Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:14 Welcome to Life Talks with Stephen and Pam.
Speaker 2 00:00:24 This is gonna be exciting, Pam. We're talking about a new year's strategy for joy and blessing in your life. It could be a new season, but we're kind of focusing in on a new year. This is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 3 00:00:35 I'm excited because these are times of alignment where we can lay down wrong way of thinking and pick up a new strategy, like you said, that can actually propel us forward. Almost like a slingshot into the new year. And I believe that this is what we're gonna share today is good for you personally, for families, for businesses, for ministries. I believe that this is strategic, like a slingshot to pull you back to excel. You
Speaker 2 00:01:04 And you know, Pam, when you're activating the future, when you're activating a new season, it's equally important to realize you have to be able to know how to deactivate the past. It's like, that's great when you go into a new door, you have to know how to gently close the door behind you. You know, Pam, your dad really knew how to bring joy in through the door. And I've, I've told this story in the past when preaching, but I feel like it applies here. This was quite a few years ago and we were going to a Christmas production with the family and of course your dad was slow coming through the door because he was cheerfully shaking everyone's hand saying hi to strangers, getting names and spreading the love. We were all sitting close down to the front and we'd already got our seats and Dad Thumb was bringing up the tail end of the family party.
Speaker 2 00:01:48 He was, what we didn't know was as he started to squeeze down our aisle, he was starting to shake hands and joyfully chatting everyone up. You know, it was close to the Christmas season, bringing his own special brand a cheer when his cufflink got caught in this woman's wig right in front of him. And as he was waving his arms around and talking, he didn't realize he was yanking her wig all sideways. The woman's husband was getting mad and she was getting ready to bop dad thumb in the nose, but he was enjoying and loving on everyone so much that dad didn't even notice. He didn't even notice. So all that to say, you can be activated for good things in the coming season, but you've got to still know how to gently close the door behind you and get ready for the season in front of you. Or you could get into a little wig pulling incident. That's right. And of course your dad would never have hurt anyone intentionally. But, you know, joy can cramp people's style. That's what I found. It's good, but often good things force change. Hey, here's a way of thinking of it, and I kinda look at it like this. That true joy will expose the fake stuff for what it really is and make us even a little bit uncomfortable, right?
Speaker 3 00:02:55 Yeah, that's true. In the midst of trying to do something good, sometimes we end up hurting people.
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Hey, the way that I look at it is that true joy, God's joy will expose the fake stuff for what it really is and make us, you know, it could even make us a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 00:03:09 That's right. It kind of, uh, could move our wigs around a little bit without knowing it.
Speaker 2 00:03:13 It's, it's a little bit of a wig pulling. It's
Speaker 3 00:03:14 Yeah, <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:03:16 Sometimes going through that door, the door to the future. You need joy to energize and to activate you, but it can even expose things that are wrong and difficulties.
Speaker 3 00:03:27 It can, cuz when you start walking in joy, it can actually put pressure on other people but you, and we need to be a conduit this year of joy, of a joy awakening that will revolutionize people's lives.
Speaker 2 00:03:40 Yeah. You know, I've seen it when you've tried to be positive and tried to activate the joy in your life where it can be offensive to other people who are settled on staying in the past and they don't want to be more uncomfortable people.
Speaker 3 00:03:52 When you start walking in a new truth and revelation of God's goodness and God's way, which is joy, it can put pressure on other people and they can get grumpy, grumpy. And they can say things that because they really want that. They wanna feel that joy. They wanna live life strong. And the only way you can live life strong is no matter what you walk through to live inside of love and let the joy of the Lord just saturate every part of our being so that we can live out as purpose. You know, we started a brand new conference that we're taking around the country called Joy for life conference.com. Our desire is to awaken, to really do a joy awakening. And how do you get there? We're living in such a society that we don't know how to get to it. It seems unobtainable, but it's not.
Speaker 2 00:04:39 Yeah, that's right. So I want to give you four simple steps, biblical steps that will help you, almost like four quarters of a hole. Four simple steps that will help move you into a new season of your life with joy, with blessing, with God's favor and grace in your life. Let me just give them to you really quickly right now, all in one. Number one, you have to reclaim the arena of your mind and your heart. Number two, you have to re reframe the past, present, and the future. And number three, you're gonna have to remain in the word, in the word of God. And number four, you gotta rejoice in the Lord. Pam. These are the four res. Yes. The four res of having a successful outcome. The four res of closing the door behind you and stepping into the door. The new season of your life. This next year, you know, a lot of people go into the new year and they make these New Year's resolutions, or I guess go into a new season or they move somewhere and they're thinking, well, things are gonna be different. But they go out things the same way and nothing changes in their thinking. So nothing changes in the outcome of their life. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:05:50 And that's so true. And unfortunately we see it all the time. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 2 00:05:54 You have to change your thinking. This is is why Jesus would preface his messages with repent. Repent basically means change your way of thinking. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:06:04 That's the secret. And it'll bring alignment to your life. When we think God's thoughts for our life, choosing his ways,
Speaker 2 00:06:12 And when we first talk about number one, reclaiming the arena of your mind and heart. We're talking about taking the sorrow and the sadness, replacing them with gladness. Yes. This is the power that we have at the cross of Christ. Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61, talk about the anointing, one in his anointing and how that we have the ability to exchange beauty for ashes. Right. So, you know, when we talk about the ashes in our life, a lot of times it has to do with our thinking. Jesus even warns us against the ferment of wrong thinking. He would say that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he would warn his disciples, he said, beware of their Levin. That will leaven the whole lump. You know, a little bit of wrong thinking will leaven the whole lump. It'll ruin your mind, your way of doing things. It'll ruin your life.
Speaker 2 00:07:02 Even with sorrow and sadness. You know, you've talked in the past about how they we're not sorrow or grieve like the world does. We have to lay our sorrows and griefs down at the foot of the cross where Jesus died to pay for all of that stuff. Yeah. Not just our sin, but our sorrow, our sign, our sickness, we lay it down with the foot of the cross. And then in his place, we receive at the cross what he purchased for us. Yes. It says in Galatians three that Jesus has redeemed us from the curse. Well, all those things are under the curse, sorrow, sighing, sadness. We've said goodbye to some precious people in our life in these last years. And we have to take the grief and the sorrow. That's right. Lay them down at the foot of the cross and receive his gladness, receive his joy.
Speaker 2 00:07:49 He gives us beauty for ashes. You know, the weapons of our warfare are precisely for this. Bringing every thought into captivity, to the obedience of Jesus. That's what two Corinthians 10, four talks about, that we have these amazing weapons. They're not caral after this world's way of doing things, but therefore dealing with these wrong thoughts that would exalt themself against the knowledge of God. And so, you know, forgiveness restores honor and order when we forgive. So you gotta reclaim the arena of your mind and heart. Do like the psalmist did in Psalm 1 39 and say, holy Spirit search me and see if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. And
Speaker 3 00:08:29 When he does, then you quickly repent. You lay it at the cross, you reclaim his gift of redemption and his mercies being new every morning. His grace, his joy that he's promised. You reclaim that and you start walking
Speaker 2 00:08:45 In it. That's so good. So number one, reclaim then number two, reframe. Reframe the past, the present and the future. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you've gotta reframe the past with thankfulness. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:08:56 That's so good.
Speaker 2 00:08:57 Some people have a terribly painful past. Terrible things have been done to them. But you might say, well Steven, how do I reframe my past if all these bad things have been done? If you're no longer in the past, you can thank God that you're no longer there. Right. Paul, who was once called Saul of Tarsus, he could look at his past as awful as it was, and with all the terrible things that he did and go, thank God it's no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. I
Speaker 3 00:09:24 Leave that past.
Speaker 2 00:09:25 Exactly. I served on a board for a ministry that reached out and helped young women that were caught in sex trafficking. A lot of those women coming out of that, they lived a horrible past. They've been violated. Terrible things have been done. But they can say, thank God
Speaker 3 00:09:40 I'm in a safe place now I'm getting restored.
Speaker 2 00:09:42 Exactly. So reframe the past, don't live in the past. Reframe it by saying thank God. Put it at the foot of the cross, the present, the same thing. You gotta reframe it. Some of us, we reminisce and we fall into strong feelings of melancholy. Instead of being wise and being thankful. You gotta change your focus. That happens in your thinking. You might say, well, my feelings are sad, my feelings are melancholy. But you can't surrender to your feelings. You've gotta change your thinking and you've gotta use thanksgiving strategically to reframe where you're at. You might say, well you know, I lost my job this year and right now I don't have a job. Or right now in this moment, some relationships went south and I feel lonely or whatever. But you gotta reframe the moment, right? And say, thank God for where I am right now, that thank God I'm healthy. I can apply for a new position. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, whatever that may be. And then reframe your future. Jeremiah 29 11 says, I know my thoughts for you. Plans to do you good, not to do you evil plans to prosper you, to give you a future, a hope.
Speaker 3 00:10:49 Good things.
Speaker 2 00:10:50 Wow, good things. That's so cool that God wants to help us reframe our future. You know, a lot of people are in fear and worry and doubt about the future. Reframe with thoughts and knowledge of what God's plans are for you. Then number three, remain in the word.
Speaker 3 00:11:07 You know, what we listen to is what we believe. So what are we looking at and what are we listening to for us to remain? We gotta remain in his love so we automatically will be full of his joy.
Speaker 2 00:11:19 Remain in the word the good news of great joy. Pam, why do so? Many Christians live without joy. They have no fuel. They have no fuel. That's because they don't stay full of the word. Jesus said in John 15, seven, he said, if you abide in me and my word, in my words abides in you
Speaker 3 00:11:36 Words, and what is the word? It's God himself showing up in the person of Jesus, the Son in the flesh. And yet 100% the love of God.
Speaker 2 00:11:47 That's love. Yeah. We've got a lot of people that are filled with love. They've got the love of God, but they can't activate it because they don't have the activation agent, which is the joy of the Lord. Joy. That's correct. You gotta remain in the word that his joy might be in you and that your joy might be made full. That's what John 1511 says. So we gotta remain in the promises of God. Pam, you and I, we've got a gift for everybody. We've invested a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of effort and prayer into these podcasts so that people can have the word of God declared to them day in and day out. You may have even somebody that you love dearly who's in the hospital, maybe even in hospice or palliative care. You can get this podcast to them and just put it on repeat and they can listen to hours of the word of God. That's right. Over and over.
Speaker 3 00:12:39 That's right. Going on to the next podcast, we're hearing of a lot of people from all over the world, almost 18 countries now, people that are receiving this and it's literally changing the climate of their life, their family. We're hearing, um, college students and teenagers and young adults who are taking this and it's changing them from one course to another road taking in their life.
Speaker 2 00:13:02 And remember in Luke chapter two, the good news that the angels spoke of for the shepherds, he said, was this good news of great joy. That's right. Good news of great joy. Notice he didn't say good news of great love. Right? Because the good news is love is the love of God. That's right. So it was like he was saying, we've got lots of love for you of great joy. It needs to be activated with God's great joy. It's going to activate you, move you, and push you in the way. You know, a lot of people live under condemnation just thinking they hear the same voice of the enemy that other friends do. And the enemy loves to say, you know, you're really bad at loving. You're just, yeah. You're not a loving person. Look at you. All these other people are loving. And you know, he condemns people and people feel like they're failing in their Christian walk.
Speaker 2 00:13:48 And the truth is, you're more than loving. You've got the love of God. You're reborn of Christ of love and love is not the problem. You just need to be activated and energized with the joy of the Lord. Jesus said, if you would abide in me and my word would abide in you, he goes on to verse 11 of John 15 and he says, then the joy, his joy would remain in you and your joy would become full. It's the joy that motivates and moves your love, activates your love. And then number four, rejoice. Yes. Rejoice in the Lord always. And the apostle Paul said to the Philippians, and again I say rejoice,
Speaker 3 00:14:29 And that means to show great joy. Isn't it interesting that it doesn't really have anything to do with your feelings directly? You can obey God and rejoice, even when we're struggling with sadness. Rejoice is the action of joy, the verb counterpart,
Speaker 2 00:14:46 Because joy is the noun. But rejoice is the verb, is the verb of the action of that sound. Right? It's how we activate that agent. So this is truly the activation stage when you employ his joy to work for you, to energize you. So you can truly say, I can do all things through Christ. You strengthens me. This is where you really begin to sing and praise God and why you sing and praise God. Ultimately, love is the why, but joy is the how.
Speaker 3 00:15:15 Yeah. You know, I think of it as getting inside of a car, which is the love of God. It's been gased up God's provided when we abide in his love. You know, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, his love comes inside our heart. But we need to get inside his love and abide there. And when we abide, get in the car, we actually can drive that car to help somebody. That's the joy we have to have the joy to love people. Yeah. We, we have to have that joy activated as you said to actually where it says in John, you know, you abide in love. He pours his love in on us and overflows. And then the next verse goes, we can love other people as he has loved us.
Speaker 2 00:15:57 Damn. I was just thinking, you know, it's not a coincidence that Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61 talks about joy and gladness being in oil. Yeah. Right. It's That's good. It's an energy. Yeah, it's a fuel. It's the oil of joy. It energizes us and it comes down over our head. Notice as the first place it touches our life is our head, where our thinking is where we make decisions. And so many times people, they're looking for a feeling, they're waiting for God to give them a feeling. But your feelings are usually associated with your heart and your emotions. And the oil runs down from your intellect, from your head, from your decisions down to your heart, down to your thinking. So my friend, just like Jehoshaphat did in Second Chronicles chapter 20, you're going to have to get your song on. You're singing in your praise. And just like he did in Second Chronicles, when he did this, all of his enemies were defeated. The terror and the lack and the sickness and the brokenness of yesterday were defeated when he activated his rejoicing. This
Speaker 3 00:17:00 Is so good for us.
Speaker 2 00:17:02 See, remember when he fasted and prayed, I believe when Josphat fasted and prayed in a way, God walked him through these steps. He reclaimed the arena of his mind. Then he reframed his past, present, and future. I know this because Josphat even said, God, you know you did this yesterday. Yeah, you did this yesterday and you delivered us from this yesterday. And then he remained in that word. That's right. Right. And then number four, God had to say, okay, sk rejoice since you did steps one, two, and three, it's time for you to finish it off. Activate your joy and rejoice. Yeah. I want you to put the choir out front. Notice not the military. Right. The choir out front. And guess what? He won so big that they were three days picking up the spoil. But not only that, I think it really influenced guys like Paul and Silas in the New Testament. Because when they got beaten in Act 16 and got thrown in the lowest prison, what did they do? Did the same things. They did the same thing at the midnight hour. Though they were hurt, they weren't feeling the best. You know, rats were running around. It stunk awful. They're in the lowest dungeon. They began to sing and praise God. And it activated joy. Joy shook the prison. The boys walked out free and they went from a season of pain and pressure into a season of comfort and commendation. Woo. That's
Speaker 3 00:18:22 Beautiful. Good. And then that led to a joy filled mind and a happy heart
Speaker 2 00:18:27 Results. So my friend, if you want results this year, in this new season of your life, here's your strategy. Can I give it to you again? Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:18:36 Please do.
Speaker 2 00:18:37 You gotta a number one, reclaim the arena of your mind and heart. Number two, re reframe the past, present, and future. This has everything to do with focus, which by the way is the elimination of options that especially interfere with your blessed life. And number three, remain in the word the good news of great joy as the angel talked about in Luke chapter two. And then finally, number four, rejoice. That's why if the writer of Philippians four, four said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again and again, and again. I say rejoice.
Speaker 3 00:19:11 Yeah. Come on, let's get our joy on
Speaker 2 00:19:13 Pam. Would you lead us in a prayer just to close the deal? And I just wanna say this before you pray, friends, once you've gone through these steps, I would flip over to the other podcast on communion and just take communion as you're going into this new season. Yes. Right.
Speaker 3 00:19:29 Get your family together, your friends together. Or if it's just you, but take it. And we're hearing of people being healed. One lady, she was given months to live, she took communion and she is totally healed.
Speaker 2 00:19:43 Praise God.
Speaker 3 00:19:43 It's almost a year later, she's living joy. The doctors are in amazement. Yeah. Praise God. So this is remembering what God has done, celebrating it and receiving it.
Speaker 2 00:19:53 Well, we want to join our faith with yours as we go into this new season because I know something amazing God has set before. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:20:01 Father, I thank you that your will for us is good. I thank you that you said in your word that you want to declare, disclose, and transmit your will to us by the Holy Spirit. So we submit to you Holy Spirit. Yes. We give you our mind, will and emotions, our body. And Father, we commit to be honorable to you, to not grieve as the world grieves because you paid the price for our healing, for our joy, for our restoration. We choose to walk and live inside your love and be full of your joy so we can walk out your purpose and love others as you have loved us. Strength to us. We thank you, we receive your strength to live life strong this year. In Jesus name.
Speaker 2 00:20:47 In Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 3 00:20:49 I just wanna tell you, I got a song that you can go to iTunes on lifetime worship. That's the artist and it's featuring me. And there's a song called There is Joy and the word say in the presence of the Lord, there is joy. It's a happy song and it's
Speaker 2 00:21:04 A great way for you to rejoice. Yes. We're talking about rejoicing and some of you're like, I'm kind of awkward at this. I'm not sure how to rejoice. This is a way you can drive down the road even by yourself and just sing along and rejoice and focus on the Lord like Paul and Silas did. That's
Speaker 3 00:21:21 Right. So there is joy for you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:21:23 God bless you. And remember, as you go into this new season, you are born are born to win. To win.
Speaker 1 00:21:30 Thanks for listening to Stephen and Pam Marshall. To receive more information or more teaching, go to www.stevenandpam.com. Stephen and Pam Ministries is a 5 0 1 <unk> <unk> charitable organization and your gift helps us to take this message to communities worldwide.
