GREATER VICTORIES        11/7/7   DFO 727

         1. YOU NEVER HAVE A VICTORY WITHOUT A BATTLE, and their are some battles you have to fight your whole life until your dying day!
         2. But you have to keep getting the victory! Once the Lord humbles you, He has to keep humbling you--He's gotta keep you humble. You can't just "forsake all" once and for all. (See Luke 14:33.)
         3. You've got to keep "forsaking all" every day! You can't just be a martyr one day, you're a martyr all your life! You have to keep leaving Egypt every day, or you're going to build up a new Egypt. It's something you have to do almost every day--"die daily." (1Cor.15:31)
         4. LIFE FOR THE LORD IS NOT SOMETHING ABOUT WHICH YOU JUST SAY, "WELL, HALLELUJAH! I MADE THAT VICTORY! I got over that, now I'm free! I don't have to forsake all anymore, I don't have to hurt anymore!
         5. "I don't have to suffer anymore! I've got the victory! I've won the battle and war is over, and now I'm going to settle down and be selfish and unsacrificial and enjoy life!" But David said,
         6. "I will not give unto the Lord of that which hath cost me nothing!" (2Sam.24:24) He was saying, "It's got to hurt to be worth something! It's got to be a sacrifice!" What is a sacrifice? It's something you lay on the altar! It's something you kill! But you have got to keep doing it every day!
         7. Every day He'll probably have you sacrifice a little more to see if He can trust you with more responsibility, if you can become stronger and tougher and a better fighter. He'll give you more, and He'll trust you with more if He finds out you can give up more, if He finds out you wont get so attached to it that you won't give it up.
         8. And when you give up something for the Lord, and then if later it is good for you, the Lord will return it again some day when He can trust you with it.
         9. But if you are stubborn and rebellious, He's apt to take it away from you entirely and forever, if you're selfish and wont give it up. If you are not willing to make it a free-will offering to the Lord, then God will take a collection and take it away from you.
         10. YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THE DEVIL AND YOUR OLD SELF EVERY DAY! You are a new creature, yes!--But boy, how that old self likes to try to pop up again!
         11. It's a battle every day--especially with your besetting sins--"the weights and the sins that so easily beset you" (Heb.12:1), like your selfishness and laziness and jealousy.
         12. You never stop battling, you never stop winning victories, you never stop progressing or you'll backslide! You can never stand still. You don't just get the victory once and for all over some besetting sin, you have to keep fighting it. But the more you win, the easier it gets, with His help.--On that one!
         13. Either you are growing or you are dying! It's all or nothing at all! Once you've started on this road, there is no turning back, or you'll turn into a pillar of salt, solidify and die! (Gen.19:26) "Remember Lots wife!" (Luke 17:32)
         14. You gotta keep going, you gotta keep sacrificing, you gotta keep forsaking, gotta keep fighting everyday!
         15. (Maria: Well, what's the end purpose that the Lord's trying to bring about by making you sacrifice more and more every day? What's that supposed to do?)
         16. IT COMES DOWN TO THIS WHOLE THING OF LIFE: IT IS TO PREPARE YOU FOR THE NEXT LIFE, when in the Millennium you are going to have to learn how to run the whole world over a bunch of wicked, stubborn, rebellious people!
         17. We're just like little children spiritually. Every day a child has to eat a little more. Yesterday's food is not enough for today. Yesterday's exercise and play and work is not enough for today.
         18. He's trying to make you stronger every day and make you able to give a little more, sacrifice a little more, suffer little more, fight a little more, grow a little more!
         19. He wants you to grow into the full stature of a full-grown mature Christian that is a real fighter for the Lord and a real soldier and able to really stand a lot of responsibility, a lot of suffering, a lot of giving, and can do a big job, not just little ones.
         20. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, LET'S LEARN OUR LESSON TODAY and get it down pat so we don't have to learn this one over again tomorrow! Amen? Praise the Lord!
         21. But don't get me wrong! Some things do get easier! You don't usually have to fight the same battles over again if you get the victory! Otherwise it would be too hard and a losing game!
         22. God bless you and help you gain greater victories every day! It's really thrilling to look back and see your own progress!--To look back down that rugged mountain road you've just come over and to see you're really getting somewhere!
         23. But it's even more to look forward and up to heights you're soon to attain and views you're soon to thrill to if you keep fighting, climbing, winning and don't quit!