Welcome to the Victory Blog

On Thursday, May 7th, beginning at noon, about 200 hundred people gathered at the foot of the Victory cross to join the thousands of other believers meeting all across America. Their mission: to pray for our nation. Pastor Dennis led those of us who were gathered in praying for a number of important areas, including:

• President Barack Obama and the leadership of this country
• Healing and protection from diseases and sicknesses such as Swine Flu
• Those who have lost their jobs and homes due to the current recession
• Restoration of the sanctity of marriage and the family unit
• Spiritual awakening and revival

Pastor Dennis said that this one day of uniting in prayer is important but, “We need more than one day; we need to pray everyday for our nation. This day also means that our whole nation for one day come together in a wonderful conglomerate of races, cultures, and denominations. It breaks down all of those barriers and walls for one moment for our nation to turns its heart back to God.”

A number of students from Victory World Christian School joined in, including 9-year-old Justice Robinson. She said, “This day is to bring everyone together, especially non-believers. This day is to encourage each other, to support each other, and to love each other.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” We are thankful for those who joined us and for the thousands and thousands of believers all across this nation who came together in harmony to help fulfill this scripture.

One of the things that the Lord has been talking to me about a lot lately is the concept of love. The most central truth of the Bible is that God is love. Furthermore, all that we do is motivated by our love for God and for others. Who we are and how we walk out our Christian life is a reflection of our love and, even more so, our understanding of God’s love for us.When we don’t understand God’s love for us, we make bad decisions and go down the wrong track, leading to broken relationships and destructive behavior.

If we want to have an understanding of God and live the life that our hearts yearn for and God intends, we need to learn to abide in His love. In fact, it really doesn’t matter what else we achieve in life; if we don’t have love, it’s worthless (see I Corinthians 13). Love is central to our lives, and God wants us to learn how to live in it fully. That’s really what this life is all about. You see, as we grow in our walk with Christ, we are gradually learning to operate in four interconnected dimensions of love:

1. Self-Love. Not to be confused with selfishness, self-love means having the revelation that you are loved by God. You see, we are only able to love God and others to the extent that we understand and receive God’s love for us. Lacking this understanding, we are filled with self-hatred, which results in broken relationships, abuse, drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc. We have to start from the place that God loves us regardless of who we are, or how we have failed, or what we look like, or what other people think of us. We have know this in our hearts, not just our heads.
2. Relational Love. God’s plan us for each of us to love one another so much that we are willing to lay down our lives for each other. When our relationships don’t work, it’s because one or both people involved aren’t laying down their lives. Beware: God will bring people into our lives that will test and stretch our “love muscle.” Will we get offended or choose to walk in God’s love and lay down our lives?
3. Loving the lost and the hurting. Compassion was the hallmark of Jesus’ life. Compassion is sorrow for the distress and misfortune of another with a desire to help. It’s one thing to feel bad for someone in need, but it’s quite another to actually do something to help them. Living in this dimension means that you regularly serve others, give freely and sacrifice your time for people who are lost.
4. Loving your enemies. The more you look like Jesus, the more enemies you’re going to have. And, unfortunately, our enemies are often people who used to be the closest to us. Yet, if we are growing in God’s love, we will love them. No, it’s not easy, and we can’t do it in our own abilities. Yet, whenever anyone masters this, they operate under an amazing level of anointing.

Today, I want to encourage you to start with the first dimension. Ask God for a new or fresh revelation of His love for you. Then, as you grow in that, let it flow out of you into the other dimensions of love toward others. Imagine what this world would be like if more of us lived this way!

(For more on this topic, listen to or watch this message.)

Do you have a desire to partner with others in fulfilling the Great Commission? Are you looking for a church where you can use your gifts for the glory of God? Then join Victory World Church and its mission to Reconcile Cultures, Build Family, Transform Communities, and Impact Nations.

Just take a look around and you will see for yourself that Victory is fulfilling the call of Christ to make disciples of every nation, tribe, and tongue. Currently, there are nearly 100 nations represented at Victory, and this number is growing. People from ALL walks of life are coming into Victory as broken individuals and coming out of Victory as disciples for Christ. Lives are being changed! Relationships are being restored! Those who are bound are being set free! “For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit… (Luke 6:43-44 KJV).”

When I first began visiting Victory World Church over a year ago, what stood out to me most was the worship that poured out of everyone’s heart. People were corporately worshiping the Lord and experiencing His awesome presence. I had never felt so free and empowered during a worship service before. The presence of the Lord is certainly at Victory. “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel (Psalm 22:3, KJV).”

In addition to the amazing worship, what stood out to me was the practical and applicable biblically based teaching that freely flows out of the mouths of pastors Dennis and Colleen Rouse. This teaching is immediately applicable to your life. You can take what you have heard and apply it the moment you walk out the door. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17, KJV).”

Read some of the testimonies that are posted online, come to the sermons and listen to what those being baptized are saying. See for yourself that Victory is not only good soil, but GREAT soil where you can plant your seeds of faith. Plus, when you put your seeds of faith with the seeds of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, you will see spiritual synergy at work!

Membership is not necessary in order to partner with Victory. However, as Christians, we are called to live in community with others in the body of Christ. It’s an outward expression of our inner commitment to God and his work here on earth. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25, KJV).” ~ Alex Hogan

(To find out when the next Access Victory Membership Class will be held, check the weekly communiqué or the events scroller on victoryatl.com.

This last weekend, I was grateful to take some time off and have Fusion Pastor Johnson Bowie give the message. He brought a simple yet powerful word in his lively and animated style. If you missed it, I encourage you to watch or listen to it here. For now, here’s a little bit of what he shared:

I know it’s not Easter and we’re not supposed to talk about Jesus being alive except on Easter, but this is something I just can’t hold inside! If you don’t get anything else out of this message, I want you to walk away from here knowing that Jesus is absolutely amazing!

Okay, here’s the story. Thousands of years ago, in a little place called the Garden of Eden, the first humans, Adam and Eve listened to Satan and disobeyed God, bringing sin into the earth. However, God gave a promise to them (and many others throughout history) that He would one day defeat sin and Satan. Finally, thousands of years later, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived a perfect life and died a humiliating death on the cross. But that wasn’t the end of the story!

A few days after His burial, some women came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. When they got there, they asked the soldiers to move the stone, and they put the spices on Jesus’ body. Then, they sealed Him back up and went home weeping because Jesus was dead…

NO!!! That’s not how it happened! The fact is that when the women got there, the stone was rolled away, there were no Roman guards and, when they looked inside the tomb, they saw that Jesus’ body was gone. Jesus had risen and conquered death! And this is an important fact for a number of reasons. Here are three:

1. Give Us A Victorious Life – If the story ended at the cross, then we’d just be forgiven corpses waiting for Heaven. We’d have no hope against sin and no power in life. We’d just be forgiven. Through Jesus’ resurrection and the power of the empty tomb, we have a new, eternal and victorious life. We have power over sin and our enemies, Satan and his demons.
2. Jesus is Powerful – Jesus didn’t escape death… He CONQUERED IT! And, He defeated death and sin and Satan. He isn’t weak; He is amazingly powerful! When we pray, we’re not just praying to a little baby in a manger. We’re praying to the One with consuming fire in His eyes!
3. He’s Coming Back – Finally, He had to rise in order to come back! Because He arose, Jesus is going to return and restore everything that’s wrong with the world. His kingdom will come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He will bring the church into unity under His Lordship. And, He will make us perfect. We will truly all become the bride of Christ and be with Him forever!

Doesn’t that stir something in your spirit? Over and over again, I am filled with awe at how wonderful and amazing Jesus is! And, I am moved to live my life in such a way that everyone around me sees that too!

I’ve had a some thoughts about women sort of stirring down in my heart for a while, and I thought, what better time to talk about them than Mother’s Day? Speaking of which, I hope all you mothers out there had a very Happy Mother’s Day! Now, I still have a lot to learn, but there are a few things that I think God would like me to share that will make a tremendous difference in the church and in our world.

First, women need to be celebrated; not devalued as they have been throughout history. When we think about women today in America, we can see that things have changed quite a bit in the last century or so. Yet, outside of America and other western countries, women are generally viewed and treated much worse. And, even in the West, women are often devalued – through pornography and the sex trade, yes, but also in the popular media on TV, in magazines, movies and music – everywhere you turn, women are devalued.

Unfortunately, this often even crosses over into the church. All too often, we have misused a handful of scriptures taken out of their historical context to keep women in bondage and subservience. We just haven’t realized how this has caused us to miss the wonderful fullness and blessing that women were created to be.

God has quite a bit to say about women in His Word. He created them with a special purpose and there are a few key truths that we need to know if they’re going to fulfill that purpose:

1. Men and women are equal in God’s heart. God relates to our spirits, which are the same whether male or female.
2. Woman was a gift from God to man. A woman is the best gift that a man will ever receive. God intends that men treat women as such.
3. God created man and woman to rule together…not for them to rule over one another. In Christ, we are no longer under the curse.
4. God establishes a divine order for men and women to work together. As men submit to Christ and serve their wives, their wives will be able to follow their lead.
5. God created women to be loved by men. Women’s love is an automatic response to a man’s love for her.
6. Woman was created to compliment a man in the pursuit of purpose. Your visions must merge and compliment one another’s visions. We need one another.
7. Women are the backbone of the church. As an example, it’s rare to find a woman who struggles with things like serving and tithing.

Now, there’s a lot more to this than what I’ve presented here, which I why I encourage you to listen to or watch this last weekend’s message in which I went into much greater detail about this. Still, here’s the bottom line: The mentality of men toward women has to change in order for the church to work. Men, it’s time we accepted the fact that women are equal, a gift, called alongside to fulfill purpose, etc. Once we do that, our eyes will be opened as never before to the fact that women are simply amazing, worthy of high honor and deep appreciation!

I want to challenge both men and women to start thinking differently about the role of a woman in the life of a man. If we’ll do that, there’s no limit to what we can do as the Body of Christ. The more men value women, the more women will begin to value themselves, the more power will be released as we learn to work together the way God intended!

This past weekend, Pastor Dennis invited all the leaders in the church to come together for Insight Leadership Meeting. At the meeting, he had an open discussion with the leaders in which he shared his vision and goals for the near future, some of the key features of which were:

• Developing a roadmap to guide new believers and new members in their walk with the Lord
• Developing and hosting Encounter Weekends, which will include times of worship and prayer, an opportunity to receive healing for demonic oppression, water baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit
• Partnering with other churches in the areas of serving the community and being unified in Christ
• Expanding beyond our current four services by opening satellite locations throughout the city
• Providing discipleship courses to equip believers in interacting with the world around them, covering topics like how to heal the sick, minister to the lost, cast out demons, etc.
• Arranging a series of classes building upon one another to help in spiritual growth; i.e. ministry 101, ministry 102, etc.

In order to implement these new programs and make new changes as we move forward, it essential to have leaders who are committed and passionate about what they do. “At the very core of any church that is taking territory for God is a heart of passion that burns in its leaders.” (source unknown) As leaders, we are called to lead a generation of people with fervency, compassion and love.

There are four things for which God wants our hearts to stay passionate:

• Passion for the Lost – Acts 1:8, “…you shall be witnesses….“One of the signs that you’re full of the Holy Spirit is that you’re interacting, interceding and being mindful of the lost. That is, you will have an evangelistic viewpoint concerning the world around you.
• Passion for Discipleship – Jesus charges His disciples in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
• Passion for Serving- When God calls us, He provides an anointing for us to do what He has called us to do. The key is being obedient to what He has called us to do. We all have moments where we desire to be served instead of serving others. In those moments, we should ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do? What does Jesus say about this?” (see Matthew 20:25-28)
• Passion for Loving- Realize that even in the midst of our busy and hectic lives, God has placed people all around us with problems, hurts, concerns and burdens every day. Look up. Look around you at the people in the line at the store or people at your job. What are they going through? What is their story? Do they know the hope that is found in Jesus? We all need to keep expanding our hearts to love more people. God put us on this earth for a purpose – that is to love people. There are a lot of people that are hurting, in distress and at a loss. We need to take our focus off of ourselves and be available for those who need our assistance. Consider Jesus’ example in Matthew 9:35-38.

Currently, about 6,300 to 6,500 people in our weekend services. Think how many more people can we reach if we will live our lives fueled with passion for those things that God is passionate about: the lost, discipleship, service and love. May we take up our cross each day and follow the way of our Lord and Savior.

Every single day there’s new technology coming out, it’s such an integral part of our lives now. Technology is advancing so rapidly that it’s almost impossible to keep up with it. A while back, a number of people brought a video to my attention that powerfully demonstrates the speed and scope of technological advancement in our day. (You can view it by watching the first part of this last weekend’s message here.) When I first saw it, it made me wonder, what does all this technology mean? Here’s some of what I felt like the Lord showed me in response:

First, since Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, mankind has continued striving to be like God. Second, the prophet Daniel prophesied that one of the signs of the end times would be an incredible increase of knowledge. Since technology literally means “the practical application of knowledge,” it seems to me that we are seeing the fulfillment of this prophecy right before our eyes.

Now, let me emphasize that I am not opposed to technology. (The fact that you are reading this blog via the Internet should be evidence enough of that.) The truth is, technology is neutral, i.e., it can be used for good or evil. But, it’s important to note that if we’re not careful, we can get so far ahead of ourselves that we’re no longer able to manage technology wisely, and this presents some grave dangers.

Let me ask this: has technology really improved the quality of our children, families, jobs or relationships with God and others? Do we exercise control over it, or does it control us? In reality, most of us do not effectively manage technology, and it has actually made our lives worse. At the very least, it has become a tremendous distraction.

Simply put, technology is not the answer to our problems. GOD IS THE ANSWER! Technology pales in comparison to God’s power and can never take His place. What we desperately need is God’s wisdom…downloaded from the Holy Spirit, not the Internet. Too often, technology only distracts, deafens and blinds us to God’s Spirit is doing.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (II Corinthians 11:3 NKJ) His concern is more relevant to us today than ever before. The EVIDENCE is plain to see, no matter how much we advance ourselves through technology, the world is still getting worse. Instead of letting our lives become increasingly complicated by technology, let us dwell on the simplicity of Christ, the only true source of peace, provision, wisdom and salvation!

(Much more on this topic is available in the audio/video recording of this last weekend’s message. Listen to or watch it here.)