We Dared to Believe!

We Dared to Believe!

We dared to believe God for healing, breakthroughs, financial provision, and restoration of relationships! Here are some of the testimonies shared with us during the 2016 Prayer and Fasting.

 

Healing

I used to have high cholesterol, but my doctor have already advised me to stop taking maintenance medicines because my cholesterol levels are now normal. I had also been diagnosed with diabetes, but my doctor have instructed that insulin levels be reduced. All my lab tests for diabetes also show normalcy in their results. Praise God!
Bebet, Victory Metro East

 

Personal Breakthrough

After three months of applying for a job abroad, I lost hope and was close to giving up. On the third day of Prayer and Fasting, I received my working visa and started my new job on January 10. Indeed, God fulfills His promise!
Carlo, Every Nation

 

Provision and Finances

We’ve been trying to sell two of our properties since last year so we can acquire a condo unit for our son in Makati. On the first day of the fast, we closed the sale of our first property. The purchase for the second one was finalized at the end of the fast—and received the reservation money, too! We will be paid for the two properties as soon as we’ve secured the necessary titles in the next few weeks! God is good!

– Estela, Victory Greenhills

 

Two of our faith goals have already been answered. My husband will be receiving two airplane tickets to Hong Kong as an incentive for hitting his targets. Because of this, we were thinking of buying another ticket so our daughter can join us. This will be our first time to travel as a family, and it has always been our dream to visit Hong Kong Disneyland. Last Sunday, someone from our church approached us and told us that she will be giving her plane ticket to us so our daughter can join us. This happened even if we did not tell anyone of our plan to buy another ticket for our daughter!

Also, today, finally, I am debt-free after five years. Credit card bills never seem to be unending, but with God’s grace, I was able to successfully pay off all my debts and have started to have some savings.

– Tessie, Victory Greenhills

Restoration of Relationships

Our family is now complete after 14 years! I’ve been praying about this for a long time, and God was able to make a way for all of us to be together. Praise Him!

– Regine, Victory Metro East

 

My family and I prayed and fasted as one this year—something we’ve never done as a family before. We also attended the last day of the prayer meeting together. My relationship with my older sister has also been restored.

– Mae, Victory Metro East

 

God used my husband and I as a channel to restore my brother’s relationship with his wife. This also paved the way for their family to be part of one of our upcoming Victory church plants.

– Florida, Victory Ortigas

Let’s dare to believe God for more of Him in 2016! If you would like to share an answered prayer from our five-day Prayer and Fasting last January 4-8, please visit http://victory.org.ph//mystory. Thanks for sharing your story with us!

Faith to Finish

Faith to Finish

What are your impossibilities? Would you dare to believe that God can do so much more in and through you? That kind of faith overcomes the world.
 
There is a kind of audacious faith that is not as celebrated as the faith that moves mountains. Faith is not just about winning and achieving, but also about lasting and enduring. There is a faith that changes water into wine, but there is also a faith that wrestles with God in the garden and eventually drinks the cup that comes from the Father. There is a faith that raises Lazarus to life, and there is also a faith that carries the cross to Golgotha.  
 
There is a faith that enables you to step out, but there is also a faith that enables you to stay, endure, and wait. You need this kind of faith when life is mundane, difficult, or futile.
 
Hebrews 10:35-36 says, “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”
CONFIDENCE is like the big brother of faith, a faith that has been tested and has grown in strength. It carries with it the idea of patient continuance, steadfast waiting, and constancy. For the audience of the book of Hebrews, it’s about not throwing away their  confidence of salvation in the midst of great persecution. In such times, you have need of ENDURANCE to continue, for in that there is great reward and promise.
To be confident of and endure towards what? GOD’S WILL, both His specific instruction for the moment and His general purpose for your life—which in essence is about honoring Him and making disciples.
So when life is MUNDANE, plod on in obedience, slowly and perseveringly through your dull tasks, as long as it moves you along in God’s purpose. When life is DIFFICULT, endure in the midst of it and find God’s presence and peace. When life seems FUTILE, know that obeying the last thing God told you to do means He will weave together something meaningful and eternally lasting through your life.
 
Finish your race, and go through the long and arduous process—for there are things that can only be birthed in you through time and patient endurance.
Would you be willing to grow in this kind of faith, a faith that has grown confident in God and will continue in God’s will despite the most dreary and difficult circumstances?
John 1:4-5 relates, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Just like glow-in-the-dark toys, it’s interesting that the darkness doesn’t seem to bother them, but rather brings out the best in them. The life in you glows in the dark, too, and would not be overcome!
That Awkward Moment When Jesus Insulted an old Woman

That Awkward Moment When Jesus Insulted an old Woman

Matthew 15:21-28 records one of the most puzzling stories in the Bible. One day a Gentile woman came to Jesus and begged him to heal her daughter who was oppressed by demons. Instead of helping, Jesus gave her the silent treatment.

But she wasn’t one who would give up easily. She badgered him to the point that she was already causing a scene. The disciples intervened and asked Jesus to kindly send her away. He flatly said no, this time telling them that she was not part of his mission. She was a Gentile and at that time Jesus specifically came for the lost tribes of Israel.

You have to admire this woman’s audacity because instead of going away, she knelt before Jesus and pleaded again. This is where the story becomes shocking. Jesus turned her down again the second time saying it was not right to give the children’s food to the dogs. He called her a dog.

Gasp!

Those skeptical to the Christian faith call this ‘the worst kind of chauvinism’ and criticized Jesus for being harsh. Some explain this away by saying maybe Jesus was referring to cute, cuddly pet dogs (which is unlikely since pet dogs were not really fashionable in ancient times). Others, however, believe that Jesus was simply voicing out the racial and religious animosity between Jews and Gentiles at that time to give the woman (and us) a context for what happens next.

The real shocker of the story is not that Jesus uttered what we consider a bad word to a woman in need but the fact that He actually answered the audacious prayer of someone who, by all counts, didn’t deserve it. When Jesus turned her down, she recognized her unworthiness and accepted it without protest. She knew she was an outsider to the covenants of God with Israel. She knew that on her own she had no merit, no claim, no priority-standing, and had nothing to commend her. Her only basis for praying was her belief that God is good and would never deprive her of a few crumbs of mercy. She didn’t trust her merits; she trusted God’s character.

What a rare combination of humility and audacity.

This woman’s story teaches us a lot today. We have all heard that audacious faith is daring to believe God for impossible things. But where do you draw the line between faith and presumption, between audacity and a sense of entitlement?

The answer, I believe, is a deep sense of humility and a recognition that before we encountered Christ, we were beggars for grace. There’s nothing about us that is worth boasting when we come to God in prayer, not even our so-called achievements in life and in the ministry. D.L. Moody once said that Jesus never sent anyone away except those who are full of themselves.

As we start the New Year in prayer and fasting, let us believe God for big and impossible things but let

us do so with humble awareness that every crumb of blessing we receive is mainly because God is gracious, not because we deserve them.

This, I believe, is the bedrock of all our audacious prayers.

Audacious Faith

Audacious Faith

In this #ENfast2016 vlog, Pastor Joey Bonifacio of Victory Fort Bonifacio gleans from Ephesians 2:10, talking about how each of us are God’s masterpieces, created for good works.