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and he’s a good god he wants to lead us

well he doesn’t want us to be caught up

in the obscurity of mystery he wants to

actually relate to us so when he gives

us signs he even signed what i call sign

overload when he gives us a sign so many

times that we’re like now i believe that

i believe that i believe when he gives

the sciences out of his good nature not

because we should be afraid we’re going

to miss him or what if i miss this what

if i don’t that’s not god that’s fear

that’s not how god wants you to feel by

giving you signs he wants to give you

signs to empower your faith not to make

you feel like you’re going to miss

something

you know it’s funny in life as

christians we obviously have a bible and

we love the bible but we’re always

looking for

signs you know i hate to use that word

but there are signs and and it can be as

as

you know relevant as a literal like

somebody comes to us and says hey i feel

like god said this to you to looking in

the clouds smelling something

right seeing a sign on on the side of

the road

does god speak to people really through

signs and look what do you think about

that oh absolutely i think it like you

know god never changed his nature and

the whole old testament is all signs

it’s god revealing signs and wonders to

show people how much he loved them and

also helped bring guidance and

leadership to them so you have isaiah 8

18 who’s actually kind of rebuking them

and say therefore i’ll astound you sign

upon sign and wonder upon wonder and

he’s saying like hey i’m going to

astound you again to show you i am this

good regardless of how you’re disobeying

me right now on this good then the new

testament we have so many signs that

come even peter i’m thinking of when

he’s in a trance and he’s praying up on

the roof and a sheet comes down with all

kinds of unclean foods assigned to him

about who he’s about to go to he wasn’t

just going to the jews was going to the

gentiles and god used symbolic imagery

to confirm it because he knew that that

would hit him differently than if he

just gave direct speech

so

so i mean one question this maybe isn’t

work but why why would god use a sign

instead of just talking to us i think

it’s matthew 18 18 where he says you

know i could speak to you and tell you

directly but you would stare until

you’re blue in the face and not get it

but i have to create something inside of

you a culture inside of you so i’m

telling you a story i’m giving you a

message that caused you to relate to me

differently than if i just told you

direct speech it’s like your parents if

your parents tell you go to your room

right now and clean up

and it’s your you’re not used to that as

a little kid like we have a six-year-old

she’s like ah but if i say hey let’s go

to your room and play with your toys now

let’s let’s put them up together yeah

it’s like you’re giving the culture of

what we do as a family not just the

rules

is there a danger

i mean is there a danger when i mean you

believe in science i believe in science

of course but is there a danger when

it’s like you kind of have an answer you

want

and then you’re like oh i saw you know a

raccoon in a trash can and that made me

realize i gotta break up with my

boyfriend i gotta throw him in the trash

you know what i mean this kind of thing

like is there any danger in like

bringing

and imputing in seminary called icy

cheating when you put something in the

text that’s not there

well i think we have to look for god’s

biblical nature and everything so he’s

good he’s leading us but it’s also

according to boundaries of his purity

his and how he’s led in the past and his

holiness and so in saying that in simple

form is is you know we’re gonna

not overly spiritualize everything to

get the message we want it’s like the

magic 8-ball like

should i go here

oh it didn’t say yet let me check it

again

that’s not who god is we’re trying to

have a relationship with a living god

yeah and we’re looking for what he does

so we look at the bible for how we led

people and it should feel

like his nature it should feel like not

just what we want but also we’re being

led by a god who has an agenda sometimes

he leads us in ways we don’t want to go

yeah and i know you’ve experienced that

in your life i’ve experienced in my life

where i’m asking god for something he

doesn’t answer that he tells me to do

something else that’s unrelated and i

have to trust him and as i follow him

here he actually gives me the answer so

i’m learning that but i mean i get a lot

of signs around numbers so i have a lot

of number signs 22 22 has been a big

number in my life because of isaiah 22

22 which talks about the key of david

and this number has haunted me more than

a demon can haunt

me this is like the holy spirit is a way

better ghost than the other ghost

because he’s brought this number up all

you know

in the season when this key represents

to me he’s going to unlock doors that i

couldn’t open for myself so i remember

we were trying to get a meeting for a

business the transaction we’re trying to

do

with someone and we were praying into it

and we just couldn’t get the meeting

there was no way to get it and i was

praying contending and finally i

released it to god i said you know i’m

trying too hard this is striving i give

it to you and that day i went to three

different restaurants for one was coffee

one was a breakfast appointment was

there and all the totals that i had to

pay were 22 22. i’m like you can’t do 22

22 three times in one day like yeah

i’m like that’s interesting that this

came up on top of that i had three

friends and one day in one day

text me or call me and tell me i keep

hearing the numbers two two two two over

you and these are people who don’t do

that they’re not people who are like but

i just have to tell you and um and then

i had a dream that night that i was i

was gambling mm-hmm and when i was i was

betting on 22-22 and i won like

everything you put like 22 dollars on

the number 22 or no i didn’t but but i

was betting on there was like it was

like a roulette table and there was over

that table there was 222 on there even

though there’s not in real life i was

like okay you’re you’re and then the

next day the door but still how do i not

trick myself i mean like how do i know

like how do i know the sign is from god

or can you know do you have to just kind

of get a feeling number one you’re gonna

have to walk it out it’s trial and error

so like there’s gonna be times that

like in that situation i wasn’t making

anything happen anymore at this point

i’m feeling like you’re opening the door

because you’re showing me the door

opening language you’ve used with me now

i just gotta sit back and wait because

there’s nothing i can do anyways so

there’s no harm in believing the sign

other than i might be disappointed in my

relationship with god because i’m trying

to follow him in a way that he’s not

leading

and so that that’s that’s the harm in it

but if if you’re looking for i know

people who are you know the number one

thing people want to hear from god about

is money or marriage yeah who am i going

to marry or how much money i’m going to

have in my life those are areas we have

to be even extra careful you have to

have a track record of believing god in

signs before you put great faith in

stock i mean i’ve talked to 16 year olds

who are convinced the first thing god’s

ever told them was who they’re going to

marry i’m like you’re 16 you didn’t hear

that yeah i promise you didn’t hear from

god but it’s probably your hormones

which sound like god but it’s not god

and you have to kind of kill the line of

the bear first before goliath you know

you have to kind of walk through a

process of learning how you hear from

god learning how it works and trial and

error is okay unless you’re putting so

much like i’ve had people who’ve made

major moves to l.a because they’re going

to impact la and they only had one word

or one sign on a license plate that was

their favorite scripture and i’m like no

we want confirmation before we move on

something so big god is that good he

will confirm it too if it’s a real sign

and there are people that will try and

talk us out of our calling but there are

also people that we can know and trust

that will

that will confirm it in us like i think

they’re for sure people like we can’t

just be like well i don’t want to ask

that because what if they knocked me out

but you know

i really do feel like god puts you know

i keep want to say gandalfs into our

life i was trying to think of a biblical

character but you know like god does put

sure daniels i mean

he puts these people in our lives that

we can go to and and they’ll be like

that’s your hormones talking you’re 16.

and we just need to hear that and we

need to be humble enough to

to receive it

and i love that i love i love the trial

and error i think that’s that’s what i

really draw so much from your teachings

it’s okay to like just try it out see

how it works to learn i think people

like wait so long for it to be so

mystical and super spiritual that they

miss god because he lives inside of us

there’s nudging holy spirit’s nudging us

all the time so when we’re learning how

to pay attention to the nudges it’s like

when you’re first married and some of

you can relate to this who are married

you know when you’re first married

you’re trying to decide is my wife

asking to for me to contribute to dinner

tonight or she wanted to do it because

she just said something and you might

have to ask are you asking me to help

you tonight because i don’t know your

nudge yet i don’t know

yes i need help i’m tired can you help

me tonight well holy spirit like

somebody’s nudging us and it’s okay to

ask like is this really you can you

confirm it in some way can you speak it

to me more directly so that i can follow

you well and he’s a good god he wants to

lead us well he doesn’t want us to be

caught up in the obscurity of mystery he

wants to actually relate to us so when

he gives us signs he even signed what i

call sign overload when he gives us a

sign so many times that we’re like now i

believe that i believe that i believe

when he gives the sciences out of his

good nature not because we should be

afraid we’re going to miss him or what

if i miss this what if i don’t that’s

not god that’s fear that’s not how god

wants you to feel by giving you signs he

wants to give you signs to empower your

faith

not to make you feel like you’re going

to miss something

so john 10 27 to me is the most concise

and comprehensive verse in scripture

about hearing god

it is when jesus says my sheep

hear my voice i know them and they

follow me

he says you got to be my sheep to hear

my voice so you said new christians

listen that relationship right there is

the the connector that allows you access

to the voice of god so so to me the

first step is actually believing that as

an adopted son or daughter grafted into

the family of god that you have the

capacity innately because you’re part of

the family to now hear the voice of god

it’s like um

when we were growing up in our house i

don’t know about you guys but we didn’t

have access to a whole lot of cable

television my parents didn’t get cable

they didn’t get you know whatever

directv all that stuff we didn’t have

any of that stuff

and i i felt

a little mad about that i really wanted

to have more channels my parents chose

that we could really only watch the

cosby show on thursdays at seven o’clock

and then a different world so it wasn’t

until we were getting ready to get

married i moved out

i remember the day i had the cable guy

come over hook up the cable and after he

did all that hooking up he said here’s

the remote control push the guide button

and i pushed the guide button at i had

never seen so many channels in my life

on the screen i had no idea all those

channels were there now all those

channels didn’t just get created

that day

they had always been there it’s just i

didn’t have the right hook up so that i

could tap into them and bring them and

draw them down into my experience the

holy spirit is the hookup

when you place faith in jesus christ

ephesians chapter 1 says the moment you

believe you receive the hook up the holy

spirit now you are able to draw down

divine channels it’s not that you

created them no they were always there

god’s speaking he wants to reveal

himself now you have the the opportunity

to hear him so really the first step

especially if you grew up in an

environment where this concept is sort

of um unique and different and new for

you it’s to believe

that as a as a privilege of being a son

or a daughter you can hear from god it

is the deception of the enemy to cause

us to think we have to have a seminary

to degree we have to have some special

hotline connection with god like

somebody we may admire that we as

regular men and women can’t hear from

god that’s what the enemy wants you to

think he doesn’t want you to know it’s

your birthright

and so believing that you can is the

first step to hearing god so um one of

the things i love about the holy

spirit’s work in us and this is in

regards to hearing god but his work in

us is to sanctify us sanctification is

the process by which we are molded into

the image of jesus christ

it is the process by which our mind

changes our ambitions change our desires

we start wanting stuff we never thought

we want we stop wanting things we never

thought we’d ever not want to want to to

separate ourselves from all of a sudden

we find ourselves unnerved by jokes that

we used to laugh at or company we used

to keep it just doesn’t work for us

anymore that’s the work of the holy

spirit so in regards to discerning the

voice of god if anybody’s ever concerned

or afraid like i have been that oh god

might say to me something i don’t want

the holy spirit what he does is turn

your desires so that they are in

alignment with god’s will so you

actually want what it is that god wants

you to want that’s what i believe the

psalmist meant when he said that he

gives you the desires of your heart he

doesn’t give you what you want he

actually puts

his desires in your heart so that you

want what he wants let me tell you a

practical application of that

when we were first married and before we

had children we lived in orange county

california i grew up in newport beach

california

so

l.a county was more like enemy territory

we

you know we we didn’t really understand

the big city of los angeles if you live

in a suburb of orange county l.a county

it’s real different because just a real

different environment

and and then the lord called us to

hollywood

so we packed up

our little kids and we went to los

angeles bought a home in l.a and lived

there for 15 years

lori told me

that i’m so used to orange county when i

need grocery shopping

i’m going to get my kids put them in my

car i’m going to drive back down to

orange county how far drive was that 35

40 miles

and i’ll do my grocery shopping and then

come back

we

had planned that so we bought a house

that felt like this kind of sanctuary up

on the side of a hill and

and we were very protected and it felt

really good when we were at home but we

just were very

you know the the surrounding was not

going to work for us

within days

the changing of our attitude and the

holy spirit that we fell in love with

this area we started it was when god

called us to hollywood he changed the

very inside of who we were

let’s think for a minute about paul’s

thorn

okay he asked god to take it away

whatever it was we’re going to argue

about what it was you know uh whatever

it was he didn’t like it

and he didn’t want it yeah and god

wouldn’t take it away and he said my

strength

is made perfect in your weakness

well paul got on board right away and he

said therefore i will glory in my

weaknesses my goodness well there’s no

difference saying i’ll thank god for my

weaknesses yeah wow

i’ll just thank god for this and

what would have happened if paul would

have said

oh no no no

i’m going to be bitter about this i’m

going to have a bad attitude

you’re going to let me deal with this

after all i’ve tried to do it for you

so we have every day we’re faced with

choices about attitude wow are we going

to be jealous because this person

has something i don’t have

are we going to be

thankful that we have what we have

i wanted to say something about

complaining because this this is

important this was i learned this years

ago but it really helped me because i

was a complainer

and probably still am some

um complaining is actually sin

it’s not just a

i want to express how i feel if you go

back and you study the israelites

every time something didn’t go their way

in the wilderness they complain

they blamed god and they blamed moses

and that was one of the reasons why they

spent 40 years trying to make an 11 day

trip

and that’s one of the reasons why people

just keep going around around the same

mountain and and even though they’re

hearing all these good things that god

has for them they never experienced them

because they never

switched from complaining to thinking

yeah

and so then in

ii corinthians i think

paul brings that up again and he says

that happened for your for your benefit

so you could learn

not to do what they did don’t tempt the

lord

don’t test and try his goodness

by complaining

because when they complained and they

complained

snakes got into the camp and 23 000 of

them died in one day and finally they

said to moses we have sinned

now that’s amazing to me 23 000 people

had to die before they realized

complaining with sin

wow wonder how quick they’d got through

that desert if they would have been

thanking god every step of the way my

goodness thank you god for this manna

thank you for water out of the rock

thank you for taking care of us out here

you know in the old testament they gave

thank offerings yeah

i think that’s something we should do

occasionally

my goodness just just give an offering

not your tithe not your

you’re not

it’s not an offering to the poor it’s

just you’re just giving this offering

you can give it to people if you want to

but it’s just an offering to thank god

for his goodness in your life or what

about if we have thank you days

yeah or thank you half days

you know where you just that day you

just focus

on thanking god

and what what if we just try to become

the most thankful people

on the planet

well i think it would sure decipher a

lot of people from the other if we did

well

see

there’s so much junk going on in the

world and everybody complains about it

it’s not going to do any good yeah it’s

not going to change it you can complain

about the government do you turn blue in

the face it’s not going to change it

what if

every time

we felt like complaining we prayed

instead wow

we think you know i believe that there’s

enough christians we could turn the

world around yeah

if we would start acting like christians

yeah and do the things that we’re

supposed to be

i doing

know

okay

the power of thank you joyce meyer thank

you for breaking it down

thank you for being here

uh discover

the joy of gratitude there is um

uh wherever books are sold um there’s

you can go to joyce meyer’s website you

can go to amazon you can go

wherever you want to go

um we’re we’re explaining you’re

explaining this beautifully and the idea

that

this is not just

a kind of christian material light this

is

kind of destiny determining stuff that’s

good uh in regard to

there is a joyce meyer sitting here

and bless your heart your brother is not

with us and

same household same circumstances

and he chose a different path

and

you’ve you’ve explained it

not only with your abuse but the flood

that happened here in nashville a while

back that we that we went to

so we’re talking about it in in a way

that is practical

and um talk about god wings

and how you talk about it in the book

okay

um

we all have this happen to us there are

things that god does for you

that are so meaningful to you but that

wouldn’t even make any sense to anybody

else

okay

you’d almost feel you have a light of

those you almost feel silly trying to

tell somebody yeah it’s kind of like god

going

i got you yeah yeah you know it’s kind

of like god just giving you a wink

saying

you’re right i got your back you’re okay

you’re doing good son you’re doing good

daughter it’s just like

you you know how

i mean you know how it makes you feel i

mean

as long as you’ve been married

if matt winked at you from across the

room priceless yeah yeah make you feel

good because it’s saying i know you’re

there

i love you you still think you’re

beautiful

you know whatever

and so

i pray for those god winks in my life

because

they encourage me to keep going you know

you know just

we don’t always when you get when you

get the further along you get in being a

christian i think sometimes the less you

feel god you know it’s interesting he

expects us to go more by

faith and knowing

yeah than by feeling got it and uh in

the beginning of my walk with god there

were so many seemingly like miraculous

things that happened to me it was like

that was god that was god all right that

was god

and

i asked god one time i said why don’t

you do the things for me that you used

to do and he said i do you just got used

to them now oh my goodness you don’t you

don’t notice it now

and so

i’m really trying to notice yeah

what god does for me and if it’s little

or if it’s big

and uh

so that’s what a god wink is it’s just

like these little things that god does

for you

that just means so much to you

can i tell you one that my dad had sure

um our first address at the very first

little rented tv studio in california

was one one one okay that was the

address west dyer road

he used to always joke and say in dire

need on dyer road and

when we got all the way to the east

coast and now we have a big full power

tv station in new york city

the transmitter there up on the on the

empire state building

when we went to look at a particular

place to buy for our studio there in new

york city it was 1-1-1

see and so he saw that as kind of this

little wink yeah that god was saying hey

this would be a good little studio for

you this is a good place

and it you know so there were all sorts

of little

little

little moments thank you squier

rationale for your book god winks i i i

love that book and a lot of people know

what we’re talking about because oh my

god no there was a book so i wasn’t

feeling your thing

uh squire and louise are dear friends

and and and great great couple uh the

power of thank you

uh and this

and and this

theme okay

um

pray that we get it

just you know kind of and and maybe the

last few final thoughts on on the

subject in general okay

well you know even if you don’t feel it

i want to encourage you to start being

thankful thank god

i mean you can be honest with him and

tell him i don’t i don’t feel i don’t

feel thankful

i feel like my life stinks

but i i’m going to start in faith

by thanking you and

on purpose look

look around you

look around your home

look

think think about

think about things like you wake up in

the morning and you’re not in a

wheelchair so you can get up walk to the

bathroom wow

you know there’s so many things that you

have that

are gifts from god that we take for

granted because we have them yeah

and

how

sometimes you know you

you’ve got a problem you think i would

just give anything if i didn’t have this

yeah or i would just give anything in my

tooth to stop hurting i’d give anything

if

this or that but when it wasn’t hurting

wow you didn’t think to

thank god then so even if you have to

start

just in faith

start being more thankful and

thank god

in things

and i know it’s hard but try thanking

him for things

and believing

that because he’s good wow there’s no

tragedy that god’s not bigger than that

tragedy

he didn’t cause it he didn’t do it to

you

it’s not his fault don’t blame god we

live in a mean nasty world sin gets in

the way the devil gets in the way we

don’t always know why things happen

we don’t have to know why we just know

that god is good

and you try thanking him for things in

faith believing god will work something

good

out of it you may have to do it through

gritted teeth but it’s in the word

so i pray for you in jesus name thank

you lord

that

you’ll get this that will be

life-changing for you

that this won’t be just another tbn

program you watched

and you thought it was good

but

[Music]

it’s going to be something you’re going

to implement in your life and it’s going

to change your life

it’s not going to be for a day or two

and then you’re going to forget it and

go on to something else

but it’s going to be with you the rest

of your life thank you lord in jesus

name

amen

at tbn our mission is to use every

available means to reach as many

individuals and families as possible

with the life-changing gospel of jesus

christ thank you for helping

make

the gospel of grace go around the world

without you we couldn’t do it god bless

you