Priscilla Shirer, Joyce Meyer, and Lisa Osteen empower you in your purpose and calling! Don’t let the enemy’s lies hold you back from what God is calling you to do in this next year.

for myself I read this the other day and

I thought this was a great statement

[Music]

the biggest thing to be afraid of is not

failure

the biggest thing to be afraid of is

that we will succeed at something that’s

useless and I’m going to tell you

something women you got to step out and

do something if you wait until fear and

nervousness is gone you will wait

forever but if you’ll just be willing to

take a step of faith and say God even if

I get rejected I’m gonna do it whatever

you call me to do and when you begin to

step out in faith and just step out and

and be strong and courageous God is

going to do great things through you

amen amen because you realize wait a

minute if he sustained me in my 20s and

my 30s and even in my teenage years when

I look back and see little things I

wrote down and I go oh my gosh the Lord

was the Lord was moving even then to

derail me into into a particular

direction that track record becomes a

booster for you in the current things

that you’re facing in your life

[Music]

just to your point dad about building

your confidence and your relationship

with the Lord before the storm comes I

think one of the

ways that people can do that I know it’s

been helpful for me I didn’t even

realize I was doing it but actually

writing down and keeping a track record

of when you see the Fingerprints of God

in your life I look back now and realize

I was probably just keeping a little

Journal I’m not one of those people that

journals like every day or you know even

every you know religiously every week or

anything like that but just when

something happens that I see the

Fingerprints of God opening a door or

closing a door that in hindsight I

realized was his best plan for me or I

see something happening where it’s just

what some would consider ordinary but

there’s the traces of God’s handiwork

just moving things around I write that

down because you won’t remember what

happened a decade ago but when you open

up this little book you’ve scribbled

some notes about what God has done and

then you look back and you begin to

actually see how things that seem

disconnected at the time or just seemed

like it wasn’t going your way how you’re

working God worked Watching God work

that out then it helps to build your

confidence when you’re going through

something now because you realize wait a

minute if he sustained me in my 20s and

my 30s and even in my teenage years when

I look back and see little things I

wrote down and I go oh my gosh the Lord

was the Lord was moving even then to

derail me into into a particular

direction

that track record becomes a booster for

you in the current things that you’re

facing in your life so I’ve even done

that with my sons I’ve kept a little

journal for each of the boys I bought a

little Journal when I started when my

oldest was five I went to Ross Dress For

Less in the back corner there they’ve

got these little journals for 5.99 and

I’ve had the same ones for I guess now

15 years and every now and then when I

just see just a little hint in a

question they’ve asked or a conversation

we’ve had or some way I can see God

working and moving and something he’s

lined up for them I write it down

because I want to be able to give it to

them and say look if if he did this for

you then when you hit the bumps of Life

which we all are then you can trust him

because he’s already proven to you that

he’s going to be faithful yeah and

Jonathan you mentioned wrestling with

God which we are watched you do

firsthand because you are the athlete of

the family like you you do this and then

you end up here you work out and you end

up doing but like that’s just kind of

how your mind works but as we talk about

as as we’ve heard these things that were

said I remember I think in chapter nine

of the book you basically talk about

getting the place where you realized

that God’s answer was yes or yes and you

had to get yourself there can you can

you elaborate on that when it comes to

yeah absolutely

um just thinking about you know what Dad

is saying in his conditional and

unconditional will like we met the

conditions so I’m like uh I’m just

waiting I did it the whole time I’m

hopeful yeah the whole time yeah we all

work and I’m watching mommy kind of

decline but I’m like uh it’s okay

because he’s gonna it’s gonna be a

greater you know what I mean like yeah

so I’ve done that in my mind and and the

the effort that we had put forward just

calling on the name of the Lord and and

I felt like this was a great opportunity

for him

this is a great opportunity for you now

no you need to take advantage of this

one this is that’s right this is

everybody’s watching yeah um and so I

kind of got to a place where I really

felt was hopeful about it and when he

basically said no that’s how I received

it initially that we did all of this and

you just didn’t come through right

um You didn’t make a way out of out of

no way you know you didn’t do those

things

but then God you know in my quiet time

in silence in silence and Solitude I got

Clarity just spending time with God and

he just said you know you don’t

understand my victory you’re complaining

because you don’t really understand what

Jesus Christ has done it was hard for

you to watch your mother die but how

much harder was it to me to watch my son

die so your mother can actually live and

when I thought about the life that has

been given in his unconditional will

that his unconditional will even meeting

his conditions was better than what I

prayed for trying to meet his

conditional will you asked for healing

she’s got it

um you asked her to be with family she’s

got it you asked her to be well taken

care of she’s got it you don’t

understand I’ve given you everything you

asked for on a higher level than you

asked for it and you don’t understand it

because you’re a kid you’re not you know

what I’m saying the same thing with my

kids they just don’t get it until they

get to a point of maturity where they’re

able to say oh Dad his will is just best

and and now we can do what my mom always

said with my mom like she’s not yours we

can do it our mom always said your

greatest ministry will come right out of

your greatest misery

and um and keep on going you know one of

the ways me and Daddy encouraged each

other you know through football

is you know in in football every player

has to retire

it happens every time and the players

that are still on the field are sad you

know because that’s the that’s their guy

right

but all you can do is put your head down

and keep playing until you retire too

because you want to hear the coaches say

the same thing to you that he said to

him well done you played hard here’s

your gold jacket enjoy retirement and

that’s what Mommy’s doing she retired

she’s enjoying that retirement in his

rest and we’re gonna put our heads down

we’re gonna keep playing hard that’s

great all the way to the Finish yeah

there are so many things that we had had

to to learn I mean I didn’t realize I

think daddy told me this he thought that

when we were going through this

and and Mommy thought this too she would

look at me and be like are you okay but

it wasn’t a normal are you okay it was

kind of like uh this is the kid that

could fall apart with this much weight

on him emotionally that it was that kind

of are you okay and I all the things

that we’ve talked about all the lessons

that I learned along the way even in the

hard moments of my life I didn’t realize

were training me for this moment in the

book um I can’t remember what what

chapter but we tell the story of of The

Karate Kid which I won’t tell the whole

thing now Priscilla tells it a lot

um do you want to just hit on that real

quick I mean well just that there was a

lot of training I mean the karate kid

you know the one with Daniel’s son and

Mr meal yeah

although that was good too yes but the

original one you know Danielson wants

training and in karate so he goes to Mr

Miyagi and Mr Miyagi basically has him

managing his house cleaning cars

painting fences sanding the floor and he

just Daniel becomes extremely frustrated

he’s like you this is not what I’m here

for yeah I came here to train to be able

to be excellent at the craft of karate

and so Mr Miyagi sees his frustration

and he starts throwing punches and

Daniel without thinking about it begins

to block all of these punches and kicks

that are coming his Direction he did not

know that all of that training that

seemed unnecessary and seemed mundane

and just like he was actually

accomplishing nothing

in that mundane training was actually

everything that he needed to be prepared

for the fight he was learning he was

becoming masterful at the craft it just

didn’t look like it in the moment

foreign

but I think most of us if it were really

gut level honest we would have to say

that when we first start

first start wanting to be used by God

our motives are not all that stellar

I had been abused by my dad and so I was

very insecure

and to be honest although I had a call

on my life

part of me wanted to do it because I

felt like I was being called to do it

but part of it wanted me to do it

because I just wanted to be successful

at something so I could feel good about

myself

I can’t stand here and tell you that day

one all I wanted to do was help other

people

I wanted to be successful

I wanted to be in leadership I wanted to

be one of the important people

at my church I wanted to have my name on

a seat

I wanted to have an office with my name

on the door

and I wanted all of those things for the

wrong reasons now that didn’t mean I

wasn’t called

but it did mean that God had to do a

work of purification in my life to get

me to the point where for every where

everything I was doing was being done

number one in obedience to him and

number two to help people

and that takes a while

how many of you know what I mean when

I’m talking about motives let me let me

just give you a homework assignment

I’ll never know if you did it or not but

just pretend like you’re going to

sometime when this is over and you have

some quiet time at home

write down everything that you spend

your time doing

and then go back and ask yourself why

you’re doing it

everybody gets quiet at this point

I mean it is amazing how quiet people

get when you start talking about motives

you know why our motives are not what

we’re doing it’s why we’re doing what

we’re doing

and guess what that’s the only part God

cares about

he’s not impressed by our big Ministries

or our

friends on Facebook or this or that or

anything else the only thing he’s

concerned about is why are you doing

what you’re doing and you know First

Corinthians 3 13

says that the work of each one of us

will become plainly and openly known

shown for what it is for the day of

Christ will disclose and declare it

because it will be revealed with fire

and the fire will test and critically

appraise the character and the worth of

the work that each person has done

and it goes on to say that if what we’ve

done is a pure work we’ll get our reward

and if not all the works will be burned

up even though we ourselves will still

be saved

I don’t know about you but I don’t want

to waste my time

I don’t want to spend my life with some

misconceived deceptive idea

that I’m doing everything I’m doing for

God when really a lot of it is just

for myself I read this the other day and

I thought this was a great statement

the biggest thing to be afraid of is not

failure

the biggest thing to be afraid of is

that we will succeed at something that’s

useless

I think we could say that again right

the biggest thing to be afraid of is not

failure

the biggest thing to be afraid of is

that we might succeed at something

useless

I just wrote a book released it last

fall called seize the day

and in that book I tried to share with

people how important it is to

live your life on purpose for a purpose

I don’t think any of us can realize how

valuable time is

until you get old enough in life to

where you’re not having too much of it

left

you think totally differently when

you’re 20 and 30 and 40

and even 50 and 60

and I can tell you when I was in my 60s

I realized one day two-thirds of my life

was over even if I lived to be in my mid

90s two-thirds of it was over and I only

had about a third left

and I tell you I really have a passion

to tell people don’t waste your life

and don’t waste your time

and one of the ways that we can waste

our lives is doing things that really

are not important to God just to try to

impress people

amen now I know that talking about

motives gets people kind of somber so

we’ll go on and talk about something

else now

thank you

during that period of time we also have

the privilege of having a lot of

humility worked into

Our Lives

the Bible says humble yourself into the

mighty hand of God but I can tell you

that if you don’t humble yourself God

will do it for you

and it’s much more painful when he does

it

than if we go ahead and do it

I don’t know if you’re willing to admit

it or not but I think most of us when we

start are pretty full of ourselves

anybody

come on don’t look so innocent I’m here

I’ve only been a month since I had my

hips sawed in half I’m here to help you

so look like you’re being helped

see I like to get into the deeper stuff

because

I just don’t think we’ve got a lot of

time to mess around

amen

Nebuchadnezzar the King Daniel 4 1-4

this is such a good story

Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the

people Nations and languages that dwell

on all the Earth may peace be multiplied

to you verse two it seemed good to me to

show the signs and wonders that the most

high God has performed toward me now I

want you to notice that in the beginning

of this chapter he’s given God all the

credit

look what God’s done

how great are his signs and how Mighty

are his wonders his kingdom is an

everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion is

from generation to generation

and I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my

house and prospering in my Palace

you see as long as we’re giving God the

credit

we have rest

and we have peace

now I don’t know what happened to poor

Nebuchadnezzar

but somehow in 26 verses

he fell completely apart

and I don’t really know how long 26

verses takes in the Bible

but it didn’t take me very long to read

it

and by the time we get around to verse

30

the king said is not this the great

Babylon that I have built

as the Royal residence in the seat of

government by the might of my power and

for the honor and the glory of my

Majesty

wow

you see

success can be dangerous

yes I said success can be dangerous

because there’s always a danger that we

might begin to think

that we actually had something to do

with it

or even worse than that

and I think God hates this the most we

might begin to think that we’re actually

better than other people

and then if we’re not very careful we’ll

begin to mistreat other people

that we don’t think are quite as

important as we are

we’re not very useful to God

if we don’t beg him to work in our lives

to keep us humble

no matter and nothing hurts worse than

having God deal with your pride

I used to have a series on my table

called pride and humility

I finally realized that nobody was going

to buy that

so I have gotten very good at hiding my

messages under other titles

[Applause]

how to succeed with God

five ways to find promotion

and I do that I really do

while the words were still in the king’s

mouth

their fellow Boys From Heaven saying oh

King Nebuchadnezzar to you it is spoken

the kingdom has departed from you

let me tell you something it takes a lot

longer to build something up than it

does for God to tear it down

we all beg God for big things I did

and I love to share this with the people

that are in leadership I remember when

the Lord spoke to my heart and he said I

just want you to remember that however

many people you can help that’s exactly

how many you can hurt

that’s why leadership is such a huge

responsibility

not just a privilege

but a responsibility

because people watch everything

you do

you know I wanted to speak into the call

of God upon your life because God put

purpose and greatness inside of you and

you know I think back on my life and how

you know when I knew God had a call on

my life there’s always there was always

this voice of inadequacy you’re not

qualified this fear and I just want you

to know that when God calls you to do

something he’s going to help you do it

and but you will fight this fear these

feelings and I learned a long time ago

that you just have to do it anyway no

matter how you feel and uh amen because

because the feelings the fear will

always be there but I remember you know

when I first even as a teenager started

to pray with people you know I was

afraid I was going to say the wrong

thing and then when I first started

speaking you know I was so nervous and I

I just thought I’m not qualified but you

know I learned this that no matter how

we feel God will anoint us to to do what

he’s called us to do and he doesn’t call

the equipped he equips the called amen

if he calls you he’s going to equip you

and he’s going to anoint you to do it

and God said to Joshua as soon as he was

to take over from Moses after Moses died

you know think about the fear that that

Joshua was feeling the how he had to

step into Moses feet and three times God

said to him don’t be afraid be strong

and courageous he ended up saying I’m

commanding you Joshua don’t be afraid

but be strong and courageous and I know

that God has been speaking to you to do

certain things maybe it’s just an act of

obedience maybe he is calling you to

take this great step of faith and I want

to say to you that God is saying don’t

be afraid be strong and courageous don’t

listen to the lies of the enemy because

even though you may be unqualified God

will qualify you and he will be with you

and he will help you every step of the

way I was just thinking about something

funny Victoria because when I was in

college you know I was always grow up

it’s hard to believe it but I grew up

sort of shy and quiet and when I was in

college my first year I really wanted to

do something for God I was out on my own

and so I applied at the end of the year

to be a chaplain in a dorm over 30 girls

and my brother Paul was a chaplain

director and you know and I just had a

desire to do something and I thought you

know I’m probably going to get it I mean

after all Paul’s in there I’m at Osteen

you know everybody loves my dad you know

and but would you believe after I

interviewed and all that they they said

that they didn’t think I was qualified

and they rejected me you know

and so I just thought well that’s okay

but they said this they said we feel

like uh you’re a little too shy and

quiet right now and the truth is I was

shy and quiet but something in me was

saying God was saying I want to use you

I want to do something through you and

so I took that step of faith and I

applied but I got rejected but let me

tell you something people women when God

when people close the door God will open

another door and so I just took it you

know I went through the summer and right

before school started I got a call from

the chaplain’s office and they said hey

one of the chaplains can’t come back to

school and we want you after all and so

I thought well I wasn’t their first

choice but I was God’s choice

and the truth is I was not qualified but

God didn’t care and he wanted me God

chose me even though I wasn’t qualified

God chose me even though I wasn’t ready

and so I didn’t even feel ready to be

the chaplain but I stepped out and I’m

going to tell you something women you

got to step out and do something if you

wait until fear and nervousness is gone

you will wait forever but if you’ll just

be willing to take a step of faith and

say God even if I get rejected I’m gonna

do it whatever you call me to do and

when you begin to step out in faith and

just step out and and be strong and

courageous God is going to do great

things through you amen amen yes we

receive that no matter what you’re going

through today God wants you to love your

life he he gave you life the scripture

says that Jesus came to give you life

and life more abundantly not everything

goes our way we Face challenges we Face

difficulties but God doesn’t want you to

stop living he doesn’t want you to stop

pushing he doesn’t want you to stop

pressing because in those difficulties

you will find God and you’ll come out on

the other side of that difficulty

stronger than you ever thought possible

I want to say to be encouraged to all

the women because even though it may be

a difficult season right now God is

birthing things in you that are going to

just surprise and shock you in such a

great way and he will bring you through

it he promised he said that he will he

will provide a way of Escape through

whatever you’re going through he’s your

deliverer he’s your Refuge he turns rock

and just remind yourself of those

wonderful characteristics of God because

he’s there for you but I just want to

encourage you to just enjoy when you’re

living the season that you’re living in

and just do what God speaks in your

heart to do if God tells you to do

something people can’t change what God

told you to do but I want him to say

about us all women men and everybody

that’s serving God very well done my

good and faithful sir yes I like that

you gotta fight the good fight of faith

and you know what sometimes when you’re

fighting you can get worn out if you’re

trying to do it in your own strength but

you won’t get worn out if you’re doing

it in the strength of God and you know I

love the fact that you are you know you

are prepared with God’s word you’re not

waiting to feel down and think what am I

going to do but you know what you got to

fight in you because you got God’s word

and you know that he’s called you to be

more than an overcomer and is it good we

know the end of the story we win amen

amen