Re-VISION: the power of seeing things anew

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.”   Psalm 46:4  (ESV)

I’ve spent most of my life within walking distance of one of earth’s largest rivers – the Mighty Mississippi.  Yearly, I’ve watched it swell beyond its banks, covering the flood plain into Arkansas to only be held back by the levee system erected to protect the flat inland areas from flooding.  It’s an obvious geographical divider between east and west in North America.  A quick glance at a topographical map shows the numerous streams and smaller rivers that are the tributary system that eventually feed into “the big river.”  The Colorado, the Arkansas, Ohio, and the Tennessee Rivers are all great river examples but none compare to “Ole Man River” – the Mississippi.  They all contribute to something MUCH larger than any of them alone will ever be.

The scripture clearly gives us the principle of “first the natural, then afterward that which is spiritual.”  I see the same thing happening in the River of God.  Notice it says, there is a RIVER (singular) whose STREAMS (plural) make glad the city of God.  There are many streams of wonderful water that bring refreshing to different people and areas.  There are Baptist streams, Presbyterian and Anglican streams, Methodist and Pentecostal streams to name just a few.  Problems arise when folk start declaring that their stream is “THE RIVER.”  The truth is that not one group has a corner on the truth.  We each need the other and the contributing flow that is fed into the larger RIVER of the body of Christ.   This concept is actually all over the Word – it’s referred to as the “one and the many.”

Jesus said, “I am the VINE (singular), You are the BRANCHES (plural).  All the branches make up the whole, but find their identity in their connection to the VINE, which is Christ alone.  “Apart from Him, we can do nothing.”  (John 15:1-5)  Thank God for the historical vine to which all of the orthodox denominational branches find some connection.

Paul said, “We being many are one body. . .” (Romans 12:4-5) We are individual members in particular, each with a specific, much-needed function.  The head cannot say to the feet, nor the eye to the ear, “I do not need you.”  (1 Corinthians 12)  As long as everything is working, all systems go, we tend to take for granted the general sense of well being in our physical bodies.  Let something not work properly, even down to a swollen, “stumped little toe” and the whole body is affected.  It’s very easy to flip this and see the members functioning and working together in our own individual local churches and that local church itself being seen as a whole body.  We need to take it a step further in our understanding and see our local churches as individual members in the universal body, as branches connected into the vine of Christ and as streams emptying into the larger river of God.  The City of God, (the people of God) needs a refreshing drink and God intends it to be a special blend.

“If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”  Proverbs 1:23 (ESV)

Jesus first words – “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  Among so many today, that line has been abbreviated to “believe the gospel!” and repentance has been sequestered and categorized to “old order” thinking.   Repentance is both an old and new covenant concept that must be understood, appreciated and practiced by every believer in order to continue growing in the faith.

Though I reject the brimstone of the fire-breathing variety – the “turn or burn” messages that are more about fear than they are faith, I still recognize the importance of repentance.  The Bible definition is to “turn.”  The Greek word “metanoia” literally means to “change the mind.”  Obviously, turning is both positive and negative.  In turning to God, I turn away from my sin and my past.  I can’t turn to or from anything until I have my thinking changed – my mind renewed.  (Rom. 12:2)

Repentance shows me the entrance to the Kingdom of God.  It is present in my initial salvation.  Like two sides of the same coin, I must REPENT and BELIEVE in order to be saved.  But, it is also on-going in my walk with God in His conforming me to the image of Jesus Christ.  I have to regularly “repent” and change my mind from what the culture says about issues, ideas and lifestyles and renew my mind to what God’s Word says about those same things.  When I’m regularly willing to repent and believe, then all that the Kingdom of God offers  (at hand) becomes available to me!  With that said, do you need to repent?

Yesterday was yet another powerful family time in the presence of the Lord at Victory!

God is among us – in the house and doing a great work! 4 more brothers and sisters crossed the line of faith yesterday to declare Jesus Christ the Savior and Lord of their lives. It’s always exciting to be able to report things like that.

I feel like we are in the front edge of a “book of Acts” outpouring – already seeing “people saved and added to the church daily.” Your family and friends are trusting Jesus, receiving life transformation and their testimonies of change are bringing people in their networks/friendships. It just continues rolling. I look out over the crowd every Sunday and see so many new faces. Forgive me if it gets old hearing it, but I’m honestly overwhelmed at all that the Lord is doing in and through our lives right now.

Psalms 110:3 says, “Your people will be willing in the day of your power.” That day is here and like an intensifying “rising sun,” it is consistently emerging at Victory. Along with the outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit, we are seeing so many “willing” to serve on this growing team to reap the Delta for Christ and advance the Kingdom of God. It was “way cool” seeing new members coming in at Victory yesterday and most of them wearing SERVE shirts. That is awesome! People are coming and aren’t waiting a long time before they decide to participate in teamwork.

Passion for Jesus is increasing as our worship experiences continue to grow in depth. The blend of both new and old music along with Greg’s originals provides the Victory congregation with something that is completely unique to this area. Greg’s new “Strong Tower” song blew me away yesterday.

The Spirit of God brings life and creativity. Each of us is called by God to take the seed of His word engrafted into our souls and produce a Kingdom expression, unique to us as individuals in our time, talent and treasure.
You may not be called to write music, but you are called to “translate Kingdom truth” into the everyday work world. That injection of God’s life can take the mundane and ordinary of our daily existence and set it on fire with His own presence!

The new expansion is almost finished – we’ll be using it to “train up” the next generation of Kingdom leaders in just a few days. Exciting! Again, it amazes me to think that in the last 12 months, because of the outpouring of the Sprit of God, Victory has literally doubled. It was only a few months ago that during worship, we had adults and children both in a sanctuary that wasn’t full. Now, we see the sanctuary at capacity with adults only and all our children’s ministry rooms spilling over. The Victory tribe is increasing!

Don’t forget our Fall Outreach – “Screen on the Green” this Saturday at 6:30p at Worthington Park in West Memphis. We’ll be showing “The Princess and the Frog,” a great Disney family movie and giving away refreshments. Invite your friends to this family event and call the church office if you can “put on a SERVE shirt” and help us at this event.

Expecting . . . . .

These were taken from my message yesterday – which can be downloaded FREE at http://www.victorywired.com under Media (messages or podcasts)

You might be a Pharisee if:

You see church as all about ministering to you and your personal needs.

You don’t really think you need grace – after all, you’re doing pretty good at this Christian thing.

You judge others by their actions, but are offended when people fail to judge you by your intentions.

You don’t really feel called to minister to “those” people.

You sure wish ole Jimbo or Earnestine had been here to hear this today – because God knows she sure does need to hear it.

You rush to judgment and meting out punishment first without ever considering the possibility of mercy when you hear of someone else’s failure.

You’re consumed with splinters and haven’t dealt with personal logs.

You actually acknowledge that you have sin, but know it’s nowhere near what other people are doing.

God will take care of “those people.”  You just worry about ministering to me and my family and keeping us happy pastor.

Phariseeism is a virus – contagious – the only way to treat it, to wash regularly with the water of the Word and apply grace generously.

Can’t stop praising Him! Yesterday, we saw 16 FRESH STARTS including 8 more new brothers and sisters who crossed the line of faith to enter the Kingdom of God. Words cannot describe the experience of seeing those hands go up in brokenness.

We saw 7 receive believer’s baptism yesterday. 4 children, 1 youth and 2 adults. Thanks Pastor Haley and Pastor Jeremy for helping me to administer baptism to those in your ministries.

Victory worship was saturated with the Holy Spirit yesterday. It’s exciting to see all of our praise team growing in their gifts. Thanks Greg for the great words to your original, “People, people!” Love the new rap part!

God is doing a deep work of the Spirit in our hearts, so we can get this Gospel right – not just mouthing words or understanding concepts, but living out grace and faith and having our lives in this community become an “on-ramp,” a connection point – to bring others to Jesus. May it be so Lord! We are His ambassadors!

Anticipating . . .

This year was my 7th trek to Atlanta for an experience that can be described as nothing less than remarkable. Every year, I’ve come home with indescribable inspiration and faith to see God do new and fresh things here in the delta. I’m thankful for my introduction to this experience with the very first conference for “next generation” leaders held at Andy Stanley’s North Point Church in Alpharetta, GA in 2000.

My dear friend Bruce McCarty, (then pastor of First Assembly of God) had invited me to ride with his pastoral staff to this cutting-edge conference. Friendships were deepened and faith in God’s ability to do the impossible grew. I missed the next few years due to limited conference budgets that were all spent on denominational meetings. Four years later I returned and was so impacted, I decided then I’d never miss it again. No conference anywhere, not even those of my own “tribe” touch me like Catalyst does. I think it’s the broad spectrum of theological voices that challenges me to think outside my current personal understanding of who God is – the worship always touches my heart deeply and the Words from the Lord coming from leaders like TD Jakes, Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley – to name just a few, annually hit me right in the gut. This gives me something to come home and wrestle with until God blesses me with the realization of what He was saying to me in those two amazing days in Atlanta.

The theme this year was “The Tension is Good.” How timely this was because this year was the very first where I’ve been able to take the whole Victory staff. Forgive me if these terms seem over the top, or too much in the superlative sense, but I’m truly overwhelmed at the goodness of God in answering my prayers for over 20 years to put together the kind of DreamTeam that we have at Victory.

For years, I came home and I’m sure appeared like a crazy man, “a man possessed” because I would struggle to communicate what I had seen and heard and experienced. My faith level was visibly charged. Yearly, I would be frustrated with trying to share that with people on our team who didn’t/couldn’t go.

Again, this year, there was a moment. I stood and wept, overwhelmed at the greatness of God’s love – except this time – not alone. As I was standing with my eyes closed and tears streaming down my cheeks, lost in the worship of our awesome God, I felt arms reach around me in embrace. That impacted me even more deeply – Jeremy Soto, Simona and Alex Blankenship, Haley Vest, Greg Lackey and my daughter Abbey were experiencing this same thing with me.

This year, I came home with the power of a shared experience. Our team grew together and bonded in the spirit. Because of the God we serve and what is taking place inside each of us individually and collectively as a team, I expect to see God move heaven and earth and shake the delta to fulfill the vision He has placed in our hearts. Everyday, I wake up with a new expectation and gratitude in my heart for God allowing me to lead such a fantastic church with people whom I love with my whole heart!

Anticipating . . .

I know that God will always blow our minds because He is infinite and we are definitely NOT! It’s still totally cool to see it happen, weekend after weekend. God’s blessings and favor on our teamwork to advance His Kingdom overwhelm me!

Every weekend, we are seeing multiple people make Fresh Starts – beginning the process for life transformation in Jesus Christ. This last weekend, was certainly no exception.

We had 24 guys go with us up to Spring River to camp Friday night. In addition to some great food, fellowship and fun float down the river on Saturday, we saw the Spirit of God move among us with at least 12 decisions for Jesus including new salvations, recommitments and baptisms in the Spring River. These guys came back home fired up for God and thankful for the bonds that were forged among us because of the Spirit of Christ. Special thanks to Jack Murphy, Jerome Alford and Darrin Johnson who were the “three mighty men” who made this weekend come off without a hitch.

The presence of God, which is the most critical thing in our lives and ministries is growing in intensity in our services. Yesterday was over the top – at the close of the service, 6 brand new Fresh Starts brought us that many new brothers and sisters in the family of God. YESSSS!!!

All of this was just the “icing on the cake” for an amazing week prior. I’m so proud of our staff – honestly, it’s a Dream Team! With Greg Lackey back in the saddle as worship leader and Haley Vest and Jeremy Soto as our new children’s and youth ministers, we are off and running! Both of these ministries are visibly growing every week! Please! Please! Lift us up in your prayers regularly!

In every meeting this last week, we’ve seen the Spirit of God move in major ways, breaking down past barriers that have previously hindered our efforts for ministry. Things I have prayed for and “seen in the Spirit” over the last 20 years are happening all around us regularly! All glory to God!

Guard your hearts! We don’t see this kind of fruit without the enemy making an attempt to stop it. Stay in prayer and in the Word and keep the “Armor of God” (Ephesians 6) on you! If the enemy can’t successfully attack from the outside on any of the four directional fronts, he’ll attempt the “5th column” – an invasion from the inside. He’ll infect someone with a bad attitude or a root of bitterness – this is usually someone who is easily offended who hasn’t learned the right way to handle offense (Matthew 18:15-20). We must realize that stuff happens and we have to learn how to deal with it as mature saints and not like a bunch of self-centered junior high kids.

We must “with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, (BE) eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Since Dawn and I planted Victory in 1989, there has never been a greater sense of unity and the presence of the tangible peace of Christ in Victory Church than there is RIGHT NOW! I’m convinced this is a factor in the fruit we are seeing! Guard your hearts and each other!

Equipping You to Advance His Kingdom!

Pastor Michael

Watch this and you will understand why I struggle to make the changes in Victory that we’ve been making in order to bear the fruit we’ve been bearing.