The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today (7 page)

I know you are a strong, powerful magnet. You are very close to attracting that for which you’ve been praying and believing. You’ve honored God. You’ve been faithful. Now God is about to release an “eventually” in your life. It’s going to be bigger than you imagined. When you meet that person, they’re going to be better for you than
you ever dreamed. You waited a long time, but when they show up, you’re going to say, “You were well worth the wait.”

“Well, Joel, you’re just getting my hopes up.” You’re right. You can’t have faith if you don’t first have hope. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, thinking,
God has been good to me. I have a good family. I’m healthy. I’m blessed
. But you haven’t seen anything yet. You haven’t scratched the surface of what God has in store.

Some of you are going to write a book, a movie, or a song that will touch the world. The idea will come to you. You don’t have to go after it. Some of you are going to start a business that will become a global force. Some of you are going to have a ministry that will shake nations. Some of you will raise a child who will become a president or a world leader—a history maker. The “eventually”s God has in your future are going to boggle your mind. It’s like nothing you’ve seen before. God has raised you up to take new ground for the Kingdom, to go where others have not gone.

Dream big. Believe big. Pray big. Make room for God to do something new in your life.

If you would have told me years ago that one day I would be ministering around the world and have books translated into different languages, I would have thought,
Not me. I don’t have anything to say
. But God knows what He’s put in you—the gifts, the talents, the potential. You have seeds of greatness inside you. Doors are going to open that no man can shut. Talent is going to come out of you that you didn’t know you had. God is going to connect you with the right people. He will present you with opportunities that will thrust you into a new level of your destiny.

When my father was alive, Victoria and I went to India with him
a couple of times a year. One time, we met a young pastor who came from an extremely poor family. They didn’t have electricity or running water and lived out in an open field in a little hut that they had built. The man next door was very wealthy. He owned a huge farm with thousands of cattle, many different crops, and he sold milk and vegetables to the village people. But he was greedy and charged more than he should have. Many people couldn’t afford it.

One day, about ten of the wealthy farmer’s cows got out and came over to the little hut where the pastor and his family lived. Having just one cow was a big deal, because it would provide milk and other products to sell to people. The workers came and retrieved those ten cows, then put them back inside the owner’s fence. The next day, the same ten cows got out and came back over. This happened again and again and again. The owner got so frustrated, he told his workers, “Just tell the pastor he can have those ten cows.” He gave them to him as a gift!

The pastor was thrilled and started selling milk and other dairy products to the people in the village, but he sold the products for much less. Before long, people were lined up at his door. He was able to buy more cows. His business kept growing so much that the owner of the large farm came over and said, “You’re putting me out of business. I can’t compete with you. Why don’t you take over my company?” The pastor purchased his company for a fraction of its value, and today he has a very successful company with several hundred employees. But it all started when the cows came looking for him and wouldn’t go home. What is that? Like a magnet, he attracted the goodness of God.

You don’t have to worry about how it’s all going to work out. God knows how to have the cows find you. What has your name on it—the real estate, the good breaks, the businesses, the favor—will eventually find its way into your hands. Proverbs says it this
way: “Trouble chases sinners, while blessings chase the righteous!” You are the righteous. Right now, favor is chasing you. Promotion is chasing you. Healing is chasing you. Cows might be looking for you! Victory is coming your way.

Don’t ever say, “I’ll never get out of debt.” “I’ll never get married.” “I’ll never be well again.” Do you know what that’s doing? Demagnetizing your magnet. It’s taking away the attraction power.

When I was a little boy, I used to play with a magnet. One day, I discovered the magnet had lost its drawing power. I had left it by something that demagnetized it. It looked the same, but it wouldn’t attract anything. In the same way, when we dwell on negative thoughts—can’t do it, not able to, never going to happen—that is demagnetizing our magnet. You are taking away its power to pull in what belongs to you.

Do you know what I’m doing today? I’m helping you to turn up the power on your magnet. When you realize God has put a commanded blessing on your life, and you go out each day with the attitude that something good is going to happen to you, that’s when God can do the exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond.

Each of us can look back over our life and remember a time when we unexpectedly saw God’s favor. You didn’t go after it; it came after you. God has done it in the past, and the good news is He’s not only going to do it again in the future, but what He’s going to show you will make what you’ve seen pale in comparison. He has explosive
blessings coming your way. They are going to thrust you to a level greater than you’ve imagined. You’re going to look back and join me in saying, “How in the world did I get here? I’m not the most qualified or the most talented. I don’t have all the experience.” You may not, but God does. He knows how to get you to where you’re supposed to be. All through the day, make this declaration: “I am blessed.”

I believe today the power of your magnet is being turned up. You’re about to draw in good breaks, promotion, healing, favor, ideas, contracts, and creativity. God is about to release what already has your name on it. You’re not going to have to go after it; it’s going to come after you. It’s going to be bigger than you imagined. It’s going to happen sooner than you thought. You’re about to step into the fullness of your destiny and become everything God has created you to be.

W
hen we’ve struggled in an area for a long time, it’s easy to think,
This is the way it’s always going to be. I’ll always struggle in my finances. I never get any good breaks. My marriage will never improve. We just don’t get along.
Too often we see it as permanent. People tell me, “I’ve always been negative. That’s just who I am.” They’ve convinced themselves that it’s never going to change.

The first place we lose the battle is in our own thinking. If you think it’s permanent, then it’s permanent. If you think you’ve reached your limits, you have. If you think you’ll never get well, you won’t. You have to change your thinking. You need to see everything that’s holding you back—every limitation, every addiction, every sickness—as only temporary. It didn’t come to stay; it came to pass. The moment you accept it as the norm, the moment you decide,
This is my lot in life
, that’s when it can take root and become a reality. A stronghold in your mind can keep you from your destiny. If you would just break out in your thinking, you would see things begin to improve.

You may have struggled in an area for twenty years. The medical report says, “Just learn to live with it.” But there is another report. It says, “God is restoring health back unto you. The number of your days He will fulfill.” Your attitude should be,
This sickness cannot stay in my body. It’s on foreign territory. I am a temple of the Most High God.
In your career you may feel stuck. You haven’t had a good break in a long time. You’ve gone as far as your education allows. It’s easy to think,
I’ve reached my limits. This is as good as it gets.
All through the day you should declare, “I’m not settling here. My greatest victories are still out in front of me.”

You have to stir up your faith. God is not limited by your education, by your nationality, or by your background. But He is limited by your thinking. I’m asking you to stand against the lies of permanency, lies that state, “You’ll never lose that weight. You’ll never break that addiction. You’ll never own your own house.” When those thoughts come, dismiss them. Don’t give them the time of day. God is saying, “It’s not permanent; it’s temporary. It didn’t come to stay; it came to pass.”

In Deuteronomy 15, there was a law God gave the people of Israel that said every seventh year they had to release any Hebrew slaves. If you were Hebrew and owed another person money that you couldn’t repay, they could take you in as a slave and make you work full-time until you paid them back. But every seventh year, if you were a part of God’s chosen people, you had a special advantage. You got released. No matter how much you still owed, no matter how in debt you were, in the seventh year you were set free. All the pain,
struggling, and suffering were gone in one day. This tells me God never intended His people to be a permanent slave to anything. You may be in debt today, but God did not intend that to last forever. You may be facing an illness, but it is only temporary. You may be struggling with an addiction, but it’s not going to keep you in bondage.

I believe you are coming into one of your seventh years. The seventh year is when you break free from any limitation that is holding you back—sickness, addictions, debt, constant struggles. It looked as though it would never change. It looked permanent, but then one touch of God’s favor and it suddenly turns around. Suddenly you get a good break. Suddenly your health improves. Suddenly you meet the right person. Suddenly a dream comes to pass. What happened? You came into a seventh year.

Quit telling yourself, “This sickness is permanent. I’ll always struggle financially. I’ll never break this addiction.” You are a child of the Most High God. You have an advantage. Just like God promised the Hebrews, you’re not going to be a permanent slave to anything. Now you have to get in agreement with God and affirm, “Yes, I’m coming into my seventh year. It is my time to break free. Every chain has been loosed. Every stronghold has come down. I know I have been released into increase.”

I talked to a gentleman in the lobby of our church. He was in town for a consultation at MD Anderson, Houston’s world-renowned cancer hospital. For the last three years he had a large tumor in his stomach area. He went through chemotherapy and radiation, but nothing affected it. The doctors had been studying him, trying to figure out what to do next. About six months ago, he came to a Lakewood
service for the first time and had one of the volunteer Prayer Partners pray over him. He went back to the hospital for more tests. The doctor was very puzzled. For no apparent reason, the tumor had started to shrink. It was about half of its original size. The man had not had any treatment in a couple of years. The doctor didn’t understand it. He asked him, “What have you been doing differently?”

The man replied, “The only thing I’ve done differently is I’ve had some people pray over me.”

The doctor told him, “You tell those people to keep praying, because at this pace it’s going to be totally gone in a few months’ time!”

What was that? A seventh year. It looked permanent. Chemotherapy couldn’t stop it. Radiation couldn’t contain it. But our God can do what medicine cannot do. He is not limited to the natural. He is a supernatural God. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been that way or how impossible it looks. When you come into your seventh year, all the forces of darkness cannot stop what God wants to do.

Is there something in your life you think is permanent? You think you’ll never get well, never start that business, never settle that legal problem. As far as you can see, your problem is permanent. God is saying, “Get ready. You are coming into your seventh year.” The seventh year is a year of release from sickness, disease, and chronic pain. Release from depression, worry, and anxiety. Release from bad habits, from addictions. It’s not only a release from limitations; it’s a release into increase. God is about to release you into new opportunities, good breaks, and new levels. He is going to release ideas,
creativity, sales, contracts, and business. The seventh year is when you get released into overflow, into more than enough. It’s when dreams come to pass.

Now, you have to receive this into your spirit today. It’s easy to think,
This is never going to happen to me. I don’t believe anything is going to change. I don’t believe I’m coming into my seventh year.
Then this not for you, because this is for believers. This is for people who know things have shifted in their favor. It is for people who know every limitation is only temporary, for people who know they’re entering into their seventh year.

In 2003, Lakewood signed a sixty-year lease with the City of Houston for our facility, the former Compaq Center, where the Rockets used to play basketball. We always wanted to own the facility, but the lease was the best thing at the time. Seven years later, in 2010, the city was running low on tax revenue and decided to sell off some of their properties. They called and asked if we would be interested in purchasing the facility, and of course we were, but it depended on the price. Brand-new, a facility like ours would cost four hundred million dollars. The city ran its own independent appraisal. They got back with us and said, “We will sell it to you, not for four hundred million dollars, not for two hundred million dollars, not for fifty million dollars, but for seven and a half million dollars!” Now we no longer lease. We own the property.

Isn’t this interesting? Our seventh year for seven and a half million dollars. Only God can do that. Friend, there are some seventh years in your future! You may think,
I could never afford that property. I could never get well. The chemotherapy didn’t work. I’ll never meet the right person.
No; you need to get ready. When you come into your seventh year, God is going to do more than you can ask or think. He is going to exceed your expectations. It’s going to be bigger, better,
and more rewarding than you thought possible. It may seem permanent now, but when you come into the seventh year, God is going to release you from leasing into owning. He’ll release you from debt into abundance, from sickness into health, from constantly struggling into an anointing of ease. Why don’t you get up in the morning and dare to say, “God, I want to thank You that I’m coming into my seventh year. Thank You that You are releasing me into the fullness of my destiny. I am free!” When you believe, all things are possible.