Welcome to the Victory Blog

We, the pastors and staff of Victory World Church, would like to wish you and all your family and friends a very happy Thanksgiving!

We are tremendously grateful to be a part of this body together with you. Thank you for all the ways in which you make Victory such a great body of believers!

As we celebrate this holiday, may the Lord pour out abundant blessings on you and fill your heart with gratitude because of his great love and kindness!

I have to give God the praise and glory for my husband’s deliverance. When I got married, my husband was under the influence of a religious group that instructed their members that if they did not worship on Saturday, they would be condemned to hell. This issue has been a constant fight in or household. I was even told my baby would grow up confused and turn her back on Christ because of this difference. And, I must admit, I had a constant fear about this being a reality.

I would preach and preach and preach to him about this religion. But then, God told me to stop and just pray. Now, keep in mind, my husband’s entire family partake in this religion which was passed down to them by their grandparents. So, I prayed and prayed…and prayed.

At first my husband would not dare step foot in a church that worshiped on Sundays for fear of being condemned to hell. But, after many prayers, he agreed to allow me to take my 5-month-old daughter to church. However, due to health issues, I have been unable to bring her alone. So, being the great husband that he is, he agreed to go with me. Now, he’d gone from not ever wanting to attend Sunday service to attending by assisting me…EVERY SUNDAY! Each Sunday, Pastor Dennis would preach, and my husband liked his preaching. Although worship was different to him, he liked it too. And, over the past five months that this has been going on, every time he would criticize the church, God would prove him otherwise.

Well, two Saturdays ago, he prayed with me. He wants to know God, not religion. He wants to experience the God he sees at Victory that he was always forbidden to accept. He said that in his spirit, he feels Victory is the place the Lord wants him to be; that God revealed it to him boldly and clearly. But, he still kept fighting it because he feared what his family would say.

So, I kept praying for this stronghold to be removed, and God answered last Sunday! My husband went to church with me and the youth pastor did an altar call. Guess who went up for repentance and has now decided to break off all bondages from the old religion and become a member at Victory?! He now reads the Bible more and prays more. Thank you, Jesus, and thank you, Victory!!! ~ Nikki S.

What does it look like to live every day with God? Grace has been a large part of this series, but I would be amiss if I did not mention the very key to God’s treasure is found in understanding the role that reverence should take in each of our individual lives. Reverence causes the grace of God to flow freely to us, and it undeniably involves the fear of the Lord.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. (Hebrews 12:28 NKJ)

So many scriptures address this holy fear that we should possess in every area of our lives. The Bible says in Isaiah 33:6 (NIV) that,”He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”

Very few times do we really explore what it means to possess the fear of the Lord. It should be evident in our daily lives as we are commanded to reverence him many different ways.

1. We are to reverence him in our lifestyle.
2. We are to reverence him in our stewardship.
3. We are to reverence him in our body.
4. We are to reverence him in our church.

We are to lead a lifestyle of purity in our relationships, in our entertainment choices and in our daily living. It seems that sometimes we have more faith in God’s forgiveness than we do in our own ability to live out a holy life. We don’t always recognize that He has and will continue to equip us with the tools that we need to lead a reverent and holy lifestyle.

We are to honor the Lord with all of our possessions and this includes, but is not limited to, our tithes and offerings. The Lord has equipped us with abundant resources and we must make sure that we are offering Him our first fruits. What we choose to do with our money tells the Lord whether or not we are leading a righteous life according to Malachi 3.

God’s Word should dictate our righteousness, not our bodies or flesh. We are so inundated with so many things that directly go against the Word of God, and we are to set our standard based on His Word, not based on our society. We should flee sexual immorality and honor our bodies as His temple.

We must value the things of God so much so that we no longer wander into church whenever we feel like it, but rather, we make it a priority to be present during worship in anticipation for the service. We have such a desire to see His presence stronger, and we must be willing to reverence Him so that we can be witnesses to His many signs and wonders. If we desire to walk with Him daily, then we are called to be set apart.

Listen to this challenging message in its entirety online here.

Our struggles with debt started before we even got married. Going into marriage, we both had a good bit of debt, and because of it, we did not have a big wedding. In the five years that followed, we built up $40,000 in debt. We had credit card debt, a repossession and car loans. Things got really difficult, especially when I lost my job.

Even in the midst of trying to pay off our irresponsible debt, we also incurred significant debt to the IRS and the Georgia Dept. of Revenue, which was by no means an irresponsible debt, but still more debt nonetheless. Then, my husband Carl lost his job due to an auto accident while on the job. At the same time, our tax bills got higher. And, as a result of the accident, we incurred quite a lot of medical debt. Things were so bad financially during this time, that all we could afford to pay each of our creditors was $10/month. We felt so hopeless… It felt like nothing was working. But, we really started pouring our hearts out to God in prayer…a lot, asking God to help us with the mess we were in.

Then, after about 10 months of this, God totally blessed us with all the funds to pay off our debt! We received an insurance settlement as a result of the accident that provided us with the funds to pay off all of our debt, including our car payments. And now, we are 100% debt free!!! And, all the glory goes to God!!!

I can’t even begin to explain how humbled and grateful we are for this blessing from our Father. As we look back over the last couple of years, I remember the verse where Jesus says, “…you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.” (Matt. 25:21 NKJ) That rings so true for our situation. Looking back, we see that if our debt was all paid in full years earlier, we still would not have been mature enough to handle it.

But because we had to endure it for even longer, we now know what TRUE FREEDOM is, and that we want to live debt free. No more stupid decisions, and blowing money! We are doing things the Dave Ramsey way!!!

And even now, after we have become debt free, we also see doors have been opening financially that we would have never expected. We see that being good stewards of our money definitely has its rewards! ~ Shannon & Carl K.

Guest Speaker and VWC friend, Peter Pretorius shared a powerful and compelling message exhorting each of us to reexamine God’s message of love. God’s love (Agape Love) is a love without boundaries and it holds the key to the very foundation by which Jesus teaches each of us to live out our lives.

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48 (NIV)

Christ consistently admonished His followers to love all people especially those who persecute and abuse us. This teaching goes against many of our natural inclinations; which typically draws us toward those who treat us well. Yet, our Lord calls us beyond just those people whom we are comfortable with… He calls us to do more than to tolerate those people who treat us wrong. He commands us to love them! We are called to a higher standard and we are reminded that the challenge is not in loving those that love us but rather it is found in loving those who seem unlovable.

Our sonship with Christ comes with knowing that we are a child of God and also in accepting Him as Lord over our life. The love that is demonstrated through this relationship is different today because now the Love of God is shared abroad. It is not limited to a certain group of people and is not hindered by the type of person. We must understand how God’s family works… it operates in love and we are called to live our lives in the very same way.

Remember, we are pilgrims of this world. This is not our home – our reward is found in eternity. We will never fully realize this reward here on earth, but we must keep an eternal mindset in order to succeed in all that we are called to do.

As John 14:21 tells us, “He who has my commandments and keeps them is He who loves me and I will manifest myself to Him” (NCV) If we begin to operate in the same love that Christ has shown us, then we will no longer be preaching or loving for our calling sake, but rather we will experience a heart that is broken for the people of this world. Imagine how the Lord can manifest Himself when we make ourselves readily available to his commands! People will begin to see Christians in a different light, rather than see us as exclusive or judgmental, they will see us as a body of believers who love. What an awesome thought – that we can first be seen as people who love.

To watch this message online, click here.

Special thanks to Lydia Gaddis, volunteer writer, for writing this great synopsis of our weekend experience.

A few years ago, I sent Chris McNeill (Family Ministries) an email in regards to enrolling into With This Ring. Tim – my then boyfriend and father of my children – and I where going through complete heck. I asked her if we could please enroll in the class even though we did not have all the money to pay for it to help save our relationship and family. She told us to pay what we could when we could and not to worry about anything, and then, she signed us up! We ending up paying $5-$15 each time we went to class.

We completed the class in November and still had to deal with issues between the two of us. But this time it was different; we were knowledgeable of ways to “fight” without craziness and give without taking. It developed a thirst to learn about one another and to get closer to God on an individual level. Tim and I separated for a while to get ourselves in line with the Word, and then we were married on March 25th, 2009, growing more in love and in God each day.

Yes, we still have issues, but now we also have forgiveness. In the past, we were physically, mentally and emotionally tearing each other apart. Now, we are lifting each other up in Christ. I just had to say, “THANK YOU!!” Throughout my life, I have had a many turning points – molested and then fearful of relationships, so I avoided them; abandoned by my father so I trusted no one; moving to GA, then thinking stability was a luxury – but you were a turning point that led me to a strong and rooted faith and to breaking those curses.

Thank you for being a positive turning point. I was angry, but now I have unexplainable joy. Through God, you saved my family, my relationship with the Lord and, in some ways, my life! Now, I work at the same company with my hubby, we’ve had another baby (that makes 3), and I can say proudly that we are HAPPILY married and extremely blessed! If you ever wonder if you really have touched anyone’s life, the answer is: yes! You’ve touched my life, my husband’s, my three children’s – who now live in a healthy household – and the lives of generations to come after us; all because of a simple “sure” to a girl you’d never laid eyes on. Who knew “sure” could be so powerful?!? Again, thank you! I just had to let you know how grateful I am to you, the With This Ring class and VWC! ~ Desidamona W.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been dealing with different aspects of what it means to live a life “With God.” Today, I want to talk about one of the most important things to understand when it comes to living in the fullness of everything God wants to do in your life: GRACE.

What is grace? Well, it has been described variously as:

• God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
• God’s aggressive inclination to show kindness and bestow favor
• God’s power released on our behalf
• God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves

And, there are all kinds of facets of Grace: Saving Grace, Healing Grace, Serving Grace, Standing Grace, Restoring Grace, Financial Grace, etc.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Yet, most of us don’t know how to live or walk in grace. Over and over again, we live life, interacting with God and others, as if it’s all up to us. Much of this has to do with our American culture, which teaches us that if we’re going to get anything in life, we’ll have to earn it ourselves. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for grace.

But that’s not the life God created us for. And it’s certainly not the life that Jesus, our model, lived. When you study the life of Jesus it becomes apparent that perhaps the closest word that you could use to describe Him is “GRACE.”

So, how do we walk in God’s grace? How do we live in it and cooperate with it? How do we live a life where God’s grace is constantly flowing in and through us? Well, for starters, we need to understand a few things about grace:

1. Grace is a free gift from God.
2. Grace functions through righteousness.
3. Grace must be received by faith with invitation.

Now, I’d like to break those down for you, but really I don’t have room to do it justice here. So, if you want to experience life without shame and condemnation, take a little time and watch the message about grace that I gave this past weekend during our services. Once you get a hold of this powerful and foundational truth, your life will never be the same again!