Welcome to the Victory Blog

In a world where everything seems to be getting more difficult by the day - where budgets are tightening and gas and grocery bills are on everyone’s mind - don’t we often wonder how we can continue to prosper when the outlook seems to be so bleak? The good news is that, even in the midst of global chaos, God insists on blessing us and His ultimate desire is that we each live an abundantly prosperous life.

“So,” many ask, “why do we see so many bad things in the earth?” Quite simply: we have a good God and there is a bad devil. Both are at work in the world and have set up their own economies. And, all of us are governed by one or the other. The devil’s economy is based on shortage, poverty, indebtedness, famine, sickness, etc. The economy of God’s Kingdom, however, is based on plenty, blessing, freedom, peace, love, joy, etc.

Many people don’t realize that there are two economies. They just keep on trusting in the world’s economy, hoping things will get better, living life governed by fear and greed. They don’t recognize that God wants to bless them; that from the very beginning, when Adam and Eve turned over control of the world’s economy to Satan, God began to set in motion a plan for redemption.

Throughout Scripture, we can see God looking bless each generation. To Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and many others God said, in effect, “I’m a God that likes to and wants to bless people. I didn’t create people to live under a curse. I created them to live under blessing.” It’s important to notice that in order for each generation to get the blessing, they had to both believe and receive it.

According to Deuteronomy 28:1-8, God will command blessing in every area of your life. How? John 10 says that it is through Christ. Even though our enemy, the devil, comes like a thief to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus came to give us abundant life. Christ redeemed us from the curse. He has enabled us to leave Satan’s antichrist economy and enter God’s economy. The blessing of Abraham is now ours. We are now joint heirs with Jesus. That means everything that was available to Jesus is available to us.

Now, the sickness, poverty, debt, etc., that are a part of the curse, can be turned into a blessing because they cause us to focus on God. You see, Satan’s goal is to get you looking at anything else besides God. He wants you to focus on the curse. Obviously, we have to reject the curse and accept the blessing. Let the difficulties of this world cause you to turn your eyes to Jesus and keep them there. On the other hand, don’t start focusing on the blessing either; that is as dangerous as focusing on the curse. In fact, it will bring back the curse. Rather, stay focused on the One who blesses.

God put us on this earth, not to live under the curse, nor just to receive the blessing, but to share the blessing with everyone around us. Now, God wants to bless us, but that doesn’t mean He wants us all to be millionaires. It means that He wants us to be blessed in order to be a blessing. He wants to get us to the point where we don’t have to worry about money and we can use the resources He’s entrusted to us, however great or small, to bless others. God wants us focus on Him, not on our circumstances, our job, the economy, etc.

So what has to happen in order to get there? Well, to put it plainly, we have to go through the trials of the desert in order to get to the Promised Land. That means we have to learn to trust God, even in the midst of difficulty, before He can bless us. We have to walk through the door of faith before we can enter the door of blessing. When we walk through the door of faith, we learn that God has set us free, that we’re not slaves anymore, that God has called us out of darkness and into this blessing.

Beyond that, in order to walk through the Door of Blessing, we must believe that God wants to bless us. Surprisingly, most people believe that God does not want to bless them. If that is your belief, you’ve got to get free of it. God does want to bless you. It brings him pleasure.  If you have any doubts, read Psalms 35:27 and 112:1-3. These passages, and many more besides, clearly paint a picture of a God that delights in blessing us.

We also need to understand that God requires faithful stewardship to release the blessing. (See Luke 16:10-13.) Why would God bless us if we can’t handle it? We have to learn to be trustworthy with small things first. Then, slowly but surely, He will entrust us with greater things. Ask yourself, can God trust me? Do I have the characteristics of a faithful steward: honesty, wisdom, contentment, obedience and trust? If not, invite the Holy Spirit to build those things in your life.

Finally, have a generous heart that trusts God. God wants you to be a giver. Go through life asking, “Who can I bless today?” Look for ways to bless people. When you do, God will bless you more. You know, you cannot out-give God. Along that line, it’s important to note that an essential part of trusting God is tithing. We need to trust God enough to bring Him the first ten percent of all our increase, before paying our bills. God says, “Prove me in this [tithing], see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out more blessings than you have room for.”(Malachi 3:10) I urge you to test God in this. If you’re not tithing, you’re living in fear, in the cursed life, not in blessing.

So, let me ask you, do you believe God wants to bless you? Are you a faithful steward? Do you have a generous heart that trusts God? If so, God will bless you. If not, isn’t it time to break the curse? I encourage you: take a step of faith today. Walk, no, run through the Door of Blessing!

We are so excited to announce that together, we have now given $340,000 towards our Sierra Leone iCare project! That’s 68% of the $500k needed to build the Grafton Village Medical Facility and School! Thanks to your faithfulness and generosity, this project is well on its way to completion. Way to go, Victory!

To see pictures from our last update, click here.

Today, I want to talk about what it means to be a man, to be the kind of husband and/or father God intends you to be. It’s good to be a man, but becoming a man takes great responsibility. God created men to be the doorkeepers of their households. A doorkeeper is someone who allows or disallows entrance or activity according to the will of a higher authority. Men, God has commissioned us to be a covering over our wives, our children, our households and, ultimately, our society.

But, something has happened. Most men are not fulfilling their God-given role. Ever since Adam relinquished his authority in the Garden, hid from God and blamed both God and his wife, men have been allowing the Enemy to come in and wreak havoc in their homes and lives. Just as God asked Adam in the Garden, so today our nation and our world are crying out to men, “Where are you?!” It is significant that every major problem in society can be traced back to fatherlessness. Whether alcoholism, teen pregnancy, marital infidelity, addiction, pornography, homosexuality or others, somewhere at the root of these things there is a lack of fathering, a lack of men being who God intended them to be.

Men, God wants us to step into our rightful positions of authority. He wants us to lead. It is essential that we do so. You see, our enemy the devil, who wants to destroy what God has created, knows this. So, using bondage and deception, he tries to take authority over the man of the house. This is how he gains access to the household. If he can bind the strongman of the house, he has free access to the goods, the wife, the kids, the money, the peace, the well being, etc.

Because we men are often unaware in certain areas (even dumb at times), I want to expose five strategies that Satan uses to get past us, the doorkeepers:

1. Disorder - First, the devil has made it very unpopular in our culture for a man to lead his family and, consequently, many men have abdicated their authority to their wives, contrary to the order God has established throughout Scripture.
2. Distraction - Satan works to get men so caught up in their careers, hobbies, sports or whatever, that they withdraw from their families and stop paying attention.
3. Deception - He subtly tries to get men to remain ignorant of, or forget the power of media so they will allow things into their homes that are not of God via the Internet, TV, movies, music, etc. Once deceived in this way, men are easily bound leaving the door to their household wide open.
4. Division - Knowing that a house divided cannot stand, Satan works to sow discord and disagreement wherever possible. It’s the man’s responsibility to make sure his house is in a place of agreement. If you and your wife aren’t in agreement, it’s your responsibility, men, to do what it takes to bring that agreement.
5. Desertion - Satan tries (and all too often succeeds) to convince men into leaving their families altogether. This can be physical desertion, when the father actually leaves for whatever reason, or emotional desertion - he may be physically present, but he’s completely checked out otherwise.

While all of these things have proven very effective strategies, the good news is that Jesus came to set us free from the devil’s bondage and deception. When he came, he began to establish his authority over the devil. This is no less true in the area of manhood than in any other. You see, Jesus was a real man. He led in the way that we as men need to lead, not through domineering, testosterone-induced tyranny, but by giving himself sacrificially in love and service. And, because of Him, we now have the authority to tread on the enemy. Jesus has empowered us to be real men, to cover our family and guard the doors of our houses.

How? First, we need to sober up to the times we live in. The time is short. Be aware. We can’t get caught dabbling with the things of this world. Rather, we need to spend quality time doing things that build the Kingdom. Recognize that these times are critical.

Next, start cleaning house. Take an inventory and find out what goes on inside your home, what goes on behind the closed doors. Establish an open door policy in your house - establish the rule that there is no door in the house that you, as the doorkeeper, cannot enter and take a look around. Make sure you have the right to challenge your kids in the areas of TV, internet pornography, chat rooms, music, etc. Also, determine if there are any ungodly things in your house that keep the door open to the devil, and get them out. Sometimes you’ve got to get radical in your cleaning. Get everything out in the light. The devil cannot operate in the light.

Build a spiritual presence in your home. Every man should be the prayer warrior of his family - not only the wife. Your family needs to see you praying, reading God’s Word, walking in the authority God has given you. Men, it is our responsibility to cover our families in prayer and to wash them in the Word. And remember, you can’t do that for others if you’re not doing it for yourself.

This is such a serious matter; you have to stand guard at all times. Think about how guarded your house is. Are you watching over it, guarding it diligently, or just letting the enemy come and go as he pleases? Men, know what’s going on with your family. Don’t leave them unguarded. The enemy wants to hurt your family, but the only way he can get in is if you open the door.

Finally, live in the authority to which God has called you. Be a loving, kind, gentle, serving-based leader, unapologetically and boldly. Get to the place where you’re not worried about what others think about you. Declare as Joshua did, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Kick the enemy out of your house, completely - out of the TV, the computer, your kids’ rooms, etc. Don’t give him any access whatsoever. Can you imagine what your house, church and nation would be like if you started operating in your God-given authority? That is what God is calling us to. And that is what I’m challenging you to do today. Be a real man. Be a doorkeeper!

Have you ever stopped to think what the word “faith” really means? I mean, we hear it used in church all the time. It must be important, right? Without a doubt, faith is essential to our Christian walk. God even says that without faith, it’s impossible to please Him. That alone is a more than enough of a reason to seek understanding and pursue living a life of faith. So, today, I’d like to share a few basic things about faith – Faith 101, if you will.

Faith begins in your life where the will of God is known. You can’t have faith in something that you don’t know is the will of God. If you want to know what God’s will is, read the Bible. The will of God is the Word of God. If you don’t read His Word, you won’t know His will. I’ve heard so many people, as they’re praying, add the phrase, “if it be Thy will.” Apparently, they don’t really know what God’s will is. Faith is knowing and believing what God’s Word says, like the fact that He is not willing that any should perish, or that He wants everyone to be healed, etc.

The question arises, then, why do some people remain unhealed, or even unsaved? The answer to that question, at least in part, is that we have something to do with it – a lot more than we think. More often than not, the reason our prayers are unanswered is that deep down, we don’t really believe everything God says. In fact, some people even go so far as to credit everything, including the bad stuff, to God’s will.  They don’t recognize that there’s a devil and other people who sometimes make bad choices that affect others negatively. The tragedies of this world are not God’s will. Satan is at work. In order to overcome him, we have to have faith – knowing and believing the will of God.

How do we get to this place of really believing Him? The answer is: faith comes by hearing – hearing the Word of God. Notice, it doesn’t come by having heard. We need to keep on hearing, daily. What we are hearing each moment directly impacts our beliefs, our faith, and therefore, our experiences. Because of this, it is essential to understand that when you believe something there is incredible power in your words.

Listen to the words that come out of your mouth. Are they words of life, faith and trust, or words of death, doubt and fear? Watch over the words of your mouth to make sure they agree with God and His word. Focus on the unseen parts of God rather than all the things you can see around you that seem to disagree with God’s Word. Faith is believing, regardless of what you see.

To walk through the door of faith, you have to go through some other doors on the way. First, there’s the door of uncertainty. God liked Abraham because he was willing to leave what was familiar and comfortable and step out in an adventure into the unknown. God often asks us to take a leap of faith at different points in our lives. If you won’t do what He asks you to do in this time, you will never walk through the door of faith. But, when you do step out of your comfort zone, that’s where Jesus is.

Next, you have to walk through the door of the impossible. If you are following God, there will come a time in your life that, in order to go on, you will need something impossible to happen. Moses and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, drank water from a rock and ate bread from heaven. 90 year-old Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Peter walked on water.

When you come to this point, you will need to go through the third and most important door: abandonment – giving yourself fully in surrender to God. This is at the root of our life in Christ. You will never go through the door of faith if you’re reserving parts of yourself. But, when you step out in abandon and trust, it pleases God and things start to unfold. He is able to work in your situations and bring good things – just what he wants…but He’s waiting on us!

So let me ask you, what has God been challenging you to do by faith that you haven’t been willing to step out and do yet? And, now that you’ve heard about all these things, what are you going to do about it? Without faith, Christianity just becomes a dead religious exercise, no different than any other religion in the world. And, more importantly, it’s impossible to please God unless you’re walking in faith. The more you surrender and just abandon yourself, the more God can bless and create good things in and through your life. Today, right now, God is calling every one of us to not only walk up to it, but to walk through the Door of Faith. Are you coming?

We are excited to give an update on our Sierra Leone iCare project. We’ve now raised over 60% of our target amount. At $300,000, we are well over halfway toward our goal for the Grafton Village Medical Facility and School. It’s so exciting to see this project take shape, and we can’t wait to see what God is going to do through our efforts in Sierra Leone.

For more pictures click here.

This week, it was a joy to have Rolando Gonzalez, our 212° Youth Pastor, speak about the Door of Encounter. I encourage you to take a moment and think about what he said:

Encounter means experiencing God. We were created, designed for experiences. God designed us to have experiences with Himself. Our eyes were created to see God and our ears to hear Him. We serve a God who is alive and ready to come down and experience life with us. God wants to be with us, to talk with us, to listen to us and to work with us. If you want to live a meaningful life, you need to know that the greatest meaning is to encounter God and make Him known.

But what is it like when we encounter God? If the Creator of the universe shows up, things will change, things must change. God loves us so much that He wants to spend time with us, to hang out with us, but He is so strong, so powerful, so amazing that we cannot remain unchanged. It doesn’t matter who you are, when you have an encounter God, you will not stay the same. The Bible is full of all sorts of encounters with God, from Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses and the prophets to Jesus’ life on earth and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In every instance, people were changed, usually dramatically.

We can experience God in many ways, through the Bible, worship, visions, dreams, etc. Although God lives in the supernatural realm and we live in the natural, He goes out of his way to talk with us, to encounter us. It’s not our job to make Him show up. Yes, we’ve got to do what we know to do, but it’s God’s job to show up…and He does.

Encountering God will fuel your lifestyle as a believer. Everything that we know we’re “supposed” to do as a believer becomes alive, meaningful and almost effortless when we encounter God. It fuels us to read the Bible more, and also to do the Bible more. Encountering God will also thrust us into things that we wouldn’t do before, giving us boldness. No, encountering God isn’t always designed the way we think it should be – God makes the rules – but it is always good! God wants our spiritual life to be filled with encounters with Him – large and small; in the big things as well as in the little mundane things.

Today, I’d like to challenge you about encountering God. Yes, we need to do the discipline stuff; we need to have biblical character, but we can’t get all religious about it. Encountering God will empower us in those things and make them come alive. The point is encountering God. You were created to experience a real, living, creative, God right now, today.

Position yourself to be able to encounter God. Read His word, not like a car manual, but from the perspective that it reveals His heart towards us – to be with us, to spend time with us. Spend time in prayer with the understanding that this whole life, this walk as believers, is about experiencing the Lord’s love, experiencing who He is. When it’s all said and done, He’s not going to ask how your ministry went, but rather, “Didn’t we have a good time together?!” “Wasn’t that the adventure of a lifetime, that you, as a person, and Me, as God, did something together?!”

God wants to spend time with us. It’s the language of His heart. Won’t you open the door of encounter with Him today?