being mean to other people. I don’t wanna feel sorry for myself. Help me be like that hind on high places, that still make spiritual progress even during times of trouble». Well, they got me good enough to come home on a walker. And I came home and foolishly tried to answer my cell phone while I was on the walker in my closet. The phone was back here, and I reached for it, and I fell and I broke this leg. Not the leg, but the bone, fibula bone in my lower leg.

So, all told, I spent two and a half months getting to where I was back to normal again. And thank God I am back to normal, because a lot of people could have gone through that, and at my age maybe never fully recovered from it. But I think that it was important that I didn’t say negative things during that. I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I didn’t start asking God why. I mean, it was my fault that I reached for the cell phone, not God’s, which is a lesson about us being so addicted to our cell phones in itself. «Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh God». Why are our thoughts so important? Because the Bible says, «As a man thinks in his heart, so is he».

Wow! I will become like my thoughts? I say, «Where the mind goes, the man follows». Now, you think about it, if you think about something, I don’t know, let’s just say you’re home in the evening and you start wanting ice cream. Oh man, you really want ice cream, and you don’t have any ice cream. You know, if you think about that ice cream long enough, you are very likely to go get in your car, and go to the store and get ice cream. Because your mind went to the store, and you got that ice cream, and your mind saw you eating it, and you just couldn’t resist, you went and got it. So sometimes when you’re about to do something that really in reality you don’t wanna do, first thing you need to do is stop thinking about it, and think about something else.

Now, you know, that’s a simple example, but sometimes it becomes more important things. The bridge from bondage to freedom is daily renewing your thoughts and attitudes. Listen to Ephesians 4:22–24. «Strip yourselves of your former nature,» he’s talking about the old man before Christ. «[Put off and discard your old unrenewed self] Which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lust and desires that spring from delusion: and be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new nature created in Christ in God’s image».

So, in verse 22, it tells us to put off the old man. In verse 24, it tells us to put on the new man. But verse 23, tells us how to do that, by completely renewing our mind and our attitude every single day. Put on God’s nature, decide to be thankful, decide to trust God, decide to be kind to other people, plan to be patient. You can do that. You can say, «Today I am not gonna be in a bad mood».

Maybe you know you’ve got to do something that day that you really don’t like to do. You can say, «I refuse to dread the job I have to do today. God’s strength is gonna be with me, and I’m gonna be able to do it, and I’m gonna be able to do it with a smile on my face, because God gives me the strength to do what I need to do». Let’s think about it one more time, «They that wait upon the Lord…Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and they shall not faint». I think it’s a new day for you and good things are coming your way. God bless you.