BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

way of surviving. I'll never forget the day she and John (Joel's dad) called Gloria and me to tell us she had been diagnosed with liver cancer. According to the doctors, her condition was fatal. The cancer had progressed to the point where they said there was nothing medical science could do to help her. Gloria and I prayed and agreed with her and John for her healing, of course, but Dodie knew better than just to depend on other people's faith. She knew she had to use her own, so she went into climb mode. Once the doctors gave their diagnosis, she never went back to the hospital. Instead, she put together a list of healing scriptures. From then on, every morning when she got up, she read them. During the day, she read them again. In the evening, she read them again. She didn't quote them from memory. She read them all, out loud, every day, three times a day. She also acted on those verses. She behaved not according to how she felt but according to what she believed— The WORD of God. James 2:17 says, "Faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up)… is destitute of power" (Amplifi ed Bible, Classic Edition). So, even though Dodie felt so weak sometimes she could hardly walk across the room, she refused to go to bed. Your Most Important Business Not only did Dodie Osteen end up overcoming that particular storm, but she has also been fl ying high, in health, ever since. Decades have come and gone, and she is alive and well today. John has already gone to heaven, but Dodie is still going strong. Gloria and I were privileged to be there for her 75th birthday, and we can confi rm that she is vibrant and full of the Spirit of God. Dodie eventually published that list of healing scriptures she put together. I have most of them marked with tabs in 6 : B V O V them. Eager to get a better look at him, I said, "LORD, send him back around!" He did, and as the eagle circled by me again, I was reminded of those verses and thought, God is renewing my youth like that bird's! The eagle is a magnifi cent bird. What thrills me most about them is their aviation skills. As a pilot, when I'm confronted with a thunderstorm I have to go around it (unless I'm fl ying a Citation X or Gulfstream that has a ceiling of 50,000 feet). Mr. Eagle, however, doesn't have to do that. Instead, he takes fl ight and uses the updraft in front of that storm to his advantage. He puts his wings in "climb mode" at just the right altitude and locks them in place, so he doesn't have to fl ap. Then, he allows the updrafts to keep lifting him higher. He has air sacs in his lungs that enable him to go to high altitudes so, once he's above the storm, he can stay there as long as necessary. He can circle around, looking down on everything and enjoy himself. Why can he do that? God created him that way. God created us as believers that way too! He created us to mount up in victory with wings as eagles (Isaiah 40:31). He gave every one of us the measure of faith (Romans 12:3) so that when the storms of life start swirling around us we don't have to run from them. Instead, we can go into climb mode. We can take fl ight on the exceeding great and precious promises in God's WORD and lock our spiritual wings into just the right altitude. If a storm of sickness threatens, we can lock into a healing altitude. If lack threatens us, we can lock into a prospering altitude. If clouds of defeat start to gather, we can lock into a victory altitude. We can keep rising higher on the wings of faith and overcome! When I think of what can happen when a believer locks into God's WORD like that, I'm reminded of Joel Osteen's mother, Dodie. Many years ago, she faced a storm that, in the natural, she had no B V O V : 6 St. Louis Victory Campaign Oct. 26-28 | St. Louis, Mo. Omaha Victory Campaign Nov. 9-11 | Omaha, Neb. FlashPoint LIVE Oct. 5-6 | Brooklyn Park, Minn. Nov. 30-Dec.1 | Pasadena, Calif. Schedule is subject to change without notice. For updated event information visit: KCM.ORG/EVENTS events 2023 Join us!

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