BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

6 : B V O V Sure, we should—and we can. We just need to walk in the excellence of our true identity. I fi rst received a revelation of this years ago when I was attending Oral Roberts University and working for Brother Roberts. He said to those of us on his sta , "If we're to demand excellence from our students, we must demand it of ourselves." He was adamant about that, and I realized he was right to be. So, from then on, especially when it came to ministry, I followed his example and that became my standard. I remember one time, in the beginning years of this ministry, I was in the studio with some musicians recording an album. We'd done several takes on the various tracks, but I still was not satisfi ed with the last song. I said, "We can do better than this. Let's try it at least one more time." The guy who'd been playing steel guitar wasn't interested. "Aw, that's good enough for gospel," he said. Good enough for gospel? Just hearing that made me want to feed the guy his guitar. I didn't. But I didn't smile either. I just ignored him and we did the song again and again until we got it right. Of course, later The LORD brought us musicians like Steve Ingram and Phil Driscoll to work with, and they had an entirely di erent attitude. They stuck with a song as long as necessary. They'd keep recording one take after another until we all said, "Yes, that's it!" Some people might call that being a perfectionist. But it wasn't that we were looking for perfection in the music. We were looking for the anointing to come on it, and it's an interesting thing: The anointing and perfection run along side by side. Excellence and the glory fl ow together. Put Some Pressure on the Devil One person who understood this was Apostle Paul. He never had a sloppy, just-get- by attitude. Even before he was born again, his zeal as a Pharisee was unsurpassed, and as a believer he became even more zealous about following Jesus. After meeting Him in His glory on the road to Damascus, Paul went after Him with everything he had. As he wrote in Philippians 3: I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: [Remember, the word Christ means "the Anointed One and His Anointing."] for whom I have su ered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (verses 8, 12-14). Notice, Paul pressed. He didn't just wait for his spiritual inheritance to fall on him like an apple o a tree. He didn't just sit down when he ran into hardships and trouble and say, "I think I'll quit. The devil is putting too much pressure on me." No, instead of slacking o , when the pressures of the devil hit (and they hit all of us), Paul turned the tables. He put pressure on the devil by continuing to press into the excellence of the knowledge of the Anointed One and His Anointing. The devil has no answer for the Anointing of God! He can try to pressure us to back o from it, but if we continue to press forward in faith to apprehend that for which Jesus has apprehended us, our pressure will win over the devil's every time. If we take the attitude Paul did and say, "Forget the failures of yesterday. I'm pressing forward into my high calling in Jesus. I'm reaching for the prize of the Anointing of my King!" the devil doesn't stand a chance. That's why he fi ghts so hard to talk us out of pressing forward. It's why he wants us to take the same that's-good-enough attitude he's sold to the world. As the god of this world, he's "blinded the minds of them which believe Schedule is subject to change without notice. 2024 California Victory Campaign Nov. 14-16 | Costa Mesa, Calif. New Year's Eve Service Eagle Mountain International Church Dec. 31 | Newark, Texas For updated event information visit: KCM.ORG/EVENTS events Join us!

• Cover