A lot of people don’t understand the purpose of the church. They think it’s a place to go and visit on weekends. But actually, that has very little to do with it. Clearly, all the people who have suffered and/or died, even still today, because they were a part of the Church, did so for something much greater than a once a week religious obligation or spectacle! In fact, we see something that is so powerful, so unstoppable that every wave of persecution, even in the present, has not only failed to destroy it, but has instead strengthened it and caused unparalleled expansion.
God’s Church is unstoppable. It continues on and on, growing stronger and stronger every day. And, it is made up of many smaller bodies of believers – individual churches like Victory – that are unstoppable. What makes them that way? Well, every unstoppable church exhibits the following characteristics:
1. The people are fully committed to the mission of the church. What is the mission of the church? Some would say that it’s to feed Christians. Actually, the role of the Church is to equip believers for the work of the ministry. The unstoppable church isn’t about what makes each of us feel good, but about taking part in God’s mission. Despite what our culture would teach us to expect, the church is not about “me”; it’s about the mission – what we can do together with each of us doing our part (not just sitting in a chair). “Going to church” doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a ballgame makes you a player. It’s not about just hearing a good message. Rather, it’s what you do with what you hear. Are we takers only, or participants? We’re not supposed to be spectators, we’re all supposed to be players. When you get a group of people who are all out on the field, the church is unstoppable.
2. The people live under the authority of God’s Word. When we commit to the Word, our lives change. We begin to see that His Word works and ours does not. Read it before you pass judgment on it. When you get a group of people who elevate the Word over their own reasoning, they become unstoppable.
3. The people are willing to sacrifice for the sake of others. This is certainly counter-cultural. Almost everything we hear and see on TV, online, at the movies, etc., is all about getting more, having more fun, being more comfortable or “enjoying” life more fully…it’s all about us…self-focused. But, if we want to be unstoppable, we have to start looking out for the needs of others above our own comfort. You see, it is when the church is least like the world that it has the most power. Just as Jesus laid his rights, his glory, his riches, etc., so also must we. Let us also be willing to give of our time, our resources, our skills and our giftings for the sake of others. Imagine what it would be like if all of us started living that way – sacrificially? Truly, we would be unstoppable.
Black Shirts with white designs and bright green letters stating “FUSION ON TOUR” speckle each train car that takes off from the Doraville train station heading to the Atlanta Airport. A group of thirty people, split up in five different groups, all with the purpose of spreading the love of the Lord. Equipped with bags filled with bottled waters, hearts overflowing with God’s truth, the Holy Spirit and boldness that only the Lord himself could provide. As the train departs, anticipation gets stronger.
On a normal day, the door opens and many people rush on the train, find a seat, and get occupied with various things – men and women with headphones in their ears listening to various types of music, students doing homework and many eyes closed while leaning up against the window. The only noise heard is coming from the train tracks and walls being scraped at random times throughout the trip. The good thing is, this was no normal day. This day was made by the Lord, for the Lord, and it’s time for people to know and understand; so let’s take it back.
The doors open and many people rush onto the train hearing, “Good evening,” and “How are you?,” along with other questions and statements directly to the individuals. Each person trying to find a seat, scrambling around before the train takes off. As they find their seats, they are greeted with a bottled water and many kind words. If they had an empty seat and were welcoming of a neighbor, the seat filled up fast for conversation. Many were still trying to sleep, do homework or listen to their iPod.
Brayden goes from person to person giving hugs from God, which lifted many spirits and opened some hearts that were not welcoming to begin with. Ken, Celara, Dee and myself listened to different individuals, giving them a genuine ear that wanted to hear how their day was or what was going on in their lives. Some didn’t open up completely, while others broke down; one girl coming back to the Lord after hearing what He desired for her. Even after the water was out, we went from person to person and checked on them, telling them that God loves them. As the people got off, we told each one to have a blessed night and anything else that was on our hearts.
Being able to see the love of our Lord was a blessing in itself. To see the smile on others’ faces and gain understanding of the selfishness that plagues our society was something that couldn’t be taught by lecture, only by actions. This was just a small glimpse of what they should be seeing and what we ourselves should be doing and seeing. The Bible states that we are to first love the Lord, then, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Those are just basics and most haven’t been doing that right. So how can we, as Christians, go about claiming the Lord without having the basics down?! Fusion on Tour has begun, and it is time to be doers of the word, not hearers only. It’s time to look in the mirror and see what God has in store for us and what Christ would have done. It’s time to see Christ in our mirror and know that we are getting closer and closer to being just like Him. ~ Lauren W.
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But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:22-27 NKJV)
Throughout the Bible, we see two major themes: Love and Faith. And, whereas we kind of get the love theme, when it comes to supernatural faith, well, that’s a little harder to understand. Faith involves believing in stuff we can’t see. Frankly, a lot of believers don’t understand how to operate with faith, let alone Unstoppable Faith.
Yes, the concept of faith is a mystery, but if you study the Word, you’ll see that this is the dimension in which God exists. And, “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NKJ)
God wants us to operate in the dimension of the supernatural – speaking in tongues, casting out demons, praying for the sick, etc. – these all require faith. From the very beginning, the more the Church operated in the supernatural, the more powerful it became. But this didn’t necessarily come easy, they had to go through times of testing and trials to learn how to walk in unstoppable faith. And, the same will be true for us. If we want to get close to God, near to God, it requires us to live by faith and not by sight…especially as we go through trials.
We need to remember Jesus’ words, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23 NKJ) In this statement, God took the lid off our lives…if we believe…ALL things are possible!
Now, this is not faith FOR stuff; but rather faith IN God. This kind of faith is unstoppable. And, once we understand this, once we tap into this, we’re unstoppable. We can take the limits off and live supernaturally. The more we use our faith, the greater our potential is realized.
On the other hand, consider this: If we don’t like where we are, it’s probably because we haven’t tapped into faith. You see, faith will change our perspective. Where we are, what we are doing with our lives, what we have achieved with our lives is in direct correlation to our faith. God wants us to walk by faith, to live an extraordinary life.
We have to keep believing God, no matter what people say or what our circumstances look like. If we do, we’ll soon find ourselves in the midst of something amazing, something unstoppable, something so compelling that it will even sweep other people up into it. Faith is unstoppable and unchangeable by circumstances! It doesn’t matter what’s coming, we have the power of God behind us. We’ve got to stop being in fear and start being in faith! The time of doubting is over; it’s time to start believing! It’s time to start walking in Unstoppable Faith!
To hear more about Unstoppable Faith, including three important things we all need to know about faith, let me encourage you to listen to or watch the entire message I preached on this subject last weekend by clicking here.
It’s hard to be brief. I have to give a little medical history leading up to the importance of why this pregnancy is ALL GOD…
Praise God! I’m alive and have not one but two beautiful daughters! You see I was born with a heart and lung condition called Tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia, and back in 1980, the doctors told my mom I wouldn’t live past five. And yet, I did.
Then, when I got to adolescent and young adult age, I was told not to get pregnant because my chances of survival would be slim to none. I had already had four open-heart surgeries and minor catheter procedures. In fact, my condition is still considered not fully repaired.
At the age of 21, I developed a fungal infection in my right lung, but the doctors were scared to perform surgery due to the amount of scar tissue I had from my previous operations. They put me on medication, but that ended up giving me heart failure. It turns out that I lived with this for six months because the doctors were misdiagnosing me. I have two pulmonary stents and a heart that is not shaped or functioning like a “normal” heart. I have also been diagnosed with having pulmonary hypertension. So the doctors’ telling me not to get pregnant was a “wise” decision for them.
I ended up having to have emergency surgery to remove the fungal ball I had in my lungs. I was coughing up large amounts of blood, so they had to remove a portion of my right lung. So, by the age of 23, I had two bad lungs and a bad heart.
Now, here’s when the story gets good…
LOL! Since I knew the doctors were leery about me getting pregnant, I was trying be as safe as possible. But, one time, after being on birth control for only six days, I became very ill and was rushed to the hospital. I was told I had a pulmonary embolism and was lucky to be alive. So, we stopped using birth control and just believed God that what was supposed to be would be.
My husband and I had become members of Victory, but then moved to McDonough, GA and weren’t able to attend Victory for nine months. However, right before moving back, a “random” customer and I began talking. I don’t remember what made her ask whether or not I had children, but I said, “No, the doctors say I shouldn’t get pregnant.” Then she asked me, “Do you believe in prophecy?” When I said, “Yeah,” she started praying for me and telling me what the doctors were going to say but to remember what the Lord says.
A month later, we moved back and closer to Victory because we knew God had called us “for such a time as this.” Now, my heart’s desire was always to have a child from my womb. I would always pray to God, asking if I could get pregnant at least “one” time from my womb, and thinking of possibly adopting if we wanted more children…but to get pregnant at least “one” time. One day I was in my room conversing with God, saying, “Well, I want to have a child before 30, and if I can’t from me, we’ll just adopt first.” A week later, I found out I was pregnant (mind you, we’d been married for a year and a half and on no “birth control”).
At my first appointment, we found out we were having twins – pregnant “one” time but with “two”! Although I’m living in Atlanta now, I’m from Chicago. So I called my cardiologist back there, and he said I needed to get to a university or major hospital that could handle my condition ASAP. I got connected with Emory. Working with my cardiologist and pulmonologist at Emory began very challenging because initially they wanted me to terminate the pregnancy for fear of me dying, but they said they would work with me if I kept the pregnancy.
Early on in my pregnancy I was advised to go on medication for the pulmonary hypertension to help take some stress off my heart and lungs during the pregnancy. This would require minor surgery to place a catheter directly into my bloodstream. After the procedure, while they were getting ready to take me to recovery, I saw a vision. It was like a stadium packed out with people praying for me. Now, right before seeing that vision, the team asked me how I was doing, and I said fine, and since my vitals looked good, they were happy. After the vision, however, I started to feel like I was fading to black. When they asked me how I was doing, I said I felt like I was going out with a different tone. Someone there – I can’t remember if it was a doctor, nurse or who – said, “No, honey, your vitals look good; everything on the monitors look good.” Immediately, in my spirit, I felt it was an attack.
I would like to call that worker (doc/nurse/person/etc.) my angel. She grabbed me by the head and whispered in my ear, “Stop worrying; God’s got you. Stop worrying; you shall live and not die.” With eyes closed the whole time, I began to cry. I felt my prayer language coming on strong, and I said, “I don’t know if ya’ll believe in tongues, but I’m about to start praying in my prayer language.” As I started praying, I was getting a little worked up there on the table ,so they said don’t stop praising Him but calm down for your babies. By now, I could feel 4 people around me – the one lady on my left, someone on my right, someone at my head and someone at my feet. They kept encouraging me to praise God, and I was thanking Him for the people praying for me, asking him to cover the doctors, nurses, etc.
After the prayer session was over and they were wheeling me to recovery, I heard the one lady say, “You got me needing to go into the bathroom now.” She said it in a way that sounded like she just had to continue praising Him.
When in recovery, a couple of the team members came out and asked me if I was okay and said that they would be praying for me. By then, my eyes were open, and I could put a face to the voices I heard (that’s how I know I wasn’t dreaming), except that one initial lady, “my angel.” Later that day, Courtney told me that Montell [our friend] had posted on his Facebook for people to start praying for me. I went back to the vision. I believed God showed me that before the attack to let me know people were praying and that Satan’s weapons will not prosper.
While pregnant, Emory Hospital created this thing called “code Kelly” so that if I ever came into the emergency room or went into preterm labor, everyone would know who I was. People there began to call me an Emory celebrity because of all they were doing for me, especially behind the scenes. Not quite the way I wanted to become famous, but hey, to God be the glory.
A huge team from Emory University and Midtown was debriefed on me, and they decided to have me deliver at Emory’s main campus…which doesn’t have labor and delivery. I was the first “planned” delivery at Emory main campus in over twenty years. WOW! GO JESUS! At a little over 25 weeks, I delivered my babies at 1 lb 3oz and 1 lb 2oz, and now, one is at almost 10lb and the other almost 9lb!
I would like to mention one key thing: when I use to pray to God about wanting to be pregnant, I would often tell Him, “Whatever it takes, Lord, whatever it takes for me and the babies to live, I’ll do it; if it’s bed rest, etc…” Huh! When I was in the midst of it, I had to be reminded often when I would begin to complain that I was on “bed rest.” Or, when fear would hit, I would often have my friend Kristin pray me through it, and the Lord would remind me of the prophetic words spoken. My body has taking a hittin’, but it was all for the glory of God.
~ Joyia K.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid: Do not be discouraged, for God is with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9
If you’re a regular attender at Victory, we’d love to have you share your story about what God is doing/has done in or through your life at VWC. Click here to submit your story.
It was quite an honor to welcome a good friend of ours, as well as one of our Executive Oversight Board members, Bishop Wellington Boone, as special guest speaker during our services this past weekend. A number of years ago, I felt the Lord challenging me that if Victory was going to be a truly multi-cultural church, I would need to submit to an oversight board that was also multi-cultural. In that process, the Lord led us to Bishop Boone, who continues to both challenge and encourage us in ways that we’d never get if we were only accountable to people like ourselves.
Throughout the course of our four weekend services, Bishop Boone spoke on the theme of Unstoppable Hope, a subject close to his heart and ministry. Although none of his four inspiring messages were the same, each one centered on the Hope that we can have and share with others through the love and faithfulness of Christ. Rather than try to condense everything he said here, let me just encourage you to listen to or watch online the message he gave during our 10:30am service on Sunday. Or, even better, you can get all four messages in CD and DVD format at our bookstore. You’ll definitely be challenged and encouraged.
We have a fairly mixed group of individuals that are earnestly seeking to show our self approved in the Word. We then take that knowledge and apply it in our community showing the love of Christ to those the Lord has given us.
On May 21st, we went out and brought sack lunches and bottled water to the men of Gateway Center on Pryor St. downtown. We ministered to the men out of John 9 and reminded them that their current circumstances are an opportunity for God to restore them. We prayed with many men as they asked for encouragement and favor over their current circumstances.
There was a young guy named Ricardo (that the center folks say is the community center “baby”) who we’ve seen the last two times down. Ricardo asked us to pray with him the first time we met him so that he could get his life in order. He asked us to pray that he could stop cursing and falling into sin. We explained to him the grace of Jesus that he’s not holding our trespasses against us and that His perfect work paid for our sins. We then prayed with him and encouraged him.
We then saw Ricardo again on a following trip down, and he explained his new quest to get replanted in his former church, New Mercies in Lilburn. We were excited to hear his turnaround and aspiration changes. We’re continuing to be a familiar face at the Center so other men that have seen us many times will trust us to share what’s going on and ask for prayer.
Please join us in praying for the men of Gateway that they can overcome addictions, find gainful employment and profit society.
And, if you’re in the Snellville area please consider joining us on Friday evenings as we continue to grow and make a difference in our community. ~ Group Leaders Keith & Collissina Pemberton
To connect with this V•Group, click here. To learn more about V•Groups, including how to find a V•Group in your area, click here.
This past weekend, our Fusion young adults’ pastor, Johnson Bowie, spoke during our services. His message was right on and more than a little challenging. Continuing our ONE PRAYER: UNSTOPPABLE series, he spoke about the power of a Church united in Unstoppable Righteousness. If you missed it, go listen to, watch and/or download it now. Even if you didn’t miss it, you may want to hear it again! Here’s a glimpse of what he said:
“What would WE look like if we had unstoppable righteousness like JOSIAH did?” Josiah was one of the kings of Israel long ago. After becoming king at the age of eight, he restored the Temple of God, which was in disrepair and zealously sought to root out every vestige of idolatry from the land. 2 Kings 23:25 says about him, “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did — with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength.” (NIV)
And, I believe the word of the Lord is that He is giving us this same spirit… the same spirit that was in Josiah to rediscover righteousness in the midst of a crooked and dark world, where there’s so much tolerance that it’s disgusting, and for us to rise up, tear down the idols and pursue God…that we would have an Unstoppable Righteousness! A righteousness that would tear down every idol in our lives, everything that we give passion, praise and attention to other than Jesus.
Now, in NO WAY am I saying that your good deeds make you right before God or get you into Heaven. The Bible is overwhelmingly clear that it’s only because of JESUS that you are made right before God. Over and over again we are told that righteousness is by Grace through Faith. In other words – it’s because of Jesus, and only because of Jesus, that I am righteous and perfect and holy and acceptable in God’s sight. But God doesn’t just save me and tell me to go to church and live like everybody else on the face of the earth.
Romans 12 urges us to live our lives as living sacrifices. Galatians 5 tells us to choose the things the Holy Spirit loves and not the things our sinful nature loves. In fact, it tells us to CRUCIFY the sinful nature and its passions and desires. In Matthew 5 Jesus says that those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness are blessed. And it’s my prayer that today God would bless us with a hungering and a thirsting for RIGHTEOUSNESS again!
Righteousness is not an end to itself. Christ-likeness is never the end goal. Us living really well is never the end goal. What God wants is YOU! He wants your heart. He doesn’t just want your good deeds… What He wants you to do is get rid of anything that separates you from Him! So purge the sin. Purge the idols. Purge the thoughts. He wants ALL of YOU! He is madly in love with you and wants all of you!
And our righteousness comes from that place. The reason why we choose the good and refuse the evil – the reason why we choose the things of the Spirit over our sinful nature – the reason why we want to do good is because we’re so radically loved by God. Not to GET HIM to love us, but because He ALREADY loves us!
The church across the face of the earth needs this unstoppable righteousness again!
On May 1st & 2nd, torrential rains pummeled Nashville, TN and surrounding areas, bringing more than 13 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. The result was creeks, rivers and lakes overflowing, washing away roads, homes, livestock and livelihoods. In all 29 people died, thousands lost everything and the places we’ve come to know and love in Nashville were completely underwater – the Grand Ole’ Opry, Opryland Hotel, the Titan’s stadium, the Predator’s Arena, historic downtown and much more.
The storm and its catastrophic results are being called things like, “the 1000-year flood,” “the costliest non-hurricane disaster in the nation,” and “the worst disaster to strike Nashville since the Civil War.”
As Nashville’s sister-city to the south, many of us have friends and family there who’ve been impacted by the storm. A good deal of those we know reside in the residential areas hardest hit by the storm – Bellevue, Kingston Springs, Pegram & Dickson, TN. So, we’ve partnered with Cross Point Community Church (crosspoint.tv) to assist them as they focus their clean up and recovery efforts within these communities.
We are supporting Cross Point both financially and with volunteer assistance. Our first response team from Fusion departed on Friday, May 7th for a weekend trip to help demo homes and salvage belongings. (See the video update from that trip below.)
Additional teams continue to depart each weekend throughout the month of June. If you would like to be a part of a Nashville Flood Relief team, please email Josh Wilkinson at jwilkinson@victorywc.org for the information.
FLOOD RELIEF TEAM INFORMATION:
It is important to remember when considering volunteering for one of our teams that the work will consist of all manual labor – pulling up carpet, stripping dry wall, shoveling debris. Additionally, the accommodations will require you to bring a sleeping bag and air mattress.
View the Video Update from our Second Flood Relief Team:
View the Video Update of our First Response Team from Fusion:
During our services this past weekend, I was pleased to have Olin Holly, one of our Executive Pastors, share a message that God had put on his heart. He opened our newest series with a bold message about Courage. During the next few weeks, we’ll be uniting with over a thousand other churches around the world exploring the theme, Unstoppable. Rather than repeat most of what he said, I’d like to encourage you to listen to, watch and/or download his message here. We can all use more courage in our lives – so it’s a message well-worth hearing. For now here are a few highlights:
Courage is the ability to conquer fear; to act in accordance with one’s beliefs in spite of criticism, persecution or the possibility of failure.
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
“Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death.” – Harold Wilson
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” -Anais Nin
How can I have unstoppable courage?
I must have a real and personal relationship with God.
I need God’s perspective on my situation.
I must be confident that the Lord has already equipped me for success.
I cannot be hindered by the intentions or expectations of others.
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June 30th, 2010 by 
Dennis Rouse
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