Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Shelley Quinn
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR000107B
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues
00:03 related to addictive behavior. 00:05 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:06 may be too candid for younger children. 00:14 Welcome back. 00:15 We're interviewing-- I had a guest that cancelled. 00:17 And I am at 3ABN. 00:19 So I just walked the hallway and grabbed Shelley Quinn. 00:22 And said "Shelley, can you come?" 00:24 And you've been telling us your story. 00:26 And what--for those that have just tuned in, 00:29 you know, when we look at you 00:31 and we look at you on your set of "Exalting His Word" 00:33 or "On the live" or any of the "Today" programs 00:36 or any of that kind of stuff, 00:37 see you in women's retreats 00:39 going out there as an evangelist, 00:41 you're an author. 00:42 All of that kind of stuff, 00:44 we see this different side of you 00:45 than where you came from. 00:46 You came from some pretty hard places 00:48 with your mom dealing with bipolar, 00:50 sister jumping into drugs. 00:51 You leaving-- not leaving the church, 00:55 'cause you were in-- Oh, but, you know, I did. 00:56 I actually did once. Okay. 00:58 And I'll tell you this is when I said that 01:00 I went into the world for a while. 01:03 I had been taught so long 01:05 that I had to be perfect to be loved, 01:07 not only by my family but by God 01:09 that I finally got to the point that I said, 01:13 "God, I can't do it. 01:14 I'm not perfect. Enough is enough." 01:17 This is too much work. "This is too much work. 01:19 If this is what you require of me, I'll lose." Let me-- 01:23 And I'll just leave the church. 01:24 Let me just talk about that for a minute 01:26 because we talk about addictions and we talk about change 01:29 and we talk about chemical and non-chemical addictions. 01:32 What really trashes us and nobody really looks at 01:36 or very few people look at pressure addictions, 01:39 you know, where I'm supposed to be perfect 01:42 or, you know, I've got to control everything. 01:44 All of that kind of stuff and, you know, 01:46 you can put somebody that was born 01:47 and all of that pressure next to an addict. 01:49 And you behave about the same. 01:51 Is there really a pressure addiction 01:53 because maybe that's why 01:54 I'm still kind of-- procrastination is something. 01:57 So we're gonna work on that today. Okay. 01:59 I schedule myself so closely 02:02 that there's always this pressure 02:04 and I really do excel under pressure. 02:07 But it's probably a pressure addiction. 02:09 Well, they say that, you know, that we literally get to a point 02:12 where we operate out of certain level. 02:14 And, you know, the pace is like this. 02:17 And there's something that happens 02:19 in healing from that pressure 02:21 that allows us to surrender and slow down. 02:25 And so I would say with you, Shelley, 'cause I know you 02:27 is that you and Jesus are so-- 02:29 you and God are so close that you have 02:31 surrendered probably. Oh, absolutely. 02:33 Yeah, so-- but the pressure growing up, 02:35 a lot of people deal with that. 02:37 They don't look at as an addiction, 02:39 but if you start lining things up 02:42 they almost behaviorally look like an addict. 02:45 Their children tested out 02:47 even psychologically as the addict's child. Wow. 02:50 And so, you know, knowing that 02:52 our behaviors get a little bit skewed 02:55 and we start acting out in addictive ways. 02:58 And that's why recovery is such a good thing. 03:00 It's like how can you take that to God, all of that stuff. 03:04 I am tired. 03:05 And what you said is you said I'm tired and I'm out of here. 03:08 Yeah, with God I did. 03:09 I mean, but the Lord is so loving and so kind. 03:13 No matter how He turn you back on Him, 03:16 He will chase you down. 03:19 I mean His love will just chase you down. 03:21 And when I met J.D. and we married 03:25 and I'm just gonna jump forward because I know 03:27 that we've got such a short time. 03:29 Here I was ill to the point 03:31 that life was not normal at all for 8 months. 03:36 And I remember I went to bed one night 03:39 and I thought, hmm, now I know why you did it, momma. 03:42 And, boy, that thought-- 03:44 and what I was referring to is why she tried to commit suicide. 03:47 I wasn't suicidal, but I'd gotten to that point 03:51 where I had that emotional identification with 03:54 why my mother had done that? I can understand. 03:56 And why-- I just want to 03:58 really encourage anyone out there 04:00 who may be feeling suicidal 04:03 or they know someone who's suicidal, 04:05 oh, boy don't do it. 04:07 It's that point of getting hopeless 04:09 and it was just that hopelessness 04:11 that was overwhelming me. 04:14 And a lot of times people who plan to jump 04:17 from a bridge or something, if someone will intervene, 04:21 all it takes is that one time and that one intervention 04:23 and then they'll not be suicidal again. 04:25 But, you know, if somebody talks about suicide 04:27 you definitely want to get them help. Exactly. 04:30 So I'm not thinking about suicide, 04:31 but I'm thinking, you know, I understand why she did it 04:35 because life's not worth living. 04:36 And that's when the Lord-- 04:40 I'm not gonna say it was audible, 04:41 but it's the closest thing to audible 04:43 that God really spoke to me that His Word was life to me 04:47 and He set before me life and death choices. 04:49 Choose life, choose to believe His Word, His promises. 04:53 And so I got into the Word of God. 04:55 I began to pray the Word of God back to Him. 04:59 I was speaking the Word of God over my life and still 05:03 after 2 weeks nothing was happening faith-wise. 05:05 And it was like oh, Lord-- you know and I'm struggling. 05:08 You know remember, I can't read really. 05:10 I mean it's a struggle. I'm dizzy. 05:12 I'm so dizzy, I can't focus. 05:14 And then one day God led me to three Scriptures. 05:17 The first 05:20 "That His Word does not return to Him void, 05:22 but it accomplishes 05:23 every purpose for which He sent it." 05:25 And then the other was Jeremiah 1:12 05:28 where God tells Jeremiah, "You're right, 05:31 I'm watching over my Word to perform it." 05:33 And then Romans 4:17 where he says 05:36 "that God who gives life to the dead, 05:37 and He calls things that do not exist 05:39 as though they already do." 05:41 So see God knows--God knows the end from the beginning. 05:45 And so here I've got such an identity crisis, 05:47 but I get into the Word and all of a sudden 05:49 He's teaching me who I am in Christ. 05:52 He's teaching me what His promises are and God healed me. 05:56 It took 4 months, but God healed me. 05:59 And then He began me on this journey where His Word, 06:03 I mean I was like Jeremiah. 06:05 I just couldn't, you know-- 06:06 your Word was found and I ate it. 06:08 And it was joy and rejoicing of my heart. 06:11 And so I'm on this journey for a few years. 06:14 Then I kind of started the little backsliding again. 06:16 Then God brings me back 06:18 and He teaches me to press into His presence in prayer. 06:20 Don't you think it's amazing 06:22 that you could-- that you really can get 06:24 that intimate with God 06:25 and then all the sudden you think what happened? 06:28 Where am I right now? Absolutely. 06:30 And I think a lot of us end up going on that journey, 06:32 where it's like where am I right now. 06:35 And I love the fact that you said He goes after us 06:37 and pulls us back. He pulled you back. 06:39 He pulled me back and so He teaches me 06:42 to present to His presence in prayer 06:45 and that's where He taught me how to surrender 06:49 and that's when I knew He was calling me 06:50 to full-time ministry. 06:52 Well, talk about-- what does surrender mean? 06:54 For somebody that doesn't know, how do you surrender? 06:57 You know this is what I always tell people 06:59 when I'm out talking is that if a man-- 07:02 you ask a man what surrender means. 07:04 And it's like, oh, boy, you know-- 07:06 You give up. It's give up and the war's over. 07:08 And a woman usually it's kind of like, 07:10 ooh, somebody is gonna control me. 07:12 But what God showed me and it is so powerful. 07:15 As He was teaching me this He told me "Child, 07:18 when I call you to surrender, 07:20 I'm not asking you just to do things in your own power. 07:25 It's to rely on Me." 07:26 And He showed me this little bitty sugar ant. 07:28 Next to the sugar ant was this huge elephant. 07:31 And He said "Your limited strength, 07:34 you know, your greatest ability 07:37 could be compared to this little ant, 07:38 whereas My ability is like the elephant's 07:42 and I'm asking you to draw on my power." 07:44 'Cause see God's-- 07:46 Offering you all of this. All of this. 07:48 And what we--He'd started teaching me about grace 07:52 and the fact that God's plan is for us 07:57 to be totally dependent upon Him. 07:59 Here I was trying to earn my salvation. 08:01 For joy and for strength and for health and for a life. 08:05 So I think that when somebody says 08:07 to totally rely on God sometimes 08:09 they even just say and do what? Do everything. 08:13 But here's--I was praying and asking the Lord, 08:16 how do I walk in surrender? How do I walk in Jesus' steps? 08:20 And He said you've got to follow the path of His passion. 08:24 Well, think about Christ's passion. 08:25 This was, you know, His crucifixion experience. 08:31 He started in the Garden of Gethsemane. 08:33 Luke 22:42, "Lord, not My will but Yours be done." 08:37 So that's what I pray each morning. 08:39 It's Lord not My will, but Yours be done today. 08:42 Psalm 143:10, "Teach me Your will, Lord, 08:45 lead me by Your good Spirit." 08:47 You know, I want to delight to do Your will, Father. 08:52 But the Bible tells us that it's God who works in us to will 08:55 and do His good pleasure. 08:57 See and we're trying-- we're out here trying 08:59 to lead the Christian life by our own power. 09:02 You got to be kidding. 09:04 You know, we're so easily discouraged, 09:07 dissuaded from doing the right thing. 09:09 So after that Christ went from the garden, 09:12 the next great place was the crucifixion. 09:14 In Luke 9:23, He says, 09:17 "Pick up your cross daily and follow Me." 09:22 And so, you know, in Jesus' day they knew exactly what it meant 09:25 when He said pick up the cross. 09:27 You know, we use it like, 09:28 oh, we've all got our cross to bear. 09:30 Bless their hearts. 09:32 But not--that's a bad illustration of that Scripture 09:36 because in Luke 9:23 when Jesus said 09:39 "if anyone would follow Me pick up his cross daily," 09:42 they knew that to pick up your cross meant 09:44 you're gonna be crucified. 09:45 So, you know, Paul writes so much about it in Galatians, 09:49 you know, that I've been crucified to the world 09:51 and the world to me and my boast 09:53 is in the cross of Christ. 09:54 And he says that it's Jesus who's living in him now. 09:58 And Paul said I die daily. 09:59 So it's that matter of choosing daily 10:02 whom you're gonna serve. 10:03 It's not the choice between Satan and Jesus. 10:07 It's a choice between self and Jesus. 10:11 So every day we've got to get up and say, 10:12 "Lord, I'm ready to die to self." 10:14 But Romans 8:13 says 10:17 "that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit 10:20 that we put to death the misdeeds of our flesh." 10:23 It takes the two working in tandem. 10:26 I can't put the misdeeds of my flesh to death 10:29 without the Holy Spirit. Right. 10:31 And the Holy Spirit can't do it for me 10:33 if I'm not gonna cooperate. 10:35 So it's this idea of surrendering control 10:38 and saying, "Okay, Lord, not my will." 10:40 But you know what, I still wanna go back 10:41 to this little girl. 10:43 Well, wait, I got-- before you do that, 10:44 'cause the most important step in surrender 10:47 is Jesus didn't stay on the cross. 10:49 He was buried and He came up on resurrection morning. 10:52 And our most important point in surrender 10:55 is every day before we leave the house 10:57 and sometimes it takes more than once a day, 11:00 but like Bryan every day you've got to say 11:02 "Lord, fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit. 11:05 Jesus said in Luke 11:9 "Ask and keep on asking, 11:09 seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking." 11:12 And then He says in verse 13 11:14 "How much more will the heavenly Father 11:17 give the Holy Spirit to those who ask 11:19 and seek and keep on asking." 11:22 So it's this whole idea 11:24 that if we're trying to do it in our own power. 11:27 Paul said to in Galatians, 11:30 he said "You foolish, Galatians." 11:32 Galatians 3:3, he said "Having begun in the spirit 11:35 are you now trying to perfect your walk in the flesh?" 11:37 Yes, I had been trying. And I am tired again. 11:39 But He taught me to surrender 11:41 and then He started teaching me about His grace. Amen. 11:44 And the Lord just changed my life so much. Amen. 11:47 So your healing happened, it changed your life 11:49 and you start using the Word of God 11:51 in such a powerful way. Yeah. Powerful way. 11:54 And so before we-- I'm gonna open it up for questions, 11:57 'cause I know everybody has questions. 11:59 But you know what I think is the most 12:00 amazing thing about God, 'cause I see that you-- 12:04 when you came to God 12:05 you lived under this pressure for years and years and years. 12:09 And there is a part of the promise 12:12 it's from Christ that says "Yoke up with me." 12:14 Literally yoke up with me. 12:16 I want to take that pressure off of you.I 12:17 I have a whole chapter in my new book on that. 12:19 Good. Good. 'Cause it's huge. It is. 12:21 And to me that even though 12:22 God took you into the carrying the cross 12:25 and dying to self and all of that kind of stuff 12:27 is I think sometimes we think dying to self 12:29 as if somehow I'm gonna put myself over here 12:33 and He says you don't even know yourself. 12:35 You've been damaged and living under pressure, 12:37 living in dysfunction. I'm gonna yoke up with you. 12:40 You are gonna walk in this direction, 12:42 but you when you fully see me 12:44 you'll fully see yourself right behind me. 12:46 And can I say something? Yeah. I just want to say one thing. 12:49 What God taught me about grace, 12:51 'cause I had gone from being so legalistic 12:54 and had this devil's snare around my foot on that, 12:58 that then I went to the point of being a little too liberal 13:02 and thinking that grace was just loosey-goosey- do- what-you-want 13:05 type of thing. 13:06 But when God called me to full-time ministry, 13:08 He told me to forget what I think I know 13:10 and come sit at His feet and He would teach me. 13:13 I could just hear Him so sweetly say that, you know. Yeah. 13:17 The amazing thing was that a lot-- 13:19 and I had been in part-time ministry 13:21 for 14 years at that time. And I thought I knew God. 13:23 I thought I knew the Bible. 13:25 And He really took me through deep studies. 13:27 And I guess the one thing that I want to make sure 13:30 I say is that as He took me through these deep studies, 13:34 He began opening my eyes to His love. 13:37 And divine love has no equal. I can't explain it. 13:40 But I started seeing 13:43 that God teaches that He in His grace, 13:48 He is going to sanctify us by His grace. 13:52 And the first day that I really understood that 13:54 and it was a day of worship for me 13:56 and I was worshipping the Lord and it was just like, 14:01 you're the one that's gonna do this. 14:03 Amen, all of the pressure is off. 14:04 All the pressure is off me for the first time. 14:07 In your life-- I know 14:08 I had to perform for God. Amen. 14:10 And He taught me. I just want to-- 14:14 I would love to kiss Him on the face 14:15 for that moment for you. Amen. 14:16 You have carried everything your life 14:19 and God says "Hon, I'm gonna carry you." 14:21 You know once He told me "Shelley, all these years 14:23 you've cried out for a father and someone's lap 14:26 that you could come to." 14:28 And He said "I've always been here for you. 14:30 Come to me now," you know. Amen. 14:31 So what He taught me 14:33 though was that this love that is so unfathomable, 14:38 if we could only understand the length 14:41 and the width and the height and the depth of God's love, 14:43 everybody's life would be changed. Exactly. 14:45 There wouldn't be anyone 14:47 who didn't come to Christ if they understood this love. 14:51 And it's from God's heart of love, 14:54 it just wells up and it overflows 14:56 and it comes to us through His grace pipeline. 14:59 Grace is behind everything. 15:02 And the Lord showed me that faith is the faucet. 15:06 This is how we tap into the grace pipeline. 15:09 Prayer is how we open the faith faucet. 15:13 Trust is the foundation for prayer. 15:17 Relationship is the foundation for trust. 15:20 So the more we begin to see and understand God's love, 15:24 the more we can respond to Him. 15:25 Because John said we love Him because He first loved us. 15:29 And the more we respond in that love, 15:31 this relationship begins 15:34 and then we begin to really trust 15:36 in the Lord with all of our heart, 15:37 not lean on our own understanding, 15:39 then the prayer of faith grows. 15:42 And as that prayer of faith grows 15:43 we begin to tap in to His grace pipeline. 15:46 But I just have to tell you. 15:48 Do you know what His three greatest gifts of grace are? 15:51 For God so loved the world 15:53 that He gave His only begotten son, 15:56 that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish, 15:58 but have eternal life. Whoever. 16:00 Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of God's grace. 16:04 The Holy Spirit is the second greatest gift of God's grace. 16:09 You know this is the gift. 16:11 He comes and indwells us 16:14 and He has a major role in our sanctification process 16:18 which just merely means setting us apart from sin. 16:21 But then the Word of God 16:25 is His third greatest gift of grace. 16:28 And the Bible tells us in II Peter 1:3, 4 16:32 it says that God has given us everything 16:35 that we need for a good life and godliness. 16:37 And that it is because of His goodness 16:41 that He has given us exceedingly great 16:43 and precious promises so that through these promises 16:47 we partake of His divine nature. 16:49 And we escape the corruption 16:51 that's in the world through lust. 16:53 And to me the first time I read that is that I understood 16:56 why is it that I need to know what this says. 17:00 But if I'm gonna escape that lust, that addiction, 17:03 that craziness, that dysfunction, 17:06 if I'm gonna escape that, 17:07 I really do need to know how I'm gonna do that. 17:10 And like you said I'm gonna do that through the Word, 17:12 through the Holy Spirit. 17:13 I can't do it in my own strength. 17:15 And God wants to pour that into my life. 17:17 You know and what God taught me is if you hunger and thirst, 17:20 I mean if you don't hunger and thirst 17:22 for righteousness, pray. 17:23 Ask him, "Lord give me a hunger and thirst for righteousness." 17:26 So what is righteousness for an addict? 17:28 I mean, you know, we use that term. 17:30 Some people have never heard that term. 17:31 What does that mean? Am I gonna be a priest? 17:34 What are you talking about? 17:35 Okay, righteousness is just 17:38 being in right standing with God. 17:40 It's doing things God's way. 17:42 So the only kind of-- people will say, 17:45 "Do you believe in righteousness by faith?" 17:46 And I'll say "Are you kidding? 17:48 That's the only kind of righteousness there is." 17:50 So what God did through Christ, 17:54 it is Christ's righteousness credited to our account. 17:57 His perfect record of obedience, 17:59 His perfect example, His dying on the cross for us, 18:04 this is what secures for us justification 18:09 which is just a pardon from all of our sins. 18:12 And so that's Christ's righteousness 18:15 and they call that the imputed righteousness. 18:18 I love that stuff. 18:20 We are going to open it up for questions, 18:21 'cause I know if we don't get the questions 18:23 we are going to run out of time. 18:25 And so I'm want to-- I love that. But I love that. 18:29 That's good. 18:30 And, you know, for on a dime for you to come and join us, 18:33 I think you're amazing to be able to that. 18:35 Oh, that is so good. And this has been good. 18:37 I know that Buddy, you had a question. Go ahead. 18:39 Yes, my name is Buddy 18:41 and I had a question for you, Shelley. 18:42 First of all, I spend a lot of time in prison 18:45 and while I was there after a few years, 18:47 I did give my heart to the Lord, 18:49 and I realized I didn't know exactly 18:51 what I was to do, you know. 18:53 It's all about a relationship 18:54 and I kept trying to be in legalism, you know. 18:57 I was--do this, do that, do this. 18:59 And I thought I had to do all these things. 19:01 But then I too was broke to 19:03 where I realized it's a relationship. 19:05 God can do it all. I just follow Him. 19:07 And I want to do the right thing and be right with Him. 19:10 And I heard you say something about 19:11 imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness. 19:14 Forget the word imputed for right now. 19:16 Just let me say this. 19:17 First, I want to tell you 19:19 grace is the unearned, undeserved gifts of God 19:24 bestowed by God of infinite love. 19:27 But these gifts if it's Jesus Christ, 19:29 the Holy Spirit and the Word, these gifts have divine power 19:34 and supernatural assistance for salvation. 19:37 And righteousness is a term we all need to know 19:40 because Christ is our righteousness. 19:42 The Bible teaches a lot about this. 19:44 Two types of righteousness, 19:45 the first one just means that Christ led a perfect life. 19:50 He obeyed perfectly. 19:52 He died the death we deserve because the Bible teaches 19:57 that the wages of sin is death. 19:59 And Christ came and died for us 20:02 that His perfect record could be credited to our account. 20:06 We were overdrawn. 20:08 There's no way we could ever pay the debt that we owed. 20:12 So Christ's righteousness, 20:15 His right standing with God was deposited to our account. 20:19 But on the other hand-- I like that. Good. 20:22 On the other hand, the second type of righteousness 20:28 is Christ didn't just come to deliver us 20:30 from the penalty of sin. 20:32 He came to deliver us from the power of sin. 20:35 So what He does is He sends the Holy Spirit into us 20:39 and He lives in our hearts by faith. 20:43 And when He lives, 20:44 you know, Ephesians 3:16-20 talks about 20:47 "If only you could know the length 20:50 and the width and the height and the depth of God's love 20:53 and how Christ will live in your heart by faith," 20:56 and then it says "When you know that God can do exceedingly 21:00 abundantly beyond you could ever ask or imagine." 21:04 And so this whole idea like you said of just saying, 21:08 hey, it's not about me being legalistic. 21:11 Galatians 5:4 Paul says that if we try to earn our salvation 21:16 or if we try to earn our pardon, 21:19 we have become estranged from Christ. 21:22 We're separated from Christ and we've fallen from grace. 21:26 So you can't earn salvation. It's all by grace. 21:28 I love, Buddy, what you were saying is that, 21:31 you know, I'm trying to figure this in--out in jail. 21:34 And when you quoted that Scripture it's beyond 21:38 what I can even hope or imagine 21:39 that God is gonna come in and change our life. 21:41 And when you really have gone to that extreme, 21:44 you've hit rock bottom like that 21:46 and God has to come in and stand up this man of God, 21:49 'cause that's what you are now, 21:51 man of Go stepping out in ministry 21:53 that is really beyond 21:55 what we could hope or dream of or imagine. 21:57 And when you talked earlier about 21:58 He even calls saints as if they are 22:02 and they're not even that yet. 22:03 And so we're looking at all that righteousness. 22:05 All that being of God 22:07 and we are the receivers of that grace. Amen. 22:09 That's amazing. 22:11 I know that, Bryan, 22:12 you were waiting to ask a question. 22:14 Yes, my name is Bryan. 22:16 I've done a great deal of my adult life 22:18 and prison and jail, too. 22:20 And I came to a point that-- 22:22 in my last day that I came to a point 22:25 where I tried to do it by my own, you know. 22:27 I went back and forth a little bit 22:29 and then I came to a point where-- 22:30 When you say tried to do it by your own, 22:32 you mean living a Christian life? 22:33 Trying to solve my problem by myself without Christ 22:37 and I came to a point where I knew 22:39 that I just couldn't do it by myself. 22:41 I just want to ask you, 22:42 what point in your life did you come to that? 22:44 I mean what made you-- I remember you said earlier 22:46 that you went back 22:48 and forth a couple of times with the-- 22:49 See I guess my addiction was perfection 22:51 because I thought that 22:52 that's what would get me acceptance so. 22:56 You finally get to that point 22:57 where you realize I can't be perfect. 22:58 And, you know, you just get weary. 23:00 You just get weary. 23:02 And I realized that I had this relationship with the Lord 23:07 where sometimes I'd feel that I was so close, 23:11 I could feel His heartbeat 23:12 and then other times it would be like 23:14 I'm still trying to do it on my own. 23:16 So when it became real for me was 23:19 I think as I started understanding God's love. 23:22 I realized how much I was hurting Him 23:26 when I wouldn't receive His promises. 23:29 And as I got into the Word, 23:31 James 1:21, I love that Scripture, 23:32 'cause James says that "The word of God 23:36 when it's implanted in our hearts 23:38 has the power to save our soul." 23:40 And so here I realize that God's giving me everything. 23:44 All I've got to do is receive. 23:46 Instead of trying to do it on my own, 23:48 all I've got to do is open up and even in surrender, 23:51 Oh, Lord take my heart, 'cause I can't give it. 23:54 You know I can't do anything on my own. 23:56 But just like an addict, 23:58 somebody that has been a perfectionist her whole life, 24:01 that is so--it takes grace even to be able to do that. 24:06 Oh, ask J.D., 'cause I'm still a perfectionist 24:08 about house cleaning, you know-- 24:10 I'm calling him as soon as we're done. 24:12 You know the one thing I try to do is I try never to put 24:15 my perfectionism on somebody else. 24:16 But like it's to me, 24:18 if there's anything out of order in my house, 24:20 it's almost this compulsive thing that, 24:22 you know, I clean my house up really good before we go to bed. 24:24 We get up in the morning and I make a mess 24:26 and I clean it up really good and wash the toilet 24:29 and everything before we go to work 24:30 so we can come home to a clean house. 24:32 And I tell him sometimes, 'cause I try not to make him-- 24:37 I try not to control him but he comes in 24:40 and he puts his little messes here and there. 24:42 And I just go behind him 24:43 and put them all up in there proper place 24:45 so that everything is neat. I'm inviting you to my house. 24:48 And, you know-- My house so needs to be clean. 24:51 But I'm thinking like what would happen if I'd had children. 24:54 Would I really let them be children in my home? 24:57 I hope I would have. 24:58 We couldn't have children, which is a whole another program 25:01 I would love to do with you some day. 25:03 But this compulsiveness that a perfectionist has, 25:07 I guess you could say that's an addiction. 25:10 You know an addiction to perfection. 25:12 And what's really, for anybody that's watching 25:13 that is a perfectionist that has lived 25:15 under that pressure has tried to put that pressure on someone. 25:20 God is really calling us to recovery, 25:22 calling us to heal. Amen. 25:24 And so to me I love the way He worked with you, 25:27 especially with that teaching on grace. 25:29 And said, you know, 25:30 "Baby, just relax in my arms, relax in my love." 25:36 And that is powerful. 25:38 And it doesn't mean-- I mean grace doesn't mean 25:40 that we do sit back and do nothing. 25:42 It's that He empowers us to do what He-- 25:44 anything that God calls us to be, He will cause us to be. 25:49 You know that's the bottom line. 25:51 He is such--I mean if we could just understand His love. 25:56 Divine love has no equal. 25:59 And it casts out all fear. Yes. 26:01 That all that insecurity, all of that, 26:04 you know-- am I good enough? 26:05 You know when you think about it, 26:07 if divine love casts out all fear, 26:09 what's the opposite of fear? Faith. 26:12 So divine love, the more you know about God, 26:15 Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing." 26:18 The more we begin to understand God's love, 26:20 receive God's love and that divine love 26:24 will cast out the fear. Amen. 26:28 Faith will cast out fear. Amen. 26:30 And divine love and faith are just so-- 26:33 they are so entwined that you cannot separate them. 26:35 There are so many times, and I know that's true for you, 26:38 where you come to the Word, 26:40 you've got all of this stuff kind of going in your head 26:44 and things are chaotic 26:45 and you come to the Word and you say, 26:47 "I don't even know what I'm gonna study today." 26:49 And God's settles you with His Word. 26:51 And so I think that what most people don't realize, 26:54 especially if they haven't really understood 26:56 God at that level is this is the living Word of God. 27:00 That the Holy Spirit and God literally will speak to us 27:03 through the passages of this book. 27:06 Can I tell you--share something real quick? Yeah. 27:07 Open up to--I'm just gonna chose a book and we'll do Ephesians, 27:10 'cause I just want to show you something, 27:11 because it's not enough just to read the Word of God. 27:14 I think the way we get God's Word into our hearts 27:17 is by really accepting what He's saying 27:22 as a promise to us whether it's a command or a promise. 27:25 Personally. Personally. 27:26 So and, you know, Paul says 27:28 that if we're gonna speak in the spirit of faith 27:31 and there's power of life and death in the tongue. 27:35 So he says "As it is written we also believe 27:38 and therefore we speak in that same spirit of faith." 27:42 We've got to believe what God says in His Word. 27:45 I just want to show you, we'll start with verse 3. 27:48 Every time I hit a promise of God, say "promise." 27:50 Where are we at chapter one? 27:52 We're Ephesians 1, chapter 3. Okay. 27:55 Listen to this "Blessed be the God and Father 27:57 of our Lord Jesus Christ 27:59 who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing 28:01 in the heavenly places in Christ." 28:03 See a promise there? 28:05 Amen. All right. 28:06 When you're reading this, don't just read and keep going. 28:09 Stop and say, "Lord, thank you that, 28:13 you know, I don't see it, but you've already blessed me 28:16 with every spiritual blessing" 28:19 and then you pray it back and tell Him thank you. 28:22 But then you can just say to yourself 28:24 "I am blessed with every 28:26 spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus." 28:28 Sometimes I even stick my name in there. 28:30 Yeah, but, you know, now we'll see, 28:32 now I teach just the opposite. 28:33 And I'll tell you why because we don't go around saying, 28:36 Oh, Shelley looks good in this skirt today. 28:39 When we're talking to our-self we think, 28:41 hey, I look okay, you know. 28:43 So I teach people just to say it's the power of the I am 28:47 that you're saying I am this. 28:50 It says verse 7 "In Him we have redemption through His blood 28:53 the forgiveness of sins 28:54 according to the riches of His grace." Amen. 28:57 Don't just read and keep reading. 28:58 Stop and say "Father"--oh, it's all of them are promises. 29:01 But stop and say "Father, thank you, 29:03 that in Christ I have redemption. 29:06 You've bought me back from the devil. 29:09 I'm redeemed by the blood of Jesus. 29:11 You loved me and I am worth nothing less than 29:15 the price You paid for me." 29:17 And that's true of every person out there. 29:19 You're worth nothing less than the price that Jesus paid for-- 29:23 God paid for you with the precious blood 29:25 of His Son, Jesus Christ. 29:27 And He's given us the forgiveness of sins 29:30 according to His riches and grace. 29:33 And you say, "Father, thank you for this," 29:35 but then speak it and say "I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus. 29:40 I have forgiveness of sins 29:42 according to the riches of His grace." 29:43 It says so. It says so right here. 29:45 It is written and so as you go through the Word of God 29:49 and you're reading, if you're just reading a chapter 29:53 and stopping it's not gonna get into your heart. 29:55 But as you pray it back to the Lord, 29:57 you speak it over your life, 29:58 speaking that spirit of faith that says, 30:01 you know, I may not see that I'm a new creation in Christ, 30:04 but He says I am so. 30:05 Amen. I believe it. 30:06 I'm gonna go ahead and take a break. 30:08 Would you come back and join me for the close? 30:11 Yes, I'd love to. 30:12 We'll be right back and you know what, 30:13 I think this is so important to actually look at the promises 30:17 and know that they are for you and they are huge 30:20 and all of heaven is waiting to pour them into your life. 30:22 We're gonna come back and talk about that. |
Revised 2014-12-17