Winning!

//Craig W. Hagin

When Christians are asked how they are doing, many reply, “I’ve got the victory!” or “I’m winning!” But when you look at their lives, they are doing anything but winning. Yes, we need to have a good confession. That’s where our victory starts. Scripture tells us to “call those things that be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17). But at some point we need to go from making a faith confession to living our confession. So when people look at us, they’ll say, “Hey, they really are victorious.”

Unfortunately, a lot of Christians today are not winning. They’re letting the economy win. They’re letting the devil win. They’re letting all kinds of things win, but they’re not winning. They’re beaten down and they don’t know what to do. They’re making all the right confessions, but they really don’t believe a word they’re saying. For this to change, they must have an attitude change.

Sometimes in sports a larger school plays a much smaller school. Usually, the larger school is a lot better than the smaller school. I guarantee you that the week before the game, the coach of the smaller school is telling the kids that they’re winners. The coach does this so they go onto the field with a winning attitude. Because on the night of the game, if the kids go out with a losing attitude, they will lose.

The Apostle Paul would have made a good football coach. He had a lot of motivating things to say, such as we are more than conquerors through Christ (Rom. 8:37) and God always causes us to triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14). I believe his “never quit” attitude is what got him through the persecution he faced. Even though things didn’t always go right for Paul, he kept running his course. In Acts chapter 20, he even talked about finishing his race with joy (v. 24).

It’s easy to come up with excuses as to why we’re not winning. But as Christians, we really don’t have any excuses, because God is a Winner and He lives inside of us. The Word says that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). Everywhere we go, we have the ultimate Winner inside of us. During times when we don’t feel victorious or like we’re winning, we have to dig down and let our inner man speak to us and remind us that we’re victorious.

Trust God

Jesus tells us, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). When we put our faith in Him, we’re not going to lose. This is the number one step in faith. Unfortunately, many people forget this step. Their faith is in their pastor or in the traveling minister who comes through town. Our faith should be in God and not in people. It’s God Who is going to get us through any situation.

Step number two is for us to do something. We have to speak to the mountains in our lives.

MARK 11:23
23 Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Mountains can be anything. They can be physical, spiritual, emotional, or financial mountains, or anything else out in front of us blocking our way. But for any mountain to be removed, we first have to open our mouths and speak. When our words are backed by the Word of God, we can be confident that when we speak, the mountain will move. It doesn’t have a choice—it has to move.

That’s why it is so important to watch what comes out of our mouths. Many people have very negative confessions. They say things like, “We never have enough money” or “It’s always bad at the end of the month.” It’s no wonder that they’re getting exactly what they say.

Let’s make it our goal to live like winners this year. By maintaining a winning attitude and a Word-based confession, we will receive everything God has for us!