Are you expecting to experience a wonderful victory in your life this year?

Maybe you’re believing God for a new home or a new vehicle. Maybe you’re waiting to see the full manifestation of your healing or the salvation of a loved one. If you have been praying and declaring God’s Word and haven’t experienced any changes, it’s easy to begin to second-guess yourself spiritually. It’s all too easy to look at your situation and think it will never change or that God has forgotten all about you.

But that’s not what the Word promises you!

The Word says that God wants you to have victory! And when you’ve done all you know to stand in faith, He tells to continue standing some more (Ephesians 6:13-14 ).

To help you see a wonderful victory as we close out this year, we’ve compiled 5 Ways To Stand in Victory Over Every Situation.

1. Dare To Believe Without Seeing

“Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” –John 20: 29 (NKJV)

When Jesus spoke to Thomas, He made it very clear to us all that seeing is not believing. Instead, we are to use our faith to obtain what we don’t physically see yet. For example, God used His faith to create this earth through what He spoke. He didn’t see the earth physically before He created it; He simply spoke the results of what He wanted to see and expected those things to appear (Genesis 1:1-31).

In this same way, as we continually develop our faith and speak into existence what we want in accordance with God’s Word, we can expect the things of God to appear in our lives. By continually developing our faith, we keep ourselves in a place of being able to believe and stand for miracles, even when we don’t see them in the natural yet. If we don’t have our faith built up, then we can easily believe what we see and hear in the world around us and not what the victorious Word of God promises us.

At the same time, it’s important to understand that our miracles and victories will not just appear. Faith is not a vending machine whereby you push a button or speak one scripture and a miracle drops in your lap. No, you prepare for your victory by faith, with the belief that you will see your miracle. You begin by building your faith, praying scripture after scripture, until you have no doubt and are fully persuaded in your faith. Then you receive your victory with that very same faith you’ve been building up, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before you see a full manifestation in the natural.

2. Dominate Your Circumstances With the Force of Faith

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.“ –Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

Faith is a force stronger than the mightiest river—and the substance of this force has the power to dominate every situation and every circumstance in your life. As a believer, you have a choice to use this force of faith to your advantage. Just as you can cooperate with the force of a mighty river and coast along with it, so you can also cooperate with the force of faith in order to grab hold of your victories. Knowing how to use this force starts with understanding three principles:

1. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God. We’ll talk more about this in our next point, but no matter what kind of promise you’re looking for, you can speak scriptures out loud, and listen to sermons to build up your faith on a daily basis (Romans 10:17).
2. Faith is fed by reading and studying the Word, and praying in tongues (Jude 20). Just like we feed our bodies the nutrients they need to function properly, we also feed our spirits the Word of God.
3. Faith is released through the words we speak. Jesus released His faith by His words, and we release our faith the same way (Mark 11:22-24). We dominate with the force of faith by using faith-filled words (Romans 4:17; Hebrews 1:3).

3. Practice Using Your Faith

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” –Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

At one time or another, we’ve all been impressed with an Olympic athlete’s excellence. To achieve Olympic status, athletes train day after day, year after year, in order to develop the skills necessary to dominate their sport. In the same way, we can train spiritually, developing our faith to operate with the adept skills necessary to receive our victory in every situation.

As you practice using your faith by daily speaking and studying the Word, you’ll learn to automatically respond to circumstances and trouble with the Word of God (Mark 11:23). Practicing will train your heart and renew your mind to respond with God’s life-giving, conquering Word (Romans 4:17, 10:10).
• God’s Word on our lips and in our hearts produces life and prosperity (Deuteronomy 30:14-15).
• God’s Word in our hearts produces a long, prosperous, peaceful life (Proverbs 3:1-2).
• God’s Word in our hearts produces life, healing and health (Proverbs 3:1-2 ).
• Confessing with our mouths and believing in our hearts produces salvation (Romans 10:9).

4. Learn How To Take Your Victory by Faith

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” –Mark 11:22-24 (NKJV)

In teaching us about faith, Gloria Copeland has often said, “You need to take it!” In other words, we aggressively take the promises of God by using our faith, God wants us to boldly use our faith and the authority he’s given us over Satan to get the enemy out of our affairs. He doesn’t want us whispering, so to speak, when it comes to confronting the devil and telling him to take his hands off areas of our lives where we are experiencing his attacks and resistance.

Jesus paid the ultimate price for your freedom, healing and prosperity; and you have every right to remind Satan of this. Satan has no authority over you. He has no power to inflict whatever curse he is trying to put on you, be it poverty, lack, sickness, relational deficits, or anything else contrary to God’s blessings and promises.

One of the greatest ministers of his time, Brother Charles Capps, lived in poverty until he realized he could call things that are not as though they were according to (Romans 4:17). Like Brother Capps, if you want blessings, you too can declare and call in those blessings—and they will come to you.

If you are experiencing poverty, don’t keep repeating what you see in your bank account. Stand up and declare what God says about your bank account—that you have more than enough to meet your needs (Philippians 4:19). Instead of responding based on what you see, faith gives you the opportunity to respond based on what the Word says. And with God’s faith-filled words coming out your mouth, you can change the course of your life!

If you are looking for a specific miracle, find what God says in the Word. Find His promise about the miracle you need. By speaking His promises over yourself daily, you will be standing in faith for your victory.

5. Add to Your Faith Corresponding Action

“For she said, ‘If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.’” –Mark 5:28 (NKJV)

We often refer to the woman in Mark 5:28 as “the woman with the issue of blood.” When she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well,” in essence, she was speaking against what she saw in the natural, and taking her healing. What she saw in the natural was uncontrollable blood loss and a Roman dictate to quarantine inside her house because of her condition. The punishment for violating this law was being stoned to death.

Yet, she had heard of Jesus and the healing power He carried, so she put the force of faith to work. She kept repeating that she would be healed through His power, until one day she finally became fully persuaded and stepped out in faith. She didn’t wait for her circumstances to be perfect or for the crowd around Jesus to dissipate. She took action. She got down on her knees and crawled to Jesus, expecting to be healed.

Brother Copeland calls this corresponding action. She believed that when she touched Jesus’ garment she would be healed, so she acted upon it. And when she did, she received exactly what she was expecting—she was healed and made whole (Mark 5:25-34).

Whatever you are believing for, take action today. If you are believing for a new car, clean up the one that you have, and get it ready to sell or sow into another person or ministry. If you are believing for healing, speak scriptures aloud, and do something you weren’t able to do before, even if it’s a seemingly simple act such as moving your finger. No act of faith is too small for God!

If you haven’t received what you have been waiting on this year, well, the year is not over! There’s still time to take by faith what God has promised. Through your faith in Jesus Christ, you can have your prosperity, your healing, your deliverance, your family, along with peace and joy. Put these 5 Ways To Stand in Victory Over Every Situation into practice, and enjoy your best Christmas and new year ever!

Sometimes, it seems as if we’re facing mountainous problems. We’re doing everything right—tithing, giving, praying and confessing our scriptures—and yet trouble keeps coming. We can tend to ask ourselves, Where did I miss it? What went wrong?

We call our friends and family, telling them the bad news. We repeat this bad news over and over again, while we ask for prayer and support. Little do we know, by repeating that bad news, we’re actually asking for more bad news to be heaped upon us (Matthew 12:37).

Whether we like it or not, we live by every single word we speak. Just as God spoke to create the universe, so we speak to create our lives. We live in a word-created, word-activated, word-dominated system where we get exactly what we say. So, if we keep repeating bad news, we’ll keep living in bad news. If we keep repeating the Word of God, we’ll live in His good news (Genesis 1:1-4; Proverbs 18:21; Matthew 12:37).

Since God’s good news and promises are full of blessings, there is no better way to live our lives than by His Word. With His Word there’s peace, prosperity, freedom, power, healing and more.

If you’re ready to line your words up with God’s words, study up on these 4 Habits To Create a Victorious Life.

Habit # 1
Align With God’s Word

“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.“ –Psalm 107:20 (NKJV)

If you were building a house, would you want the boards to line up with one another? Of course you would! If the boards didn’t align, your new house could collapse any minute, rain would fall right through the rooftop, and your neighbors would see through the cracks in your walls. Just as this scenario doesn’t sound ideal, neither does building your spiritual house without a solid alignment with the Word of God.

One of the fastest ways to see change in your life is to focus on His Word first thing every morning. As you press into the Lord and focus on the Word, you’ll automatically align your thoughts with His thoughts. You can build your faith with Him in prayer and listen to His direction for your life. As you do this, your faith will skyrocket, and what you say will change. You will go from talking about symptoms or problem to declaring only victory (Jeremiah 29:11).

What we speak is important because our words are our spiritual containers. They are capsules carrying fear or faith, death or life, love or hate, healing or disease. Our God is so loving that He gives us a choice as to which words we speak and which containers we carry. If we carry words of fear (“fear containers”), then we will become weighed down and hopeless, and speak with fear and negativity. If we carry words of faith (“faith containers”), then we will become lighter and hopeful, and our speech will align with the limitless abundance of God.

As it says in the scripture above, God’s Word contains life, healing and deliverance. As believers, we can claim anything the Word says. Since His Word is the ultimate power and authority over our lives, we can speak words directly from or directly influenced by the Word, and the devil has to flee. Once the devil flees, our circumstances will change quickly (Proverbs 13:3).

Make a promise to yourself right now to only speak what is in the Word of God. If bad news comes, don’t wail and moan. Have emergency scriptures handy and speak the Word first. Instead of running to a friend, run to the Lord and see what He is saying about your situation. Even in your darkest moments, He wants to bless you and bring you out on top. He is your God, the God of blessings, and He will lead you to victory every time.

Habit # 2
Understand the Word Is God’s Power

“The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” –Genesis 1:2-3

God’s Word formed this universe and holds life-giving, dynamic power. As you are looking to create a victorious life, using His Word can alter any circumstance in your favor.

Consider this illustration: If you were carrying a valuable bag of diamonds, would you toss it aside like an old rag doll? Of course not. Diamonds are valuable, and just as those diamonds are valuable, so the Word is valuable and powerful. That’s why Satan comes immediately to steal God’s Word. And just as you wouldn’t let a thief easily steal your bag of diamonds, you can’t let Satan steal the Word from you or draw you away from the Word. The more you focus and believe on the Word, the more fruit you will bear, and the more God’s promises will bloom in your life. God’s Word will do its part so long as we refuse to turn away (Mark 4:13-20).

Habit #3
Speak Faith-Filled Words

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” –Proverbs 18:21 (NKJV)

Once you declared Jesus as your Savior, the power of the Almighty came to live inside you. And since He formed this world by His words, so you form your world by the words you speak. That is the power you’ve been given by Jesus Christ, and for better or worse, you create your own life (Genesis 1:27; Romans 8:17; James 3:8-10; Proverbs 10:19-21).

For example, Kenneth Copeland and his family spoke faith-filled words when he was diagnosed with a malignant spot on his skin. Brother Copeland didn’t panic from the diagnosis. Instead, he gathered his faithful family around, and they spoke James 5:14-15 over him. Brother Copeland could feel the anointing on the words and declared, “That did it!” When Brother Copeland went back to the doctor, they couldn’t find any cancer. That cancer had died by those faith-filled words.

Just like Brother Copeland, you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and you can obtain anything in this life. If you can find it in the Word, God will supply it for you. Don’t let other people or the devil tell you that God isn’t capable; He is more than capable. So, speak the Word only in faith, and keep speaking those faith-filled words until you see the manifestation of what you’re speaking.

Habit #4
Be Specific

“That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.” –Romans 4:17

Would you ever ask for an apple if you wanted an orange? Of course not. You would be specific and ask for what you want. However, many Christians say that the Lord gives them what He sees fit. No, no, no. He gives to us generously based on the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4; Ephesians 3:20).

Just as you would be specific about what you want in the natural, be specific about the things you want in the spirit. As Gloria Copeland says, “You have to take it!” As long as what you ask for aligns with His Word, you can have it.

Abraham became the father of many nations by being specific with his faith. As Abraham entered into covenant with God, he believed what God told him. As a result of listening to God, believing what He said, and calling forth what he didn’t see yet, he became the father of our faith (Galatians 3:6-9).

Gloria Copeland got specific when she wanted her home. She had no evidence of being able to afford a beautiful home when she and Brother Copeland first started out in their life together. But she did know that the Lord delights in supplying the desires of our hearts, so she spoke with the Lord about her new home. As she talked with Him, she got an idea of what she wanted the home to look like. She started to cut out pictures from magazines in order to keep the vision before her. Just a few years later, she received the custom-built house she’d been dreaming of, debt free and fully furnished.

Sister Gloria called forth what she couldn’t see yet; and you can, too. Dream big and get specific. If you’re believing for a house, don’t settle and call in a studio apartment. If you’re living in a studio apartment right now, thank God for it. Thank Him for what you do have, and once you’ve gotten specific on what you want, declare it and keep thanking Him for it. The same goes for your healing, the salvation of your family, protection over your children, and everything else you desire.

Here are a few scriptures to help you start building your own scripture list:

Healing:
• Jeremiah 30:17: ‘“I will give you back your health and heal your wounds,’ says the LORD. ‘For you are called an outcast—“Jerusalem for whom no one cares.”’”
• 1 Peter 2:24: “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.”
• 3 John 2: “Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.”

Finances:
• Philippians 4:19: “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
• 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”
• Romans 13:8: “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.”

Peace:
• Philippians 4:7: “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
• Psalm 4:8: “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe.”
• 1 Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV): “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

You will create a victorious life as you begin practicing these 4 Habits To Create a Victorious Life.
No matter what you’re facing today, God’s Word and His power can overcome it. Speak faith-filled words to strike down any attack, and expect His goodness to overflow in your life!

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Be Bold With Your Mouth: 5 Confessions To Grab Hold of God’s Blessings Right Now

Thanksgiving is a timeless American tradition when we gather with family and friends to eat heartily, and give thanks to God. What’s equally important to know is why our Thanksgiving holiday was established.

The first Thanksgiving, in 1621, was a festival to celebrate and exalt the Lord for a gloriously abundant harvest. After a brutal winter killed nearly half of the new settlers in their first year in Plymouth, the Pilgrims fasted and prayed for answers. Shortly afterward, the Wampanoag Indians approached them in friendship and helped them survive in the New World. With prayer and openness, the Pilgrims and Indians embraced a long-lasting peace treaty that forged new friendships and abundant harvests the settlers never expected.

So the settlers did what all good Christians do: After their first autumn harvest, they gave thanks to God! Family and friends gathered together with the Wampanoag tribe for the first Thanksgiving festival, featuring worship, athletic events, meals and feasting. It wasn’t just a dinner; it was a celebration!

As we enter this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, let’s continue to be thankful for what God has done in our lives, in our families and in this nation. If you feel that you haven’t reaped all that you hoped this year, keep releasing your faith. Whether you’re believing for healing, finances or family salvations, God wants you to experience His abundance of blessings. To help you receive more than enough, here are 5 Ways To Reap an Abundant Harvest.

1. Sow Your Seed

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” –Genesis 8:22 (NKJV)

Did you know that you were created to sow and then reap? Giving regularly is biblical and wonderful, and it opens the door for God to meet our needs. But that’s not all God wants to do for us. He wants us to benefit from our giving, with His fullness and His abundance. As Kenneth Copeland says, “He didn’t just promise to give us food to eat and seed to sow, He promised to multiply that seed and give us a harvest.”
Since we want to reap the abundant harvest He has for us, we need to understand what the Bible says about sowing and reaping.

First, we must plant seed into good soil. As we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow His guidance, we give our offerings to our church, as well as the time, money, and love we sow into others (Luke 6:38).

Second, we cannot depend on our tithes to be our seed. The Word says our tithes are the first-fruits of our increase and a returning to the Lord what is His. Tithing promises to multiply our seed, but not to be our seed. More importantly, tithing keeps the devourer away and protects our harvest (Proverbs 3:9-10; Leviticus 27:30; Malachi 3:10-11).

Third, sowing and reaping will require your faith. Just as a farmer wouldn’t wait for the perfect weather or circumstance to sow seed, neither should you. Be attentive and listen to the Lord for opportunities to sow into your church or someone else’s life. If you are a good giver, you will reap a bountiful harvest(Ecclesiastes 11:4; Galatians 6:9).

2. Water Your Seed
“Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us.” –Psalm 67:5-6 (NKJV)

Just as we wouldn’t plant a seed in good soil and expect it to grow without water, we shouldn’t sow a spiritual seed and expect it to water itself. We water our spiritual seeds through praise. The deeper your praise, the more it works on your seed like Miracle Gro®. Your audible praise and speaking the Word out loud determines how big your harvest will be. As Brother Copeland says, “Water [your seed] every day with praise. Water it with the spiritual water of The WORD. That WORD contains life, and those seed promises can’t grow without it.”

Keep watering your seed, and don’t let up. Keep praising Him no matter what it looks like or how it feels. Your seed is in good soil and will produce an abundant harvest if you don’t give up (Galatians 6:9).

Begin to speak your promises out loud like Pastor George Pearsons does, saying, “Praise God, my seed always produces a bumper crop. Thank You, Lord—the hundredfold return is working for me all the time.”

3. Call In Your Harvest
“My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.” –Proverbs 8:19-21 (ESV)

God is passionate about your increase. He is determined to see you reap your harvest and walk in more than enough, which is why He left precise instructions in His Word on how to reap abundant harvests (Psalm 107: 35-38).

Throughout the Bible, we read about God’s people and angels gathering harvests by using sickles. In farming, sickles are extremely sharp and powerful instruments used to cut down crops and thick stalks with little effort. In the spirit realm, our sickle is the Word of God, and like the people and angels we read about in Scripture, we are to wield it with skill. The Word is a razor-sharp, powerful and mighty weapon we tend to only use for battle, but it is also highly effective for reaping our harvests quickly and bringing in bountiful supernatural harvests (Mark 4:29; Hebrews 4:12; Revelations 4:14-18).

4. Set Your Expectations
“‘What a huge harvest!’ he said to his disciples. ‘How few workers!’” –Matthew 9:37 (MSG)

Have you ever heard the term “go big or go home”? It originated as a sales slogan for a motorcycle parts company in the 1990s. Since then, we’ve used if for everything from football games to hair styles, haven’t we? Well, let’s start using it regarding our supernatural harvests and increase, too. Whether anyone in your family or friend group agrees with you or not, you can expect big so you can reap big (Mark 11:24).

Recently during a tithing message at EMIC, Pastor Ara Veney challenged us to increase our supernatural expectancy. Most of us have been harvesting from small gardens, spiritually speaking, where we are being supplied with what we need on a daily basis. Yet God wants us to have a large-farm mentality, where we sow and reap extremely large harvests so we’re not only meeting our own needs, but also easily meeting the needs of others (Matthew 5:42; Luke 3:10-11).

The key is to set our expectations in alignment with God’s expectations, and we do that by finding what God wants us to have in His Word:
• God wants us to plant generously, so we reap generously (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
• He says that whatever we give will return to us increased and overflowing (Luke 6:38).
• According to God, we can reap abundantly during any economy and in any situation (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
• We can expect the hundredfold return on what we plant (Genesis 26:12).

As we see in these scriptures, there’s no doubt that God wants us to have abundant and increasing harvests. Yet we must set our expectations according to what the Word of God says we should have, not by what our bank account balance is. Just like we remain focused on God to meet our daily needs, we can remain focused on God for increasing our harvests as well.

5. Take Corresponding Action
“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.” –Joel 3:13 (ESV)

It’s tempting to sit back and wait for God to bring our harvest in for us, but that’s not what the Word of God instructs us to do. Just as the scripture above describes, when our harvest is ripe, we need to go and get it. As Kenneth Copeland says, “Jesus compared the kingdom of God with the planting of seed and reaping the harvest. Why, then, aren’t all of us producing bumper crops every season? Because we are sitting around waiting for God to do all the work.”

Since our harvest won’t just jump into our hands, we need to take action in order to reap that harvest. Until then, we’re leaving fields of blessings lying around. That’s why it’s important to take corresponding action once we have faithfully sown seed, watered, prepared our sickles, and set our expectations (James 2:14-17).

If you have been a good giver and a good tither, now is the time to become a good reaper by taking action. It’s time to take your spiritual sickle—the Word of God—and retrieve your harvest just like a farmer does (Proverbs 10:5, 6:6-8).

Take your words of faith, along with the Word of God, and call it in. Command your angels to go and get the crop you’ve sown seed for. Use the Word of God to declare and command your harvest to come to you. Spiritual crops don’t expire, so even if you sowed into good soil 20 years ago, for example, you can still reap that harvest right now.

As we celebrate our harvests this Thanksgiving Day, let’s be thankful for God’s provision and the important role prayer played in the Pilgrims’ lives and in this country’s formation. Just like the Pilgrims, let’s focus on God and not give up on our own bountiful harvests. Our harvests are coming. As you continue to activate these 5 Ways To Reap an Abundant Harvest this Thanksgiving, trust that the Lord will keep His Word; and start rejoicing now. Happy Thanksgiving!