CHAPTER 7.

Do You Want Misery, Mediocrity, or Victory?

I am convinced only a few people ever enjoy the fulfillment of G.o.d's perfect plan for their lives because they don't know how to listen to G.o.d's leading or know how to follow Him. We can live the abundant life if we learn to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit who came to live in us at our new birth.

Even though I had accepted Jesus as my Savior, sincerely loved and wanted to obey Him, and was very active in church for years, I was miserable. I understood I was saved by faith and would go to heaven, but I did not live in victory and was not affecting anybody else in a positive way. I am not sure my daily witness would have encouraged anyone else to make a commitment to Jesus.

During all those years as a Christian, I didn't realize G.o.d wanted to communicate directly with me. I certainly didn't understand He intended for me to enjoy victory in my daily living and simply enjoy life itself. I was unhappy and dissatisfied, and people like that usually make others unhappy. I went to church on Sunday but it was not enough. I longed for a deeper relationship with G.o.d and I did not know how to have one. Just going to church and trying to follow rules would never give me the deep contentment and joy for which I longed.

As I sought G.o.d for something deeper, He began teaching me His Word and it renewed my mind and changed the way I thought about everything. Through His Word, He helped me understand He does want to communicate with us individually and has a plan for our lives to take us to a place of peace and contentment. G.o.d's will is for us to attain knowledge of His plan through His divine guidance. We should do good works, but they should be done out of our relationship with G.o.d and not as a method of trying to earn something from Him. I serve Him because I love Him, not to get Him to love me. G.o.d's love for us is unconditional. He cannot be bought with good works.

G.o.d does want to communicate with us individually and has a plan for our lives to take us to a place of peace and contentment.

Knowledge is progressive and we don't learn everything we need to know about Jesus overnight. Jesus told His disciples He still had many things to say to them, but they would not be able to grasp everything then. Jesus was going away, but the Father would send the Spirit of Truth to guide them and to teach them all things and bring to their remembrance everything Jesus told them. It was advantageous to them for Him to go away, because without His leaving, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby)-the Holy Spirit-would not come to them.

When Jesus spoke these words He was talking to men with whom He had spent the previous three years. They were with Him day and night, yet He indicated He had more to teach them. You would think if Jesus was with you personally for three years, day and night, you could learn all there is to know. From a human perspective, I think if I had one uninterrupted month with people, I could tell them everything I know, but Jesus said to expect more. He was telling the disciples, and us through His words recorded in the Bible, He will always have something to say to us about new situations we are facing. The Father would send His Holy Spirit to them, and us, to help. The Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth, advise us, and empower us to live the life G.o.d desires for us.

When we receive Jesus, we become adopted sons and daughters of G.o.d. Everything Jesus has is ours in our joint inheritance. We need only learn how to receive it by faith, and that means we may not always feel or see anything, but we choose to believe G.o.d's Word as truth. Jesus became flesh and experienced the types of things we experience and understands our needs (see Hebrews 4:1516). He was led by the Spirit, just as we can be led by the Spirit. He overcame temptation, just as we can overcome temptation. He chose to come to earth in a fleshly body so He could be our High Priest and understand everything we go through.

Jesus was confined to a body, just as we are, and could only be in one place at a time. But the Holy Spirit is able to be in every single one of us everywhere we go, all the time, individually leading and guiding us. G.o.d knew we would need help in understanding His plan for us and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell inside every believer. The Holy Spirit tells us what He hears from the Father. The Holy Spirit is our Guide, our Teacher of Truth, our Counselor, our Helper, and our Comforter (see John 16:7). He will never leave us nor forsake us. When we learn how to listen to Him and follow His leading, we can trust Him to lead us on the right path every day.

CHAPTER 8.

Follow His Lead There are three functions of your spirit. The first is fellowshipping with G.o.d. The spirit is the place where you fellowship with G.o.d and the place you really hear from Him. The second is intuition or discernment. Intuitive living by your spirit comes with learning to "hear" G.o.d inside yourself in a way the Bible calls "a still, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). It is an inward witness, a peace, a spiritual knowing different from head knowledge or intellect. It is a way of knowing things that don't come from stored knowledge or because you learned them somewhere along the line. It is a deeper knowing, a sensing of truth. Life is so much easier when we simply follow the inward witness rather than ignore it. This means if you don't have peace about something, don't do it.

There are times when I know that something is not right for me to do and I don't even know why. Everyone else might be doing it, but I sense in my spirit it is not what G.o.d desires for me. I have learned to trust that "inward witness" even more than I trust my own thoughts, feelings, or will. It took a long time to make the transition, but life is much better now that I have.

The third function of the spirit is conscience. Your conscience is the best preacher you'll ever hear, and it preaches to you all day long. Many people have no personal relationship with G.o.d, no real fellowship with Him, because they have a seared or hardened conscience. They have ignored their conscience for so long it is no longer soft and tender. They are able to do wrong things and not sense much conviction. Pray that G.o.d will soften your conscience and learn to listen to it because it is G.o.d trying to speak to you.

There are also people who have an overactive conscience. They tend to feel guilty about everything. The only remedy for this is a thorough study of G.o.d's Word in order to learn what G.o.d's will really is. He wants us to enjoy a life of freedom, yet not use that freedom as an excuse to sin.

Walking in the Spirit means listening to the advice your friend Jesus is giving you through learning the Word and listening to G.o.d's Spirit living in you. It means following your enlightened conscience and not doing something if you don't have peace about it; basically, doing what G.o.d tells you to do. If you are not accustomed to walking in the Spirit, it will take time to learn how to do it. But G.o.d is patient and will continue to teach and change you.

Walking in the Spirit means listening to the advice our friend Jesus is giving you through learning the Word and listening to G.o.d's Spirit living in you.

Over the last few years, I've developed a habit of occasionally stopping for a minute to see what I sense in my spirit about something. When the devil is putting wrong thoughts into your head, accusing you of being incapable or unable to succeed, it is amazing how taking a minute to hear from G.o.d will set you back on track.

In the early years of my ministry, my mind would start telling me, You're not going to make it. This is not going to work-it's stupid. n.o.body cares what you're doing. You're not even hearing from G.o.d, anyway. You have no business trying to teach people anything. The enemy, the devil, was using those kinds of thoughts to accuse me and keep me from working for G.o.d. You may have times in your life when your thoughts are saying, Give up and your feelings are right in line. You want to give up; you feel like giving up, perhaps other people even tell you to give up, then you get quiet somewhere for a minute and say, "Now, Lord, what do You have to say about this?" You will hear Him say, "Keep on pressing forward and never give up." No wonder the Bible says in Psalm 46:10 (KJV), "Be still, and know that I am G.o.d."

The closer you grow to G.o.d, the easier it is to develop a lifestyle of making the right choices. Philippians 2:12 says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This means after your salvation at the new birth, you build your relationship with G.o.d by studying, learning, praying, and fellowshipping with G.o.d. You let your relationship with Him affect every area of your life. G.o.d is not willing to live in what I call a "Sunday morning box." He wants to invade every day of your life and be involved in everything you do. I encourage you to turn your will over to G.o.d and let the Holy Spirit work that salvation through your soul-let Him think through your mind, teach you to love what He loves, and use your emotions and your will to serve Him. Many people would be comfortable using all their emotions at a football game, but they feel uncomfortable displaying emotions in their worship of G.o.d. We need to realize that He wants us to use everything He has given us in serving Him. Make all of your resources available to G.o.d. Be willing to use your energy, talents, and finances in serving Him. As you let His light shine through you, it affects the people around you in a positive way and they begin to want to know Jesus too.

CHAPTER 9.

The Right Truth at the Right Time When Jesus told His disciples the Father would send the Spirit of Truth to guide them into all truth, He was describing a method the Holy Spirit uses to free us in areas where we struggle. In 1976 I reached a point in my life when the Holy Spirit knew I was ready to face truth and let Him do a thorough work of healing in my life.

Many of us live in a false reality we have developed to protect ourselves. I spent a lot of my life avoiding issues that needed to be dealt with. I blamed other people, felt sorry for myself, and had a bad att.i.tude, but none of that was changing any of my circ.u.mstances. One of my difficulties was developing and maintaining good relationships. I was convinced all the other people in my life were the problem, and they were the ones who needed to change for us to get along.

One day, as usual, I was praying for my husband to change in some area, when the Holy Spirit began revealing a truth to me He knew I was ready to face. As He began speaking to my heart-impressing on me the truth I needed to see-I saw the source of the problems I had been blaming on everyone and everything else. As I was praying, the Holy Spirit caused me to realize the source of the problem was not my husband. The source of the problem was me! I was devastated emotionally for three days as I looked in shock at the extent of the deception into which I had led myself by believing everyone except me was the problem. The Holy Spirit gently unveiled the truth to me of what life was like for the members of my family who had to live in the same house with me. I saw I was hard to get along with, impossible to keep happy, critical, selfish, dominating, controlling, manipulative, negative, nagging-and this was just the beginning of the list.

It was extremely difficult for me to face this truth, but as the Holy Spirit gave me the grace to do it, in that year I began a life of learning how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit working inside me to transform the ashes in my life into beauty. My life became a series of new freedoms, each preceded by a new truth the Holy Spirit revealed to me. Many of the truths I teach people today came out of that initial truth the Spirit of Truth led me to in 1976.

Truth is wonderful. Jesus said it will make us free. But as wonderful as truth is, we must be ready to face it. Truth is often harsh; it shocks us into a reality we may feel unprepared to see, but if G.o.d is revealing it He knows the time is right. As tough as it might be at the time to press through the pain rather than avoiding it, we will be so glad to live in the freedom and rewards it brings.

Truth is often harsh; it shocks us into a reality we may feel unprepared to see, but if G.o.d is revealing it He knows the time is right.

I strongly urge you to be willing to face truth because there is no freedom without it. The world is filled with deception and the Bible actually teaches us that it will get worse as time goes by. G.o.d said that if He did not shorten the days for the sake of the very elect, no man could stand the deception coming to the earth. It is very common today for someone to call evil good and good evil. We must not look to the world to teach us how to live sincere, truthful lives, but rather to the Word of G.o.d and the Holy Spirit.

Let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) (Ephesians 4:15).

CHAPTER 10.

Learn to Hear from G.o.d Learning to hear from G.o.d and being led by the Holy Spirit is very exciting. G.o.d wants to speak to us about the plan He has for our lives. His plan is a good plan, but we are in danger of missing it if we don't learn how to listen to and obey G.o.d's voice.

We talk to our children all the time-why wouldn't our heavenly Father talk to His children? We would not expect our children to know what we wanted them to do if we did not talk to them, so why would G.o.d feel any different?

We would not expect our children to know what we wanted them to do if we did not talk to them, so why would G.o.d feel any different?

G.o.d speaks to us in many ways. He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, through that "knowing" deep inside us, and through peace. He may also speak through nature, other people, circ.u.mstances, wisdom, supernatural intervention, dreams, and visions.

G.o.d also speaks through our conscience, our desires, and an audible voice. However, the two most prevalent ways G.o.d speaks to us are through His Word and the inward witness in our hearts. Hearing the audible voice of G.o.d is rare for most people and nonexistent for many. I have heard the audible voice of G.o.d three or four times in my life. Two of those times were at night when I was awakened by His voice simply calling my name. All I heard was, "Joyce," but I knew it was G.o.d calling me. He did not say what He wanted, but I knew instinctively it had something to do with a ministry call on my life, although clarity did not come in that area for several more years.

I heard the audible voice of G.o.d in February 1976, a very significant year for me, the day I was filled with the Holy Spirit. That morning, I cried out to G.o.d about how awful life was, and I told Him something was missing in my relationship with Him. I felt I was at the end of my rope.

His voice seemed to fill my entire car, and He simply said, "Joyce, I have been teaching you patience." Since that was my first time to hear anything of that magnitude, it both thrilled and shocked me. I instinctively knew what He meant. I had asked G.o.d several months prior to that time to teach me patience, not realizing the lesson would include a lengthy period of feeling my life was on hold. The frustration of that feeling peaked that morning in February when I cried out to G.o.d in desperation asking Him to do something and give me whatever it was I was missing.

When I heard G.o.d's voice, I was suddenly filled with faith that He was going to do something wonderful in my life, although I did not know what it would be; I spent the day in expectation and thanksgiving. That evening in my car, while returning home from my job, G.o.d's Spirit touched me in a special way and filled me with His Presence. This event was the beginning of a new level in my relationship with G.o.d.

Ask G.o.d to help you learn how to listen to Him, to be sensitive to His voice. He wants to talk to you, to develop a closer relationship with you. It is your privilege and right as a born-again believer in Jesus Christ to fellowship daily with G.o.d the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Learn to talk to G.o.d about absolutely everything. G.o.d is interested in everything that concerns you.

CHAPTER 11.

The Life of G.o.d Is Inside Us The Holy Spirit acts somewhat like a traffic policeman inside me. When I do the right things, I get a "green light" from Him, and when I do wrong things, I get a "red light." If I am about to get myself in trouble, but I have not fully made a decision to proceed, I get a "caution signal."

The more we stop and ask G.o.d for directions, the more sensitive we become to the signals within from the Holy Spirit. He doesn't scream and yell at us; He simply whispers in the still, small voice and lets us know we are about to make a mistake. Each time we listen and obey, it becomes easier to hear Him the next time. He will always lead us to newness of life and inner peace, if we yield to Him.

As believers, we have the life of G.o.d inside us. We are the dwelling place or home of G.o.d. I believe this truth is necessary for each of us to understand in order to enjoy close fellowship and intimacy with G.o.d.

Why would G.o.d want to live in us? And how can He? After all, He is holy, and we are weak humans with frailties, faults, and failures. We are to simply believe that Jesus' sacrifice for our sins was enough to allow us into the presence of G.o.d. G.o.d takes up residence within us when we give our lives to Jesus by believing in Him as the only Savior and Lord. From that position He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, begins a wonderful work in us. This truth is so awesome that it is difficult for our finite minds to grasp and believe.

The answer is this: He loves us and chooses to make His home in us. He does that because He is G.o.d-He has the ability to do what He wants, and He chooses to make His home in our hearts. This choice is based not on any good deeds we have done or ever could do, but solely on the grace (or power), mercy, and love of G.o.d. As believers in Christ, we become G.o.d's dwelling place (see Ephesians 3:17; 2 Timothy 1:14; 1 John 4:15).