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Hi, this is Victoria. Thank you so much for downloading this podcast. I believe God has amazing things in your future. I hope you enjoy this message. I want to point every one of us today that if you're waiting on a prayer to be answered or maybe you're waiting for some things to change in your life, and it hasn't happened for a long time, and you're just waiting for things to change so you can move on with life. I want to encourage you to not let those things stop.

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You don't get stuck in those areas of your life. God doesn't want you to ever get stuck. He wants you to live within those chiasm. He wants you to live with joy. He wants you to live with expectancy of what he can do in your life. You see, sometimes we're waiting on things to change. We're looking at everything around us and we forget to look at our God. See, the Bible says we are to wait upon the Lord.

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We're not to wait for all of our prayers to be answered. We're not to wait for things to change before we can be happy. We're to wait expectantly on the Lord, excited with the anticipation. God, I may be in a difficult season, but God, that doesn't stop you from walking in my life, you see, with an excitement and a joy and a passion for life. That's how God wants us to live. You know, we sometimes we think that seems impossible.

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I can't be that happy all the time, really. Victoria, the Bible says that there is a joy in you, that Jesus gave you the joy that is in me I've given you. You have the ability to tap into the resources that God has given you. You see, the Bible says that the righteous are to get brighter and brighter until the full day. We're to thrive like a green leaf. We're not supposed to wither. Our dreams and hopes are not supposed to wither.

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But we're supposed to thrive. We're supposed to shine brighter and brighter. You're not supposed to be dim some days, right, the others, you're supposed to be bright, shiny. You're supposed to let the sun in the air. So in every single day so that you can be bright and shiny. I think that's a good question to ask ourselves periodically through the day. And I shining. How do I feel demn. Is there a black cloud over me?

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Is there something trying to bring me down. Am I focused too much on a situation or are changed. That needs to happen in my life that I'm not shining. Do I need to get my eyes off of this mountain and get my eyes on where the help can come from, from the person who created all the mountains, who created the universe and who can create whatever I need. Listen, we're to be stars were to let the sun in.

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Listen to what it says in Isaiah 43, 18 and 19. And this is what God spoke through, the prophet. And he said, forget the former things. Do not dwell on them. Behold, I am doing a new thing now. Now it springs up. Can you perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. You see, there is a question that God is asking us in his promise to us.

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And what he is asking us is this. Do you recognize what I'm doing in your life? You see, it says, I am doing a new thing. God didn't say I'm going to do a new thing when I get ready, when you get straight in your life.

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He said, I am doing a new thing. It springs up now. See, God is saying don't have faith when the situation takes care of itself, because I'm doing some new things right now, right now. But the thing is, is that we have to perceive it. And in doing so, sometimes we need to change our perspective. We need to widen our lives, widen our focus. You see, it says, behold, some translations say, look, see, watch, that sounds like anticipation to me, doesn't it?

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You watch and see what the Lord will do to it is a new thing I'll never forget. Several years ago, I was going through the most difficult time in my life. There was my life seemed to hinge on this one major decision. To me, it felt like life and death. To me it was the most difficult thing that I can remember ever going through. I can remember what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay home. I wanted to cry.

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I wanted to Wollar, listen, I didn't want to shine. I wanted to design things down. One day God spoke to me and he said, you cannot live like this. He said you were made and designed to shine. And he said, you need to look out beyond this problem because I've got opportunities. I'm doing some new things in the middle of your mess. I am still working. Do you know that challenge in my life went on for three long years?

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And can I tell you, they seemed like long years.

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But during that time, I shook it off every day I pushed through. Was it easy? No, but I had to change my focus and change my perspective. God, you don't want me to stay here. You've got new things for me. Do you know what was in those three years that I wrote my first book? I wrote a series of children's books, and at the end of those three years, God vindicated me and showed me things that I never knew were even inside of me.

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He gave me victory. But it was a change of perspective. It was deciding that I wasn't going to wear a banner of defeat, but I was going to wear a banner of victory over my head. See, I was changing what I was thinking. See, God had opportunity for me. But as long as I sat and were waiting for things to change before I could get going, I would have missed out on all the new things, the new opportunities, the new things he wanted to show me and do on the inside of me.

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Can you imagine if I would have given in to defeat and discouragement and said so focused on what I needed to happen, I would have lost three years? Do you know that I had exponential growth in my spiritual life those three years? You see, God turned it around because I was willing to put forth the effort. I was willing to shake it off. I was willing to say, no, this doesn't have to change before I can keep living.

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Absolutely not. I serve a great big God and he's got great things over the horizon for me. He is doing a new thing.

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It is in process. The printing presses have already been turned on. It is happening now in your life. I was speaking to a woman the other day and I'd been praying with her for a while. And it seemed like every time I prayed with or talked to her, all I could see was this just rigid, stiff, just wanting something to happen in her life. And what she was wanting was this. Her husband had left and she was wanting reconciliation in her marriage.

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And that is what I could see was the main focus and thrust of her life. And I told her this. I said, listen, do not make plans. According to this prayer being answered. Don't make plans around your life according to this happening. Don't stop living. You see, I believe that what she was trying to do was work it out in her own mind, figure figure out how it was going to happen. And as soon as he walked back in the door, then she could begin to live.

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Then her life could go on. But that is not what God intends for her to do, because he's got new things springing up in her mouth right now. I said, you're too valuable. You got too much to offer. You got gifts, you got talents. You be the best you that you can be. You let God grow, you learn progress, take on new and exciting challenges that God's got out there for you, be the best you can be.

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I didn't tell her to quit praying. I didn't tell her to quit believing. I said, don't get stuck. Don't get stuck. You keep living.

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And I believe that God has a word for somebody in here today. You need to keep on living. Don't make all your plans around that unanswered prayer. I got new things springing up even now. He didn't say there was not going to be wilderness. He didn't say there wasn't going to be some wasted things. You look at the why did this happen? Why me? This is always what happened. He said, I can make a way in the wilderness and I can refresh you.

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In those times that feel wasted, I can bring out of you things you never knew were in you. I can do the impossible as long as you widen your lens, change your perspective, don't get narrow and don't get so focused that the strains and stresses of life don't allow you to see beyond where you are. I was reading about eyestrain and eyestrain is becoming more and more of a common problem because of all of our screens that we look at computers, iPads, telephones.

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And so eyestrain is when, you know, you can be focused on your computer and and your reading material for so long that you get dry eye or or you'll get a headache or sometimes, you know, you feel like it's blurry. That's eyestrain. And I was reading the article and it was giving tips to alleviate this eyestrain. And it says if you're in front of your computer, you're working on this, you know, really focused project. What you should do is try to get up from your the area that you're at at least three times a day.

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And for ten minutes a day, you should look out of a window. Maybe you need to walk outside if you don't have a window in your office or the place you're working. And it said, do this, test your eyes at a distance as far as you can see and take on all the life around you. It says when you do that, when you cast your eyes and you begin to see light. These sky clouds, you're watching, all this stuff around you, what it does is it relaxes the lens of your eye with eyes strained, your limbs flattens out.

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And what what this exercise does is it causes it to be more flexible. It causes it to relax. Now, I'm not giving you. A tip on eyestrain today, although if you have it, that might work. What I am saying is that same thing parallels our life when we begin to focus so much on an area of our life that needs to change or something we want to happen or something we want to pray about, we get so focused in that we struggle and we bring strain upon ourselves.

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And God is saying we've got to get good at getting up out of that situation and casting our eyes past the situation into the distance so that we can wide in our lives and take on the life that is out there that God gave us to live. He has got more in store for you. Wherever you are, whatever you're going through. He's doing a new thing. Can you perceive it as it is springing up? But if you're not looking for it, you might not find it.

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Joel quoted the scripture from another passage in Isaiah, and it says, God is longing to be good to those who are looking for his goodness, who are beholding the new things, watching to see with earnest expectations. Can I tell you where you are today? Is that where you're going to stay, but don't waste your precious life, your precious time when God is already put it into motion? There are new opportunities. There are new ways of doing things.

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There's new growth. There's a new refreshing. There are springs springing up for you to have today. Listen, you're not going to stay where you are. It may not have happened in the past, but it always can happen. Keep your eyes on God and watch for the new opportunities and the new things that he's bringing across your path. Man a man. He's an awesome God. Thank you for listening to the Jostein podcast.

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Help us continue to share the message of hope with those all over the world. Visit Joel Osteen Dotcom. Give hope to give a gift today. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you can get all of the latest messages. Know that we pray for you. God bless you.