SteveO 1

Total Victory - What does that mean to you?

Here at totalvictorytoday.com we are blessed to have a strong, devoted group that is focused on using all forms of media to entertain, reveal the Truth and show people the Way to experience the Life of total victory. The team member that is the director of this blog is a guy we call SteveO.

In the future SteveO will be writing this blog himself but currently I am doing it with direct input from SteveO via telephone calls and face to face visits. The focus of this blog is to encourage people in their daily life by reminding them that they have a purpose, that God doesn't make mistakes, that He gives us a way to get to know Him through His word, that no matter what the circumstances look like to us He is the Creator and loves each of us more than anything we can fully comprehend, (grab a Bible and check-out John 3:16).

That all being said, I want to give you some background on SteveO. He is 45 years old, has a wife and son and is, at this very moment, preparing to go through a procedure called the "gamma-knife." The procedure is designed to focus approx. 201 beams of intense, light on one spot for a certain amount of time in order to kill and/or stunt a growing tumor/cancer. After a specialized MRI, SteveO will have a half of a football helmet looking apparatus screwed into his head, (he will be numbed), and then for approx. 30-45 minutes he will need to be as still as possible as the "gamma-knife" does it's thing. Our prayer is that the Lord will use this procedure to kill the growing cancerous tumor that has returned to SteveO's brain.

Back in December of 1991, SteveO was a guy riding a wave of success, according to the world's standards, with a thriving, profitable business, a nice home/ranch, a strong marriage and a young son. It was in the month of December of 1991 that SteveO was diagnosed with a brain tumor and wasn't given a whole lot of hope for any more life or any more life that he was used to.

In May of 1992 at UCLA SteveO survived a brain surgery that removed the core of the tumor but the "fingers" that had grown out of the core were left. The surgery was a success but the recovery was slow, painful and as time revealed the right side of SteveO's very athletic, very strong body was and would remain largely paralyzed and simple tasks like talking and eating had to be relearned.

During the course of recovery SteveO endured physical pain and the emotional pain of learning that his business had been deviously taken from him by trusted associates and the income that sustained his family was now gone so besides his wife and son having to go through his illness they would all have to endure the process of relocating as well.

By October of 1992 SteveO was at the bottom. His once strong body and entrepreneurial mind could not get he or his family out of this fix. Some people from a church had come by to visit from time to time and it was one of those times when SteveO found The Way, met The Truth and began to experience The Life! He asked Jesus to be his Lord and Savior, his Redeemer, his Friend, his All and All! And Jesus who loves us all beyond what we can think or imagine said "YES!"

SteveO will tell you that evil does not like when we know Jesus. Evil will do what it can to convince that Jesus is not real, is not there, did not die for our sins, did not defeat death by rising from the grave, is not seated at the right hand of the Father and is not coming back. Evil deceives and tries to cloud our vision. SteveO will tell you that on a couple of occassions evil fooled him too.

Still in recovery mode at his home SteveO was fooled into feeling defeated and deceived into thinking his family would be better off in all kinds of ways if he was gone. SteveO tried taking his own life a couple of times but in both cases someone discovered what he was doing and was able to stop him, (thak you Lord). Those church representatives sat with, prayed with and read with SteveO and his family. SteveO was able to call on Jesus to defeat evil's deceiving schemes, he learned that Jesus wanted a love-relationship with him, he clung to the promises of Jesus knowing that he would never be alone again and he became so full of joy that he began to speak to others of Jesus and actually began to radiate/shine wth the light of Christ.

15 years have passed. SteveO and his family live in a quaint home surrounded by animals of all sorts. He repairs sprinklers, digs holes and other "honey-do's," but since his right side still, for the most part, fails him, his left arm, hand and teeth work exceedingly well together. We call his left hand "the claw" because of it's tremendous strength and useability. He cannot drive but the man gets around.

So many folks of all ages, individually and in group settings, have heard SteveO's gravelly voice, (because of the surgery and because of a special implant he has that reduces the amount and severity of the seizures he has), tell of how blessed he is to know that Jesus loves him and his family and how he knows that the ups and downs of his life are to be used to point people to his Creator.

Well, it was just a few weeks ago now when the seizures became worse and as SteveO told us "they felt different." After many tests we got the news that the cancer was back. This was about the same time that we had felt led to begin Total Victory Ministries and that SteveO would help with the web site and do the blogging.

SteveO's right side is even weaker now and he has to be assisted to get around. When we were in the hospital and I was holding SteveO's head in my hands and praying in his ear for the Lord to calm his body during an intense seizure God reminded me that He loves SteveO more than we do and he wants us all to shine His light wherever He puts us. The Lord underscored this as SteveO was coming out of the seizure. SteveO looked up and noticed a new nurse and began asking about her life and in just a few seconds we learned that her brother battles seizures as the result of a severe head injury and when SteveO heard this he pointed at us in the room, including himself, and assured the nurse we would begin praying for her brother. SteveO was being the lamp on a stand in the midst of his seizure, (at this point the seizures are quite painful, SteveO told me once that from 1-10 in pain they were pegging the 10), shining the light of Christ to this nurse. Yes, God loves SteveO more than any of us AND He loves us the same.

During his stay in the hospital SteveO shared the Lord's joy with lots of people. I would come in and when nurses, physical therapists, doctors, orderlies, maitenance workers or whomever found out I was a friend they would light up and tell me about how wonderful SteveO is and how they are praying for him and how he would be praying for them.

A couple of days before the "gamma-knife" procedure SteveO wanted to make sure that I would pass along what he had read and felt God impressing on him to share on the blog so here you go --

From the Lord through SteveO to all of us on June 6, 2007

-- The more intimately we know God through His word, the more resolute and more successful we can be in the face of evil.


SteveO knows he has Total Victory Today because he knows The Way, The Truth and The Life, he has Jesus. Do you?



Stay tuned for more, pray on for SteveO and God bless!!