Victory in relationships is not illustrated through overcoming another individual. Remember, Jesus said “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) therefore it’s not our goal to overcome people but to overcome division and dissension through pursuing unity, choosing humility and walking in victory!

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Today, we are declaring victory in our purpose! You may be asking “How can I declare victory when I don’t see my purpose or consider victory amidst my failures?” I’m glad you asked because for every declaration we lift this week, there’s scriptural context that validates your claim. When it comes to purpose, God declares and demonstrates throughout the Bible how He created us with purpose and it’s His will that we fulfill it. So much so that He will cause everything to conform to our purpose in accordance to His perfect will. Therefore, I want you to know that God has a wonderful plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). Don’t become discouraged by damage, delays or loss you experience along the way, as it’s all working together for the good (Romans 8:28). You can confidently declare victory in your purpose as God created you to be victorious!

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Along with this powerful declaration of victory in our minds, I want to provide you with strategy to see it manifested. This is necessary because faith without works is dead, therefore we must couple our faith with strategic works to experience the power of our words. The word of God pro-vides much strategy for winning in the mind, but here are two I want to share with you today:

1. Choose your thoughts. In Philippians 4:8, Apostle Paul encourages us to think only on things that are positive and edifying. This is important because for so many, our minds have been conditioned to identify what’s wrong in our lives, marriages, finances, and health but we cannot find a trace of what’s right. What Paul is telling us is that we must be proactive in our thinking and choose our thoughts rather than allowing our thoughts to come and go as they please, robbing us of our peace, joy and hope. When we choose our thoughts, we choose the direction of our lives.

2. Separate yourself from the past. Throughout the generations, people have become grossly obsessed with the past. We see this in almost every area of life: in conversation, traditions, and even social media memories. While history helps us to see where we’ve come and can even help us navigate the future, we must not confuse the past with our present. It is possible to become so obsessed with the past that we are unable to look ahead to the future. This obsession is accompanied by limitations and is severely debilitating. We can be limited by both past success and failures – a limitation fueled by fear of never matching that success again or never seeing success at all. Either way it goes, as long as we hold to the past, we will never see what’s ahead. This is why Apostle Paul encourages us to forget what’s behind a strain toward what is ahead (Philippians 3:13b). It’s a strain because our minds are married to the past, but our hope and future cannot be found in our past, only in Christ.

Make a decision to walk in victory in your mind by choosing your thoughts and separating your-self from the past. Walk by faith in the strategies found in God’s word.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” - Philippians 4:8 NIV

“…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” - Philippians 3:13b NIV
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“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!” - John‬ ‭8:44-45‬ ‭NIV‬‬

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6 NIV

Throughout His ministry, Jesus made a clear distinction between that which is true and false – the Truth vs the lie. He describes Satan as not only a liar but the father of lies. As much as he desires to place himself above God, the creator of the heavens and earth, Satan is attributed credit for creation of lies – nothing else. So, while he’s a liar through and through, Jesus is declared as the un-disputed Truth. In fact, He’s “the way and the truth and the life.” Everything was created by this Truth therefore it has the power to sustain, whereas an attempt to create or build on lies will always result in failure. Today, I want you to begin to displace the lies of Satan with the Truth of God. This requires you to do two things: 1. Receive the Truth and 2. Reject the Lie!


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Jesus told his disciples that He has already overcome the world. James encouraged us to consider it pure joy when we face trials! Therefore, when you walk through a stormy season knowing that you’ve already won you begin to look at things differently. You will talk differently, walk differently, think differently.

In the face of trials:
1. Don’t defend yourself. Defense is only necessary when there’s chance of losing.
2. Celebrate the goodness of God
3. Look for the opportunity to grow

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There are two types of sickness: the physical kind that's tied to something going wrong in the body, and the mental kind that's tied to some sort of chemical or emotional issue. No matter the type of sickness it's resolved by the same cure: the blood of Jesus. As the prophet, Isaiah, looks through the lens of eternity, he captures a glimpse of the Savior taking a beating for the sins and sickness of the world. Yet as brutal as the scene was, Isaiah recognized that by His stripes – by each wound, it was the key to our eternal healing. Therefore, in the case of sickness, the verdict is victory!

"Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)

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Death is something that so many of us have feared throughout life. It’s something that has the power to alter lives, break hearts and disrupt plans to say the least. When looking at death, we must consider it in relation to the resurrection. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Apostle Paul spends time discussing both death and the resurrection throughout chapter 15. The key difference in the two is that death is an event on a timeline, whereas the resurrection is not simply an event but the person of Jesus Christ (John 11:25). Because the personhood of Resurrection is eternal by nature, this means that He stands above a singular event because He stands on the other side of death. Therefore, because of Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection, we who are in Christ have victory over death because it has been overcome by Jesus. So, when it comes to the case of Death, the ver-dict is victory!

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“When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.” - ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2:13-15‬ ‭MSG

Today we're going to review the case against the sin of man. This is an age old case that began shortly after the beginning of time – after the creation of man. God planted the first outpost of heaven called the Garden of Eden and placed inside of it man to til it so that it would grow. The Garden was an extension of God's Kingdom and operated under His law. The historical record of Genesis says that God blessed them, issued their assignment and then gave them a single command. This command was given by first showing them what's available to them for eating and then the one thing that's not – the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Doing so would result in a sure death.

Adam and Eve continued to live freely and peacefully until one day a serpent came to Eve while she was apart from Adam and began to question her about the command of God. This led to the deception of both Adam and Eve and they ate of the forbidden fruit, breaking the command of Heaven's law. This one act changed everything. Immediately, shame flooded their hearts as they realized they were naked. They went and created clothes out of fig leaves to cover their shame. When they heard God coming through the Garden, the two of them hid themselves. Upon discovery, God recognized that the creation that He made limitless and become limited by sin through the deception of Satan who posed as a serpent.

God issued out judgements on the three of them, Adam, Eve and the Serpent. Because sin cannot exist in the Kingdom of Heaven, Adam and Eve had to leave. From this time, rather than the expansion of God's Kingdom, the expansion of sin spread throughout the world like a virus, causing the first worldwide pandemic. You should know that from this point, Satan had cases against every human being from birth through death because of one man's act of Sin.

The good news is that this isn't where the story ends!  Paul describes in Romans 5:19 "19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." Jesus reversed the curse of sin, rescuing man from death and giving access to life everlasting by simply believing in Him. Therefore, when it comes to the case of sin, the verdict is victory!

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Today, I want to put you in the seat of the accused, having many charges brought against you. The prosecution is about to cross-examine you, however the Judge asks this question: Have they been read their rights? The prosecutor reluctantly says "No." So the bailiff comes over with an old and says these words to you:

"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." Romans 10:9-10 NIV

Satan doesn't want you to know this, but you have a right to salvation. And there's only one thing required to receive it and that's your faith. If you accept Jesus as your savior and believe God raised Him from the dead, you are saved.

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The reward that we're highlighting today is for the Church of Philadelphia. Jesus acknowledged they were small in strength yet He honored their good works and patient endurance. Then He expressed that the reward for the victorious will be strength, stability and signature.

In Revelation 3:12, Jesus says that He will make the victorious one like a pillar in the temple of God. Pillars are strong posts that support the weight of the building. In other words, by using this comparison, Jesus implying the perfected strength of the believer. This reminds me of the words Jesus spoke to Paul in 2 Cor 12:9 (NKJV) “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” He's letting us know that as long as we don't give up, He'll perfect our strength.

Jesus continues and speaks to the stability of the victorious one, saying "Never again will they leave it." I can relate to this in the sense of all of the times that I was physically present but had left the church in my mind. I wanted to quit but I stuck with it and kept a 'whatever it takes' mentality. Nevertheless, I endured and continued to show up every day and the reward for this patient endurance is unshakeable stability. This is why apostle Paul said, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor 15:58 KJV).

Lastly Jesus revealed that the victorious one would receive three signatures: the name of the Father, His city and the Son. When I see this, I think of companies that sell an array of baseline products but then they have their signature line. This is the elite class of products that not only receive their logo but also their signature. When I think of us as people, we've all been created in the image of God but only the victorious will receive His signature. This honor is only set aside for those who refuse to give up even with the little that they have.

Friend, I encourage you to stick with it! There's a great reward for you on the other side of your endurance. Use what you've got and God will reward you with what He has: strength, stability and signature.

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