Welcome to the Victory Blog

In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul writes, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (emphasis added, NKJ)

We all have an upward call on our lives…there’s something that God wants us to dream about, something big, something significant, something that makes a difference in this world. He wants us to be functioning in his purpose for our lives. We need to keep moving forward toward this calling. Although, we all have times when we stop looking forward and start looking backwards along the way, at some point in our lives, each of us has to make a decision whether we’re going to follow God’s call or go our own way.

Unfortunately, most people don’t even know that this calling even exists, or if they do, they have no idea how to get there. But the key to moving forward is to have something in our lives that we’re shooting for, something that we’re going after. We need a goal…it keeps us motivated. Our upward call is the goal. So, how do we move forward toward the goal of our upward calling? We have to ask these questions:

1. What does God want from my life?The simple answer is that he wants our whole life. Unfortunately, a lot of people pick and choose certain parts of their lives to give to God and keep the rest for themselves. But, we cannot hear God or move forward if we’re not completely surrendered to him. We’ve got to give EVERYTHING over to him. Wherever we’re saying “me first” to God we’re not moving forward.
2. What does it take? What makes the difference between those who make it and those who don’t? One simple word: Discipline. Discipline means: “Achieving what you really want by doing the things you don’t really want to do.” We’ve got to build certain habits in our lives that move us closer to the heart and purposes of God. As John Maxwell has said, “In order to change your life you have to change something you do daily.” There’s no better time than now to start making those changes.
3. Why Should I do it? The people that get the answer to this question are the ones who make it to the upward call. The answer is Eternity. We are only here in this world for a very short time, but the things we do here can have eternal significance. Simply accepting Jesus is not the same as moving towards the upward call. It’s only the starting point. How much of your life is dedicated to something that’s eternal?

Are we going to give everything to Jesus? Are we willing to do the things we need to do but don’t want to do? Are we willing to let eternity be our motivation? Are we going to be a Moses generation that perishes in the wilderness or a Joshua generation that moves forward into the Promised Land? We may be entering a time of real testing and trial, but if we’ll connect ourselves with the will of God, we will move forward into our upward calling and change the world!

If you missed this timely and challenging conclusion to the FORWARD series, watch or listen to it here.