Creflo Dollar - Maintaining Your Victory in the Midst of Discomfort - Part 1
Now, let's look at the book of 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 10, first through the King James and then the NLT and I wanna talk to you about "Discomfort". This is not anything we should complain about. "Well, I'm in the midst of discomfort". You're not the only one and you won't ever be the only one. Every man or woman who's alive will understand the place of pain and the place of discomfort, but it's designed so that we ultimately can mature into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
First into King James, 1 Peter chapter 5 and 10. He says, verse 10, "But the God of all grace, who had called us unto eternal glory by Jesus Christ," or by Christ Jesus. "After that you have suffered a while". He's gonna make you perfect after you suffered a while. He'll establish you after you suffered a while. He'll strengthen you after you suffer a while and he'll settle you after you've suffered a while. The NLT says it like this. He says, "In his kindness God called us to share in his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore you". After you've suffered a little while, he will support you. After you've suffered a little while, he'll strengthen you, he will place you on a firm foundation.
Now, I'm not here to talk about where the suffering came from, whether you know God did it, or the devil did it. All I know is the Bible says, "They that live Godly shall suffer persecution". And all I know is is that you know, when people won't allow God to teach them, life will, you know, there'll be some things to happen in your life to help you to understand that you need God, all right? And you can grow in those particular areas. So one of the things I want to submit to you is that suffering is the catalyst or let me use a synonym, the stimulus or the it's the thing that will ultimately kind of help you to understand that you can grow from what you go through. You don't have to quit from what you go through, you can go. Suffering will encourage Christ likeness. Someone says, "I don't believe that keep living". It will be the catalyst for Christ likeness.
See Jesus suffered with us even though he already suffered for us and that's powerful that he suffered for us, but he's also willing to suffer with us. Now go to Romans chapter 8 and 29 Romans 8 and 29. I tell you the devil is gonna be in trouble because all of the stuff he's been able to do to move you. Once you understand what's going on, you're not gonna be able to be moved. In fact, he's gonna get frustrated. "I used to do this to you five years ago and this would happen". And now you'll say to him, "I'm not like I was five years ago. I have grown. You are not dealing with the same person you dealt with five years ago". And I just thank God for that. I thank God we have a growing, maturing church that life can't do to you what it used to do to you and expect for the same thing to happen. Maybe you would curl up and cry five years ago.
Now you would turn to your scripture and read the Word and pray in the Holy Ghost or call somebody and bless them. God wants to mature you. Now look at this in Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 he says, "For whom he did foreknow, he also predestined". I mean, before time he predestined for us to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first born amongst many brother. Now, here's what God said. Each of us, he has predestined for us to be conformed into the image of Jesus, the objective of this life that when it is over with as Christians that we look like Christ, that we're being conformed. Right now all the stuff you're going through, you're being conformed into the image of Jesus.
All the stuff you've been through, you're being conformed into the image of Jesus. It might not look like it, it might not feel like it, but you're gonna wake up one day and realize you got more love operating now than you had before. You have more empathy operating in your life than ever before. You're more generous than ever before. The stuff you'll give somebody now, you wouldn't even thought about giving it to him before you're being conformed to glory to God. All of the stuff that you've had to go through every time you got knocked down, disappointed all this stuff, all of it. God says, "I'm gonna take all of the mess that you had to encounter in your life. And as long as you keep pursuing me, I'm gonna use it, I'm gonna mold you. I'm the potter, you're the clay, I'm gonna make you after my will".
You're gonna look back one day and you're gonna just, you remember that song, "My soul looks back and wonder how I got over"? Well, I'm telling you how you got over. It was Jesus that was helping you over, alright? So now how does this work? We're being conformed, predestined to be conformed into the image of his Son so that he might be the first born amongst many brethren? All right, Philippians chapter 3 and 10, let me do this and that'll be our summer and I think we can move on. Philippians chapter 3 and 10. He says, "That I may know him".
Now, I think this past week, the Lord said to me that Christianity without a relationship with the Christ is nothing but religion that keeps you in bondage. Think about it. What is Christianity if you don't have a relationship with Jesus? If all Christianity is in your life is coming to church, learning the rule and trying to keep the rule, then your Christianity is nothing but a religion. But real Christianity has relationship with the Christ. So you can come to know him. So you don't have to act like a Christian when church is over with. You're just walking in your relationship with Jesus Christ. You ain't got to be cautious of who's around or who saw you at the mall and, you gonna be, you gonna act like you act because you know Christ, you're not gonna act like you act because you afraid somebody watching you and that's a problem. You got to get fed up with trying to do stuff to get people's approval. You gotta learn how to live this Christian life in a relationship with the Christ, amen? "That I might know him, and that I might know the power of his resurrection, that I might know the fellowship of his sufferings, being made".
Now notice now you can be made conformable unto his death, the fellowship of his suffering. Remember I defined that for you. In this word fellowship, it comes from an old Greek word "Koinonia" which means giving and receiving. If you go out to lunch to somebody and you fellowship with them, they got a part of that fellowship at the lunch and you have a part of that fellowship at the lunch. There's a giving that comes from you and a receiving from the other and a giving that comes from the other and a receiving from you. That's what fellowship is all about.
Well, he says that we ought to know him in the fellowship of his suffering. That means that we're not gonna suffer the same way Jesus suffered. Jesus's part of the fellowship of his suffering is this, he suffered to obtain the victories that we didn't have. He suffered so we can now have healing. He suffered so we can now be made righteous. He suffered because now we can be made whole, okay? Now he's not expecting for us to go through the same suffering to try to get what he's already gotten. That wouldn't make sense. He suffered because he needed to get what we didn't have. So we already have everything that pertains to life and godliness. So what's my part of the fellowship of the suffering? His part was to die to get the victory. My part is to maintain the victory that he died to get for me.
So that means Satan's job is to see if he can stop you from holding on to what Jesus obtained. Our job: maintain. Maintain righteousness. Alright, I'm born again now, I'm the righteousness of God. Now, all hell is coming against me to try to convince me that I am not righteous. So the attack for you daily is gonna be in your mind trying to change the way you think. Because if he can change the way you think, if he can get you to quit believing in your mind, then you'll see it translated in your life. If he can work on you enough to say, for you to say, "I don't believe I'm righteous". "Oh oh I don't believe I'm redeemed". "I don't believe I'm holy". If he can do that either through religion or hard times, then he has become very successful in stopping you from maintaining the victory that he died to obtain.
So, understand how to play the chess game. It ain't about who did something to you at work. It's about the devil trying to get you to change your mind about the victory that Jesus died to obtain. So every day you wake up, you're waking up believing what Jesus has obtained for you. I believe I'm healed even though when you're hurting, I believe I'm healed even though you're sick, I believe I'm righteous even though you acted a fool last week, I believe I'm redeemed even though it don't seem like you're redeemed. That's the whole game. Can he convince you through a variety of ways that you are not what he said you are? You know, the greatest fear that a believer can have is to be afraid that what Jesus said, to be afraid that what Jesus promised is not true.
That's the greatest fear. I am afraid that what he said about me being righteous is not true. That's the biggest fear you can have. I am afraid what he said about me being delivered is not true. And so you fall one crazy time and Satan say, "See that? See that? If you was really like he said, then you wouldn't have failed that time". Don't let the devil do you like that. And when he talks that kind of stuff, you say, "Hey devil, it ain't over yet. It ain't over yet. I fell today but I'm like Michael tomorrow. When I fall, I shall arise. Don't rejoice too quick devil. It ain't over yet. I have not finished my journey. When my journey is not..." And that's the attack. That's the spiritual attack, Satan has a meeting with his demons every day to come up with a strategy to try to knock you off what you're standing on. Unlike us, Satan strategizes on how to defeat you.
And you've got to say, "I am not defeated". Satan is a defeated folk. That's the thing he trying to convince you of what's true about him. Now, this is what's true about you. You're the one who was kicked out of hell. You're talking about yourself and it frustrates the devil when you keep responding in a way that contradicts what he's trying to get you to fear. And every night you can go to bed knowing I defeated the devil again. He tried to make me think I was no good but I am. He tried to make me think I'm not holy but I said I'm holy. I felt a little funny when I said I'm holy, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I'm not saying I'm holy because I feel holy, I'm saying I'm holy because he said I'm holy. I'm saying I'm holy because he died to make me holy. I'm saying I'm holy because that's the victory that I got.
Be careful of the religion that's going forth today that tells you you messed up so bad that you gotta forget everything Jesus has done for you. That's when you remember it. That's when you remember it. I just wanna just make the devil tremble. Could everybody shout, "I'm the righteousness of God now". Okay, now, watch this. This is really unusual in church. But would you say out loud, "I'm holy right now". Some of y'all struggled a little bit, what? No, now, how many of you believe that you're holy right now?
Now, wait, wait, wait, wait, you're not holy because of what you have done to be holy. See, we no longer living through us. We are now living through him. Ha ha, I'm not living through me. I'm living through Jesus Christ. I am whatever Jesus is. See, the only reason I'm righteous right now is because Jesus is righteous. If Jesus wasn't righteous, I wouldn't be able to be righteous. But because Jesus is righteous, I'm righteous. And somebody said, "Yeah, but you misbehaved last week". Yeah, but as long as Jesus is all right, I'm all right. Whenever you think you ain't all right no more, check in with Jesus. "Jesus, you all right"? "Yeah, I'm all right". That means you still all right. And as long as he all right, you all right. As long as he holy, you holy, as long as he's righteous, you righteous.
So, since we find purpose in suffering and that purpose is to be conformed into the image of Christ, the question is, should we not resist the suffering? Should we not resist the tribulation and the persecution and the pain? Should we just tolerate it for our good and glory? No, I'm not gonna tolerate anything from the devil or anything from life. Just because discomfort comes, doesn't mean you have to just take it. I ain't gonna sit there and just take something that's not my victory. "Well, does God mind if you drink a little mad dog"?
So you're asking the wrong question. The question is, do I want to be a slave to anything? I'm getting ready to fight because in the midst of the discomfort, that's how I grow. If I'm lifting weights and I'm trying to build muscle, it ain't gonna do me good to lift a broomstick every day. Somebody got to apply some pressure and when that pressure comes and I resist that weight, the heavier it gets, the more I resist, the more I develop. So bring it on devil. I bench pressed the trouble you threw at me last month. I'm a little stronger this month. Add it on, slap it on there. Bring it on. Oh oh this a little, oh oh, this is a little rough. I'm gonna need to watch this. I'm gonna need a spotter. And Jesus is always there to spot you. Jesus is there to spot you and he gonna stay there to spot you until you can do it yourself. Which means I've developed.
Get out of this little thing, as Christians we're not supposed to have no problems. You're not supposed to have no hard time. Ain't nothing bad supposed to happen to you. And if it does, then you ain't no real Christian. That is Tom foolery. That's a bunch of crock. Honey, when stuff happens in your life, that's an opportunity for you grow. That's an opportunity for you to bust up more demons. That's an opportunity for you to get stronger and stronger and stronger until you done got so strong.
The devil don't even want to fool with you no more. The devil gotta have a meeting to vote to see if anybody wanna stop by your house. And they said, "Who want to go in there today"? "I ain't going in there today. I went in there last week and I tell you what they shouted out. They never would shut up saying Hallelujah. They kept dancing, they kept shouting. I thought I had them and I thought because some tears were coming out of the eye and I realized they were crying because they were enjoying whooping my tail. I ain't going to that house no more".
The Bible says, "He seeketh whom he may devour". Which means he can't devour everybody, hallelujah. And you ought to be the people that he has to talk about whether or not they want to mess with you today. And I'm telling you, world changers, that the devil is getting fed up messing with you because he can't defeat you. He can't knock you down. He can't get you to say, "I'm broke". He can't get you to say, "I'm sick". He can't get, he... We're gonna resist, we're gonna resist. It ain't over till it's over.
And as long as you got breath in your body, honey, maybe you didn't see it last week. Maybe you didn't see it last month, but you don't have to see it to believe it. That's what's so special about us. We don't necessarily have to see the manifestation to know we already got the manifestation. See, we're not confessing something to try to get something to come to pass. We're confessing it because Jesus has already gotten it to come to pass. And what we say, we say because we believe it. We wanna mess the devil up because he can't believe we saying this, hallelujah. All the pain and all the sickness and all the shame and all the stuff you done went through and you got the mitigated gall to stand up in front of somebody and declare that you are the righteousness of God.
Well, I'm gonna shop today. I'm tearing something up. I'm tearing something up because God's been too good to me, hallelujah. God's been too good to me for me to sit back and deny what the grace of God has made available to me. I am not gonna disregard it. I'm not gonna be quiet about it. I'm not gonna act like it didn't happen. I'm gonna shout onto God with a voice of triumph. I'm gonna praise him anyhow. I'm gonna, hey glory to God, hallelujah. My God. It ain't over with yet devil. You hit me with another shot. But listen, when sin abounds, y'all didn't hear what I just said.
When sin increases, grace is gonna increase more. And when sin increases, grace is gonna increase more. Y'all don't understand what I'm saying. Sin, no matter how much of it you do will never be greater than God's grace. Now, you religious folks, you got a problem with that because you have more faith in sin's ability to send you to hell than you have faith in grace's ability to send you to heaven. Sin ain't never gonna outdo God's grace. Do you actually think that your crazy is more powerful than grace? Taffi and I were having a conversation yesterday. It was profound. She said, "People concerned about... Oh... about people", Taffi, where she at? What were you talking about? People was learning about don't take advantage. What was taking advantage of? Come on, help me, baby, help me.