“Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

~William Carey

A year ago October, I was knee deep in pink bubble wrap preparing to leave a home.

packing
 This October, I am neck deep in grace working to build one.

  advance church demo

A year ago October, I made a list of people I hoped God would move from Minnesota to Las Vegas, too.

By the end of this October, nearly everyone on the list will have risked everything to join Him in our Summerlin living room. 

advance church summerlin
A year ago this October, I followed a cement truck home from the gym, e-mailed my husband and said, “What if we call it Advance?”

advance church cement truck
This October, they are all calling it Advance, too.

advance church preview service
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I don’t know what you are facing this October, but hear me out when I tell you that Jesus wins. When I think about all the ways God has won for our family, for our friends and their families, and for Advance Church in the last 12 months, I am reminded, as Charles Spurgeon says, that “a praying breath is never spent in vain” and that, as Britt Merrick says, “our problems are only as big as our God isn’t.”

So fix your gaze in His direction and don’t let anyone tell you your dream is too unreasonable or the diagnosis is too bad or the relationship is too broken or the job search is too futile or the chores are too mundane or the situation is too permanent or the debt is too insurmountable or the prayer is too audacious or that you are too small to be used by our big God.

Trust, obey, fight, work, hope, pray, move, and live like the victory is complete. Because it is. It’s been won for me. It’s been won for you.

So it’s time…

“…it’s time to go to war, brothers and sisters. Learn to do battle in the spiritual realm. Study Ephesians 6 and pay heed to James 4. Prepare for war and get ready for victory because the gates of hell will not prevail against the going forth of the Church. Don’t miss out. Don’t sit on the bench. Identify what God is doing in your marriage, in your family, in your community, and get on mission. Get on board. Get in the battle. Because whether you live or die, Jesus wins. He is Christ our Victor, and He is worthy of our faith.”

~Britt Merrick, Big God