Joyce Meyer - Fat Heads & Lean Souls - 11/10/12

Here are my notes (taken with my laptop) from the last day of Joyce Meyer's conference at Lakewood Church in Houston Texas:

Saturday 11/10/12

• Luke 10:19 Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.
• The enemy has power but we have power AND authority
• We have to exercise our authority
• You’ve got the natural and God’s got the super
• When they come together you can live a supernatural life
• [Baptism in the Holy Spirit lesson]
• Study the scriptures
• Don’t rely on your denomination
• We can’t ALL be right
• Joyce does know what being filled with the HOLY SPIRIT did for her life
• You have the HOLY SPIRIT if you’re born again but does He have you?
• Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.
• Do you want to be a believer or a dynamic believer?
• You shall receive power and equipment
• Do you want to be fully loaded for God?
• Do you want the power of the HOLY SPIRIT in your emotions?
• The gift of tongues is a supernatural language
• The more skilled your communication the deeper the connection (in any relationship)
• When you speak in tongues you build yourself up
• Romans 8:26 So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.
• HOLY SPIRIT helps us pray
• 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
• 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].
• The gifts won’t end until the perfect comes (Jesus’ 2^nd coming)
• Until then I need all the power and equipment I can have
• It’s not about being saved it’s about living saved

[OFFERING for Children’s ministry around the world]

Fat Heads & Lean Souls (Don’t Be Led by your Head)

·        This is Joyce’s last conference of the year

·        Ms. Dodie is a faithful woman of God

·        2 Corinthians 3:6 [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.

·        If we can learn how to be led by the HOLY SPIRIT in our everyday life everything we do will have power

·        Better than you trying to make things happen yourself

·        Being led by the Spirit is an awesome gift

·        Every believer can hear from God

·        Every believer can be led by the Spirit

·        You don’t have to run around asking others what you should do

·        But it does take some confidence

·        Sometimes you have to step out in faith following that leading in your spirit

·        [Joyce had hotline phone prop and called God]

·        What should I do Lord?

·        READ THE WORD

·        ACT LIKE YOU BELIEVE IT

·        I PUT MY HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU AND YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO BE LED BY IT

·        Everybody wants to know how to hear from God

·        We wish we could get a hotline to God

·        God really is very mysterious

·        You can’t always grasp everything He’s doing with your brain

·        We have to learn how to discern things spiritually

·        It seems like it’d be easier if He’d just tell us

·        But He wants us to learn the process

·        He wants us to even learn from our mistakes

·        But we won’t learn it if we’re asking others what we should do

·        Learn how to be lead by the Holy spirit for yourself

·        2 Corinthians 3:7 Now if the dispensation of death engraved in letters on stone [the ministration of the Law], was inaugurated with such glory and splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its brilliance, [a glory] that was to fade and pass away,

·        God’s spirit lives in me and I  can be led by Him

·        1 John 2:27

·        The anointing is the presence, the power and the ability of God

·        Joyce preaches by the anointing of God

·        She doesn’t really have the education to do what she does

·        It would get mixed up without the HOLY SPIRIT

·        It’s not hard for Joyce

·        Matt Redmond is anointed as a worship leader

·        You are also anointed

·        Mom? Dad? Business person? Ministry of Helps?

·        Joyce loves the helpers

·        1 John 2:27 But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which you received from Him abides [permanently] in you; [so] then you have no need that anyone should instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is true and is no falsehood, so you must abide in (live in, never depart from) Him [being rooted in Him, knit to Him], just as [His anointing] has taught you [to do].

·        Unction is Holy Ghost umph

·        Anointing is not just for ministry

·        It’s for every day and every task

·        Let’s not over spiritualize the ministry of the HOLY SPIRIT

·        You have God’s power to do whatever you need to do

·        You can raise your children this way

·        You don’t have to be afraid you aren’t up to the task in front of you

·        You can live with the confidence “I have the HOLY SPIRIT umph to do what I need to do”

·        I’m up for it in Jesus’ name

·        Romans 7:4 Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

·        I can hear from God

·        I AM led by the Holy Spirit

·        If you try to live under the law you’ll push the HOLY SPIRIT right out

·        And those things will minister death to you

·        Joyce doesn’t count how long she prays anymore

·        She’s not keeping a record

·        She doesn’t get brownie points for praying longer

·        There’s freedom when you’re led by the HOLY SPIRIT

·        A lady told Joyce all her friends were making her feel bad for not going to the early morning prayer meeting

·        If the HOLY SPIRIT isn’t leading you to do it then don’t

·        It may make others happy but it ministers death to you

·        When we’re doing what we’re supposed to do there’s a light on our faces

·        The lady really wanted to babysit the children of those in the prayer meeting

·        God has provided for every need

·        So stop trying to make everyone do what you’re called to do

·        Joyce knew an intercessor who prayed 4 hours every day since she was saved

·        Don’t think you can do whatever someone else did to get what they have

·        Joyce tried to be like the lady

·        She said I’m going to pray 4 hours every day

·        Joyce prayed as much as she could and it was only 5 minutes

·        God told Joyce years ago to stop counting

·        Stop counting how many people come to the meetings, or how long you pray, etc

·        You’re only doing it to impress yourself and I don’t like it

·        Legalistic demons will try to get you to follow ritual rather than the HOLY SPIRIT

·        Even once being set free we have to stand fast in tat liberty

·        Those demons are always telling us to follow the rules

·        As long as I’m walking in love I won’t get in too much trouble

·        If your relationship with God isn’t exciting then this is probably what’s missing

·        You don’t know what the HOLY SPIRIT will do from one day to the next

·        God’s not just in church

·        Romans 7:5 When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by [what] the Law [makes sin] were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

·        When you make something a law that you have to do it or not do it

·        i.e. “Don’t ever open that door”

·        As soon as Joyce leaves most of us would open the door

·        Then we feel condemned

·        When we make things laws (you have to pray 1 hour every day)

·        You feel condemned when you don’t

·        It’s a great plan if it’s God’s plan for you (reading the bible every year)

·        But don’t brag about it proving your motives are wrong

·        Vs 6 But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].

·        Now we don’t obey the law but the promptings of the HOLY SPIRIT

·        A prompting is a gentle reminder

·        Joyce hates jeans where one seam is off; so uncomfortable

·        [Joyce demonstrated the discomfort of walking around in jeans with crooked seams]

·        The more you mature in God the less willing you are to do things that make you uncomfortable in the spirit

·        You know it’s not worth it

·        Most of the time people trying to tell me what to do want it for their own reasons

·        It used to pressure Joyce when people told her “God said you are supposed to do our meeting”

·        God rarely tells others what you’re supposed to do

·        Fatheads love telling others what to do

·        Someone asked Joyce a personal question about the calling on their life and Joyce said “I would be doing you an injustice trying to answer when I don’t know you”

·        Dr. Zachariah would teach on Why Jesus and it filled auditorium of college campus

·        College said why do they come out so for you but not for us

·        Perhaps you filled their minds but left their souls empty

·        Anytime we think there’s nothing else for us to learn;

·        We know it all and no one can tell us anything

·        They can’t humble themselves

·        They can’t listen

·        Knowledge should be sought after

·        Ephesians 1:17-19 ¹⁷ [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), ¹⁹ And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,

·        If you want to know something get to know God

·        Know your calling and the inheritance you have in Jesus Christ

·        An inheritance is willed to you

·        You can have all kinds of head knowledge but if you don’t know Christ you’ll be a brilliant miserable person

·        Don’t ever let education be a point of pride in your life

·        The more you know up here the more humble it should make you

·        The 3^rd thing Paul said we should know is the power available to us as believers

·        1 Corinthians 8:1-2 Now about food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature]. ² If anyone imagines that he has come to know and understand much [of divine things, without love], he does not yet perceive and recognize and understand as strongly and clearly, nor has he become as intimately acquainted with anything as he ought or as is necessary.

·        Always depend on God’s anointing rather than what we know

·        No matter what I know if God’s not with me it won’t make sense

·        They argued a lot about whether they should eat meat offered to idols

·        It’s just meat and wood but if it bothers you don’t do it

·        Mere knowledge causes people to be puffed up

·        Paul is saying no matter how much you think you know, (we love to tell people what we know), if you’re not walking in love you don’t know anything

·        Get all the knowledge you want but make sure you always depend on God

·        Joyce Meyer Ministries has many employees

·        They’re knowledgeable and smart but she doesn’t want them depending on technology

·        She wants them depending on the HOLY SPIRIT to show them how to use the tech

·        We’re in a beautiful church right now

·        It’s all nice, but if you don’t have God’s anointing then it’s not worth anything

·        It’s good to have a pleasant presentation but don’t depend upon that

·        Joyce’s first TV backdrop was a blue shower curtain

·        In a small room with low ceiling and tiles hanging down

·        They got 125 calls that day and Joyce was so excited

·        It didn’t matter what she didn’t have because she was anointed

·        No matter what you don’t have, if you have God then you’re anointed

·        Get over expecting God to lay everything out clearly

·        [Hotline conversation with God]

·        God I did what You said and it didn’t work out

·        What? It happens to everybody?

·        Oh I only got part of it right?

·        Try it again and keep my head out of it?

·        Lean not to your own understanding

·        Proverbs 3:5-7 ⁵ Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. ⁶ In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. ⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.

·        Be not wise in your own eyes

·        If you think you know everything then you won’t ask God for anything

·        Having a fat (phat) soul is fashionable

·        Probably the fatter our soul is the skinnier our bodies will be

·        Because the more you’ll be led by the HOLY SPIRIT and you won’t be looking for something else to satisfy you all the time

·        Psalm 106:9-13 ⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; so He led them through the depths as through a pastureland. ¹⁰ And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the [Egyptian] enemy. ¹¹ And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. ¹² Then [Israel] believed His words [trusting in, relying on them]; they sang His praise. ¹³ But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them,

·        When we don’t wait for God’s plan to unveil we get into works of the flesh

·        Vs 14-15 ¹⁴ But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert. ¹⁵ And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death.

·        They had lean souls because they thought they wanted something

·        They kept it up until God gave it to them and then they realized it wasn’t what they wanted at all

·        When you got it the fleshly way you regret it

·        You had a fat head and a lean soul

·        You thought you knew what was right

·        You thought you were hearing from God because you wanted it so much

·        Psalm 17:15 As for me, I will continue beholding Your face in righteousness (rightness, justice, and right standing with You); I shall be fully satisfied, when I awake [to find myself] beholding Your form [and having sweet communion with You].

·        When your soul is fat you’re satisfied

·        It’s because you’ve got what you need inside

·        Psalm 63:5 My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips

·        A person with a fat soul doesn’t murmur and complain all the time

·        Joyce has had periods in her life where she complained no matter what happened

·        Nothing satisfied her because she didn’t have a fat soul

·        Isaiah 55:2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy].

·        Sometimes we waste our time…

·        Do things that matter

·        When you do things to make others happy you get a fat soul

·        Selfish people have lean souls

·        Isaiah 10:27 And it shall be in that day that the burden of [the Assyrian] shall depart from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness [which prevents it from going around your neck].

·        The amplified calls the anointing fatness

·        We should have such fat souls the devil doesn’t have a bondage to fit around it

·        Let your soul get fat and you won’t have to wrestle with those bondages

·        You’re too fat for the devil to hold

·        If you’re led by your head you’ll end up with a big mess in your life

·        I want I think I feel…

·        God is saying shhhhh

·        A few embarrassments of missing God will straighten you out

·        When you have to confess you missed God…

·        Romans 8:6 Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

·        The mind of the flesh is a fat head and a lean soul

·        Let’s not be led by our head, let’s be led by the Holy Ghost