Redefining Success: God’s Perspective in the Trenches - Revival of Hope Recap

course, Christy's here with us today and we just want to kind of share with you some thoughts from our revival of hope that you can now watch on your tablets. It should be loading soon if it's not up there. So Christy our theme was it's not over and gosh that's it that's huge. That's like a lot of stuff like it's not over. So what do you think after being being in our weekend and seeing it what was kind of like your biggest takeaway? For me the biggest take away was it is hard. There were so many things so many things that you're always learning. The biggest struggle for me was you know you put so much effort and we put all those chairs out and when those chairs aren't filled the performer in me sees failure immediately and then I have to renew my mind with truth that God's level of success and how he determines success is not how the world determines it and the Lord showed up so much under that tent but I was struggling the whole time with a frustration of why aren't the seats filled. Not many people are missing it and that was the thing it's because I know how powerful the stories are and I'm so grateful for video and digital ministry that can happen like on our prison tablets on YouTube and Facebook all of these things because those videos are living on and they're touching lives that never could sit in those seats even if they wanted to. So I know God is using it and I felt His presence. You know sometimes you're you're able to actually feel God's presence. Sometimes you can't and you just got to keep going to the word and reminding yourself. He says that I am always with you I'll never leave you or forsake you but this particular revival of hope especially when we were going into the Pitt County Detention Center. I remember that second pod that we went into it was so thick. I can't even unless you've experienced it's gonna sound weird but it was so thick that every person in there felt it and I was like we just stopped and I said do you guys feel this? I'm like this is it's the weight of his glory which I'm just figuring out how to even express that but glory even when you study the word it's something that has weight and that's what we felt like God was descending in that jail because not only do we do the revival of hope under that tent but we're going into prisons it's now living on on prison

tablets but we were going from pod to pod and actually sell to sell at Pitt County Detention Center and being able to minister and God showed up and he showed up for the one. Yeah that's right we're the fisher of men and of men. That's really good and that's what I was going to say is that before we even had the revival we went to two other prisons where you had a team of people going in so it's like we're already starting the revival it's not over and then it continues at the revival site in the Pitt County Detention Center but then more so outside when it goes to all the tablets and everything. Yeah and you never know the ripple effect so getting back to the numbers thing. Yeah you never know the ripple effect of if you're walking an obedience to God which is how success is summed up biblically. Yeah it's success is walking in obedience walking in faithfulness to what God has told you to do not departing from it just so you get more money or you get more people in the seats because honestly you could have a full house you could have a full house but there could be people sitting there that are bringing the wrong kind of you know noise or distractions or just a negative spirit or whatever and so my prayer before we always go into an event like this is Lord God have your way bring who you want to bring and when change their hearts change their hearts and so for me personally and I know I even heard this with some other you know volunteers and supporters like why aren't the chairs filled and I kept having to remind myself and people kept having to remind me and the Lord one morning I woke up a couple days later I'm like, "Lord, I'm out." I heard be done, be done because it's success is not whether or not those seats are filled because you could have a full stadium and if the presence of God and the anointing of God and the speakers, like I don't go after big named, now you can have a big named anointed speaker, but it's frustrating sometimes to me saying who you got coming, I'm like Jesus is coming, Jesus is going to be in the house, you want to come see Jesus, like how big your name can you get that, but success in the world's eyes is who big named person are you going to have speak and like, that's what we crave like is it makes me think like even when you're raising children in the society of give me this or go to a drive through and

get this, the success is how fast, you know, kind of get my food this fast, the seats, the big names and all how many subscribers they got on YouTube, how many subscribers y'all got on veal ministries, but it's like, it's, it really changes the perspective and it can darken the heart, that's the Satan gets in there and he's like yeah that's right, you're not, you're not good enough and I think that that's the piece that when you're incarcerated, whether in your heart or bars, then we come out and we're again thinking that our stories are not important, that the experiences, the trauma that we've had cannot bring success and glory to God in a way that is just so beautiful when it's, when you let him work and so really in this segment, we've already been talking about it a little bit, I really wanted to focus on what does success look like in God's eyes, you know, I think about just one example's popping in my mind right now, when Joshua took the battle of Jericho, do you remember that song? Jericho and the walls came tumbling down, success came, you know, people just wanted success seeing the walls come down, but they had to march around the walls for seven days and on the seventh day, seven times and success came because of obedience, success on day one, the walls weren't falling down but it looked like it was obedience and that was success to God and, you know, think about Jesus, success to the audience that he was coming to do, the people in the town looked like a ruler coming and taking over Rome, but success in God's eyes was Jesus coming and laying his life down and dying on a cross, so I bring this topic up because I was struggling with it so much at the revival and I've struggled with it at prison events and our whole team does, I remember going all the way to Arizona and it takes a lot of money to get to these places, it takes close to $50,000 to do a revival of hope and a lot of work, a lot of effort and so I get to this prison event and the place is shut down and there is an orderly there mopping the floors and there's one guy that I got to talk to and then later when it opened up I think we ended up having about three to five people who were able to come because the politics on the yard, others had been told they couldn't come, they weren't to come out and so I'm looking out through the glass window over those mountains in Phoenix, Arizona and I was hurting and I was struggling and I was mad and I was like God you know how much we've spent to get here and I'm responsible as the leader of the partners dollars and given them a report of how successful it was and I've got one person here and now

three and the Lord looked, I mean as I'm looking out of that desert and I'm like I came out to the desert literally and he said yeah I mean I'm hearing this, I crossed a desert to visit one woman at the well and the disciples didn't understand that was not success that Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at the well was not success in eyes but that one person went back and told and changed this whole city, I'm imagining I don't have biblical proof of that but they all came running to know more about Jesus, that was success. but then you talked about J.C. praying with that one person outside at the metal table. And it's such a beautiful picture when you visualize it, when you close your eyes and you're like, there's a metal table, there's somebody seeing the neighbor and somebody kneeling of really that one. And it gives me chills just thinking about it about and the weepiness of Jesus. Like if that was the picture of Jesus laying his hand and just, and being there. And I think success is something that is, we drive that, you're the performer that tries to get there and we're always like, what can we do there? For me, it's like, oh, how much money can I raise? Or how much can I do this? And sometimes I also think we get so sucked in to that part of it, we miss. We miss the beautiful pieces and the beautiful work that God has orchestrated and all of that. - Yeah, yeah. Because success to him is reaching the one. - Yeah. - And you're our one. - You're one.

You're one that volunteer that success at the revival, couple of years ago, our first revival of hope. We've had five events in this community, a festival of hope, a night of hope, and three revival of hopes. And six, two years ago, the Lord put him on heart. He's like, Christy, the revival of hope is more for your team than anybody. And to think that he would have us work so hard that we're still reaching people, but that's where you were new on our team. You'd been there a year, but you and Carla and y'all were in the trenches together on that site. And y'all created a bond. Our team, it was pouring down rain. The tent had flooded. It was a mess. And it did not look like it was gonna be successful. And what God did and how we came out of that stronger to think that God cared enough about us, that he would use that event for us to be more successful in our relationships, that that mattered to him, in our unity, that matter to God. To have volunteers this year, I'm looking out this year and they were volunteers I had never met. I'm like, Ashley, where did that person just come from? You're like, I don't know. And I don't know that that's so good that we don't even know.

But I'm like, there's three people and I went over and said, where are you from? We're from Kenya. I was like, Kenya, I just got back from Kenya, but I'm thinking, that's a beautiful success that God's doing. I couldn't have brought those three people from Kenya, but there they are. They're serving. People walk them by with their real hats on and they're, it's not over T-shirts. And I'm like, there was as many of those there as attendees. And some of the events. But then, you know, I think about it right now, if that tent had been full, I wouldn't even have noticed that. That God was growing. I'm just noticing it right now. God was growing our volunteer base and showing me, Christy, all of the efforts here at Locally. There are people here. You haven't even met yet that I've brought here. And that's success. That's, you know, hey. - It is. (laughing) - I'm just realizing it. - Well, it's also like, I want to say changing our perspective, but maybe it's just changing to God's perspective. That's a better way.

We're going to change it to God's perspective of what success is so that we don't miss it, so that we're in the trenches. - So here's a list for you. The world often measures success by, and here's a list. Wealth, how much do I have? Position, how high did I rise? Recognition, do people know my name? Do they know Victoria's living's name? How are, how many people answer to me? How many people are under me? Possessions, how much have I accumulated? Comfort, have I built an easy life? Because people are like, oh, if you do this and you can retire, you can have it. That's seen as success, a big retirement fund. Popularity, appearance, how impressive do I look? Achievement, what have I accomplished? Independence, did I do it myself? Winning, did I come out on top? Influence, how many people follow me? Results, did it work? Accumulation, what did I gain in legacy will people remember me? Where God, so instead of wealth, it's stewardship. Not how much do I have, but what did I do with what God? but whom did I serve in the process? Recognition, how many know my name or just God know my name? You can have the whole world. And what does it gain if you forfeited your soul?

You can have, but also you could have the largest ministry in the world. But what happens if you forfeited your mind? Relationships? Like I hear of ministries that, like we don't want to work there. We want to leave because there's no love in there. That's not success. Power, how many people answer to me to God says humility. Am I willing to lower myself for others? That's success. Possessions, what do I have to, what have I released? Generosity, comfort. Have I built an easy life? Compare that to God's success. Meter is obedience, that I do what God said to, even though it cost me. Popularity, do people have proved to faithfulness? Will I obey God even if people don't approve? Oh, that's hard. Appearance, how impressive do I look to my heart? Who am I when nobody's looking? Achievement, what did I accomplish to fruit? What did I produce? Yeah, I hadn't heard these either. I'm just reading through some of these. Independence, I did it myself, dependence, because John 10, 10's is apart from John 15, five, excuse me. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

So what did I do with God, leaning on God? Did I come out on top in my winter? Or endurance, did I remain faithful through the trial? Influence, how many people follow me, discipleship? How many others did I help follow Christ? Results, did it work? Obedience, again, obedience, did I do what God asked? And that's when I go to revival, I did what God asked. And so did you. Well, and when we look at all of these, what we say success is, and what God says success is, for those that are incarcerated now, how do we, what are some ways that they can shift their mind from this to thinking about, okay, if I'm going to stay incarcerated because I have to be there a long time, what does this look like? Or even when I come out, what does this look like? I mean, I think that's hard. And that's like a, that's a whole like deep dive Bible study about what they look like to steward. But we have like, we have incarcerated people right now, or formerly incarcerated that have believed in Victoria's Living Enough to then give to the ministry. And that's a beautiful picture of, even when you don't have a lot of wealth, if you're like, I don't have a lot, but I'm still going to give what you make that step. Yeah, and you think about, so I think a great exercise and what we would love to hear from you.

We would love for you if you're, I think it's pando, you can actually end it up, or you can leave comments in your chat. And if you're watching this online, like give examples, like look at this, we can put this as a PDF on there and hopefully we can put it on the screen. And look at each one and then think about where I am right now. Like your success, you may not have a big bank account, but what are you doing with what you have? What are you steward, how are you stewarding the time that you have behind bars? There's people all around you who need to know it's not over. And you could be the very one that tells them. You could have, yesterday we got this beautiful letter from a lady, you know, we've offered these studies, videos and also some Bible studies that we have to help you lead a small group. And we train you up as a small group leader, facilitator. And so this lady's like, you know what? I'm starting right now. I'm going to do this. And she's sending her commitment to be a victorious living small group facilitator. And she's, it's not big, but she's stewarding what she's got, where she is, starting where she is. And they had three, I think she said, three to six, but she's like, I'm going to stay faithful.

That's success is staying faithful. Obedience, she says, in that long letter, I know that God has put this on my heart. So I'm going to do it. That's success. The fact that there's not 50 people, every person in that dorm surrounding her, who's to say a year from now, not only are they surrounding, but people are so trained up when they get out leaving Bible studies in there at home. That's success. Well and it's not just success there when you think about you taking it outside in back into your home. Now it's the the transformation of what that environment looks like to the people that you've come home to. I think about just I've never been in a gang I've always wanted to be in certain groups you know where you're accepted and popularity but so instead of thinking all right how many people do I have respecting me on the yard and serving me? How about how many people could you go serve today on the yard? Oh my goodness yesterday Julie Sills talking about they did an outreach into a community and they were given away shoes but then the leaders sat down and washed the feet of those that came in that was success. Not only did they give someone a pair of shoes but God told them now humble yourself and wash the feet she said diseased feet people who had been walking in the dirt calloused feet and she said the people that were being served were being broken down in their heart the the love that was success. It makes me think okay this is another thing they can drop drop in the comments but also like I think when we look at this list that Mijo's gonna put up you look at this and it it would feel like like can't do all of this and then I'm gonna be a failure all at one time this is not successful so like what is one thing that you want to pick and like really work on like I want to be better at generosity or humility and what does that look like? To you being

incarcerated if I pick one thing what does that look like for me because again I think it's it's dawning when we look at something like a whole big kind of like a to-do list of all the things that we need to do or check off and then we feel like overwhelmed and anxious like I can't do all those and then I'm a fail God and then it's not really successful but like you know I can be I can be obedient in this and I can go ask my I can go pray for a friend or whatever it is. I'm looking at legacy okay and we did I didn't get to those that the last two in the bottom were accumulation and legacy legacies will people remember me and that makes me think of BJ and BJ is to BJ Emerson is in the room with us right now but he's behind these cameras because he this is what he does he produces these these shows and he makes sure that they get up on the tablets forum for us but he also has been putting the classes of leaving a legacy he's the one that's taken you on the motorcycle rides and horseback rides and all of that and so if you haven't watched his videos watch that but I think about his father lived behind bars for a while there was no legacy BJ was talking about wanting to cut down his family tree but yet his father if you looked at the first part of his father's life you would see that's not successful but then his heart turned to God and now he's got this legacy of generations BJB and one of them that are now pointing people to Christ so his father had a very successful successful life in God's eyes and in my eyes and I just absolutely love that so you can go from will people remember me not only are we gonna honor his dad right now but his dad left an internal impact that now generations that are following him are still pointing people to Jesus and nothing was wasted nothing waste the beginning part of BJ's father's life to be able to transform it and redeem it to the successful legacy part so a lot of you right now might be thinking there's no way my life can be successful because you're looking at it from the world's perspective you're saying I could I'll never get out of here so I'll never live in the free world so I can't be successful you could live a purpose living a purpose filled life is a successful life yeah living out God's purpose for you and God's purpose for you

can be lived out anywhere because your purpose is to point people to him to be a light to love God and to love others as you love yourself that's the gospel summed up and the great commission which if you fulfill that whether you're in prison or in three society working in a hospital, your job, no matter what you are, as an officer, is to point people to Jesus, to go into tell through your testimony and to let your light so shine that it points people to Jesus and then also to make disciples of those people. Not just beat them over the head with the Bible that a lot of ministries think they're successful because they might guilt someone into giving their life to Christ, but their lives aren't surrendered and now they don't have a clue. The Lord showed me years ago, if I minister to you and just tell you what you should do, but I don't point you to how to read the Bible, to know how to live this out, I'm failing you, that's not success. If you come out and you reach out to us and I can't connect you to a resource or point you in a direction, I am failing you. And so success, again, is not how big you are, even though sometimes God will bless you with a size, but with that comes a lot of other things that you have to steward as well, responsibility. - Well, and you said something about the light and so I wanna close with this about how that ties into our next year's revival and kind of what we're planning

and the theme for that and how you can be a light inside the prison walls. So can you tell us about that? - Yeah, so for the revival and-- - In 2027. - 2027 in the spring, we are, you know, our theme and everything we do in victorious living is it's not over because that's the first thing that God said, you go to prisons, you go to jails and you let my people know that it's not over. His people being the people he's created in his image, that's you, it's not over. And so that's the theme we take everywhere and in our revival of hope, you know, that will be the theme again, it's always the theme. But the reason it's not over is because Jesus says that he is the light and that he is the light that has come into this world and the darkness can never overcome the light. So our theme is really centered around the light, the lighthouse, the light being Jesus, his word, his word is a lamp into your feet and a light into your path. So as we build out the themes of the revival, it's always, everything we do is going to point to Jesus and his word because if you, the Bible says, listen, in Joshua, in Joshua, God says that if you meditate on the word of God and you do not depart from it from the left and go to the left or the right, you're staying, walking in his word, you will be successful in everything that you do

and every place that you set your foot is because of Jesus and the light. - And so with that, we want you to be successful and be the light wherever you are and let us know what your success is for God's, what God says success is, what that looks like for you this week and beyond. - Yeah, because what you send to us, we can share, like in our behind the wire section in the magazine and that might be our topic for that next one, like how can I be successful behind the hearts and what does that look like? So give us your ideas of what success looks like for you. - We are praying for you, we have groups praying for you and individuals and so we're thankful for you and thank you for joining us. - Yeah, and don't forget to check out the slides at the end, write to us, we have a correspondence team that's ready to respond in English or Spanish, you can call our Caroline 352-478-2098 and you can receive prayer and your family can call that Caroline also. And if you're not getting our magazine, victorious living in your facility, be sure and have your chaplain call that same number or go to our website, V-L-M-I-N.org, all this information's on the slides and you can order copies and cases. Yeah, we don't send individual copies, so if you write to us asking for that,

because of mailroom restrictions and also the movement of incarcerated people from facility facility, we found that we were wasting a lot of resources. So if you want your chaplain to call and say, we will send you a whole case, we will send them, not you, but your chaplain and your facility, a whole case with or without staples. So if you're in a jail-- - It will light all into your facility. - Yeah, yeah you go. - Well thank y'all, we'll see you next time. - God bless you. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister North Carolina, 27836. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples. [BLANK_AUDIO]