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Scripture reading: Romans 6:10-13

The beginning of every spiritual achievement is founded in FAITH. From the depths of our sin-prone estate we look to the dizzy heights of Christ-like achievements like being “dead in Christ,” and some of us feel a deep kind of despair in that such an achievement is humanly unattainable. Humanly, yes, but IN CHRIST we can make it.

The first question therefore is how do I do it? The answer is loud and clear in the above passage in Romans 6 – by faith reckon it so. This is not some kind of mental or metaphysical exercise of the will, but a God given ability to believe God. The reckoning of the death of Jesus Christ to be my death can only be brought about by the knowledge of His life being my life, and the sure faith that the life of Christ in me will kill the Adamic life, which is ever present in the form of sin within my members.

One of the greatest signs of the life of Christ in me is the fact that I can see the Adamic nature within my own members.

There was a day in my youth when I went to God with the feeling that I thought I was free from all sin. But He said to me that I should sanctify myself. Naturally I asked Him how, and He told me to watch my members and keep them free from sin. The first few hours were disastrous…. I had sinned with my feet, my ears, my mind, my mouth, and my eyes – there was lusting, idleness, carnal mind, prying ears, and evil speaking. It was quite a shock for someone who thought he was holy. Only the Holy Ghost can reveal one’s sin to himself. The difference between God revealing sin, and the devil doing it, is that when God reveals sin it blesses the believer, the motive being to lift him up. When the devil does it, it is to cast down and deride.

If therefore, we are to reckon ourselves dead, we need first to know that we are not dead (dead to sin), but that we desire to be, and that this is attainable through the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

If we believe that we are joined to Jesus Christ by His death, and that His death is the death of the carnal man within us, then our reckoning this to be so will create within us the death to sin which we desire.

This is the first step towards being “dead in Christ”. In our next devotional we will deal with the second step that follows.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1984)

Thought for today: Even though being “dead in Christ” is humanly unattainable, it is reachable IN CHRIST by faith.

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Scripture reading: Revelation 13:18

VICTORY OVER HIS MARK:

The mark of the beast is in the forehead or in the hand. A mark in the forehead speaks of the mind being taken over, and a mark in the hand speaks of committed works. Those who have the mark of the beast cannot be saved, because they have committed the unpardonable sin of blaspheme (rejecting the Holy Ghost for the last time). When the word speaks of the mark of the beast, it is taken by a person; it means that that individual would never accept Christ in time or in eternity. Judas sold Jesus, but he did not go to hell for that. He committed the unpardonable sin. He received the goodness of God, then rejected it and with it he rejected God and His Christ. He had his second chance when Christ preached to the spirits in prison, but Jesus tells us that he was lost, therefore he must be still in hell. The mark of the beast is a permanent disfigurement of the soul into a demon creature which has no desire for God.

VICTORY OVER THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME:

In Revelation 13:18 we are told that the number of the name of the beast is 666. In Scripture all figures are symbolic and this one is no exception. From ancient times man had come to regard numbers as having specific meanings. It is God who first applied meanings to figures and numbers to letters. For instance, the Hebrew “Alpha” is not only the first letter “A” but the figure 1. It became to be a symbol of God who is One God, the First and the Last. The number six in the same way is the number for man. Everything that began in Genesis must come to its full measure in Revelation. In Genesis the devil was shown as a serpent with one head. In Revelation he is a dragon with seven heads – his fullness – he and his kingdom. The fallen man is shown in Genesis and the completed man is shown in Revelation 12, also the fallen woman and the completed woman. Symbolically when a number is repeated three times it shows that that number has come to its fullness. The number 666 therefore, is the fullness of 6. Now in the end of time everything must come to its fullness and must have its full manifestation.

God is helping us today to have the victory within, for without this we are losers.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, May 1986)

Thought for today: Let us press into God and submit to His guidance so that we may have the victory within and not be losers.

Victory over His Image

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Scripture reading: Revelation 15:2

The word “Image” as mentioned in Revelation 15:2 has to be explained so that we can understand what the passage really means to us today: God created man in His IMAGE to look like Him – intellect, love, will, etc. He gave us free will so that we could become like Him (in His likeness). When man fell, he became like Satan, the beast that was wounded by a sword. The wound of the sword of Calvary was fatal and deadly and he could not have survived but for the fact that the church gave him life which was given to them, even as Adam did in his fall.

The image has three parts to it: (1) The image in our minds, (2) The image in the world, and (3) The image of a man to be yet manifested. I will explain simply: The picture of Jesus Christ which most of us have hanging on our walls is, for the most part, the image of the antichrist (Ninus). This was conjured up long ago in ancient Babylon and handed down to us via the Roman and Eastern churches. For this cause God told us in the word not to make any graven image of God. Again he told us that when he appears, we shall be changed to be like Him, therefore we should not believe if any one tells us that “here is Christ, or there.” In spite of the word which is clear and simple, there are those who are looking for Christ to appear before us one day. When the antichrist manifests in person therefore, he will not have much trouble with convincing Christians, if he had a miraculous appearance in the form which they already conceive in their minds. For the Buddhists he would appear as Buddha; for Islam as Muhammad; for the Africans as some god like the Maami spirit (mermaid), for India some Guru or Kamaswari or other popular one of their millions of gods.

In the light of what modern technology can do I would not be surprised is Satan is not planning to project some three dimensional laser figure to convince the religionists of an image that will speak and punish unbelievers.

We must remember: The victory over the image is in the heart of the believer.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, May 1986)

Thought for today: Let us gain the victory over the image of the beast so that we would be true overcomers.

Victory over the Beast

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Scripture reading: Revelation 15:2

Revelation 15:2, “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the VICTORY over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

As we can see in Revelation 15:2, those who had gotten the victory over the four areas of satanic influence were seen standing on the “sea of glass having the harps of God.” This means that by their victory over the most powerful weapons of Satan, they had earned for themselves a place in that realm of transparency where nothing is hid, a city of pure golden glass.

Let us look at the first of the four areas of overcoming mentioned above – victory over the beast:

God made man spirit, soul, and body. The spirit in man was devised of God to lead man back to God. The spirit of man therefore is the connecting link between God and man, and the main difference between man and beast. When man began to depart from God the divine order was broken, and in some cases man became body, soul, and spirit. This happens when man is basically led by his feelings and the natural world around him. Instead of the body and the soul being the servant of the spirit, the spirit is entirely excluded and an evil spirit takes the place so that the man does not reason or think human any more, but diabolical. Of this order of persons are some of the scientists of our time and men who worship the intellect and other things rather than God.

I was once invited to a school to speak to the science class where there presided a teacher who invited ministers to his class to prove how stupid they were to believe God. Upon his first sortie he was knocked cold by the scientific evidence of the existence of God. Science wants proof, and since the Ford car by which we traveled to the school was conclusive proof of a Ford factory somewhere, then his very presence there was conclusive and scientific proof of a higher Being Who made such magnificent symmetry.

The soul of FALLEN MAN with its Mind (intellect), Emotion, Will, and Desire is a beast – or, to be exact, four beasts in one. He who is led by his mind is led by a beastlike fallen nature and cannot please God.

In national and world affairs you will notice the flawed reason of those who do not believe in God. In reasoning with them one gets the feeling of speaking to a demon that has no specific basis of right and wrong.

One who has the victory over the beast therefore, is (a) One who first conquers the beast nature within himself, (b) One who does not submit to the beast nature of the world, and (c) One who does not submit to the beast nature of Satan, the adversary and tempter. One who has the victory over that beast nature cannot divorce his wife and marry another because she disagrees with him, and because others are doing it and it is legal. Many of the preachers are setting this example, but regardless of how many miracles they are having and regardless of their financial success, and regardless of how many millions of people are following them, they are not overcomers of the nature of the beast.

This beast nature will be personified one day in a mighty world leader and all those who have not overcome the beast will submit to him and to Satan.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, May 1986)

Thought for today: The overcomers, by their victory over the most powerful weapons of Satan, had earned for themselves a place in the realm of transparency where nothing is hid.

This message entitled “The Word of God – Anchor of the Soul“ was given by Brother Cecil duCille at the 1989 Convention in Turlock, California, United States.

For more audio messages please visit Audio Messages – Closing the Back Doors to the Soul.

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