LIVING VICTORIOUSLY

The speaker discusses the concept of living victoriously and highlights various aspects of a victorious life, such as peace, abundance, joy, liberation, triumph, and love. They address the misconception that living a life free of sin is unobtainable, emphasizing that victory over sin is possible. They also discuss the importance of having a balance between spiritual and natural aspects of life. The speaker mentions the criticism faced by preachers who teach prosperity and highlights the need to consider both sides of the story before forming an opinion. They explain that overcoming temptation is achieved through prayer and the word of God, rather than relying solely on willpower. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding and sympathizing with others' struggles and desires. They conclude by emphasizing that a victorious life includes both outward and inward victories. I want to talk about tonight, living victoriously. Living victoriously. Exodus 14, 1 through 14 would be my foundation, but of course, you know, I've got tons of scriptures that I use, but anyway, there's so many believers today that live defeated and unsatisfying and unpleasing lives who enter into the experience. They have never entered into the place where they can experience that peace in their life, that peace that's according to Isaiah 30 and 15, or that place of that overflowing life that John chapter 7, 37 through 39 talks about, or even the abundant life that John chapter 10, verse 10 talks about. Then there's also what's called the joyful life that's in John 15 and 11. The liberated life that's in Romans, excuse me, 6 and 7, then the triumphant life, which is in 2 Corinthians 2 and 14, and then last but not least, the loving life that is talked about in John 2 and 5. So you have the peaceful life, the overflowing life, the abundant life, the joyful life, the liberated life, the triumphant life, and then the loving life. What do we mean about living a life of victory or living victoriously? There are certain characteristics that we should consider when we're talking about living a victorious life. Now it is not a life in which it is impossible to sin, but it is a life in which we can gain victory over sin. That's possible. So the first thing is living a life free of sin is unobtainable in this life. We'll never get to that place where we won't sin, all right? But we can have victory over sin, and that life is attainable. It is not an abnormal life or a life to be enjoyed by just a few of God's believers. However, it is his provision that he makes for every believer, for us to be victorious in every aspect of our lives. I know many people sometimes have a lot of negative comments when you think about preachers like Creslo Dollar or the preachers that preach prosperity, and they're negative because we've always been taught that it's God's will for us to struggle, for us to be without, for us to, and some people just seem to think that that's just God's method and God's way for us to be. So they call people like Creslo Dollar or these that try to teach us how to give out of poverty or give out of being broke, they call them prosperity preachers. But the balance in life is this, okay? The only way that you can succeed in life is that you've got to have a balance spiritually and in your natural. I'm going to say this, when I learned better through the Spirit of God, it taught me some things because I used to accept what we call seed offerings. People come up and they say, oh, I need a healing, and they give you an offering, and you, oh, you're healing Jesus, man. Well, God told me to stop lying. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute, this is how God taught me, you're lying, because money, when people give their money in church, money can only produce what money can produce, and that's things in your natural. Your money is a seed that can only bring you what's connected to your money. So when you give money to the ministry or you give money, the only thing money is going to reproduce is money and whatever is connected to money. That means a job, a house, a bank account, whatever is connected to money. Money can't bring you spiritual, okay? If you want a healing, you've got to sow into the Spirit of God, and how you get that, you have to sow into the Spirit of God by faith. Anything that you want to obtain spiritually, you have to sow into the Spirit of God. When I got this revelation, it blew my mind, because I'm like, so all of this time that we've been putting down on preachers for teaching us, for trying to teach us how to be prosperous with our money, we talk down on them and we ignore them, but all the time they were right. Now, this is not the only thing that they preach, because Craig Lodalla preaches about grace, he preaches about salvation, and this, that, and the other. We can't help what people choose to play or choose to take one little thing. Y'all know how people do, they take one little thing and they just blow it up. They don't think about, and when we see it, we don't get the totality of the situation. That's why the Bible says this, get the conclusion of the whole matter. That means learn both sides of the story before you make a decision or you insert your opinion about something. We got to get the whole story, both sides of it, because sometimes we're so biased until some people are so credible to us that we take their word and we never hear the other side. This is so damaging to the believers, because a lot of people's credibility in the church and their credibility as believers has been damaged because people didn't wait to see the entire thing through. This is God's will and his provision for every believer. Let me go back to my notes, for us to be victorious, that's victorious spiritually and victorious in our natural. It is not a life where there is no temptation, but it is a life where we overcome temptation. To overcome temptation means that the scripture said that if you resist the devil, then he'll flee from you. That means when the temptation comes, you don't give in to your desires. You don't give in to the tricks of the enemy, but you resist him. The only way that we can do that is we resist him by prayer and through the word of God. Some of us try to do it with willpower, and I'm going to tell you, I've tried it. It's going to fail you every time. You'll be strong for so long, but if the right situation comes, you're going to fail every time, because willpower alone won't do it. Our minds aren't strong enough to resist fleshly desires, because we are in flesh. Whatever our flesh desires for us to have, or whatever we desire, our flesh wants what we want. Willpower alone, you've got to have some other power, which is the kingdom of God and the power of God working within your mind, working within your spirit, in order to help you to overcome the temptations of the world. I oftentimes use this example, because sometimes we as believers, again, we are so biased in certain situations. You see a man that has been strung out on crack, or is currently strung out on crack, and they're, oh, he ain't nothing but a crackhead. He ain't nothing but this, because you and I have not experienced being, quote-unquote, a crackhead or a drug abuser. We don't know the struggles that come with being a drug abuser, but think about the things that you do struggle with, that maybe the next person don't understand, see what I'm saying? Otherwise, what I'm saying is, there's something that all of us struggle with, and in order to become victorious, we have to be sympathetic toward each person's need, each person's desire, and each person's struggle. So, when the temptations come, you can't tempt me with crack, because I've never, you know, and I'm not just hounding in on that, but I'm just using that for an example. I've never been in a situation where I was an abuser of drugs. So, drugs of any nature, it won't tempt me, because I haven't tasted of that fruit, but there are fruits that I have tasted of, that if those things are brought before me, I just may fall. I just may trip and slip up, you know, because this is already what I desire, it's already what I want, I'm just being kept by God in my decision-making. But at any given time, I could fall victim to the temptation that's already inside of me. And this is what Paul was preaching, when he said, when I would do good, he was always present. He said, but then I find that there's a problem inside of me, there's another law working inside of me, and that law is seeded, okay? In other words, that is that desire that's displeasing to God, that's all sin is. We can name stuff all day, but anything that's displeasing to God, that's a sin. I mean, there's just no other way, no clearer understanding that we could have when it comes to sin, other than anything that's displeasing to God, that thing is a sin. So when temptation comes, it's not saying that because we live a victorious life that we're going to not be tempted. And see, I was tricked in church to believe that when you become delivered from something, all you know, they tell you, oh, when you deliver, you won't be bothered by such and such and such, and you want this and you want that, you can walk away from it. But I found that not to be true, because Paul said this, and it might have been Paul, it could have been James. It's one of the two. He said that a man is not tempted by something he doesn't already desire. So I was like, whew, that makes sense to me, because you can't tempt me, I don't like liver, okay, and I don't care how much you cook it, how good you make it look, you can smother that bad boy in gravy, put the onion on top, and have all of the trimmings. If I know it's liver, I don't want it. But not a steak, on the other hand, you got me. You understand what I'm saying? Because I love steak. In other words, you can't be tempted by something that you don't desire. I don't have a desire for liver. I don't like the little chicken liver things that they be frying at the chicken place, anything to do with liver. But I like gizzards, I like steak, I like chicken. What I'm saying is, I don't have a desire for something that I don't want. In other words, I'm not tempted by that situation of eating the liver, because I don't like it. In Hebrew, chapter 4, verse 15, it talks about that we won't live a temptation-free life, but we can overcome temptation, and you overcome temptation through the word of God. Watch this. The victorious life is not a life of an outward victory only, but it's also a life of an inward victory. It's a balance that's created in the life of the believer. Now, you got some people on the outside, they propose to be one thing. They go to church, they sing in the choir, they preach, they teach, they speak in tongues outwardly. But inside, they are defeated by the enemy. In other words, they have a mask on when they're around other believers, other people, because people have a tendency to look just like everybody else. But if we're going to be victorious, it starts from the inside first, and it works its way on the outside, because everything to do with us as a believer, it starts on the inside first. It starts within our spirit, and it manifests on the outside. A lot of times, it's the same way with planting the seed. You may be thinking that life starts as soon as you see the plant come from underneath the ground. You say, oh, there is life. But no, life starts under the ground, because what a seed does, it starts to take root underneath the ground. So life has already started when the seed begins to take root, because it's got to go down, and it has to find itself a foundation, number one, so it can continue to grow, and number two, so it can be strong and sure in its growth or in its stability as a plant. When it comes up from underneath the ground, that's just a manifestation of what has already taken place underneath the ground. When you and I become believers, it starts on the outside first. So many people get this confused, and I've watched people who get saved today, and they accept Jesus Christ, and tomorrow they've got this look on their face like everything around them stinks, and they judge other people for their shortcomings and for the things that they have in their life, and they totally forget about it, that that was a situation that you was in, that somebody had to love you through your situation. You know, it's kind of hard for a person to change. They will always be negative toward the situation that they're in. You know you shouldn't be smoking them cigarettes. That ain't what the Bible says. You know, I'm going to be like, listen, just don't even come around me. I'll figure this thing out. Because every time I see you, you've got to be talking to me like that. Sometimes just love a person through what they're going through, because I'm going to tell you, the best believers are the believers that other believers have been patient with and loved them through their situation. This is a process, okay? This is a process to live a victorious life. It is a process, and victory only comes through many defeats. All right? In some areas of our lives, some defeat had to come, and we had to go back and had to go through some challenges all over again in order to be victorious. Because if I'm defeated in this area, you go back and you analyze the situation, what caused me to fall into defeat? You say, okay, well, God, I was doing good up until this point, so this must be where everything went wrong. So now I'm going to analyze this, and I'm going to retake the challenge over again. Don't just walk away from it because it defeated you that time and say, oh, you know, I'm done with this Christian thing or this believer thing. I'm done with it. It ain't working for me. No, retake the challenge, but sit down and analyze what caused you to slip and fall, what caused you to fall into defeat. That's how you become victorious. Because in your mind, I've got to get a game plan together. That's just like football. When the team knows that they're going to play their rivalry, and their rivalry, not talking about a team that's normally a good team, it's a game worth going to watch, be it high school, college, or professional. They sit down and they study the plays of their best games that they won and their bad games. They study each one of their plays, and what they do is they build a defense against their plays. So if this is the play that they gained so many yards, they may have gained a touchdown or whatever have you. So now what the opposing team does, they watch the plays, and they devise a plan against their most popular play. So in life, I said all of that today. In life, when it comes to our believer's wall, the thing that caused us to be defeated, you've got to sit down and you have to analyze it. You have to come up with a plan in order to overcome that situation. That's how we become victorious. Let me go back to my notes. So it is not a fully grown life where we cannot further in grace, all right, which means that as long as we are alive, grace is there, and we'll be able to continue to grow in grace unto the death of Jesus Christ. The victorious life is a life of victory over sin, over ourselves, excuse me, and over Satan. There's a life of freedom from the power of sin as well as the penalty of sin. It is a life that we can own, not only do we reconcile to God by his son, but we're also saved through the life of Jesus Christ. Now watch this. When we talk about power of sin and the penalty, because sin within itself has a stronghold. It gives the enemy his ground to come in and to play. But then when we make wrong choices, we have to serve what's called the penalty from that sin. Otherwise you reap what you sow. And sometimes you'd be thinking you were reaping something that you did yesterday and you were reaping something that you did 10 years ago. You just hadn't caught up with all of your reaping yet. So you continue planting bad seeds, you're going to continue reaping bad seeds. Now oftentimes say this. An apple seed will bring you an apple tree that has multiple apples on it and multiple seeds. In other words, they continue to grow, they continue to multiply. That's just one seed. All right? So that means the harvest is always greater than the seed. You may think that you did a little bit of something and you're going to reap a little bit of something back. No, that's not the context of that scripture. You reap what you sow, which means if you sow a bad seed of something, then that harvest of whatever you sowed is what you're going to get. So you plant an apple seed, you get an apple tree. All right? So the harvest is going to always be greater than the seed, whether good or bad. All right? The harvest will always be greater than the seed. So we're talking about being victorious over sin, yes, being victorious over ourselves, because a lot of times it ain't even sin. A lot of times it ain't even Satan. Sometimes we are the problem. Sometimes we just got bad attitudes and don't even know why we got bad attitudes. That ain't the devil. That's just you caught up in emotions. Sometimes we just don't want to be bothered. I just wake up and I'm just grouchy. Just leave me alone. Just give me some time to come back to earth and I'm good. That ain't the devil. Nor is it a season to have or to feel bad. Sometimes we just got to learn that even though I'm in a bad mood, I can't just, you know, you can't be near the junkyard dog because you're in a bad mood. Because number one, it ain't the next person's fault that you're in a bad mood. You know, it ain't the person that you come into contact fault, the way you feel the way you feel. So when you address a situation, even though you feel bad, there's a certain way you still should address the situation. All right? So sometimes it ain't Satan. Sometimes it ain't sin that's the problem. Ninety-eight percent of the time it's us. What Satan will do is he'll take your little bit that calls you to be however you are, and he'll gaslight that thing so much so until, I mean, he hit the gas on it. It just turns out to be something that you didn't even want it to be. You're just like, well, you know, how did it go from this to that that fast? Because that's what he does. He's an escalator. He's a drama king. He's an escalator of problems and situations that come to discourage and that comes to keep you distracted. He gaslights that because he wants you looking at how bad it is, and he don't want you looking at the God side of it. All right? So that's how we live a victorious life. So now the question is, is this life really possible? It is God's will. Or is it God's will that we should live such a life of victory? Has he made provision for each of us and all of his children to be victorious along the line? If so, we sin against him by accepting and being satisfied with anything less than his will. If it's not God's will, it would be a sin against him to seek or to expect to live a life like this. So let's reverse this question for a moment. Is it God's will that we, his children, should live defeated lives? Is it necessary for us to be beset and overcame by such things as temper, touchiness, untruthfulness, and pride? So here go some scriptures that will help us. I mean Matthew 1 and 21. John 8, 36 through 34. Romans chapter 6, 7, and chapter 8. Which sums up, which is all that's summed up in Romans 6, chapter 14. Romans chapter 6, verse 14. Philippians 4 and 13. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3. 2 Timothy 4, 18. Hebrews 7, 25. 1 John 1 and 7 and 9. So it skips 8 and goes to 9. And then 1 John 2 and 1. These scriptures make it abundantly clear of what God's desire for his children is to experience a victorious believer's life. All of these scriptures that I read, they'll be on the website. I don't know if y'all be going on the app or not. But it'll be on there so you'll be able to read these scriptures in your leisure time. I think what I'm going to start doing is reading these scriptures. But I have so many to try to hunt these scriptures down. Then try to explain each one of them as I go over our time. I try to keep our time within a certain amount of time because a person's patience is only so long. So I try to keep everything that we do with life application within an hour. Sometimes even church. I try to keep it within an hour because if you just go on and on and on and on, folks ain't heard half of what you said because their attention has been somewhere else. So let me go to my note 3. So what is the secret of the life of victory? I'm going to go back. I've got four answers for you. I'm going to go back to the thing that I just said about the willpower. I kind of jumped ahead of my notes so I'm going to go here. The first secret is that this victorious life is not gained by human effort. We shall be on the way to living a life of victory when we truly have learned this simple lesson. It is absolutely impossible. To live in this life in our own strength. 1 Samuel 2 and 9 says, Here's a reason for all failure. When we have tried to gain victory over sin, self, and Satan in our own strength. And when we try to do it, I'm going to tell you, we're going to fail every time. Now you get a church full of folks that say that you can do this and you can do that. And they'll tell the believers, how can you do it? You tell them, I can't do this, don't do this, don't do this. Now you'll be crazy after a while if you listen to all the do's and all the don'ts. And you're trying to keep up with every little one in your head. There ain't God's will to put that type of pressure on the believer to try to keep up with a bunch of rules and a bunch of regulations. God simply wants our hearts right toward Him. Because if your heart is right toward Him, everything else within you is going to fall. And I'm not talking about the heart that beats and pumps the blood and it menaces the blood in your veins to your body. Not that heart. I'm talking about the heart of your mind. Because everything about us, it starts within our mind. So if our mind is focused in the right place, then everything about us is going to follow because our mind is in the right place. You think about getting up and going to work or getting up and going wherever you go every day. You first think about where you have to go. And almost ten times out of ten, you've got your route already planned, what way you're going to go. You don't just get in your vehicle and just start driving and say, oh, maybe I end up where I need to be if I just keep driving. No, you've got a certain way programmed in your head, planned out as to where you're going to go to get where you're going. It starts in your mind first. It's the same way in your believable walk with the Lord. You've got to get in your mind what way I'm going in this spiritual walk. You can't just walk this thing blindly and then just throw it on God. God guide me. Well, he can't guide somebody who ain't available to be guided. God first told walking the walk in order to be guided. You can't just think he's just going to come and just pick us up and just carry us where we need to go. No, we've got to start walking the walk in order to be guided. We've got to put an honest effort toward trying to get wherever we need to in the Lord in order for the Lord to guide us. All right. I got off track. I'm sorry. I hope I ain't losing you. Okay. God has excluded the work of man from every tenth of salvation. We are not saved from the guilt and the penalty of sin by our own words. Ephesians 2, 8 and 10, Titus 3 and 5. We are not saved from the power of sin by our own words. Romans 5 and 10. We shall not be saved from the presence of sin by our own words. John 14 and 3. All of this is illustrated in the scriptures that I gave at the beginning of the lesson in Exodus 14, 13 through 14. The victorious life is given to us as a gift. This is point number two. The victorious life is given to us as a gift. 1 Corinthians 15 and 57 makes it clear that the victorious believer's life is God's gift and it is offered to everyone who would receive it. Okay. I don't know why we... I'm doing... Hold on. What did I say? Where was I? 1 Corinthians 15 and 57 makes it clear that the victorious believer's life is a gift from God. It got me off track. I'm sorry. He offers this life to everyone who accepts the gift of the triumphant life of his son. The Lord Jesus Christ in human body triumphed gloriously in his life and by his death over sin and Satan. And it's now his victorious life that is offered to us as a gift to be received. So if I give you a gift, I'm not really expecting you to do anything to get the gift, but just receive it and to accept it. All right? And when we accept it and we receive what God has given to us, then we're able to enjoy all of the benefits of having a victorious life. There's only one victorious life. And when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, according to John 1 and 12, we receive that life. And sometimes we just have to realize that all it takes is just to accept what God has done and what God has given to us in order for us to be in another place. You know, when I really found out that being a believer in Jesus Christ was just so simple because the church has made this so dramatic until if you really think about what we've been taught as believers, you'd be like, well, I don't even measure up to become a believer because I ain't doing all that with, you know, such-and-such is doing. But it's a simple process. Confess what's in your mind, believe in your heart, and receive what God has given to you. You have to accept it. But then you receive it with gratitude is where you praise and you worship and you can be thankful unto God that shows your gratitude about what God has done for you. Note number three, this life is gained by a choice. And it's vital for us to see this. As long as we are in this world, we shall be faced with a choice. Joshua faced the children of Israel with a choice. Joshua 24 and 15, when he asked them, say, how long halt ye between two opinions? Say, if God is God, then follow him. If they are, then follow him. The choice involves a definite conscious act of the will. Every time we are tempted to sin, if we are to experience victory, we must deliberately choose to please the Lord. I'm going to say that again. Every time we are tempted by sin, in order to obtain and in order to experience victory, we have to deliberately choose to please the Lord. It goes back to my example when I was talking about being in a relationship in the natural. You want to do whatever it takes to please that person you're in a relationship with and you account for not to offend, not to hurt them intentionally or deliberately. But you deliberately try to continue to be in good standing with that person. It's the same way with our Lord Jesus Christ. We should deliberately, intentionally try to be in good standing with the Lord. Verse number four, victory is maintained by attitude. Victory is not only victory. Of course, victory is maintained. What then is the secret to a victorious life? Here it is. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus who has given us victory. In other words, if you focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, then victory has to follow you because our prime example of victory, victory over death, victory over Satan, all came through Jesus Christ. Now, the reason why the enemy has so much power and so much control is because the average believer doesn't know that this joker is already defeated. You have to know that when Jesus said, I went to hell and I took the keys from the devil, I defeated him. I defeated hell and death. That means that that fight has already been won. All right? And anything you and I go through as believers, I want you to hear this, anything you and I go through as believers, it's a fixed fight. Now, though you may get bumped upside the head, get a black eye, may get the jaw swollen a little bit in the middle of the fight, just know the victory is already yours. But if you go in defeated, talking about what ain't and what should be, complaining and, oh, it ain't this and, oh, nobody this and nobody that, guess what's going to happen? You're going to lose your battle every time because your mindset, it goes back to your mind. Have to make sure that our minds are in the right place, that we're focused on the right thing. Any time a team goes out to fight, they're focused on the victory. Now, sometimes because of the physical whatever it may be, they may not always win. But I may not win today. But as I say, I go back and I strategize. In order for me to be victorious, I got to take some Ls. But everything ain't going to be an L because see, what may seem like it's a loss ain't really a loss. It's just for me to go back and re-strategize, for me to regain so I can be victorious. Victorious is not a win. It's always a gain. So in order for us to strategize in our life, we take our defeats and turn them into victory, all right? Now, sometimes what the enemy will do is he'll tell you when you fail in certain areas as a believer. See, I told you. You get on that line every Sunday, every Thursday and look at you. You ain't no better. No, you are better. Some stuff just takes a process. But don't let that get into your mind because the change ain't for you to see. You ain't changing for you, nor are you changing for me or the other believers. You are changing for the Lord. And so God sees what none of us can see concerning your life. You just keep continue pressing and keep continuing to do what you do. And don't let the enemy cause you to become discouraged, all right? Any questions? Any concerns? So we talked about living a victorious life, what is meant by a life of victory, and is it even possible to live this type of life? What is the secret of a victorious life? I'm going to go over those again just to plant them in our memory. It's not gained by human effort. The victorious life is a gift. The victorious life is gained by choice and is maintained by our attitude. You heard me say the other night that your attitude determines your altitude. So whatever your attitude is concerning a thing will be how far you can excel in it. If you go into it and you're already doubting and you're already talking down on it. See, I hate going into something and being with a bunch of folk and they're already talking down on it because you just changed the whole dynamic of what we're trying to do. That's why it's easy. That's why we have to be with one accord because if you've got folk with you and you're trying to accomplish something, everybody's mind has to be in the same place. But if you get that one joker that's on the side that, oh, man, I don't, you know, they've already destroyed it.