What does it take to be a winner? Everyone wants to know the answer to that question. We all want to win. But when it comes right down to it, few of us are willing to pay the price.

One day I heard an Olympic athlete describe how hard she had worked for the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games. She was telling what it took for her to win the gold medal.

Olympic athletes don’t just wake up one morning and say, “Hey! I think I’ll be in the Olympics today.” They train for years to get there. Some of them train most of their lives.

They get out of bed every morning to run. They run in the cold. They run in the rain. They run no matter what—whether they want to or not. This woman said there were times when she pushed herself so hard she became physically ill. But even then, she refused to stop running.

That woman was determined to win. She had decided years earlier she was going to go for a gold medal—no matter what the cost. She was stretching and straining to win it, pushing forward with the kind of force that moves every obstacle out of the way.

That kind of force is what it takes to be a winner—not just physically but also spiritually. Jesus said this in Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

In this verse, Jesus wasn’t talking about going to heaven. He was talking about taking hold of the kingdom of God on this earth—actually possessing the promised blessings like healing, prosperity and peace.

You can have those kingdom blessings now. But it’s not easy—you have to take them by force.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries