WHOA That's Good Podcast - Your Mind Is a Battlefield — It's Where Satan Fights You Most! | Sadie Robertson Huff & Joyce Meyer

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

Joyce Meyer joins the podcast today and Sadie couldn't be more excited to welcome the bestselling author and speaker to the show! Sadie recently read one of Joyce's bestselling books, "Battlefield of the Mind," and Joyce reiterates for us all that our minds ARE a battlefield, the place where the Enemy will fight us most! She calls us to renew our minds as we meditate on God's Word and what is true. Plus, Joyce and Sadie have great advice for anyone struggling to determine God's will for their life. And after 56 years of marriage, Joyce has a fundamental truth to share about having a spouse and loving them well. https://www.drinklmnt.com/whoa — Get 8 single serving packets FREE with any LMNT order! https://www.cadenlane.com/whoa20 — Get 20% off your order when you use promo code WHOA20! https://www.trymiracle.com/whoa — Get 40% off + 3 FREE towels with code WHOA at checkout! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up friends? Happy Woe That's Good Wednesday. I hope you're having a great week, but per usual, it really is about to get so much better because today we have a very special guest on the podcast. Since I started this podcast over five and a half years ago, she has actually been my top guest request. I've wanted her to be on this podcast for so long because I've learned so much from her ministry from afar.

So I am so grateful to say that we have the one and only Joyce Meyer on the podcast today. Welcome to the show. Oh, thank you for having me. It really is such a gift. And I know I said this to you before but I have learned so much from you. Over the years I've watched so many videos, read the books and so it's an honor to get to learn from you even more today. Well good, I hope that I can help you. It's gonna be great. Well also just want to shout out

the fact that these two new books that she has out, The Pathway to Success and Finding God's Will for Your life are incredible alongside the other 140 plus books that you've written so much good advice. But this whole podcast is really founded on good advice. So the first question I'm going to ask you is the question everyone gets. But Joyce, what is the best piece of advice you have ever been given? Well, that's challenging because I've been given a lot of good advice over the 45 years I've been in ministry, but a couple of years ago I read something in a book that really helped me at the time because I was needing to make some changes in my life that I just

didn't want to make. I needed to let go of some things that I had done for a long time and really didn't want to let them go. And what I read in this book was that only a fool thinks they can always do what they've always done. And that really impacted me and I share it often. And I thought, you know, you have a lot of young people that listen to your podcast and something like that probably doesn't mean too much to them

right now because I think when you're real young you have a tendency to think that everything's always going to be the same, but it won't be. And for example, if you're not married, when you get married, things will change. If you don't have children and you start to have children, things will change. And then certainly like, excuse me, with you being in ministry, you know, it seems like everything goes along the same for a long time and you're growing, growing, growing, growing, but then for me, you know, of course,

now I'm 80 years old. And so I don't feel 80. I don't think I'm 80, but I am 80. So I had to stop doing some of the things that I was doing. And one of them was I had traveled out of the country on foreign mission trips for years and years, but the jet lag was just getting too hard for me. And I was starting to lose my desire. I could sense the grace was lifting off of me to do it.

And even the favor that we once had in these other countries, doors were closing instead of opening. And so I know how God works with me and I knew that he was telling me that I needed to stop doing that, but I just did not want to do it. And so all of our life really were changing. People around us are changing. I mean, have you ever had a friend that you thought would be your friend forever and now they're just not in your life at all? Now, we've had that happen. So I just think that's a good

thing to remember that if you're a person that hates change, you better change your mind about change because you will have to make changes as time goes on. And if you don't, what happens is you implode, you burn out and you can't maintain everything that you once did. Yeah. Wow. That's already such a, whoa, that's good moment. If you love that idea of you got to change your mind about change, because that's so true. And you know, I have, in a lot of ways, just started in ministry because when I look at your 45 plus years, I'm so inspired for all the ways that you've continued to go on and on. But I've already realized that in my life a few different times and one of them was after I had my first daughter, Honey. So, you know, I had a book contract right around the time that I was

about to have her and I'm like, oh, I can do it. Like I can finish this book and have her and then, you know, do all the editing and all the stuff thinking like a crazy person because I had clearly never had a kid before and didn't know what postpartum, I way underestimated the power of hormones. And so I was like, yeah, I can do this. So I have honey. And then I'm literally trying to finish book edits. I'm about to host my first conference two months later. I'm doing all, like I just don't stop. And okay, that was in May, come November, my head space is crazy. Like I'm struggling with crazy anxiety. I never even thought, I never even considered a thought of burnout before that. I'm like, I'm so young, I got my whole

life ahead of me. I love what I do. I love the Lord. And all of a sudden, I'm 24 years old and I'm struggling. And I was talking to one of my mentors in this November and I'm like, I am feeling things I just never thought I would feel and I'm experiencing things like you said that desire was kind of going away. And when I would read the word, I would get anxious about it, even just reading the word. And I realized, okay,

you know, going back, I needed to shift things because my life was shifting and I was trying to trailblaze through like it had always been, not acknowledging that like, I'm a mom now and things need to shift. And what's so cool though is two years later, I had my second daughter Haven, and I just, and I just actually allowed that change. I stepped into it. I did the things I needed to do to actually have a maternity leave and shift a little bit and take time off last year. It was the sweetest season ever.

It was beautiful and so amazing. I realized, wow, because I think before having Haven, I almost braced for impact, like, oh no, is that gonna happen again? But it didn't, because I did things differently. And so I love that you said that, like you have to do things differently sometimes. You have to like be, you know, listening and attentive

to what God's doing in your life and be willing to say, it's okay to stop right now. That doesn't mean it's over for me. That doesn't mean there's not things ahead for me. It's just maybe gonna look different. Sometimes even if you're willing to change, the people around you that have expectations of you, they don't want you to change.

That's true, yep. So, you know, it's like, I mean, there's a lot dependent on me continuing to teach in this ministry. But I couldn't maintain, you know, at one time I was doing 36 conferences a year, plus taking every speaking engagement I could. Plus, when I started in ministry study, I had three teenagers and a baby. And so to say my plate was full, now I'm very strong and strong-willed and

a hard-to-go getter. And I have a tendency to think that I can do anything, but we just can't. And I finally pressed it to the point where I got sick. And then I got over that, went right back to doing what I was before, got sick again, a few more years, got sick again. That time I got sick enough that I had no choice but to stop for a while. And I had to learn the hard way and I would like to save other people from going through what I went through.

So I just want people to realize that they have to be willing to change and you can't let other people's expectations control your yes or your no. You have to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit and not follow the leadership of what people want you to do. That's great. That's so good. Okay. So you just said that when you started ministry, you had three teenagers and a baby.

Okay, when people have teenagers and a baby, they're not even thinking about starting a ministry. So tell me about how this all started for you. Take us back to when you started to feel called into ministry and what that season looks like. Well, in 1976, I was going to a good denominational church, but I had a lot of problems in my life from being abused. I was saved.

I knew I would go to heaven if I died, but I needed to change. I didn't know how to do that. Matter of fact, I wasn't even convinced that all my problems weren't somebody else's fault. You know, well, if you wouldn't do this and I wouldn't do that. And I was really crying out to God and he touched my life in a really profound way. And I really fell in love with the Word and fell more deeply in love with him than ever. And one day I was just making my bed. I wasn't looking for a ministry.

I was just making my bed, not trying to find God's will for my life. Just making my bed. I was listening to a teaching back then, or cassette tapes, listening to a cassette tape. And I was so amazed that somebody could teach for a whole hour on one scripture and hold my interest. And all of a sudden, I just got this very strong sensing in my heart.

What I heard was, you're going to go all over the world and teach my word and have a very large ministry. Well, you know, it's hard to explain to people, but from that moment until this, I've had a complete passion to do that. And so I started with a home Bible study, and for five years I had that, and about 25 people came every week. And I could teach them like I can now, but I was very spiritually immature. And I had this big dream because God put it in my heart,

but it wasn't for that time. And I think that can be very confusing to a lot of people. It's like, when God puts something in your heart, you always think it's gonna be now, but it rarely ever is. It's like King David was anointed to be king, but it was 20 years before he wore the crown And so during those 20 years He had a lot of problems. He had Saul chasing him around trying to kill him. He was living in caves

He had all kinds of enemies and but all of those things prepared him. Yeah, no different than Joseph He had a dream. But before he got to the dream, he went to prison for 13 years for something he didn't do. He, you know, yeah, you, you really have to go through some things to get experience for what you're just going to tell people. It's hard to tell people. Stay in God's peace when you have problems if you've never learned

how to stay in God's peace yourself when you have problems. ["Spring Day"] Y'all, we are very much so gamers in the Huff household. We love games. We love playing games. We love starting new things. It's just who we are. And it seems harder and harder these days to spend quality time engaging with your family,

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promo code SADYROB. Then I went to work for a church after five years, worked there for five years, learned a lot of things, how to come under authority. And I always say, you're not fit to be in authority if you don't know how to come under authority. And then felt like God wanted me to start my own ministry. I had a lot of confirmation on that. Told me, take your ministry, go north, south, east, and west,

but nobody knew me. And so I thought, well, what am I going to do? So I live in St. Louis. So I went to north St. Louis, east St. Louis, west St. Louis, and south St. Louis. And we had a meeting once a month in each of those places. And from there, then we just started going on radio and spreading out. Wow And it's been a long

journey. That's so great. I love it. I love to hear the start of it. So many people come up to me and say things like, I want to do what you're doing. How do I start? I feel called to ministry and I always tell them, well, then start doing it. You know, for me, before our family had a TV show and everything, I led a Bible study. And I think it looked like three different Bible studies in high school. And I just loved it. I love reading the word. I love sharing the word and never did I picture my life and me doing that now and in the capacity to do.

I never even thought about that. I actually grew up in a really traditional church where, you know, women didn't preach in the church. I had never seen that. I never heard of that. I so I wasn't thinking that. I was just doing it because I loved it. And I'm still doing it because I love it.

And because I love his word, I love to teach his word and I love to tell stories about his word. So it's just so cool. It started with just the love. And so it's so cool to hear the start of your story and just that it started with the Bible study for so many years.

And I heard you say one time when you were telling about the beginning of your story, you were it started with the Bible study for so many years. And I heard you say one time when you were telling about the beginning of your story, you were talking about starting the Bible study and doing all the things. And after you had this dream that you were going to go around all the world and God kind of gave you a vision of television and these different things, you talk about going and starting to prepare yourself like studying the Word and learning because you didn't know the Word like you wanted to know it if you were gonna be teaching all around the world. And I think so many people, they get a vision

or they get this Word from the Lord and it's maybe it's ministry or maybe it is whatever the vision is specifically. And then they say, okay, now I'm just in the waiting. And I love that when you tell the story, you don't go, and then I just waited. You say, and then I started preparing myself. And then I went to the East and the West

and the North to the South of St. Louis, and you did what you could with what you had to prepare yourself for the vision you were given. And I think so many people, they get that vision and they just sit on it and they get frustrated when God doesn't do it. And God's like, I called you to do it, you know? And so, can you speak to that a little bit?

Well, I think a lot of people don't realize that, first of all, you have no business trying to do something if you don't know what you're doing. And so, I knew that I couldn't teach the word because I didn't know the word. And so, I actually, at that time, I worked a full-time job. My husband worked full-time job and I felt like I was supposed to quit my job and spend all the time that I could trying to study the word. I couldn't go off to Bible college. I had kids. I didn't have the money to do that. So I always say I went to the school of the Holy Ghost and he taught me just in my daily life, things that are really important to me now like integrity and excellence and keeping the strife out of my life and things that we need if we're

going to really be successful in life. You know, being successful is about a lot more than just having a platform. You have to be able to live the life that God wants you to live behind that. And I think a lot of people when God calls them, they don't realize that there is gonna be a waiting time. And during that waiting time, you prepare yourself the best you can, but then there's also a lot of things will happen in your life that God arranges to prepare you.

And you might not necessarily like all of them. And so I quit that job. And in order to pay our bills, we had to have a miracle every month. Wow. And, you know, I don't know if people today know as much about how to walk in faith as we learned back then, that was in the middle of what they call the word and faith movement.

And we learned a lot about just stepping out in faith and that's not stepping out in stupidity or presumption, but I mean, to the best of my ability, I really felt like I was hearing from God. So I finally did quit my full-time job, but it's kind of a funny story. I got a part-time job. So I always tell quit my full-time job, but it's kind of a funny story. I got a part-time job. So I always tell people, you know,

when God wants obedience, he doesn't want to sacrifice. You know, he wanted me to obey, but I was afraid because I didn't know how we were going to pay our bills. And I was used to taking care of myself and he wanted me to learn that he would take care of me. Wow. Well, for six years, every single month, we had to have a miracle.

And it wasn't a big one. We only needed about $40 to make our bills. But that just made the bills. If there was anything extra like a car repair or a household repair, then we had to also have the money for that. And every single month, God did something to take care of us. And I can't tell you how much that has helped me even now because to be on television literally all over the world

is not cheap. I always tell people they don't give me a preacher's discount. I pay what everybody else does. And but we never worry about the money because we learned a long time ago that if God wants you to do something, He will always take care of you. And it's just, I think when people get called to do something, some of the things they don't remember is it's probably going to be a lot harder than you think it is. It's going to

take a lot longer than you thought it would, and it may require more sacrifices than you ever think you can make. But God will never ask you to do something without giving you the grace and the ability and the power of the Holy Spirit to do it. So good. That's so good. You know, I knew having you on this podcast, I've always wanted you to be on the podcast for several reasons. One, because I want everyone to learn from you and I want to make sure that people my age are reading these books and listening to your teaching. But also, I knew I was going to learn so much. And already 20 minutes in, I'm like, man, I'm so thankful for this conversation.

Because just to see someone doing what you're doing and so many similar things that I'm doing, I'm like, man, there's so much I have to learn. There's so many things that I'm just learning from your story as you're just sharing these things. I'm like, I need to be taking my own notes. I need to be writing it. Forget the interview. I'm writing down my own notes just because it's just so good.

It's so, so good. I want to ask you about meeting one of my good friends. The first time you met Christine Cain, because Chris Cain is one of my friends and mentors. Everyone on the Will It's Good Podcast loves her. She's been on, she spoke at our conference, and she actually told me to tell you hi today. She was so excited for us to chat, but when you all told the story of you meeting Chris Cain for the first time at conference, it made me laugh so hard. But what I love about it too is that y'all are still friends

and you've mentored her and been like a spiritual mom to her for so many years and how you've poured into the next generation. So can you take us back? Because so many people listening to this podcast look up to Chris Kane. What was Chris Kane like day one when you met her? Well, a fireball, just like she is now. Always, she's always, I'm pumped, I'm pumped. And she was very young. She was

in youth ministry in Australia. And I was on television by the end, and she'd been watching me on TV. And so she wanted to be my driver. And they said Joyce doesn't want to drive her. And but she kept believing God that she was going to be my driver. So every day she went and got her car detailed So I don't know two or three weeks every day and she said I didn't hardly have the money to get my car detailed once let alone every day and Then the day before I got there. I decided I wanted the driver one to see some of Australia And so they called her and said you're not gonna believe it Joyce wants a driver and I just to see some of Australia. And so they called her and said, you're not going to believe that Joyce wants a driver. And we just kind of clicked, you know, right away.

And she was needing support for her youth ministry. She didn't ask for it, but I can tell from what she said that she did. And so we ended up leaving her with a nice size check and started supporting her ministry. And I had a teenage son that she got close to and started to mentor him. And Chris is, she's always, you know, a lot of times people want to have relationship, but they sit back and wait for the other person to do everything.

And Chris has come to every women's conference I've ever had since then. She always contacts me. She'd do anything I ask her to do. She's always respectful, always honors me. And relationships are two-sided. You know, they're not... Probably if she wouldn't have done the things she did, we wouldn't still be as close as we are.

Yeah. But I love her very much and she is my spiritual daughter and she tells me if it wouldn't have been for me, she wouldn't still be married. So we have similar situations. Her and Nick working together. Yeah. And, you know, Dave and I work together and that that in itself is challenging to learn how to literally be with your spouse all the time and try to agree on everything that you're doing. Yeah. And Dave and I have been married 57 years so we've worked it out.

Wow. Gosh, that's so inspirational. And whenever Christian and I got married, I remember we were like, okay, we need to make sure we keep Chris and Nick close and we seek their wisdom and all the advice that they have. And I think that's what's so cool. I just love, I loved hearing the story about Chris meeting you and just her desire to learn from you and be close to you and how intentional she was about showing up. And then at the conference that I was able to speak at, Chris was there and just seeing her leaning in on every session. And she's someone like I look up to so much.

She's someone that I've learned from so much. I remember the first time I spoke at Passion Conference, I did not think I was gonna be able to get up. I was so nervous, I was so scared. And I turned around and looked at Chris and I said, how do I do this? And she said, what part of it? I said, like physically get up there.

And she will give me the best advice. She was like, Sadie, you are anointed to be you. You are not anointed to be anyone but you. You go up there and you be you. And she's just given me such sound advice in so many different seasons and situations in my life. But to see her leaning in to every word you said at that conference, it was really inspiring to me

just to never stop learning and always be mentored, no matter what age you are. Cause from you to her, it's a generation of mentorship are because from you to her it's a generation of mentorship from her to me it's another generation of mentorship and it's just a beautiful thing to see this like legacy of faith in women's ministry teaching and encouraging the next generation just on that note a mentorship do you have anything to say to people my age who are in college about learning from older women and maybe how to steward that or foster that relationship because it can be kind of intimidating.

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Right now, Hungry Root is offering Woe That's Good podcast listeners, 40% off your first delivery and free veggies for life. You heard it right. Just go to HungryRoot.com, slash Woe to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. That's HungryRoot.com slash Woe and don't forget to use our links so that they know that we sent you there. Well, I think it's very important that, you know, we can learn from younger people and younger people can learn from us. It's a big mistake to think that because somebody is older that they're antiquated and

don't know anything. The Bible tells you that you should listen to older people because they have the experience. They've gone through the things, but then sometimes older people can kind of get stuck in their ways and they need to learn from younger people. And I can tell you a funny story. need to learn from younger people. I can tell you a funny story. My son who started to work here when he was in his mid twenties, and he actually had a gift of discernment from God and wisdom way beyond his years. And he ended up becoming in top level management, real young. in top level management, real young. And we were starting to notice that everybody in our crowds were like my age, and that's not good.

And he said, well, you have to make some changes. Well, I didn't want to change things. You know, like, for example, we had flowers all over the platform. He said, you need to get rid of the flowers. You need to get younger bands. It was all these things, man. I just dug in. I was not going to do. Even things like picking the color for the magazine every month. I wanted to pick the colors. One month, they wanted to do orange, and I didn't like orange. He could say things to me that nobody else could say because he and I are really close and he said to me Oh, excuse me. I didn't know you were called a minister to yourself. I thought you were called a minister to other people

And He got us to change a lot of different things that even like the way I dressed I was kind of back in wearing, I like rhinestones and shiny stuff and I was wearing all this stuff. He said, you need to dress cooler, you need to dress younger, you need to get those flowers off the platform, you need to do this, you need to do that. So I finally just let him make a lot of changes. And if you come to one of my conferences now, you'll see men, you'll see women, you'll see young people, you'll see grandmothers, you see people your age.

And that's, we have to be able to learn from one another. It's not just a matter of you learning from us. We need to also be open to learning from you. And I think sometimes older people can get a bad attitude too and think, oh, you're just you're just young. What do you know? Yeah. Well, you know, things too that we've forgotten and we need to listen. Yeah. Oh, that's so true. That's so cool. And just so you know, for the bedazzled sake, we always send people of well, that's good sweatshirts

who are on the podcast and just know we are bedazzling years out because we want to make sure it is official to you But I love that advice that's so good and that's something that I've seen with the people that Been able to be mentored from one of the coolest things is that they At first I thought they were just acting like they were learning from me. I was like that's very sweet and nice of you That's very humble because you know, you know so much more than me And then I realized they really do. Like they're really taking it in. And for example, Louie and Shelley Giglio, they have been in my life for a long time and they have, you know, invited me in to speak at something like Passionate. It's been such a gift. But then they invited my voice in to help

plan the conference because they're like, we want to learn from you. You are their age. Like, and just inviting me into those spaces and places has taught me so much about, again, continuing to learn. And it's been such a beautiful gift. I remember one time I was at lunch with just this amazing woman of God. And she told me, she said, when wisdom and zeal meet each other, powerful things happen.

And it was such a good, such a good word. And it's really hung with me. And it's so true. So you said you've been married to Dave for 57 years. Is that what you said? 57 years. Incredible. In the book that I was just reading, the Pathway to Success, you talk about how when you met Dave, it felt like a divine intervention. And I love how you wrote that, but I want you to tell a little bit of a story about meeting Dave. Well, I had married the first guy that came along and showed any interest in me because

of being abused. I was afraid nobody would ever want me. And that ended in divorce after five years. And I had one child that I had named David, and then I met Dave. And Dave pulled up in front of my mom and dad's house. I was washing my mother's car and I had on short shorts and we had the big tall beehives then and he thought I was cute. And so he rolled his window down and said, Hey, when you've finished washing that car,

would you like to wash mine? And I said, buddy, if you want your car washed, wash it yourself. And he said the thing that went off in him was that's the girl for me And because he was a Christian Spirit-filled Christian praying that God would Give him a wife. He was ready to get married and he actually said to God make it somebody that needs help Wow, I said you better be careful what you pray for because he got more than he bargained for I think This sounds crazy, but we had five dates and got married.

Wow. And I always tease him, and so you had to marry me before you found out what you were really getting. We'd been married about three weeks, and he looked at me, and he said, what is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? That's hilarious.

Well, 57 years, y'all stuck stuck it out and seeing y'all at the conference together, seeing Dave go up there and talk was so incredible because you could tell God just gifted him in so many ways and the message that God put on his heart to share is different than yours but it's all for the same thing but hearing his heart and hear his perspective was so encouraging because me and Christian are really different. My husband, we're so different. Obviously, we love the Lord with all our hearts so in mind strength, that's what united us

and we have so much fun together. He's my best friend in the whole world but we are two very different people and we got married right before COVID hit and so we went from like a year and a half of long distance dating to then getting married, being on cloud nine to then quarantining together. And it was about two weeks when we looked at each other and we said, whoa, we're actually two different people, you know, because when

you're in love, you're like, oh, we love all the same thing. We're going to go, you know, tackle this all together. And we're like, okay, we're still going to do that, but we are very different. But it's been so cool over the years. Someone told us at the beginning of our marriage, they were like, you know, y'all are gonna be like train tracks. And he said, two different sides of the train tracks, both equally important for the train to run

at the speed it runs at and stay on track. But y'all are gonna have two different lanes. Christian, you're gonna do your thing and don't try to do Sadie's thing. Sadie, you're gonna do your, don't try to do Christian's thing. And we've tried to like force things to do at the same, like sound the same, be the same. We're like, no, we're two different people, but we're one.

And so finding our own voice in that has been really, really cool and really powerful. And now Christian's stepping into so many things in ministry that I'm so excited about, because it's so him and so his voice. And he's cheering me on. And so seeing Dave do that at the conference was really, really cool and inspiring.

So what is the best piece of marriage advice that you have for us 57 years into marriage? Don't try to change the person you're married to. Boom. Boom. You'll always get married and you don't really realize how different the person is from you until

you're married. Like for example, we were just talking about this the other day. I didn't even know when Dave and I got married that he played golf. I didn't know. And of course, that's his main sport and he spends a lot of time at it. And of course, we had a very short dating period and got married, but we didn't know each other. And so right away, I started trying to change him. And you just, you can't do that.

Only God can change people. And it took me a long time to find that out. We're all different. We all have a different temperament. And now that doesn't mean that you can't talk to somebody about something that they're doing that's bothering you, and if you have a good relationship, they should listen. People can make some changes in themselves if they want to, but I couldn't change myself. I needed inner healing, and God had to heal my soul. But that's probably been one of the biggest things, is just learning to let him be who he is.

And he lets me be who I am. So that's always what I tell people is don't try to change each other. You know, Sadie, you had wanted to talk a little bit about this thing about finding God's will for your life. And I feel like it is important for young people to know, I don't think you have to try to find God's will for your life. I feel like it is important for young people to know. I don't think you have to try to find God's will for your life. I think if you want God's will for your life, he'll guide you into it. I always say step out and find out. Sometimes finding out what God's will is for your life is like a woman going out to buy a new outfit. You try on different things until you find something

that fits and is comfortable. And so I love God so much and I wanted to be in ministry. And I just, anything that came in front of me, I tried it. I tried to work in the nursery and that worked about two weeks and me and the kids both knew that I wasn't called to that. And I tried street ministry because the church I was at was big on street ministry and I hated that.

And then finally when I got around to teaching the Bible study, that was what fit. That was what worked for me. And I think a lot of people are so afraid of making a mistake or so afraid of being wrong that they just sit back and wait for some big word from God about what they're supposed to do. But most of the time the way you learn how to hear from God is by making some mistakes. And

it's okay, you're not a failure because you fail at something. So I would really like to see young people just kind of chill about finding God's will for their life and just tell God I want your will. I want to do what you want me to do and if you lead me and guide me and show me what it is, I'll do it. Friends, I'm not gonna lie to you. We are not the most routine family. Now, Haven, she's just naturally routine, but Honey, at bedtime, it is a struggle. But we've all got some sort of comfort routine, especially at bedtime that helps us go to sleep.

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Go to TryMiracle.com slash WOAH and use the code WOAH to claim your free 3-piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again, that's trymiracle.com slash WO to treat yourself today. I definitely see that a lot. Even just with friends going through different things, you know, in our 20s, so many things change, so much life is happening. You feel like you're making these decisions

that are gonna be for the rest of your life, but I love like what you're saying is, you're not gonna mess it up if you try something and it doesn't work. Like if you are desiring God pursuing the Lord, He will correct your path. He will direct your path. I was just telling a friend this the other day,

it reminds me of what you're saying. Cause she was, she just got married and they're in this season of trying to figure out what's next for them. And they're like, we can move here, we can move here, we can move there. And she was so stressed out. What is it supposed to be? She doesn't wanna miss what's next for them. And they're like, we can move here, we can move here, we can move there. And she was so stressed out. What is it supposed to be?

She doesn't want to miss what God has for her. And I told her that I feel like, because I used to be like that, where I would freak out about it, overthink it, get anxiety. And finally, I just was like, I got to stop overthinking what God's thinking. Like, I got to stop thinking over thinking what He's thinking, or thinking He's going to be disappointed or mad at me. He's for me. He's with me thinking he's going to be disappointed or mad at me. Like he's for me.

He's with me. He is going to guide my steps. But I was telling her, I remember whenever I was wedding dress shopping and you know, you're just so excited to get married and you see all these beautiful dresses and you get a little overwhelmed by what's going to be your dress. And I remember I was trying on all these dresses and I was just like, I don't know which one. They're all pretty. I don't know.

And I'm just overthinking it. And my grandma looks at me, she says, Sadie, all of them are gonna be pretty. You're gonna love all of them. They're beautiful, they're wedding dresses. And then she said, ultimately, you just have to decide what you want to look like on your wedding day. It doesn't have to be the most beautiful dress

you've ever seen, but what do you wanna look like on your wedding day? And I remember I put on this one dress and it was honestly a lot more simple than all the other ones that I had tried on. But that was the dress. I felt like this is my wedding dress. And it just simplified the process for me.

And it was what I felt comfortable in, what I love, what I desired to look like. And I told my friend this the other day, said, friend, all the options you just told me are great options. You're not going to choose the wrong one. It's, they're all beautiful. You're not gonna choose the wrong one. They're all beautiful.

They're all gonna be beautiful. God can do different things in all those places. Pray into it. If you feel Him leaning you one way, more than another, step into it. But even if you get there and you decide that wasn't it, go to the next place. Like, you're not gonna mess it up.

Think like, God, what am I gonna feel most comfortable in? What do I see my life looking like the most? And it was just a simplified picture of stepping into what God has for you. Like, it's all beautiful. Of course, you know, he might lead you this way or he might lead you that way, and you want to follow those things, but you don't have to overthink it like we do. He doesn't have to cause such anxiety. Ultimately, it's like what my grandma said, hey, what do you feel best in? What do you want to look like that day? Of all the prayer requests that we get here at the ministry,

that's one of the biggest requests that we get is what is God's will for my life. And I think it's important for people to know that that can change in different seasons. Yes. You know, it was God's will for me to teach that Bible study for five years. Yeah. But then he said, I want you to stop doing this and I'm going to do a new thing. Well, I thought the new thing was going to, okay, here we are. I'm going to go to the world.

That's the vision. I'm going to go to the world. Well, that didn't happen. I worked for somebody else for five years, had to learn how to be obedient to authority and learned a lot there. And then when he said, go north, south, east, and west, I thought, here we go. Now I'm ready for school. And those were difficult years too because, you know, I was out on the road by myself and doing all these little meetings, 15 people, 20 people, 75 people, 100 people. And I just think it's important for people to realize that what you're doing now may

be God's will for your life, but He may change that and you may do something else. Three years from now, that's not even like what you thought. People need to learn to turn their head off and listen to their heart. Follow your heart. What is in your heart? It's great. That's so good. Man, I need that because my head can be crazy sometimes.

So that's so good. Like I said, each year on our birthday, Krishna and I ask each other a question. What's something you're taking with you this year and what's something you're leaving behind? And actually, the overthinking God was what I left behind last year in my birthday. I said, this year I got to stop overthinking it. Like my head can just

overthink it. And I know like in my heart what he's leading and what he's saying. Just not overthinking that I'm gonna make the wrong decision. And so, but I see like that fear crippling so many people. And so like everything you just said, it was one for me, but I know it's for so many people. The last thing I want to talk to you about is one of my favorite books ever is Winning the Battlefield of the Mind. That was the most practically, spiritually helpful book I have ever read on changing the way that you think about things.

Because like I mentioned, my headspace can be crazy, and that was just so practical. I actually listened to it on audio and then I bought the physical copy too so that I could just like have it to read through because there were so many scriptures that I wanted to keep in mind. I told my husband about it. He listened on audio.

It was just so incredibly helpful. And I told him, I said, you have to listen to this book because we're gonna be on two separate pages if we don't both read this at the same time because it's that life changing. One thing that I love about it though is that you talk so much about changing the way that you think and positive thinking

and biblical thinking and all that stuff, but you talk about how naturally used to be more of a negative thinker. And I think that that's really good to know because I think so many people think, oh, positive people, that's just the way they are, they're naturally like that, but that is not your case. good to know because I think so many people think, oh, positive people, that's just the way they are. They're naturally like that.

But that is not your case. And so can you speak to winning the battlefield of the mind and how you actually did that in your own life? Well, it takes time. You have your mind has to be renewed and that has to happen by studying God's Word. And then your mind is the battlefield. It's the place where Satan fights you the most and he will try to put thoughts in your head

that don't agree with the Word of God. Like for example, for many years, I thought I'll always have a second rate life because I was abused. My life will never be as good as it could have been if I wouldn't have been abused. But that doesn't agree with God's word at all. He can use the bad things that happen to you and actually work them out for your good and

the good of other people. So Satan is a deceiver and as long as you don't know the word, you don't know when he's lying to you and you just believe whatever he puts in your head. Then most people would think, well, I can't do anything about what I think. I mean, it's just what I think. But then in the Bible, it tells us we can cast down wrong imaginations and choose to think on something good. It takes time. There's no doubt about that renewing a piece of And it takes time.

There's no doubt about that renewing a piece of furniture would take time. And to have your mind renewed takes time because we have strongholds in our mind. They're things that we've thought hundreds and maybe thousands and thousands of times throughout our life and they've just become like part of us. And to learn that that's not true and to learn how to think, no, I don't have to have a second right life. God's got a plan for me

and his plan hasn't changed just because Satan interrupted it and he actually says he'll take all things, even bad things and work them out for my good and that this mess I had can actually become a message that can help other people. And I was so negative because I'd had such a negative life. And I got to the point where I was actually afraid to believe anything good was going to happen because I didn't want to be disappointed. And so I purposely started learning how to think positively and especially how to speak the word of God out loud. So people might think, well, how can I change my mind? Well,

if you ever thought I'm no good and you know the word, you can open your mouth and say, no, I am the righteousness of God in Christ because 2 Corinthians 521 says that I am. And so the minute that you say something that thought has to stop, and you're creating a new thought. And if you're willing to work with the Holy Spirit at that over a period of time, I mean, my mind is still being renewed all the time.

And just a couple of weeks ago, I had a kind of an off morning, and my mind started to go in a little bit of a negative direction. And God just spoke to me real clearly, and He said, Joyce, your life is what you make it. I knew exactly what He was talking about. I could turn that whole day around if I would just change my thinking. So I started right away just thanking God for every blessing that I had and all those bad thoughts went away and I had a great day.

So that has been our number one best-selling book and it's like, I wrote it 27 years ago. It's still our best-selling book. I think we've sold about 7 million copies and I've given away about 7 million. So, wow. That's amazing. Well, if you haven't read that book for those listening, you need to go right now and get that book

because like I said, it was the most practical spiritually life-changing book I've ever read and I've referred back to it at different times to remind myself of the truth in it because there's so much scripture in that book. So if you don't know scripture and you're trying to renew your mind, like she said, it starts with knowing the word. So I was like, I want this book so that I can underline scripture. So just in case I forget or I don't, it's not coming to the top of my mind,

I can open it, see these scriptures and speak them out because that really is so pivotal. Which leads me to actually one last question because I do feel like we have this thing going on in this generation that is really interesting where truth is all relative, right? It's like, oh, your truth, my truth, all these different things, which is so toxic and so dangerous. And obviously the word of God,

I mean, Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No one gets to the Father except through me. So there is truth and truth is powerful because it's true. I love how you talk about how if we are being led by feelings, that shows such a sign of like spiritual immaturity. And I think that so many of us are led by our feelings because we don't have a basis of truth in our life. Like the word of God.

I just want you to speak a little bit to feelings because you said something in the book that I like underlined, starred, you know, put down. And you said, sometimes like God even will withhold feelings so that you have to walk in faith. And you're talking about how after you get done with the message, you might have a feeling like, oh, it wasn't good or I didn't do the best job,

but you had to learn to like get rid of what you feel like and know what is true and have faith in what is true. And that was really big for me because I do that too. I get done with a message and you beat yourself up. I could have said this, I should have said this, was that whatever. But what has helped me is I'm grounded at truth, but so many people are not grounded in that truth

and they're trying to let their feelings be their truth and that's a dangerous road. So can you speak a little bit about feelings and truth? No, I could speak a lot about feelings. Obviously, mine were all messed up from being sexually abused from my father for so many years and my mother knew what he was doing and she was too afraid to do anything about it.

So she just kind of pretended like it wasn't happening. And so I grew up pretty rough. And I had all kinds of feelings that were not good feelings. Some feelings are good, but I always say feelings are fickle. You know, you may feel like signing up to do something on Friday night and on Sunday, you don't want to do it anymore. And so we have to learn to not let our feelings control us.

You can have feelings, but you can't let them have you. You have to, you know, not go in debt buying something just because you get excited about it and, oh, I got to have that. I want it. And now you're making payments on it for seven years and you don't even know where it's at anymore. So we have to learn how to go beyond feelings to once again being led and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Someone asked me, oh, it's probably been five years ago. Now, how do you feel, Joyce, about all the traveling that you have to do in order to do your ministry? And I thought for a minute and I said, you know what, I haven't asked myself in a long time. And I think that we ask ourselves too much, how do I feel about this? And you can't go by how you feel. You know, if I went by how I felt, I would have quit a long time ago, because sometimes this is harder than I think I can stand. And, you know, I have to spend a lot of time by myself. I'm on the road. I'm here. I'm there. I don't have a normal life and never have had. And I'm very happy to live the way I live, because that's what God wants me to do. But I sure can't go by how I feel.

I feel like that right now I'm being faithful to what God called me to do. Somebody said a couple of years ago, oh, are you excited about the Women's Conference? And I looked at him and I said, no. Everybody looked at me like I was crazy. And I said, I'm not excited, but I'm committed. That's good. Let's say to be committed to something is much better than to be excited. And that's why I've been married 57 years. Wow.

I'm committed to it. Even, you know, I don't necessarily get goosebumps every time Dave comes into the room now, but I'm committed. Yeah. To stay and married because I know that that's God's will. Yeah, come on. That was so good. I'm like, if people listen to this whole podcast, they better rewind that 20 seconds and send it to a friend because that was so such good advice that we all needed to hear. I just want to quote you before we leave. You said

in your book, my greatest gift is refusing to quit. And I just want to quote you before we leave. You said in your book, my greatest gift is refusing to quit. And I just want to say I would have to agree. One of your greatest gifts is that you've refused to quit and that you've kept going and stayed committed. And from a 26 year old in ministry, thank you for what you've done. Thank you for not quitting for staying committed for sharing your life with so many people so that we can learn from it. All 140 plus books, all the TV things, all the conferences, I can't even imagine all the sacrifices you and your family have made, but truly thank you for the sacrifices and thank you for your obedience. Well, someday, Sadie, you'll be sitting in this chair mentoring somebody your age

and you'll have a lot of great things to tell them. Well, I truly pray that that, I truly pray that that's true. Thank you so much for being on the WoThetsGov podcast, always, it was a huge blessing. Thank you for having me, God bless you. Oh yeah