Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, Right and Wrong Mindsets. We can learn to think positively about absolutely everything. It takes practice saying no to negative thoughts. But when we replace Sting and Thinkin' with the Word of God, we'll start winning the battlefield of the mind. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. All right. Anybody ever have any trouble with their mind? Nah. Nah. Well, you know, right thinking can enable you and wrong thinking can disable you. It's amazing what you won't do if you think you can't. I mentioned that my mom knew that my dad was abusing me when I was growing up, but she never did anything about it. And 30 years after I left home, she finally found the courage to say something to me. And she said, I'm sorry for what I let your dad do to you. I didn't think that I could face the scandal and I didn't think that I could take care of you and your brother. So her thinking, her wrong thinking, her wrong mindset ruined many lives. She could have just as easily said, I believe I can do this. And taking a step of faith and trusted God and things could have turned out differently for a lot of people. Now things have turned out good for me. I stuck with God and fought through a lot of things, but I had a brother nine years younger than me, who sadly ended his own life. And things could have been different for him, but he never had the right kind of training growing up and he got on drugs when he was 17 and on alcohol and just never could get free from it. So it's very important that we realize how much our thoughts affect our actions, our attitudes, our moods. They literally are the forerunner for everything that we do or everything that we don't do. Now this teaching is taken from the story of the Israelites, who the Bible plainly says in Deuteronomy chapter one, verse two, that it is only 11 days journey from Horab by way of Mount Sierra to Kadesh, Barnia on Canaan's border. Yet Israel took 40 years to get there. I just read the amplified and they've got the ESV up, but we kind of switched back and forth. Why would somebody take 40 years trying to make an 11 day trip? And if you feel like you've been going around the same mountain way too long. In verse six of that same chapter, God actually spoke through Moses and said, you've stayed long enough at this mountain. And so I want to start tonight by saying to some of you, you've stayed long enough. At the same place. You've been feeling sorry for yourself way too long. You've been blaming somebody else way too long. You've been complaining way too long. Come on. It's time for some change. And I want you to remember this. God can't change anything if we won't change. It's useless to keep praying for God to change everything if you're not going to be willing to do or if I'm not going to be willing to do whatever God asked me to do. So I actually have 10 of these wrong mindsets and I'm going to try to turn them into the way that you should think rather than the way that you shouldn't think. And I hope to get through all 10 by the time I leave tomorrow afternoon. But if I don't, we can always finish it on TV. I want to talk to you tonight about getting your mind off of the road behind you, letting go of what lies behind and not basing your future on your past or or even on what's going on in your life right now. See, some of you are stuck. You're just stuck. You've been in the same place for so long, going around and around the same mountain that you dug a rut and there's no way that you feel that you can get out of it. But it's time for you to let God take you out of that place to a brand new beginning in your life. Amen. The Bible says that God called the Israelites out of Egypt to take them in to the promised land. I brought you out to take you in. God has brought you out of something to take you into something better. But you know what? You have to let go of the old in order to take hold of the new. Amen. Sometimes we feel pulled in two different directions because God's trying to pull us forward and we keep hanging on to what's back here. You always have to give up something to get something. Amen. You almost always have to leave something to go somewhere. But the thing about God that, well, it's he knows what he's doing, of course, but it's it's not too easy as he'll call you out of something before he's shows you what you're going into. So there comes fear. Like he told Abraham, leave the place where you're at and go to the place that I will show you. Are there any of you like that right now? You've let go of one thing behind you and now you just feel like you're just in total confusion and you don't know what's next or what you're going to do. And well, you know what? You don't have to know because God knows. And all he really wants to hear from you is I trust you. Not why God, why, but I trust you. Now, our mind has a lot to do with how fast we make it from Egypt, through the wilderness, to the Promised Land. I'm sure you've all heard of the Promised Land. I don't know about you, but after several years of being in church, I got so tired of hearing about the promises, but never feeling like I actually possessed them. I heard about freedom all the time, but I wasn't free. I heard that God wanted to bless me, but financially, we were just hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck. And I heard about all these things and I believe them or I thought I did, but they never seem to happen in my life. Anybody ever feel like that? You just, let me just be honest, you get a little tired of the rah, rah, rah in church. And, you know, it's nice while you're there, but when you go home, you still got the same mess and you just, you want to possess the promises. You don't want to just hear somebody talk about it. You want to possess it. Well, the Israelites wanted to possess what God called the Promised Land, and it was a land that he said was flowing with milk and honey, which meant every good thing. God wants us to have every good thing. The Bible says, I have not seen, here is not heard all the good things that God already has made ready, prepared and stored up for those who love him. But the interesting thing about the word possess that the Israelites didn't understand, and I don't think we understand it a lot. The word possess actually means to dispossess the current occupants. So in other words, they had to be ready for war in order to take that land that God promised them because enemies of God were already living on that land. Amen. And so the Bible says that God took them the long, hard way through the desert instead of a route that was much shorter. And he did it on purpose because they were not ready yet for war. And see, I've been getting real bothered in my spirit lately. And so I know that I've got to do some preaching on this, not all tonight, but I'll mention it. You know, a lot of Christians aren't ready for war. They're just sometimes I feel like I'm in a cosmic battle between Satan and God. And they're both trying to win. And I'm here in the middle, deciding who I'm going to follow. Am I going to listen to the lies of Satan? Am I going to believe the promises of God and stand firm and go with him? You got to dispossess the current occupants before you can possess the promises of God. And we got to be ready for war. So God took them the long, hard way because they weren't ready for that yet. He knew that they were still too immature to really take a stand and not be moved by anything that they saw or felt and believe God. And so they ended up out in the wilderness, whining, blaming, complaining, murmuring, grumbling. And you'll see when I get to the part on complaining that the word complain means to remain. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Complain and remain. Praise and be raised. That's my own special quote. The more we complain, the more we stay right where we're at. And so they just wandered around out there for 40 years when it was an 11 day journey because they had wrong mindsets. They had a wrong mental attitude. They didn't know how to think right. So before we get into the specifics of these different attitudes, let's just talk for a minute about the mind. Who could stand it if I talked for a minute about the mind? Please do. Right. OK. Well, Proverbs 23, 7 says, a man thinks in his heart so is he. That's a very interesting scripture. Colossians 3, 1 and 2 says, if then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above. That means right things, not on the things that are upon the earth. Now, let's read it again. Set your mind. And I really like what the Amplified says. Set your mind and keep it set. Say it's easy to go on a diet on Sunday night after dinner. But the problem starts by Tuesday when you want to eat everything on the table and then eat the table. Now, I'm going to tell you a secret. You're not going to like this part, but here it comes anyway. If you want to have real victory, you're going to have to be willing to hurt a little bit. I see the Israelites didn't want to hurt and we don't want to hurt. So the devil gives us nine different ways to get out of hurting. And you know, even if you just take complaining, you know, if you're going through something and you just keep your mouth shut about it and you're just talking to God about it and not murmuring and complaining, it's hard. Thanks for listening to today's message. What we think about matters and developing new mindsets takes time. Instead of wishing everything was easier when life gets hard, we can learn to say I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Looking for more, you got it. Each day, you'll find more unique episodes of the enjoying everyday life program in the Joyce Meyer app and online at JoyceMyre.org. The Bible, our instruction book for life. Spending time in God's word will change our lives, but consistent and effective study can at times be challenging. That's one reason why Joyce is here to help. At Joyce Meyer.org slash Bible study, you'll find ways to make your study time come to life with helpful resources, study suggestions and encouragement from Joyce. Get the most you can out of your time, study in God's word with everyday study. Sign up today at Joyce Meyer.org slash Bible study. Thank you for listening to 15 minutes in the word with Joyce.
