Words of Hope and Inspiration with Joel and Victoria Osteen

Here in the South, it stays pretty warm almost year round. I can’t think of one indoor place in Houston that doesn’t have air-conditioning. I know up in the North it’s a different story, but around here, we are thankful for modern conveniences to help keep us cool! The thing about running the air-conditioner so much is that you have to remember to change the air filter regularly, otherwise, it won’t be long before the air flow is restricted, the unit overworked, and eventually, it will burn out. There are lots of air-conditioning repair companies who stay quite busy during the summer months!

I find that our attitude is a lot like that air filter. When you have a fresh, new attitude, it filters out the “dust” of the world and protects your inner workings. In the same way that you regularly check your air filter, you have to regularly check your attitude and make sure it’s not getting clogged up with negativity or restricting the flow of God’s blessing. Too often, people go through life allowing their circumstances to dictate their attitudes not realizing that attitude is a choice.

During those seasons of life when it feels like a heat wave of difficulty is coming against you, you have to be especially careful to keep your attitude fresh and change it as often as you need to. If you allow negative thinking into your life, it will weigh you down and cause you to lose your joy and enthusiasm. Before long, you stop appreciating your friends and family, or you start believing your boss has something against you. Negative thinking makes the small stuff seem so much bigger and causes you to live in constant worry and frustration. If that’s how you feel today, take heart—your life can be different! You can have a different outlook on life by making a simple choice to trust in Almighty God. Simply step out in faith and say a prayer like this any time you need to: “Father God, today I cast my cares on You. I choose to put my trust and hope in You. Right now, I change my attitude, I change my thoughts, and I change my focus and set my heart and mind on You in Jesus’ name. Amen!”

“Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude]” (Ephesians 4:23, AMP).

I have a friend who is a medical doctor. Late one night years ago, he was driving down the freeway on his way home. He came upon an accident and stopped to see if he could help. Sadly, it was a fatality. There was a young man on a stretcher, and the paramedics had worked on him for a long time. They had tried CPR and had IV’s in him. As my friend walked up, they were pulling the sheet over his head. Since he was a doctor, they allowed him to take a look. The man leaned over the body and very quietly began to pray for the young man, “God, give him another chance. God, let his life come back into him. Let his heart begin to work. Let his lungs kick in.” For a couple of minutes, very quietly, he prayed the prayer of faith. He wasn’t a minister. He wasn’t trained in theology. He simply believed that with God all things are possible. He believed what Jesus said, that we would see the greater works.

While he was still praying, all of the sudden, the young man began to cough. The paramedics nearly passed out! In a few seconds, he opened his eyes, and not long after that, he was able to sit up. Today, the young man is alive and healthy, totally recovered. But had my friend not believed that God can do astounding, remarkable and overwhelming things, I don’t know if that young man would be alive today. Friends, God is looking for someone to believe for the greater works, greater power, greater anointing, greater influence, greater victory. He’s looking for somebody to take the limits off of Him.

Well, you say, “Joel, this sounds kind of far out today.” Yes, but the God we serve is a far-out God! You have no idea what He has planned for your life. God wants to do something awesome to show His greatness through you. It’s not to bring us glory; it’s to bring God glory. When you take the limits off of Him and believe for the greater works, you’ll be amazed at what will happen.

This is what Joshua did in the scripture. One day, he was fighting a great battle with all of his men. They were trying to finish off their enemies. It was getting late, and the sun was starting to go down. Joshua knew that if he didn’t finish the job, his enemies would reorganize and come back against him again. He just needed more daylight. A lot of people in his situation would have thought, “Well, too bad. It didn’t work out. I needed more time, but it just didn’t happen.” But not Joshua, he was bold. He looked up at the sun and said, “Sun, I want you to stand still. I need more daylight.” The scripture says, “The sun stood still all because one man dared to believe.” It goes on to say, “There had never been a day like that before. The people stood there in utter amazement.”

Friend, I believe there is a day coming for you when you are going to stand in utter amazement at what God will do when you dare to believe Him. Keep your heart open to Him, keep expecting, and keep reading His Word so that your faith can grow. As you keep Him first, you’ll draw closer to Him and see the greater works that He longs to do on your behalf!

Scripture tells us that the fervent prayers of the righteous avail much. Fervent prayer is heart-filled, it’s faith-filled, and it’s love-filled. I believe that a praying mother gives us a wonderful example of what it means to pray fervently.

I know a mother who was praying intensely for her son. He had gotten involved in an outlaw motorcycle gang and was way off course and constantly in and out of jail. Year after year, he continued to spiral downward, breaking his mother’s heart. She prayed. She believed. She did everything she could, but nothing seemed to be changing. He had all kinds of addictions. He got to the point where he practically lived stoned. He was never in his right mind.

One day in his early twenties, he was so depressed and so messed up in his mind that he decided to end his life. He had a big bottle of pills that he was going to take. Standing in front of a mirror he thought, “When I looked at myself in that mirror, I saw a dead man staring back at me.” Just as he was about to take the pills, he heard something say so strongly, “Don’t do it.” There was a supernatural force holding him back and keeping him from taking those pills. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but he thought, “If I’m going to kill myself, I need to go to church first.”

He got on his motorcycle and somehow ended up at Lakewood Church on a Sunday morning. He walked in there for the first time totally stoned in his leather jacket, full beard, covered in tattoos, and smelling like alcohol. The service had already started, and an usher met him at the door. Back in those days, the front rows were reserved for our Prayer Partners and volunteers. But for some reason in the middle of the service, this usher brought him all the way down to the very front row and set him right dead center. He was so stoned he didn’t understand everything that was happening, but he told how he felt a love that he had never felt before. He said, “Sitting in that service, I could feel chains breaking off of me, my mind becoming clear. All of a sudden, I felt a sense of purpose for my life.”

After the service, he walked out to his motorcycle in the old gravel parking lot. All by himself he knelt down and said, “God, I don’t know if You really want me, but that minister said You would take me just as I am, so I’m giving my life to You.”

He went back home and called his mom and said, “You’ll never believe what happened. I just went to church and gave my life to Christ.” As you can imagine, she was overwhelmed with joy to see her prayers come to pass.

That day, his addiction to drugs and alcohol was broken. He got out of the outlaw motorcycle gang and started a motorcycle ministry to help people who had been messed up like he was. It’s called Tribe of Judah Motorcycle Ministry. Our good friend, Ben Priest, has been in ministry for over 30 years and continues to go all over the world telling people what God has done for him.

Friend, no matter what’s going on in your life, no matter what’s going on in the lives of the people you love, always remember what James 5:16 says, “…the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous avails much!” Just like God answered the prayers of this mother, He wants to answer yours. Keep praying, keep hoping and keep believing because God is always faithful to His Word!

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “God, I’m doing everything right. I’m following your voice, obeying your commands, and showing kindness to people, yet, why am I the one missing out?” That’s when you have to remember that oftentimes, the very thing you think is working against you is really going to work out for you. However, we have let go of preconceived ideas, thinking everything has to happen on our timetable, and trust that God is ordering our steps!

In Genesis 12, God told Abraham to leave his homeland and go to a “new” place. He didn’t tell him where to go; He just told him to go. At the time, it didn’t make a lot of sense to Abraham because he was comfortable where he was. Abraham could have easily chosen to stay right where he was, but he knew that if he would let go of the familiar and obey, God would give him something better.

Abraham and his family, along with his nephew Lot and Lot’s entire family, packed up their belongings and their herds and headed out into the unknown.

As time went on, they experienced so much increase in their livestock that the land couldn’t support both families, so Lot and Abraham agreed to part ways. Abraham said to Lot, “Which direction do you want to go? You choose first, and I’ll take whatever is left.”

Lot looked out as far as he could see in both directions and chose the best part of the land, the plain of Jordan. Scripture describes it as a well-watered garden, so beautiful and lush. I imagine it may have looked like Hawaii, even though it was in the Middle East. When Abraham saw what was in the other direction, it didn’t look like Hawaii; it looked more like the desert. It didn’t look very appealing—there were few trees and little grass. It would have been easy for Abraham to think, Man, I got the short end of this deal. God, where is the favor You showed me in the past? Why is this happening? “If only” I would have chosen first!

But when Lot chose the best part of the land, Abraham never complained or criticized him. He didn’t try to bargain with him. He didn’t question God; he just trusted. Right after this took place, the Lord said to Abraham, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever” (Genesis 13:14–15). What an amazing promise!

I am personally amazed at how Abraham let go of something good in anticipation of something better. And of course, God fulfilled His promise to Abraham, and He will also fulfill His promises to you! If you have been going through some changes in your life that you don’t understand, or if it looks like you don’t have the favor you once had in a certain area, God may be stirring you out of the old so He can bring you into something new and better. It’s not always comfortable, and it may not always be the easiest way, but trust that He is ordering your steps—even when it looks like you are getting the short end of the deal. Remember, He is faithful, and He is leading you into a place of blessing and increase.

“We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NLT).