Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "Victors still go after the goodies of this world, but they have a solid place to hang onto when the goodies don’t show up. That solidness is the prosperity of the soul that only comes from God." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 117. I was talking with a friend of mine today about prayer. He was saying that he read a book that had a line in it about what we pray for. The author said that if our dreams don't scare us then we aren't praying big enough things for our life. I believe this is an important element of prayer that we need to have in order for prosperity in the soul to be a reality in our lives. As we talked more about what "big dreams" might even mean, we saw how hard it is to define what big looks like to a BIG God. What we might think is big is nothing to this God that towers over all we know in this world. Our bigness might be a healing in our lives or in the life of a loved one. Big to us might be getting that job that seems so far out of reach. The things in this world that come against us can look like giants when we view them from the perspective of what they might mean to how we live this life. I think we need our perspective to be changed so that bigness can return to our dreams. Moses had to deal with this situation when he lead the Nation Israel out of captivity into the desert. They were on the verge of making happen the Big plan this big God had for their lives. As they prepared to enter into their new homeland, Moses sent in twelve spies to scope out what lay ahead. Check out what happened as those spies returned to report what they saw. But the others said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.” Numbers 3:31-33 (MSG) Ten of the spies came back in fear. All they could see was the bigness of those that inhabited the land God promised was their own. Only Caleb and Joshua could see the bigness of their God trumped how big the inhabitants were. Sadly, Israel ended up wandering the desert for 40 years as they let their fear of God's dream for them stop them from moving forward. How many of us are stuck in victim thinking because the dreams God is putting on our heart has our vision of Him so distorted? It is when we choose to let fear rule our decision making process that the bigness of God goes by the wayside. Israel forgot that God said this land was their own. They assumed that fact meant that they would be the ones who had to do everything to make that dream a reality. All they could see was the size of their opponents. This kept them from seeing how much larger their God was than anyone who might stand in the way of what God said was going to happen. I don't blame the people for their fear for one second. It is scary to do the things God has given us to do. This world is filled with frightening prospects, especially when God hands out tasks that are way bigger than our abilities might be able to pull off. That's the mistake Israel made then and we continue to make now. We think that making God sized dreams happen is all up to us. That kind of thinking makes it possible for us to wander in the desert as well. I can't tell you how many times I have been stuck in places I'd rather not have been simply because of the fear of moving forward. It is in those times that I have found that the perspective from which I am viewing my situation needs to be changed. When I let my thou

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "Religion says, 'If you do this, God will do that' (and the other way around)." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 82. There are few things in this world that set us up for failure, and ultimately victim thinking, than does thinking that what I do will guarantee someone else to react in ways that meet my expectations. This kind of formula driven life doesn't work with relationships with people. Why in the world do we think it will work with a relationship with God? I can't tell you how many Bible based preachers I have heard speak in ways that make it sound like God is obligated to give us what we want if we obey what He tells us in the Bible. What is so amazing is that their formula driven messages are based on scripture. Take a look at how one such scripture with me now.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Malachi 3:10 (NIV) I have heard countless messages that go something like this. Test God with your tithe. Give your tithe to God and He will bless you. It isn't that the preachers are making this stuff up. That's what today's reading says. Give to God what He asks and you will be blessed.  I have no doubt that what God is saying in today's reading is true. If I follow His ways, including giving to Him what He asks, I will be blessed. It is when I allow my expectations as to what that blessing is to look like, be what God has to meet, that the potential for failure and victim thinking enter the picture. It is when I apply a quid-pro-quo kind of approach to God's Word that misunderstanding and ultimately victimization is going to be the result. You see, God is God. He can do whatever He wants to do, whether I obey Him or not. He might choose to bless me with the kinds of provision that I want as part of my life as a result of my choosing to tithe to Him. He might just as well choose to bless me with something that doesn't even come close to what provision might need to look like in my life. It isn't that God doesn't bless us that is the problem. It is that we expect God to bless us in a way that we choose. When we allow our expectations to be what we look to for proof that God is a man of His word, that this world just doesn't make sense.  I hate to be so blunt about this, but putting my expectations on God's shoulders sounds more like a demand to me. If God is who He says He is, who am I to tell Him what to do. Yet that's what I do as I take scripture, turn it into a formula and then expect God to hold up His end of the bargain by meeting my expectations. That's such a victim thinking way of relating to this God that loves us.  It is when we let God be God that victors have the potential to live this life with the kinds of power and perspective needed to make it in this world. Letting God be God happens when we shelve our expectations and let Him bless us in the ways that will best serve His plan for our lives.  I don't tithe because I'm going to get something back from God that I want. I tithe because I have been given something I can never repay. Before I ever knew what a tithe was, I was been blessed with a mercy, the value of which far surpasses any financial well being I might want in my life. Maybe that's what our reading today is talking about. When it comes to blessings that result from giving God what He asks, maybe our blessing is God Himself! Maybe I need to be asking myself if I think God is enough of a blessing or do I expect more from Him in my life? Victim thinking can't help but to be the result as we let our ex

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** In the previous three presentations on thanks, I described how I had somehow lost what the words "thank you" really meant in my life. I took time to study the word "thanks" in the Bible and as to it's origin in the English language. I found that we need to have our eyes open to the fact that there is so much to be thankful for. It is when we recognize that God has done so much for us that thanksgiving can be a valuable characteristic, even in the bad times that come our way. When we confess our thanksgiving, things change in this world. We also learned that the word "thanks" is really all about being grateful for the fact that someone would have given your life some thought at all. When we say thank you for something someone did of us, we are really saying, "thank you for thinking of me." The fact that God thinks of us at all is something we have good reason to be thankful for, even when we are in situations we would rather trade at that moment. Today I want to focus on the fourth characteristic of the word "thanks" I found in my studies. This one is kind of weird. At first I really didn't understand what was trying to be conveyed, but WOW, does this element of the word "thanks"have power to it. Let's dive right in. There’s an element in one of the words used as "thanks" in the Old Testament of the Bible that is really kind of strange. In one of the definitions of the word translated as "thanks" there is this notion of casting down. The definition uses phrases like to throw down, to shoot and to cast when it defines the original language word translated as "thanks in certain verses in the Bible. How do these concepts relate to the word "thanks?" I believe that this particular definition of "thanks" is pointing to our need to be intentional about giving thanks. It is so easy to just be in the moment without recognizing the power of God in that moment. Hard times make that doubly easy for us to do. Just keeping our head above water in the bad times is a full time job. Recognizing to be thankful takes a lot of effort. Sometimes the energy and the drive to make that effort happen just isn’t there. When that drive to be thankful isn’t there, God still loves you! Even that point makes it that much more evident of our need to give thanks. When you are in a place where you can’t give thanks, Thank God because He doesn’t condemn you and go about dealing with whatever comes at you that moment. The more we do that the more we will recognize the power of giving thanks. I thought long and hard about what God was saying when He used a word for Thanks that can convey a meaning of cast down or throw down or shoot. Then it hit me. This is speaking of determination. In the Book of Ruth, we learn of this foreign woman who shows great determination to live a life of serving as a result of her being thankful. Ruth's determination literally changed history as far as God's people are concerned. Check out today's reading with me now. But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. Ruth 1:16-18 (NIV) That's how we are to be when it comes to thanks in our life. We are to be as doggedly determined as Ruth was to follow Naomi. We are to be thankful and cast out our thanks because things change when we are that determined with the power of thanks. I remember a movie about a Christian couple facing some interesting challenges in their life. One of the issues they faced came as they were trying so hard to have a baby. Time and time again they failed to get pregnant. One more time the wife found herself in the OBs office waiting on the results of a p

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "Victims are trapped in a viscous cycle of trying to live up to impossible standards." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 60. When I mention impossible standards, it is so easy to think of those standards others have put on us. Our family of origin. Our church. Our bosses, Our spouses. There are times when even those the most close to us can have expectations that make standards something almost impossible to ever meet. Bad thing is that almost every standard we have for ourselves is just as impossible to meet when we are the judge of living up to that standard.  For the vast majority of us, we are our own worst critics. I can't tell you how many times someone has paid me a compliment that I easily shrug off because I just don't believe that they are right. My standards for what they are complimenting me on are so much higher than theirs must obviously be. I don't know why I can't see my life like others seem to be able to see it. I can't help but to believe that I have made my standards of excellence something that no one will ever be able to achieve.  I'm beginning to think that it isn't because we aren't good enough when it comes to our standards. I'm beginning to think that it is because we can't maintain our standards consistently that brings doubt to our judgement. Whether my standards include being a good dad, a good provider or a good mate to my spouse, it is consistency that troubles me more than ability. Let me explain that a bit more.  You see, there have been times when I have no doubt that I was a good dad. Same goes for being a provider and husband. That's not what trips me up. It is that there also those glaringly obvious times when I haven't been able to raise up to my standards in these important areas. Even if I messed up only once, my judgement of myself it tainted to the point where doubt can really rule the day. That's the place victim thinking likes to take over.  No, it isn't the standard that is the problem. It is my ability to consistently maintain that standard that gets me into trouble. Want to know something? I believe this fact is such a God thing it isn't even funny.  You see, that feeling of not being able to maintain my standards is exactly why Jesus is so important in my life. Perfection is required in order for me to relate to this God that loves me. There are times when I might be able to say that perfection was the result of what I did. But then there are those times when perfection was the furthest thing from my actions. It is those times I failed to achieve the standards that make me doubt my ability to ever meet the standards of this all powerful God.  God knew that's how we would be in this fallen world. We just can't maintain the ability to operate at perfect levels for very long. Our failure at being perfect makes us doubt who we are and that ushers in victim thinking in ways that cause pain and suffering all around us. God's answer was for us to be seen perfect through a perfect being like His son. In other words, my standards mean nothing when I trust the ability of a perfectly suited being to meet all the standards I need to relate to this God of mine. What an amazingly unselfish and freedom making plan.  Check out today's reading in light of our efforts to get to rise to some level of standard in our lives.  Listen, Heavens, I have something to tell you.    Attention, Earth, I’ve got a mouth full of words.    My teaching, let it fall like a gentle rain,        my words arrive like morning dew,    Like a sprinkling rain on new grass,        like spring showers on the garden.    For it’s God’s Name I’m preaching—

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** Much of what I'm going to talk about today came about as a result of sitting in on an amazing presentation by Ken Baugh. If you want to learn more about this man and the wisdom he is imparting, go to his website at idtministires.com and check out the link to the Abundant Living In Christ series. Ken recently finished his doctoral thesis. He did what was thought the impossible. He compiled a work that brings together psychology, nueo-psychology and spirituality together in a way where meaningful change can really happen. For the lay person like myself, this is very heady stuff. All I know is that what I have been able to learn from Ken is so much in line with the entire discussion of victor living. Today I want to touch on a few points Ken presented recently on memory and how our brain functions to help make behavior happen. Ken made a point of how amazing our brains are. God wasn't kidding when He said we are "fearfully and wonderfully made". You don't have to go any further than the human brain for evidence of this Biblical truth. Ken said that our brains have a tremendous ability to store information. He found that there is enough memory capacity in a single human brain to store all the raw data that is currently on the Internet. Ken said that our brains have the capacity to store all the information about everything that we have experienced in all our lives. That means, every detail, every smell, every sight, every single thing that our senses registered about an event is stored in our brains. He pointed this out because of the fact that our brains play such a key role in how we behave in our lives. Our thinking is the driving force when it comes to how we handle situations that come our way. Ken has been telling us that our thinking is shaped by the memories that are stored in the deep recesses of our mind. That's why a certain smell can trigger feelings about a situation. If that odor that triggers a particular thought was registered during a stressful situation, your reaction to smelling that odor now might not be all that positive. If that odor is a reminder of a particularly pleasant time in your life, your reaction could be completely different. Memories influence our thinking which, in turn, influences our behavior. Why is all this important? It is because our thinking is all we really have control of in this life. We can't control what happens to us. We can't control how others will treat us. All we have is the ability to choose how we will react to what happens to us. The difference between those who live like the victors God wants us all to be and those of us stuck in victim thinking is that victors pay more attention to how they think. Ken said that, as amazing as our brains are, they are pretty lazy when it comes to processing memories. Our brain likes to be able to systematize thoughts and memories in a way that create responses that are easily duplicated. In other words, our brains don't like to rehash feelings and memories to create new behavior because that takes up valuable resources. Our brains like to keep those power packed resources available for situations that might lead to life or death. That's not a bad plan, but most of what we face today has so little to do with life or death. I want my brain more focused on making freedom what I experience. That freedom just doesn't happen when all I do is live out of a place of automatic response. Back to our familiar odor response example from above. When we first connected that odor to some situation in our lives, our brain remembered how we reacted. When that odor comes around again, the brain likes to go into auto-pilot mode and react like it always has. That takes the least resources which makes our brain happy. All that is OK unless how we react causes others damage in some way. It is when behaviors are conditioned by responses to memories that haven't been processed against the truth that victim th

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "God wants the best for me – His desires are for my best." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 44. God wants the best for you and for me. How could He not want the best if we are, in fact, His Children. Unfortunately we tend to think the best means that we will never face trials of any kind. How victimizing it is when bad times hit the Child of God who misunderstands what God’s goodness might look like in their lives. Here’s what happens when the victor is subjected to badness if their view of what God’s goodness is isn’t seen from the correct perspective. If we have a wrong view of what God’s goodness looks like, when bad times come we tend to let doubts enter into our thinking as to God’s character. We start to see our lives as being separate from who God is in this world. When we are going through bad times, we can believe the whispers of Satan that make us think we aren't important to this God that made us. We can buy into the narrative that God doesn't exist when His existence is questioned because of a set of terrible circumstances in our lives. When that happens, victim thinking can really take over. When the bad times hit it is critical that our view of God, and of what His goodness looks like, be secure in the victor’s heart. Take a look at this subject in light of today’s Bible reading. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 (NIV) The victor finds courage, stability and peace from the fact that God doesn’t change. He isn’t the “nice god” today that gave you that victory and the “naughty god” tomorrow when that victory seems to elude you. God is the same today, tomorrow and forever. I think that we forget what an incredible gift the immutability of God really is. The fact that He doesn't change is something we can celebrate in our lives. Good times or bad, God is the same. Victors need to have that locked firmly in their hearts or this world will do an amazing job of getting us to forget the power of who we are. Fact is that good times as well as bad are destined to be in your future. The victor realizes that their own circumstances have nothing to do with the character and nature of this God they have the right to call “Father.” God’s desire for us is for the best. That doesn’t always translate to getting everything we want when we want it. Victim thinkers are stuck in a place where their view of God, particularly His goodness, is based on what their lives look like at any given moment. Living that kind of life is such a whip-saw way to live. Victim thinkers are doomed to wildly shifting thoughts about themselves and their God. When times are good, their thoughts on goodness are going one way. When things take a turn for the worse, their thoughts whip them in a completely different direction. Living this way is such an exhausting and counterproductive way as far as my experience has shown me. What I'm coming into a better understanding is, is that God wants the best for you and for me. He doesn’t want you to be blown about by the shifting winds of change when it comes to your circumstances. He wants you to be just like Him - steadfast and unchanging when it comes to the power that results as the victor lives out His identity as God’s Child. When you are faced with challenging circumstances hold on to the fact that God is working for His best to be seen in your life. The difference you might feel could be seen in how strong you are able to stand when the gales of life come your way. Don't let how you feel about who you are be based on how well your life is going at the moment. Let God gift you with His best. Be the victor He has called you to be by living in

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "Reality is that when we hold onto the bitterness of offense all we are doing is causing ourselves damage. Forgiveness frees us from having to carry the weight of the offense for the rest of our lives." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 212. Offense is a growing cancer in our world today. It is because of the bitterness that is there because of the various offenses we perceive that we so easily classify our culture as a Victim-Based Society.  Just like the disease I compared offense to, being trapped in cancer robs us of the freedom to live fully. Unlike cancer though, there is a guaranteed remedy to offense that can eliminate the effects of the disease that threatens to take the best life has to offer. The remedy to offense is forgiveness. The more I think about that last statement, the more I see it to be true. Chemo-therapy is a common treatment of many of the cancers that we face today. Chemo is an interesting disease treatment method. It is based on the theory that, with enough poison introduced into the body, the out of control growth of the cancer cells can be turned, making remission possible.  There are a lot of similarities to forgiveness as a treatment to offense when compared to chemo as a cancer treatment. Just like Chemo, forgiveness is pretty much an indiscriminate way of treating the disease. Though chemos have been developed to better target just unhealthy cells, most chemos cause damage to healthy cells as well. In general, forgiveness is kind of the same way. Though we might be targeting one element of offense with forgiveness, the impact of this powerful disease treatment method goes way beyond just what we think the target might be.  It is when we take the cure for offense in larger and larger doses that the healing properties of forgiveness really come into play. You see, offense is a disease of the mind as well as of the heart. As forgiveness is applied, we correctly assume that the bondage making effects offense has on our heart will be minimized and ultimately reversed. What we sometimes forget is that forgiveness also works on our minds.  It is from that place of thought that we really need the cure of offense. Though forgiveness might be just what is needed to soften our hearts towards the kinds of situations that hurt us in the first place, it is in the mind where the issue of bondage and freedom reside. With enough of the cure for offense, our minds start to turn in ways were the negative thoughts that have been the result from a particular offense begin to change. It is amazing how much good a victor can have in this world when their thinking has been set free by taking ample doses of forgiveness. The Bible is filled with scriptures discussing forgiveness. I think God is pretty serious about the cures this amazing treatment brings to the life of a victor. Check out today's reading with me now.  Lord, by such things people live;     and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health     and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit     that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me     from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins     behind your back. Isaiah 38:16-17 (NIV) Near the beginning of our reading, it says, "You restored me to health and let me life." Those who have had the amazing gift of remission when fighting cancer feel the weight of these words found in Isaiah. Can't you feel the gratitude in that sentence? It isn't too hard to understand the relief a person who has come through so much has when they can make that statement. I believe God wants us all to feel that way in just about all that we do in this world. He wants us to

Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** In our first two presentation on thanks, we talked about the need to recognize and to confess our thanks. There is so much we have to be thankful for. Even in the bad times, thanks is possible. It is when we are thankful in the challenging times that I believe makes the good times that much more powerful in our lives.  As I have said in past presentations, I came to a place where giving thanks was losing its meaning in my life. I just didn't know what the words "thank you" meant anymore. Habitually saying those words just didn't make any sense. I felt like God wanted me to get what these words meant so that their power could be more of what I experienced living as the victor He has called out for me in this life.  I stated in earlier podcasts, I found that "thanks" had a meaning that included words like confession and recognition. Today, we are going to take a look at a third nuance to the word "thanks" that I found as I studied this interesting word. Forgive me for the difficulty you might have understanding my wording today. We are going to cover a meaning of the word thanks that can be summed up by a word that sounds very much like thanks. An important element of the word "thanks" comes as we take a look at the topic of how we "think." These words sound so similar that you might have to listen closely to tell which one I'm saying as we go through our presentation today. Alright, let's get started. I mentioned in the Confession podcast that we are obligated to give thanks. We owe God something that we can never repay. Even in the good times and in the bad, the grace God has given us should be just as evident. It is when we think God's grace means we get a good life now, that we begin to lose the power of thanksgiving in our lives. Because grace is so much more than just a good live right now, even when times are bad, we can thank Him. There’s a power in recognizing that fact.  The origins of the world Thanks reinforces this notion of obligation. The French word for thanks is “merci”. Literally translated this word means “mercy.” In other words when a french person says “merci” they are saying thanks for not giving me what I really deserve. Now, that’s a perspective on thanks that I believe we have missed in our life.  I don’t care how bad your life is at the moment, you actually deserve a whole lot worse in the eyes of a perfect and perfectly unapproachable God. Even the slightest misstep on our parts is proof enough of the need for our total annihilation. Yes, God loves us. He pours out on us the power of relationship and promises something better no matter how bad or how good our lives are right this moment. That’s mercy if I have ever heard it. I have a lot to be thankful for. I deserve a whole lot more badness, even when bad times are in my life. That's mercy. For that mercy, I want to stop and simply say, "Thank you God!" That thought is emphasized in today Bible reading. Short as this verse is, it is packed with the truth and the power of thanksgiving.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36 (NIV) Knowing that the French word for thanks is all about mercy, this verse takes on a whole new meaning when we replace mercy in our reading with thanks. When we make this substitution, our reading goes like this. Be thankful, just as your Father is thankful.  What's God thankful for? He's thankful for you and for me. He is thankful for the relationship we have with Him, when we let Him in. He is thankful for the love and praise and honor and worship we show Him, particularly when times are bad in our lives. He is thankful for the choice we make to love Him in spite of what this world does to try and get us to do otherwise. Our verse makes it abundantly clear, that just as God is thankful for the ability to relate to us, we are to be thankful for our relations, both vertical and horizontal.  Where the origins of the word

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "I’m saying that we need to be aware of how the “have to’s” can crush our ability to live like a victor in the middle of the bad circumstances that victimize us all." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 177. I sure do wish I could view the challenges that come my way as something other than life forcing me to do what I need to do at that given moment. Don't you know how powerful life would be if the things that come against our life could be lived out with the power of a positive attitude.  I'm not saying this to make light of the bad stuff that comes our way. Please be aware that I'm in no way delusional as to the pain and suffering this world can toss at us. It is that I'm gaining an new found appreciation of the fact that when we enlist the power of our inner most being in the middle of bad times, things seem to happen in ways that I just can't fully explain.  Our words have the power to make the power of our souls an ally in the battle with all that is going on in our lives. Our words also have the power to make the power of our souls work against us when bad times hit. It is when we use the words "have to" to describe the things we are faced with doing in a good or bad situation that our souls can actually work against us.  Our behavior is largely controlled by the faculties of our soul. Our will, intellect and emotions are what make it so that we act in ways that are either victor making or victim causing. Here's what I mean by that.  Ever been around someone who is having a really bad day? Their attitude has a way of being so infectious. If they are angry and lash out at you, isn't it so easy to be angry and lash out right back at them? If you don't know this person, it can be so easy to misjudge their actions as hatred or prejudice or evil. Their actions, driven by their soul reacting to their own situations, makes it possible for you to be victimized by their response. Worse than that, your misinterpretation of the motives behind their behavior makes it possible for you to add to that person's belief that they are a victim. The opposite is just as true.  Our actions have the ability to either draw others in or push others away. We can't always control how others will react to us, but we can control how we act in situations that come at us, whether they be good or they be bad. A large portion of that control is exhibited when we choose the words we use in the situations that come our way.  When we use words like "have to" to describe the tasks that come at us in life, we are telling our soul that we are trapped in this place. The soul will do all it can to help set itself free. Even when freedom isn't an issue, our words can make the soul take on a posture that enables our behavior to impact others in ways we never intended.  I've heard it said that they only thing we really have the ability to consistently control is our thoughts. Sure we can control our will as well, but that is so hard to do on a long term basis. My friend, Ken Baugh likens controlling our will to that of holding a beach ball under water. We all can do that but eventually the force of the ball under the water is going to overwhelm us and BOOM the ball will come erupting to surface, splashing everyone around you. Same goes for our emotions. The will and emotions are so hard to maintain over long periods of time.  It is our thoughts that we have the ability to shape and maintain. When our thoughts are heading in a particular direction, our will and emotions are more than happy to follow suit.  Amazing thing is that our words emanate from our thoughts. When we think a situation is filled with  "have to" occurrences, we are in a place where our will an

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file. ********** "Victims have been trained by this world to grab for all they can and be sure no one takes more from them than they deserve to receive. Who is the judge of how much is enough to give out? The victim thinker." As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 125. In the 70's a beer company use to have a series of TV commercials that had a line something like this. "You only go around once in this world so why not grab for all the gusto you can?" Even for something as mundane as selling beer, ad agencies work to appeal to our victim thinking ways to help their product get noticed. Amazing thing is, that strategy works! We have been conditioned to grab for all we can. After all, can we trust that there will be enough to go around when so much is required from this world to satisfy our growing appetites for stuff? That's a victim thinker's way of approaching the world that does nothing but spawn victims all around them.  This is especially the case with whatever it is that we find in this world that makes our lives be in that place where we are OK with who we are. You know what I mean by that, don't you? Aren't there times in your life where everything just seems to be good? I don't know about you, but when those times are there I will do almost anything to make them stay that way. As those times change, I find myself grabbing for more of what I think will make those times last.  Amazing thing about this life and a life with God is that EVERYTHING changes. Good times change. So do the bad. Unfortunately, we aren't all that good at dealing with the ramifications to change. Even when things are changing for the better, victim thinking can make it so that we grab for all we can to make the status quo be more of what we have, even when what we have falls so far short of what is to come.  I came across an interesting quote that made me think recently. In his book, Beyond Sundays by Wayne Jacobsen, the following statement really caught my attention. Mr Jacobsen said,  "He (meaning God) has to reshape internally the ways you were taught to live—twisted by indulging your desires, haunted by the insecurities of not knowing you were loved, exploited by the selfishness of others, or manipulated by the lies and fears of religious obligation." There is so much in that statement that we need to unpack.  The author was making a point about the status quo that I think those of us wanting to live this life as the victors we would like to be, need to take to heart. You see, I don't believe where we are right now holds a candle to where God is taking us in the future. I don't care how great your times are right this moment, they are but a poor reflection of the amazing times that are to come. It is as we jealously guard this moment, and grab for all we can because of the fear of the next, that victim thinking takes root in our lives.  I love what Mr. Jacobsen said about God's work in our lives. He is reshaping us from the inside out. When I think of the implication of that I come to realize what a big job God has in order for that reshaping to happen. No wonder it takes so long to transform us from where we are today to where He knows we will be in the future. If God reshaped all that needed changing in our lives, at one time, it would kill us! Step by step, God is changing those things in us that once defined us but now are holding us back from the victor's life He has called us to.  That's why it can feel so disconcerting, this life we lead. When we are in the middle of the kinds of changes God does in our lives that life can feel so strange. On one had we want to grab for all we can to try and hold on to what we know all too well. It doesn't matter that what we know is kil