Joyce Meyer in Town

I couldn't believe that Joyce Meyer was going to be in San Diego in April this year. I had been waiting for her to come to California and in fact when I found that her conference schedules for last year didn't show any places in CaliforniaI, I even called her ministry and inquired why Joyce Meyer hadn't come this way.

Then a couple of months back, I learned that she was having her conference in Long Beach which is two hours away from our place. I tried to coax Karen and Trish to attend the conference, but they didn't seem keen to drive that far to attend a conference, even though both of them are ardent fans of Joyce Meyer like me. With their busy work schedule, it's a stretch for them to drive that distance on a Friday evening or Saturday morning and at that time I didn't even know that Karen was struggling with some health issues too. I had no choice but to miss seeing Joyce Meyer in person at that time.
So, when I heard her conference was going to be in San Diego in April,I couldn't contain my excitement. Trish was determined to attend the conference at this time and if possible we decided to attend both on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

I don't know how and when I got hooked on to Joyce Meyer's teachings. I remember of picking up her book How to Hear from God from the local library in Saskatoon, may be ten years back and amazed by what I read.Though I experience the blessing of hearing God's still small voice (not audibly though) at times, I hadn't read anything written about it before.Or even heard anyone talking about it at any time. Joyce's book not only opened my eyes to understand the matter more clearly, but it also confirmed me that I could really hear from God, unlike some Christians who believe God speak only through His Word these days and not directly as He did in the days of Abraham, Moses and other Prophets.

Reading her books soon led me to watch her program Enjoying Everyday Life on television. I should admit that at the beginning I wasn't much impressed by her colorful outfits and conspicuous jewellery. I couldn't picture a strong woman of God like her attired in flashy outfits. It potrayed her worldly in my mind.Though I didn't expect her to look like Mother Theresa, I preferred to see her more simply dressed. Yes, I gave into judging her by her appearance and almost stopped watching her program. I'm glad that I didn't.Or I couldn't. The Holy Spirit kept knudging me to overlook her outward appearance and to listen to her message. I may have missed knowing many valuable lessons on Christian living, if I had stopped watching her programs.

I liked her blunt and tell it to the face style, her trasparency of telling her short comings,and her courage of exposing her tough past to the public in order to minister to those who have faced and facing similar situations. In my opinion, she's God's trophy for Grace transformed life. How else can you term it when someone who was sexually molested by her own father for 18years, told she wasn't amount to anything and declared a difficult person to live with and an impossible personality to start a teaching ministry and then to see her who she's today and where and where God has taken her in His grace. That's nothing but amazing grace in full display.

Well, not everyone loves her teaching and approve her expensive life style. Yes, I don't blame them and I agree that they've reasons to doubt her crediblity, especially when it comes to her lavish liviing style.True, we need to discern what is true and what is false. We need the Holy Spirit's guidance and the study of God's word to detect false teachers and greedy and manupulating preachers.

Is Joyce Meyer a true servant of God as she potrays, or is she another business woman who tries to earn living by using God's name like many other famous televangeists of these days? I belief she's an honest and sincere woman of God. If she's not, it's to God she has to answer.

Finally Joyce Meyer was in town for three -day conference and Trish and I were excited to go on Friday evening and Saturday morning. But to our dismay, of all the days, the weather chose to act weird on those very two days. It started to rain heavily on Friday morning and it went non-stop. I've asked my friend Linda too join us and we both thought we wouldn't make it at all in such a downpour. But Trish, who was so used to such rainy weather in NJ where she grew up was determined to attend the conference. No storm could make her from going and so we went braving the weather to Viejes Arena where the conferenc was held.

To my amazement, no sooner we got into the car, the rain stopped and the road ahead looked dry and the sky blue and clear as if rainbow was about to appear at any time. My eyes welled up at watching God's faithfulness in action and our prayers being answered to pave the way to the venue. By the time we arrived there, the auditorium was packed with people. Surprised to see even many men attending the conference even though it's mostly women who read her books and watch her programs. We managed to get seats only on the bleachers on the uppermost level. But it didn't matter for we could watch everything on the screen better that way.

The huge auditorium, with colorful lights flashing from every corner and the sound of band blasting the air made me to wonder whether I was attending a rock band concert. But soon the music put us into worship mood and we enthusiastically joined the team in raising our voices and singing.Tears bathed my cheeks when I raised my hands and sang along "Our God is great" and " Then sings my soul". And when Joyce Meyer slowly walked in on the stage, the crowd went bersek. I could hear them shouting,"Joyce we love you" from every corner and whistles and clapping rocked the stadium. It showed how much she is loved and what an impact her message and ministry on people.

Joyce looked poised in her pretty in her outfit. Though she's older than me and nearing seventies, she looked younger, stronger and steadier on her feet. Surely God's strength must be keeping her going and serving Him as she does these days. Her husband Dave walked in little later to tell about how they struggled at the beginning of their ministry even to get into radio stations to broadcast her teachings. How many rejections they had to face and how persistantly he, working in his small office at their home kept sending Joyce's tape after tape until breakthrough came. Now looking back where they are and how vastly God has opened door even internationally indicated two things for him, he said-"God has bigger plans than you." and "Never Give UP!" That message hit me straight between the eyes for I was at the point of getting discouraged with my writing and wondering how on earth I'm going to publish and sell a book if at all I finish writing one. Trust God-it's that simple . Do what's possible and trust the Lord to do the impossible.

Because this blog is running too long and beyond the length anyone could read, I better end here and save the messages I learned from Joyce on those two days for another time to share. Yes, my friend and I did attend the Saturday morning session too. It was a windy and cold morning, but we went anyway.  We didn't want to miss the" between the eyes hit" message from Joyce and her humor. When she ended her talk, the whole auditorium rocked with shouts of "We love you Mamma Joyce !" from every  corner. Touched by her fans ovation, Joyce blew " I love you " kisses and hurried out the stage in order to hide her emotions.

Didn't purchase any books or cassettes for the tents where they sold the items were packed with people. I still have books of Joyce on my bookshelf which were unread. So, I wasn't keen on standing on line for hours to buy a book or two. My friend managed to buy two children's books for her niece and we returned home enriched by the message and enchanted by the whole experience.
Two days ago, I started to re-read Joyce's book, How to Hear from God, the book which introduced me to Joyce Meyer. The more I read through the pages, the more I'm convinced that Joyce Meyer is a true minister of God for whom I need to pray as she  requested at the end of her talk. Let the people who judge her for lavish living keep saying what they want to say, but my prayer is to keep her safe and solid for God's glory and to keep her from falling from grace.