Joel Osteen Podcast - Blessed Out of Season

Episode Date: April 8, 2018

It’s easy to feel discouraged when you’re in a dry season, especially when you don’t see how your situation will work out. But God’s not limited to seasons. His blessing can find you out of season.In this encouraging message, discover how God worked in the lives of those in the Bible in unusual ways. You will be inspired in your own life to trust that God can cause winds of provision and favor to fill your life with unexpected blessings that can change your life. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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please stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home. I'd like to start with something funny. And I heard about this country grandmother. She'd go out on her front porch every morning and thank the Lord for another day. Her neighbor didn't believe in God. He'd shout back, there's no such thing as the Lord. one day he overheard her asking God to give her groceries for the week he snuck over the next morning put some groceries on her porch she came out and said thank you lord you did it again he laughed and laughed and said god didn't give you those groceries i put them there she said lord thank you you not only brought me the groceries but you made the devil pay for them all right say it like you mean it this is my bible i am what it says i am I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God.

I boldly confess, my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, I will never be the same. In Jesus name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about blessed out of season. There are times when you can feel you're on the verge of a new level. Things are falling into place. You can sense it's your season. God's about to do something new. It's important to live with that expectancy and believe for good things. But what about the times when it's just the opposite? Things aren't going our way. Business is slow. The medical report's not good. It's been years and we still haven't met the right person. All the circumstances say we're stuck. Just endure it. It's not our season. The good news is God specializes in doing things out of season. He doesn't wait for the conditions to be perfect,

for the circumstances to line up, for you to have the training, for the right people to believe in you. He does things unexpectedly, things that you didn't see coming. You didn't have the experience, but suddenly you were promoted. The report said you wouldn't get well, but suddenly your health turned around. you were told you couldn't have children, but against all odds you conceived and now you have that baby. What happened? God blessed you out of season. We've been taught to be faithful in the slow periods, to endure when things aren't going our way. That's important. We have to pass the test. But sometimes we're being faithful without releasing our faith. We're enduring without expecting. We're waiting for the additions to change and then we'll get our hopes up. When I get through this slow season,

when my child starts making better decisions, when I see more progress in my season, then I'll believe again. You don't have to wait until it's your season. God does things out of season, not on a normal timetable, not in a traditional way. He'll do things that don't make sense. There's no explanation. It's just the goodness of God. When you look around every circumstance may say you're not in season. There's no sign of things getting better, no sign of your health improving, no sign of you being promoted. Maybe it's just the opposite. Things are going down. Thoughts will tell you be discouraged. It's never going to change. The conditions are not favorable. Don't believe those lies. God is about to bless you out of

season. He's about to do something you didn't see coming. He's going to surprise you. You you with his favor. It's going to be bigger than you thought, better than you imagine, more rewarding than you've dreamed. Now, don't complain because you're out of season. You're in prime position for God to show out in your life. In this scripture, Sarah gave birth to a son at 90 years of age. She had already gone through the change of life, already past the childbearing years, her womb was closed up. No way to have a baby. It's too late. But God does things out of season. David was a teenager taking care of his father's sheep. He had no formal training, no military experience. He was a shepherd. Yet the prophet Samuel showed up at his house and

anointed him the next king of Israel. He was promoted out of season when he didn't have the qualifications, when he didn't see it coming. It was boring out in the shepherd's fields. It was lonely, but you don't know what God is up to. You don't know when he's about to show up and do something unusual. You may feel overlooked. Nobody's giving you credit. You're not in season. Don't worry. God knows how to promote you out of season. The Israelites were in the desert headed toward the promised land. They complained to Moses that they didn't have any meat to eat. They were tired of eating the same manna every day. God. God. told Moses he was going to give them meat not just for a day but for a whole month. Moses said,

God, what do you mean? If we butchered all of our flocks and all of our herbs, we wouldn't have enough meat for these two million people. Moses was looking at it from a practical point of view, thinking we're in the desert. We're not in season. This is no time to find any meat. God said, Moses, is there any limit to my power? He was saying, saying, do you think you not being in season can stop me from doing what I want to do? Do you think because the conditions are not favorable, somehow that can limit my power? Don't you know I created the universe? I spoke worlds into existence. I flung stars into space that nothing is too difficult for me. The next morning, God shifted the winds and caused a huge

flock of quail to come into their camp. There were so many quail, they were flying three feet off the ground. The scripture says, no one gathered less than 50 bushels of quail. What's interesting is quail don't usually fly that far away from the sea, way out into the desert, but God controls the winds. He controls the quail. You may not see how your situation could work out. You're not in season. None of the conditions look favorable, but God knows how to shift the winds. He knows how to bring the quail, the right people, good breaks, healing, restoration. He's not limited because you're out of season. I met a young lady that had gone through seven miscarriages.

The doctors told her that there was something wrong with her womb, and she would never be able to carry a baby, and she should stop trying. She had big tears running down her cheeks, so heartbroken. She was out of season. Didn't look good. The odds were against her. But people don't have the final say. God does.

Last year, she conceived and carried the baby full term. Her doctor said in 25 years of practicing medicine, he'd never seen that happen. The odds may be against you. Every voice says, you'll never have the baby, never get well, never break the addiction. God is about to show up. out of season and make things happen that looked impossible. There is no limit to his power

when you believe all things are possible. John chapter 5, there was a crippled man that had been laying by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years. There were five porches filled with sick people surrounding this pool. Verse 4 says, an angel would go down to the pool at a certain season and stirred the waters. The first ones to get in would be healed. The people knew when the season for the angel to come was. They'd seen that happen again and again. They would be especially on guard. They knew that was their window of opportunity to be healed. Any moment the angel could show up. One day, Jesus came to the pool and said to the man, do you want to get well? The problem was it wasn't the right season. This was the normal time when the waters would be stirred. I can imagine the man was a little confused.

He said, sir, when the angel comes, I have no one to help me get in the pool. He knew he couldn't get healed then. He was out of season. Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your bed, and walk. And instantly, the man was healed. He stood up and walked out of there. God was showing us how he can do things out of season. Doesn't have to be the right time. You may not see any sign of it. All the circumstances say you're stuck. Just endure it. It's not your season. No, get ready for an out of season blessing. For an, I didn't see it coming healing. For a, that doesn't make sense. Promotion. God is going to show up at what you think is the wrong time. It looks like the angel is months and months away. But God doesn't have to wait for the angel, for the treatment, for the training, for the boss to like you,

for the medical report to improve, for the economy to get better. God controls the universe. He's not limited by seasons. Isaiah said, God will make rivers in the desert, streams in the barren places. God can cause you to blossom out of season. when the circumstances say, it's not going to happen. It's not the right time. You have too many disadvantages.

God is not waiting for the conditions to be favorable. He's going to make rivers in the desert. He's going to bless you out of season. A while back, I had gone through a very difficult week. It was one of those times when everything that could go wrong did. We had difficulty over here and people coming against us over there somebody had filed a lawsuit, I had a major piece of equipment

break that we had to replace. It was one headache after another. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I came home one afternoon and Victoria was sitting in the den, holding the dog crying. She had taken him to the doctor. Long story short, we had to put the dog to sleep.

Now, of all times that dog could have died, it was that week. When it rains, it pour. If I ever felt like a time where I was definitely not in season, it was then. I felt like I was in a country Western song. Everything went wrong. Then my dog died. But we all face these seasons of difficulties and times where it's one thing after another

coming against us. The last thing on my mind was being blessed, seeing favor and increase. I was praying that God would sustain us, fight our battles, help us to make it through. But a couple of days later, in the middle of that difficulty, I received a call from the vice president of one of the largest, most influential media companies in the world. We had never met, never had any contact, but he watches us on television. He presented us the largest media opportunity that we had ever received. We agreed to pursue it. He said, okay, I'll have my 800 employees start working for you for these next few months.

When I felt the least favored, when I had the most opposition, God showed up and blessed me out of season. Just because you don't feel favored doesn't mean that you're not favored. Sometimes God will even wait till you're out of season, then do something amazing just to remind you, that he's in control and he being for you is more than the world being against you. Do you feel out of season? You're stuck in some area. Stay encouraged. God has you in the palm of his hand.

He sees what's happening. He hasn't brought you this far to leave you. He's about to do something out of the ordinary, something greater than what you've imagined, where you're going to say like I did, wow, God, I didn't see that coming. when Jesus healed the crippled man, it was not only the wrong season when the angel normally didn't come, but it was the Sabbath. The religious leaders complained that he healed the man on the wrong day. You weren't supposed to work on the Sabbath. But I found God likes to break the rules. He likes to do things out of the ordinary, things that don't make sense, where there is no logical explanation. That's what happened to my mom.

She was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in 1981 and given a few weeks to live. There was no treatment the doctors could give her. Unfortunately, they sent her home and told her to just prepare for the worst. She was definitely out of season. Of course, she wanted to live, but it looked like the angel was way, way off. It looked like the troubling of the waters would be a long, long time. But the God who controls your destiny, the God who breathed life into you, the God who knew you before you were formed in your mother's wound.

Against all odds, he showed up out of season. When it looked impossible, medically speaking, she didn't have a chance. What happened? God broke the rules. He did what medicine couldn't do. And today, 37 years later, my mom is still alive and still going strong. Where are the people that will say, God, I believe you can bless me out of season? the report doesn't look good, but I know you can heal me. I've had the addiction for years,

but I know you can free me. My family's off course, but I know, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. When you're not just enduring a slow season, but you're releasing your faith, expecting God's goodness, he'll make things happen that you couldn't make happen. In some area of life, we're all out of season. Something's slow. Something's not changed. changing. It's easy to accept it and think that's the way it's always going to be. You have to stir your faith up. Any moment God could turn it around. It could happen this month. It could happen this week. It could happen today. God is not waiting for the conditions to be more favorable. It's not waiting for somebody to give you a break, for the medical report to improve. He's not even waiting for you to have

more faith. You have the faith you need right now. If you'll start releasing it, expecting his goodness, thanking him for his favor, then God will show up out of season. He'll do things unexpectedly, things that you didn't see coming. I talked to a lady that had struggled with a drug addiction for over 25 years. She'd gone to rehab and therapy again and again with no success. Like the man by the pool that had been there 38 years, she thought she would never be well. She had lost her family, lost her job, lost her home. She was definitely out of season. But God is working behind the scenes. Being addicted is not your destiny, constantly struggling in your health, your finances, your relationships. That is not how your story is going to end. It's not permanent. It's temporary.

Someone gave her a copy of my book, The Power of I Am. It talks about how we have to speak words of faith and make declarations of victory over our lives. For years, she had done just the opposite. She talked about how she had never be free and how she had never break the addiction. But when you speak negative words over your life, they get down into your spirit and you start to live negative. Every day, she started declaring, I am free. I am whole. This addiction does not control me. She changed her attitude from a victim mentality to a victor mentality. Last year, against all odds, after 25 years, she suddenly broke that addiction.

Today, she has a new job. She got her family back. She just started attending a local church. One thing that always concerned her was that her mother would die without seeing her free. She knew she was breaking her mother's heart. She told me with tears in her eyes how her mother calls all the time and tells her how proud she is of her. Like this lady, you may not see how your situation could change. It's been that way a long time, but God has not forgotten about you. Something is about to happen out of season.

You can't see it coming. You feel like you're stuck, but suddenly you're going to break. the addiction. Suddenly you're going to meet the right person. Suddenly God's going to catapult you to the next level. Jesus asked the crippled man if he wanted to be well. In one sense, he was saying, I need your permission to help you. If you're not in agreement with me, I can't turn this around. Will you give God permission to free you, permission to heal you, permission to bless you? You have to get in agreement with God. As long as you're thinking of all the reasons why it's not going to happen, talking about how impossible it is, then you'll get stuck where you are. And you may not see how

it can work out. That's because you're looking at it in the natural, we serve a supernatural God. He can bring quail in from the sea. He can heal you without the treatment. He can promote you like David without the qualifications. And the conditions may not look favor. may not look like it'll ever change. This is what faith is all about. Turn it around. Lord, I don't see a way, but I know you're still on the throne. I know you're bigger than what I'm facing. You've done it for me in the past. Lord, I want to thank you. You'll do it for me again in the future. Jesus healed the man not only when he was out of season, but he didn't do it the normal way, the way they were expecting. He didn't have him go look for the stirring of the water.

He didn't have him dip in the pool. He did it an unusual way. God is not only going to do things for you out of season, not at the normal time. He's going to do them a non-traditional way. It's not going to be the way you thought, with the people you thought, how you were expecting it. So don't put God in a box and tell him how to do it,

when to do it, who to use. Sometimes we think God needs our help that he doesn't know all the details, so we have to fill him in. No, let God do it his way. He has it all figured out. His ways are better than our ways. As long as you're set and you're thinking, here's how it's going to happen and who he's going to use and when it's going to happen, then you'll be frustrated. God has ways you've never thought of. He's not waiting for the angel. You may think you have to work your way up gradually in that company. If you can convince the supervisor to like you,

In three years, you'll get a promotion. Maybe in five years, you'll be an assistant manager. One touch of God's favor will put you 50 years down the road. We think natural, God thinks supernatural. He's going to do it a non-traditional way. You didn't see it coming. You weren't expecting it, but it's going to be better than you imagine. When we needed a larger auditorium, I thought we'd have to build like I'd seen my father do,

so many times. I tried to buy the property, but twice it was sold out from under us. We had a verbal agreement, but the owners didn't keep their word. I was disappointed. I had my plan all figured out. We were going to purchase property, build the auditorium, then we could grow. I couldn't understand why these doors kept closing. I never dreamed one day we could own the compact Center. This was the premier facility in our city, right on the main freeway. Two million people a year came into it, a $500 million facility. When I was out looking for property, I didn't think there were any more options. My plan hadn't worked out. Then God stepped in and said, let me show you what I have in mind. This was more than I could imagine. We leased the building for a few years. Then we purchased it

for seven and a half million dollars. You can't even buy the land for that amount, but God knows how to do more than you can ask or think. He's not only going to bring you out a non-traditional way, but he's going to exceed your expectations. Are you out of season? Have you gone through disappointments, closed doors, stay encouraged. God is up to something. He's working behind the scenes. He's about to do something unusual out of the ordinary that you weren't expecting. He has one of those, I didn't see it coming blessings, hit it your way. In Luke chapter 5, Jesus was by the Sea of Galilee one morning. He noticed Peter's empty boat over on the shore.

Peter was off cleaning his nets, tired after a long night of fishing. There were so many people gathered around Jesus. He'd never met Peter, but he'd never met Peter. but he asked to borrow his boat. Peter agreed, and Jesus pushed out from the shore and taught the people. When he was finished, he wanted to do something to thank Peter. He told him to go back out into the water, and he would catch a great hall of fish. Peter was a professional fisherman. He had done this for years. He knew when to fish. This type of fishing you didn't do in the morning. Everything in Peter said, don't go back out. It's going to be a a waste of time. This is not when the fish normally bite. Peter said, sir, we worked hard all last night

and caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I'll go back out. He went out and caught so many fish that his net began to break. What's interesting is there were no fish there the night before, but God controls the fish. He doesn't have to wait for the right time, the right season, for the way it normally happens, God can break the rules. He can do it at an inopportune time when you didn't have the finances, when the property was sold out from under you, when you've struggled with the addiction for years, shouldn't have happened. You weren't next in line, but God blessed you out of season. He turned it around a non-traditional way. Verse 9 said, Peter was awestruck by the size of his catch. God has some blessings for you that are going to leave you awestruck.

You can't explain it. It's just the goodness of God. It's going to happen when you're out of season. When the conditions aren't favorable, doesn't look like the right time, just when you thought it would never work out, God's going to surprise you. He's going to bring you a great hall, something that you've never seen. Paul told Timothy in the scripture, be prepared in season. and out of season. He was talking about ministry, but the principle is still true. Stay prepared in

your mind in season, when things are going your way, and out of season, when the fish aren't biting, when the medical report's not good, when business slows down, don't start complaining. I didn't catch anything last night. Just my luck. Get ready for God to show up out of season. The fish may not have been there last time. That doesn't. doesn't mean they're not going to be there next time. God knows how to bring what you need. The odds may be against you. You don't see any sign of it happening. God is asking you what he asked Moses. Is there any limit to my power? Do you think the conditions can hold me back? That the seasons can stop me from doing what I want to do in your life? Take the limits off of God. Get your

hopes back up, start expecting. If you'll do this, I believe and declare God is about to bless you out of season. He's about to do something unusual, out of the ordinary, that you didn't see coming. It's going to catapult you to the next level. You're going to suddenly come into healing, breakthroughs, promotion, favor. Like Peter, you're going to look back and be awestruck at the goodness of our God. In Jesus' name. If you receive it, can you say amen today? I'd like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me?

Just say, Lord Jesus, I'll repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get in a good Bible-based church. Keep God first place. Victoria and I'll be right back to speak a blessing over you. As a thank you for your support of our ministry this month,

Joel and Victoria would like to send you a copy of Joel's new three message series, Fresh Favor. God sees the dreams you have in your heart. He knows how hard you've worked through life's challenges to make your dreams a reality. You are not alone. God sees all of the disappointments and heartaches and is working behind the scenes on your behalf.

God has fresh favor for you today. His favor can take you further than you ever imagined. God has placed his favor on you. Favor will open doors you couldn't open. It will help you overcome what should have held you back. God's favor is going to help you accomplish your dreams and go further than you could imagine. I've found when you live favor-minded,

you'll see more of God's favor. Request this resource. It will help you live the favor-filled life that belongs to you. Request your copy of the Fresh Favor Collection today, which includes Joel's three-message series and a 100-page book, Live in God's favor. Order today at Joelosteen.com or call 888-567, Joel. Your support is making a difference around the world.

Thank you so much for your prayer and your generosity. The ministry couldn't keep going without faithful, people just like you. And until we meet again, may the Lord bless you, may he shine down his favor on you, and may you see his goodness as never before. Nice buns. Soft, fluffy, and ultra low net carbs. Discover Hero Bread, the delicious ultra low net carb bread with incredible taste and texture. Hero bread has zero grams of sugar and is under 100 calories per serving, plus high in fiber and up to 10 grams of protein per serving. Available on Amazon.com, Walmart.com. and hero.co. That's hero.co. Order from hero.co now and get 10% off your purchase with promo

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