Welcome to the Victory Blog

 

This week, we received the following updates and pictures from Pastor Mark in India:

Dear Victory,

Greetings to you in Jesus name! We had a wonderful Christmas together with all the children. [We have attached] pictures of the children enjoying Christmas programs and [receiving] the presents we distributed. We did invite local village children and some village elders too. [All of] the children send their greetings to you. Thank you very much for sending your support regularly from “Victory World Church.” We were able to use your donations towards Christmas presents and clothes for the children, etc. Thank you very much for all your help and prayers. We love you and we are praying for you. And [best] wishes for New Year 2009. God Bless.

Love and Prayers,

Pastor Mark and Francina Mark

Rays of Peace - India

 

Dear Victory,

Greetings to you in Jesus name! Attached are the Pictures of two new calves that the villagers donated. [These] two calves will be [very] useful in the future for the children for the milk. We all had a wonderful Christmas and hope you [did] too! We thank Victory World Church for all your help and prayers.

Love and Prayers,

Pastor Mark

We want to invite you to join us for 30 Days of Prayer and Fasting beginning January 2nd. If you’ve never fasted, now is the best time, as this is a joint venture! In the New Testament, Jesus made mention of when we fast - not if - telling us that this should be a regular discipline in our lives. Also, we encourage you to join us each Sunday evening at 6pm in V1 for a time of Corporate Prayer and Worship. When we fast and pray together, tremendous breakthrough is released, and we’re excited to see what God will be doing through this fast. Won’t you join us?

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In order to help you in this venture, we’ve compiled this information:

Types of Fasts - You may choose a “Daniel’s Fast” - a diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, or you can participate in a total fast, consisting of water only, or a liquid fast of fresh juices. Other ways to participate include fasting from television, radio, internet, or anything that you recognize as having control over your life. Fasting is something the entire family can participate in to varying degrees - each person in their own way.

About Fasting - It is much easier to fast while active. Fasting will cause hunger pangs initially, but you will get the energy you need from stored fat in the body. If you are under the care of a physician, please seek his/her advice regarding the level of participation that is best suited to your physical condition.

Why Fast? - Fasting is the most powerful spiritual discipline of all those discussed in the Bible. Through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit can transform your life and produce incredible results. Prayer alone is mighty, but when combined with fasting it produces a powerful force which hell cannot prevail against.

Filling Ourselves during a Fast - The secret to being filled with the Spirit of God is first to empty ourselves. Through fasting, we empty ourselves of food so that He can fill us. Food is man’s greatest carnal impulse. Fasting helps you to master this appetite. When you can control the strongest appetite, you can gain control of the other carnal appetites as well. Your appetite acts as a prayer alarm. Instead of eating to satisfy your cravings, you pray. This keeps you focused all day long. We replace pleasures of the flesh with spiritual pleasure. Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Taste is a trigger which sets off certain physical and mental reactions or connections. When you taste the Lord through fasting and prayer, it triggers various reactions in your heart.

Best Ways to Prepare Physically for the Fast - While hunger pangs and weakness can be expected, you need not dehydrate, faint or get sick while fasting. There are several ways to prepare yourself physically for a healthy fast:

Days before the Fast

1. Stop eating foods that are high in caffeine or sugar.
2. Begin drinking more water than usual.

Day before the Fast

1. Eat something small every two hours.
2. Avoid foods with caffeine or salt.
3. Drink plenty of water.

Final Meal before the Fast

1. Plan your final meal early enough in the afternoon so there’s no rush to finish before your fast begins.
2. The menu of this final meal should contain high carbohydrates and low salts.
3. Do not eat too much in the meal before the fast, but drink plenty of water

Good Advice for Ending Your Fast - After 30 days of fasting you may be tempted to “jump right back in” and eat some of the foods you’ve missed. However, it’s much better to ease back into your normal eating habits rather than suffer from an upset stomach by loading it with foods it’s not ready to digest. Here are some healthy ideas for ending your fast:

1. Begin with the simple B.R.A.T. diet recommended for upset stomachs - Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast
2. Begin with brothy soups and avoid heavy carbs and proteins
3. Eat something small and light every two hours and drink plenty of water

 

Here are some questions we have received about this fast and our answers to them:

Q. Can you provide us with the additional scriptures on fasting as well as the types of fast?

A. Here is a good online resource that lists all the major scriptures on fasting: http://www.dianedew.com/fasting.htm

Q. Are we supposed to fast continously for the 30 days or do we break at some point in the day for example after 6pm?

A. The direction of your individual fast is completely a personal decision between you and God. For the Victory 30-day Fasting and Prayer, there are no set rules regarding which types of fast you choose or how long you fast during the day. Many people choose to follow the Daniel Fast for 30 days or split their fast up into four separate weeks of different fasts such as water only, fruits, Daniel fast, etc. Some are being led to Media fasts or other types of fasts depending on what God is trying to do in their personal lives. The main objective is that as a church we are joined together in fasting and believing God for strength and blessing for our church, our families, our nation and our world this year.

Q. I am married, is sex allowed during the fast?

A. Regarding sex during a fast, as a married couple you are allowed to have sex during a fast unless both you and your spouse are in agreement to abstain for a certain period of time. Essentially, one spouse cannot call a sexual fast without the agreement of the other spouse. However, a sexual fast doesn’t necessarily have to coincide with other types of fasts.

Q. I was wonder if I may participate in the 30-day fast even though I’m not a member (yet)?

A. Absolutely, we welcome your participation and partnership with us in the season of fasting.

There’s been quite a breakdown in our society. Broken homes have become more and more prevalent. Fewer and fewer people can honestly say they were raised by a loving father and mother according to biblical family principles and in the fear of the Lord. Those who have been raised in dysfunctional families are going on to create even more dysfunctional families. People are even trying to redefine what a family is. Historically, one can readily see that every time a society begins to do this, its days are numbered. The breakdown of the family leads directly to the breakdown of society. It’s clear that unless something changes, our society is nearing its end.

So what can we do? First, we need to be aware of some things that are going on “behind the scenes.” I’ve discussed previously the fact that as we read the scriptures, we see two powers at work in the world, both vying for our future. The first is God, who seeks to bless us and set us free from the power of sin and the curses that it brings. The other is our enemy, the devil, who seeks to bring dysfunction by ensnaring us in sin, iniquity and curses.

In God’s Word, we see that iniquities - areas of repeated sin that we can’t seem to get free from - are passed from one generation to another through the bloodline. This becomes what we call a “generational curse.” And, along with that curse comes a familiar spirit - a demonic spirit that follows a family generation to generation, intimately knows all their weaknesses and works to extend its influence indefinitely.

Many of us can see this at work in our own lives if we will take even a moment to think. Let me ask you; are there things you’re struggling with that you just can’t seem to get free from? Have you noticed that you struggle with the same kinds of sin as others in your family? Are there things that you thought you dealt with a long time ago that keep trying to reestablish themselves in your life? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re dealing with generational curses.

Thankfully, there’s good news! Jesus died on the cross and rose again to set us free. We are now redeemed from the curse, and God wants to break these curses off of our lives. We no longer have to be bound in our sin, and we can stop the curse from being passed on to our children or others in our family.

How? Well, it’s a process. That process consists of seven steps that I’ll list briefly below. However, there’s a lot more to this teaching - more than I have space to write here - so I encourage you, if you want to experience true freedom from generational curses, listen to or watch this message, go through the steps and then, as soon as possible, take the Ancient Paths seminars that are offered regularly throughout the year here at Victory. If you’ll do that, you and your family will experience true freedom as never before.

7 Steps to Breaking the Curse

1. Acknowledge and confess the iniquities of your family.
2. Forgive any of your family who have sinned against you.
3. Confess your participation in any sin or iniquity that is a part of your life now.
4. Ask God to forgive you and cleanse you.
5. Repent before another person and commit to change.
6. Submit your will to God.
7. Declare your authority over the curse.

Earlier this month, nearly 150 women joined Pastor Colleen and her special guest, Ann Platz for an interactive time of sharing about some of the issues that are closest to the hearts of women. They began the evening with some delightful hors d’oeuvres and refreshments in the lobby. Then, after some praise and worship, Pastor Colleen and Ann began to share some of the things God had put on their hearts. Here are some of the highlights:

God has a plan and a purpose for each individual woman. That purpose was in His heart long before we were even conceived. Understanding that truth is foundational to our identity as women. Every woman is called to do things just as great as those Esther did. Yet this is often hindered by our perceptions. We need to allow God to destroy our faulty perceptions and replace them with true ones.

Learn to cultivate being a good listener. That means: look in people’s eyes; engage, be attentive, respectful and honoring. Then, when you speak, everyone will want to listen to you. Simply learning to listen well will have a tremendous impact on how you are received. It can quell hair-trigger situations and open many doors that wouldn’t open otherwise. Practice on your husband or your children (if you have them) and see the difference. This has to come from a heart that is sincere and full of honor towards others. But, that’s not really that hard to do. Once you understand your value in the eyes of the Lord, it’s so easy to see how much He loves everybody else, too. Then, out of that, you honor people in the way that you engage them.

This is missing in our society because women are not leading in this. We need to start leading in honoring others, in being gracious, to our children and our husbands, and to strangers in the line at the grocery store or in traffic. Women have tremendous influence in this world. We all have a sphere of influence. Why not decide to put on a cloak of honor for the next month and respond to everyone around you based on that? Ask God to give you a love for people in every circumstance. Consider this: Manners will often take you places that money and education will not.

Women need to embrace femininity. Femininity is the softer side of God; it is the mothering heart of God; the privileged place of the female. It’s part of God’s purpose for women. A woman who embraces femininity, who embraces her purpose, commands respect. A “purposed” woman is focused, confident, more of a listener than a talker, on mission, understands what she’s to do and where she needs to go. Esther is a great example.

In addition, Pastor Colleen and Ann addressed questions from some of the ladies in attendance about: recapturing femininity, identifying your purpose, the importance of and finding mentors, mothers being in the home versus in the marketplace, dealing with a husband’s addiction to pornography and the pitfalls of multi-tasking. Their answers were full of wisdom and insight that ministered deeply to those who asked the questions, as well as many others.
Well, that’s a brief look at the latest ChickChat. We’re sorry if you missed it, but hope you can make it next time! You won’t want to miss another one. So, be on the lookout early next year!

(Click on the thumbnails to view photo gallery of this event)

Through iCare, our ongoing campaign to reach out to others, you are saying:

iCare about…

…those in my community who are suffering the devastating effects of poverty, abuse and homelessness…and, that means there needs to be a safe haven - a place to run to, recover and regenerate.

Over the last couple of months, so many of you have taken this local iCare pledge to heart. Through our iCare Transitional Housing project, we are now partnered with Mary Hall Freedom House in their Open Arms Project - a transitional housing initiative for women right here in Gwinnett County.

In the initial stages of our project, we are furnishing 34 apartments; and, thanks to your generous giving and help, eight are already complete; providing a safe haven for eight or more women immediately!

Last month we asked for volunteers to help us as we sorted and assembled furniture. Just a few short days after our request, more than 75 of you showed up to help load the furniture unto trucks and, once inside the apartments, the furniture was moved in, curtains hung, cabinets filled, dishes and cookware put away and we even provided things like towels and toothbrushes. With your outstanding help, we had eight completely furnished and decorated apartments in move-in condition within five hours.

We can’t thank you enough for your continued generosity which provides the resources we need to make outreaches such as these possible. And, we would like to give a very special thanks to the many volunteers who participated in transforming these empty apartments into places of safety and rest for many special women.

Now, that’s eight down; just 26 more to go. Stay tuned for more opportunities to show how much we care.

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This week, we witnessed what is probably the biggest election in our lifetimes. Many of us are happy and many are sad at the results of this election. I’ll have more on that to say later. In the mean time, let me reiterate that our trust is not in the President of the United States. As Psalm 118:8-9 says: It’s better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It’s better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes [leadership]. Regardless of the changes that are in store for our country, it is Jesus that we must put our trust in.

One of the things I’m convinced of is that over the last eight to ten years, the church has drifted away from its influence in society. We’ve started to put a lot of trust in government to solve our problems. Unfortunately, because of that, the church has lost its influence in our society. And, as a result of that, our culture has begun to degrade to levels that I’ve never seen in my lifetime.

Because of this, I wanted to introduce a good friend of mine to you who brings a message about what is really happening in our society and how far it has fallen. That friend is Dr. Michael L. Brown, founder and president of ICN Ministries (RevolutionNow.org). He has a word that is shocking, challenging and timely. My hope is that his message will sound an alarm to the church that will awaken us to the plight of America and the need for a Jesus Revolution in the church, our nation and the world. Here’s some of what he had to share with us:

I’ve got some bad news, some really bad news and some great news to share with you. The bad news is that America is in a terrible mess. We are in a terrible moral and cultural crisis. The really bad news is that the church is in a terrible mess; a terrible moral and cultural crisis. You don’t have to go into the world to find the sex scandals, teen pregnancy, pornography, rampant divorce or families falling apart; they’re everywhere in the church. The great news, however, is that if we submit our lives, our hearts, our minds fully to the Lord and make ourselves available and avail ourselves of God’s power, we are the solution to the problems in America.

Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth… and, …if the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! The great problem in America today is that the salt (that’s us, the church) has lost its saltiness. We are no longer the moral conscience of our nation. Most of the nation hardly takes us seriously because we seem to be hypocrites - saying one thing and living differently. The light within our nation is darkness. Rather than the church changing the world, the world is changing the church. We cannot set others free if we ourselves are bound.

What God wants to do in America starts with the people of God - not with any politician. The problems in our society are so deep that there is no political solution. It doesn’t matter who gets elected. We cannot put any trust in the political system. Yes, we have to vote according to our convictions to uphold what is right and to elect people to office that will do so - but we can’t put our trust in that system. There is only a gospel solution.

Today, I want to sound the alarm about things that are going on. As an example, there are homosexual activists, some of them very well-funded, and the things they are standing and fighting for will undo the very foundations of our society.

Now, let me start by pointing out that the average gay/lesbian person has no concept of a homosexual agenda. They think it’s just something the religious right just made up. Their agenda is that we just let them live a normal life and not bother them. But there are gay activists with a specific agenda that is being aggressively promoted in places like our schools, targeting our children - even first graders are being exposed to diversity training (which is nothing more than homosexual activist training) including discussions and materials about sex-change operations, gender identity confusion, etc. In many schools, gender has become the enemy. The rights of parental authority and free speech have been stripped by the courts.

This didn’t just happen overnight. There’s been a progression:

1. 40-yrs ago gay activist began coming out of the closet.
2. They began to say, We demand our rights.
3. They then began to demand that conservative Christians would recognize those rights.
4. They began to take away the rights of conservative Christians.
5. Now they are trying to put you and me in the closet.

We have so fallen asleep. We’ve got to wake up to reality. We’ve been so passive that we haven’t even realized that we’ve been pushed into the closet and the door is closing. We need a revolution - not the way the world does it with anger, but by overcoming evil with good. We lay down our lives and overcome hatred with love.

Revolutions start when people get to a breaking point. We’ve already crossed the ‘enough is enough’ line in our culture. We need to wake up and realize we are not primarily here for what’s good for us. We are here to make a difference. We need to start living out the Scriptures as though every word is real. We need to step back and think about what we can/need to do. We have a higher goal - the kingdom of God. We’ve got to recapture our prophetic zeal and remember that we’re here with a mission. We do this by going after God and His Word. We are God’s agents of radical change in society. Won’t you take up the challenge to make yourself available to Him?

What an amazing two weeks we’ve had! Your Final Destination (YFD), a powerful theatrical production designed to bring people face to face with the reality of Heaven and Hell, ran for six shows with a packed house every night. In fact, all six nights, we had to turn people away (unfortunately) as we simply had no more room.

With the help of hundreds of volunteers, who served as cast, crew, altar workers and intercessors, we witnessed a mighty move of God. Over 2300 men, women, youth and children from all different walks of life responded to the invitations given at the end of each show to receive God’s gift of salvation or to rededicate their lives to Him! It was such a privilege to be a part of what God did, and continues to do, in so many people’s lives. Thank you, Victory, for your willingness, dedication, availability and prayer!

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Because we care, we give. Since Christmas time of last year, we have generously given nearly $850,000 towards iCare projects! Through iCare we are being Christ to individuals and communities, both locally and abroad, as we are doing in:

Ethiopia

• Where we are building an orphanage on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa that will have a capacity for 70 children and is on schedule to hold opening ceremonies and begin welcoming needy children in November. And, where we have drilled nine wells already, and have three to six more on the way in the area of Angacha. Tens of thousands now have access to clean water in one of the poorest areas of the world. And also in:

Sierra Leone

• We are so excited to announce that we have raised more than $680,000 toward our Grafton Village Medical Facility and School. It is now PAID IN FULL and well on its way to completion! We will soon be serving approximately 600 children in 14 classrooms, with 18 teachers and staff; and providing quality medical, dental and ophthalmology services with Christian love, compassion and prayer!

Thank you Victory for your generous giving!

We had another rough week with more bad financial news than we’ve had in a while. With the largest drop in the market ever, a $700 billion bailout passed (adding to our already inconceivably immense national debt) and unemployment rising at a startling pace, so many people are living in fear and anxiety. Everyone is realizing just how uncertain the future can be, and many are terrified, acting irrationally and don’t know what to do.

These may be difficult times, but God has a way to take His people through without all the fear, anxiety, hopelessness and despair that are so prevalent. He has a better word for us. In order to get there, however, we have to go through a process. As I have studied this process of receiving God’s provision in difficult times, I have consistently found three principles at work:

First, we must put all our trust in God alone - not in man, self, finances or government - in God alone. Now, I have to admit that I don’t always do that. There are times, when I start trying to take back control, try to do things on my own or start trusting in others. But this is double-mindedness and instability and God doesn’t answer our prayers when we’re in this state. He knows that we cannot receive His provision. It is only when we are trusting God that we will know and walk in His revealed will, and do so with health (mental, emotional, physical and spiritual) and prosperity. These things depend on our trust relationship with the Father.

Second, having put our trust in God, we will then keep God first in everything we do - in our time, our talent and our treasure. We will freely give God our first and best in every area. Now, we have a tendency, when things are tight, to stop giving to God out of fear and anxiety. This is because we start focusing on our problems rather than God. But this goes back to the first principle. Trusting God will close the door to fear and open the door to giving of ourselves in faith.

When we don’t put God first, we bring a curse into our lives. I don’t want to live under a curse. Do you? Of course not! So, if you’re struggling financially, ask yourself if you’re giving God the first and best of your time, talent and treasure? If not, you can repent, turn back to God and start making Him first in every area. Test Him in this. He will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings. And, He will rebuke the devourer.

Finally, to receive God’s provision in difficult times, we must be willing to receive what we have not earned. Recognize that there are times when God wants to bless us when we don’t deserve it, when we haven’t earned it. We have to be able to receive it. Some people are good at giving, but terrible at receiving. We need to call in the blessing and be willing to receive it whenever and however it comes. Also, we need to go out and harvest what we have planted. Don’t leave the harvest in the field. Don’t be passive; aggressively go after what God has promised. Receive it by faith. Call in the resources. Don’t be one of those people who are just sitting back “waiting for God” passively all the while struggling financially because they won’t diligently go after God, His promises and their harvest.

No matter how difficult the times or our circumstances may appear, God will take care of us and we can go through them with peace and confidence. We only need to trust in Him completely in everything - rather than in ourselves or our understanding; put Him first in our time, talent and treasure; and then humbly and actively receive His provision.

This has been quite a week. In fact, the media is saying that we’re in the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. There is so much fear, panic and turmoil - more so than I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s way too much. And God is looking for His people to respond in a different way - not by fear, but in faith.

In order to do so, we need to get back into God’s Word to remind us that God is the answer for all of our troubles. When we start looking at the Word, God encourages us and builds our faith. He reminds us that no matter what happens, He is still on the throne…He hasn’t fallen off. He’s not worried in the least. We are going to make it.

In Psalm 23 (which is such a good passage of Scripture to meditate on every day) David wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” In other words, when we are under the lordship of Jesus, there is no wanting in us. We trust in the Lord, recognizing that He is well able to take care of us regardless of our circumstances. And this brings us into a place of peace and rest - where God wants us to live. No stress or worry; only peace and trust in Him.

Worrying accomplishes nothing. It only shows that we’re trying to control things on our own because we don’t trust God. We have to remind ourselves constantly that we are not the ones in control; God is. He takes care of us. He provides for us. This is the path of righteousness in which He wants to guide us.

David also writes, “Yea, though I walk through the valley…, I will fear no evil.” Life is filled with valleys. They are inevitable, unpredictable and impartial. That is, we all go through them at different times in our lives and they usually come at the worst time. But, valleys are also temporary - we may have to walk through them, but we don’t stay in them. And, most importantly, valleys are purposeful: God uses them to teach us and show us things; it is only in valleys that we grow; we don’t build faith on the mountain tops, but in the valleys; and, valleys drive us closer to God.

In order to walk through life’s valleys and come out on the other side, we have to decide to walk by faith and not by fear. That means focusing on God’s promises (found in His Word) instead of our problems. We need to feed our faith not our fear. Put a higher priority on God’s Word than the fear-mongering news media. I’m not suggesting that we disconnect, but just to stay focused on God’s promises.

Also, know that our words have tremendous power over our lives. If we keep speaking our fearful thoughts, we’ll bring what we fear upon ourselves. To get out of the valley, we must speak God’s promises over our lives, for what we are today is a direct result of what we say and believe. We have to change the way we speak; to quit speaking doubt and unbelief and start agreeing with what God says.

We need to learn how to hear God’s voice, and to obey everything He tells us to do. Now, this can be a difficult thing because sometimes we don’t want to do what God tells us to do. At other times, it can be hard because we’ve let the voice of the world (TV, radio, internet, music, etc.) get too loud and we need to turn it down. Remember, God often speaks in a still small voice - give yourself a chance to hear it.

Finally, always remember that God is with us. Yes, I know that’s really simple, but it’s so true and so profound. David wrote, “I will fear no evil for You are with me.” In other places God says, “Fear not for I am with you,” and “I will never leave you or forsake you.” People, jobs and money may leave us, but God will never leave us. The world is full of fear because most people don’t have that revelation.

Consider where you are right now in your faith. Are you walking by faith or fear? Are you speaking your problems, fears and anxieties, or what God says? Are you listening to your thoughts and the world, or to God’s still small voice? I urge you: seek God. Spend time with Him. Help yourself remember that God is with us, that He will never leave us and that with Him as our Lord and Shepherd, we will lack nothing and He will bring us through the life’s valleys victoriously. In these tumultuous times, the peace you’ll have as a result will be a more powerful witness than anything you could ever say.