Welcome to Fifteen Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, The Fear Some Four. When we feel discouraged, defeated, or overwhelmed by the pressures of life, chances are we're being hit by what Joyce calls The Fear Some Four. Fear, guilt, worry, and insecurity. The devil uses these obstacles to keep us from God's calling. But with Christ, we can defeat all of them and reach God's perfect plan for our life. Be empowered with today's teaching and learn to embrace God's Fearless Four. Peace, confidence, love, and courage. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Exodus 3, 9 through 14. Now, behold, the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I've also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, he's talking to Moses, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. This is just a side note, but I think it's interesting that when the Israelites were crying out to God, God had to find a man that he could work through in order to bring deliverance to them. And every time somebody prays for help, God's looking for somebody, probably a lot of you, or a lot of you watching by TV, and he wants to work through to bring that help. God doesn't work apart from man. He works with man. We are partners, partners with God. And it's an amazing thing. Why would God need me to preach the gospel, or why would He even let me preach the gospel? Why would He let me be part of this? He could preach the gospel through angels, but He wants to work through people. And Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will surely be with you. And this is the sign to you that I have sent you. The sign that God has sent us is when He's with us. I know that God is with me when I preach the gospel. I know that. I don't see Him. I don't maybe feel Him in the way that we might think about feeling, but I do feel Him in that I know that there's no way that I could do this if it wasn't God. And God is with you in your situation. And some of you are in very difficult situations. And yet in the midst of that, you have joy and peace and you have hope. And only God can give us that. God is with you. Just because you have a problem that does not mean that God is abandoned you. God is with you. When you brought this people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain of Horebri Sinai. And Moses continued and he said to God, behold, when I come to the Israelites and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, what shall I say to them? And I love the way God explains Himself. He doesn't give you a whole lot of information. And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And what I am. And I will be what I will be. And he said, you shall say this to the Israelites, I am. I am here right now. The great I am, who's everywhere all the time, watching over every person involved in every person's life. Even right now, chasing those people that are living in sin and trying to woo them into a relationship. You have to think about all the places that God had to follow you into before you finally woke up. Come on now. I am. Who is He? Who is this God? I am. Not I was, not I will be. He didn't say I am the great I was. He didn't say I am the great I will be. He said, I am the great I am. Now, yes, He was in yesterday because when yesterday was there, He was being I am. But now that yesterday is over, it doesn't do us any good to try to go back over there and worry about yesterday because God's done with that. He's not in that anymore. And it doesn't do us any good to try to get into tomorrow trying to figure that out because He's not over there yet either. Now, we know that God is in there is no time where God's at, but I'm talking about for us. He's right here right now for us. And if we will not waste our time in yesterday and tomorrow, God will give us all the information that we need, the leadership of the guidance for this day to day. But it's something we're going to have to do on purpose. I said it's something that we are going to have to do on purpose because Satan is going to try to stay lit from us. It's a wonderful thing to think that I don't have to have a thought beyond what I'm doing right now. I don't have to have any concern about this. If I look at my calendar for the last year, if I look at my calendar for the last 30 years, I would think, how is it humanly possible to do that? If I look at my calendar for one year, I'm like, how did I do all that? And yet, you know what? It really wasn't even that big of a deal because when you take things one at a time, God gives you what you need. And I'm sure that many of you have things looming out there in the future that you know is going to require answers. And you don't have those answers. But you know what? The greatest way that you can show faith in God is to refuse, to worry about it, refuse to think about it excessively. And every time it comes to your brain, just say, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know that God who does know what I'm going to do. And that's when we get over into the miracle realm with God, where he can do exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond all that we could ever dare to hope past, God's grace. Many of you have got a wonderful testimony in your life of what God has done for you. And God has brought you from some places that nobody would ever thought that you could have recovered from. And of course, I have that same testimony myself. And I'm telling you what God is no respecter of persons. His promises are not for somebody else or an elite few, they are for you. Every single one of you, the promises of God are for you. You, the promises of God are for you. God loves you, and he's got a good plan for you. You need to stand up to the enemy and tell him to shut up, stop lying to you, and you need to begin to believe God. Matthew 1427, you've got to fight the good fight of faith. Get a little bit violent. It's okay. A lot of you have had practice of being violent in the wrong way, I know I did. Now let's have a holy violence once in a while against the enemy to say no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to waste my life trying to figure out what I'm going to do every time I turn around. God's in control, not me. You're talking to yourself anyway, you might as well start saying something that makes sense. Verse 25, Matthew 1425, and in the fourth watch between 3 and 6 a.m. of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it's a ghost. And they screamed out with fright. But instantly he spoke to them and said, take courage. I am. I love it. It says so little, but it says so much. I'm going to be able to sense that in that little phrase, I am. For most of the world, it wouldn't make any sense at all. But for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, we get it. He is here right now, and he is taking care of your situation. You don't have to worry. God will do one or two things if you have a problem. He will either remove the problem, which is always our first choice. And years are the only thing that we think we can even be remotely satisfied with. He will either remove the problem, or he will give you the strength, the grace, the ability to go through the problem. I know we don't like to go through part, but until you come to a place of faith and you walk with God, where you can have either R and be satisfied either way, you are going to have a rough ride. Because the only way you are ever going to be happy is for God to get rid of everything that bothers you, irritates you, or is hard. Then you are going to be fighting all your life. But I am telling you, if you can say, God, I know you will do one or two things. You are either going to remove this, you are going to move it, you are going to take it away. Are you going to give me the grace to deal with it? And if we can trust God enough to leave that choice up to Him, because if He lets us go through it, then He has got a purpose in mind. There is something we are going to get out of it that we need. Did you hear me? There is something we are going to get out of it that we need. And I know we don't like that. And probably some of you right now would like to stone me because you are thinking, if you are trying to tell me that what I am going through is something that is going to work out good for me. I am just going to work out good for me. Lady, I don't want to hear it. Well, not to be offensive, but then I guess I just have to say that go ahead and be miserable. Because if you don't trust God, you are going to be miserable. That is the only choice you have. Trusting God is wonderful. It is so wonderful to just say, I don't understand this, but I believe God is going to work it out. I do not understand this. It hurts so bad. I feel like I can't stand it. But I believe that God is going to work it out. Some way somehow, I believe that God is going to work it out. You know, honestly and truly, when you are in a difficult situation, if God is with you and you know that, and He is with you, but if you know that, if you know that God is with you, and you believe that He is directing you, and you believe that in the midst of that difficulty that you are growing spiritually, how many of you can just feel yourself growing spiritually when you are in those hard times? It hurts, but you know, even a teenager growing up hurts. Growth always hurts. But when you are in that kind of a situation, if you can say, you know what, God, I trust you. It is just like all the frustration goes away. And God has got a piece of soft clay that He can work with to do beautiful and wonderful things. Let me tell you something. Everything doesn't turn out rosy in my life. It is actually almost, well it is, really, it is not almost. It is just downright hysterical. The stuff that happens to us when we are out on the road. This conference here, I have not returned to my hotel room one time and been able to get in the door with the key. Not once, not one time. And one time they even gave us new keys and those keys wouldn't work. It is rather interesting when I have finished doing this and all the people are clapping and cheering and I am having such a wonderful time. And then I go back to the hotel room and have to sit in the floor lean against the hall because I can't get in my room. And I can't even begin to tell you how many times that happens. The people traveling with me can get in their rooms but I can't get in my room. This last trip to Calcutta was just an unbelievable series of cookie things that happened to us. It just got to be like, you know, devil you are overplaying your hand. It is really obvious. Mosquitoes usually leave me alone. They don't even like me and they love Dave. But one night in our hotel room, I got 15 mosquito bites. Dave did not get one. He set up for two hours and killed mosquitoes so I could try to sleep. Oh, wasn't he nice? Oh! But there is a little more to it than that. He loves to catch mosquitoes. He's got his personal vendetta against mosquitoes. He gets downright violent against them. And there was too many things for me to even talk about. But I just want you to know that you're not the only one whose life doesn't go exactly the way you'd like it to go. We have little trials and big trials and I went through all the years. Please listen to me. I went through all the years of trying to find some way to live where I had enough faith, where I never had those problems. And where when I did get a problem I could rebuke the devil and believe God and make that problem go away. And I just about killed myself with frustration. And finally I decided, oh, I'm supposed to trust God. And if God doesn't get rid of it, then I trust God to take me through it. We trust God's timing. We trust His wisdom. We trust His ways. And by doing that, guess what happens? We can enjoy every single day of the journey. We don't have to just be happy when we arrive and get it all our way. We can enjoy every single day even of the weight. Thanks for listening. Despite the challenges we may face in life, when we put our trust in God, we receive an incredible promise from Him. The second Timothy 117 says that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but a power of love and of a sound mind. This promise gives us the strength to look at our problems and know that God is on our side. He wants to give us His peace as we face whatever lies ahead. For more resources from Joyce, visit joysmire.org. Well, I hope that you feel that I'm a partner in your life by teaching you the Word of God. And I'm asking you to partner with me in helping us continue reaching out not only to you through this program, but to so many people around the world that still don't know Jesus. Together we can do so much more than what we can do by ourselves. So please become a brand new partner with us today. To join us in partnership right now, go to joysmire.org. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to 50 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.
