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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
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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