(February 1, 2009)

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart because I have overcome the world." All of us have had trouble. But, have faith because Jesus is here with us as we go through our trials. God is on your side and the desire of His heart is for you to overcome. He wants you to overcome in all aspects of your life. You are MORE than a conqueror!

1. The faith challenge will never disappear if you choose to ignore it. The more you try to put your head in the sand, the more you get into trouble. The more you ignore them, the more they compound.

2. The goal of a faith challenge is transformation. How can a good God allow us to go through this kind of stuff? The problems that you and I run away from are exactly the things that God wants us to use to find our greatness. Deep within us there is an overcomer ready to come out. The fear that many of us face isn't failure, but greatness. You will never reach your potential without facing a faith challenge and you'll never be what God intended you to be. While Joseph was in prison, the Bible says the God put iron in his soul. Why? Because he had to in order to achieve greatness.

3. God uses faith challenges to demonstrate His power to the world. People are always watching your every move. At many levels, we are all leaders in some facets our lives. Studies have shown that a person will impact at least 10,000 people in our lifetimes. Ten thousand! Your testimony about how God saved you will help lead to save someone else. You can't have a testimony without a test! Think about all of the tests experienced by people in the Bible: Moses, Noah, Esther, Paul and Silas, Job, Shadrach, Meshach, Abidnego, Abraham, Isaac, and on and on and on...

4. Faith challenges make us spiritually mature. In America, we have many spiritual babies. They may have gone to church for 20 years, but they are still running from their problems or trying to fix them all themselves. If we stand up and fight, we become battle-tested. Being batting-tested will allow to become leaders, have a testimony and have others follow us to Christ. The fact is that when times are extremely tough non-Christians will seek out Christians for help.

5. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward. The bigger the fight, the bigger the promotion. Daniel had to go into the lion's den in order to get the great reward. Every challenge takes you to another level, meaning the reward is that much greater. Remember: the enemy will follow you as you move up the ladder, but as a conqueror, you are an overcomer, not allowing anything to pull you off of the ladder! God wants you to win and become the champion, but the only way you can be promoted is to pass the tests. Everytime you run from the problem, though, they are still there.

QUICK KEYS TO VICTORY
1. Identify your opponent. What's the greatest thing you are facing right now? You can't face 50 battles at once, so what's your biggest? Is it financial? Is it anxiety? Is it trouble with relationships? Is it your health? Identify the one thing that God wants you to deal with right now.
2. Commit to fight. Now that you're trained and ready, now you have to actually fight. You have to go after that thing and choose to deal with it. Don't hide from it.
3. Fight from a firm foundation. "On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, everything else is sinking sand." Once you have that salvation experience, then you can have faith in Him and trust Him to know that He's with you to help you get things done. "You can't shoot a cannon from a canoe." Faith is a foundational conviction. Faith is substance; to stand under or support. Having faith in God gives us the support, the foundation, to complete the goal and conquer the enemy as a team. God plus you equals a majority.
4. Make sure you have good cornermen. The corner patch you up when you're cut and bleeding. The spiritual corner is the church. These people are in your corner. They are there to lift you up. The Bible says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that have come before us in Heaven.
5. You must persevere. There is no "Easy Button" in life. Know it is hard work. Don't just go up to that problem. Go through that problem.

If you are praying for rain, you better have an umbrella!