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Posts Tagged ‘Overcome’

Faith in the Blood

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , on May 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 27:27-37

The next weapon I am going to deal with is the weapon called the BLOOD. I will tell you the truth and confess to you that I did not know that the Blood was a weapon. I knew the song, “The Blood that cleanses me from day to day shall never lose its power,” but I did not know that I had the greatest weapon in the arsenal of God. In order to operate the Blood weapon effectively, you must have this thing built in you. You have to take the Blood passages from the Bible and you have to read them. You have to memorize them; get them in your heart; get them in your mind. You have to get them so that they will come forth unconsciously and fight for you. 

When I was a young Christian, I used to fast and pray. Sometimes twenty-one days; sometimes ten days or two weeks; one time it was forty days. I was just fasting—continuously fasting. I had to fast, because I had lust, and desires, and evil things that I hated in my body! I do not think you have those things in you and that is probably why you do not fast, but the things that I hated were the things that I had in me. A young man asked me one day, “Do you mean, Brother Ces, that I am going to have to be fighting lust all through my life?” I said, “No. I got rid of lust when I was a young man and you can get rid of it in your youth, too.” What does the Bible say about youthful lusts? “Flee!” That means you must run, for “flee” means to “run away from.” It says, “Flee also youthful lusts” (II Timothy 2:22), and “…abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (I Peter 2:11). Youthful lusts destroy the power of God in your ministry and in your life. I do not know if you know that, but I got rid of it when I was young; God trained me; I did not go to Bible school. That is why I want to train you and set you up now for the biggest battle of your life.

Jesus came to me one day and said to me, “Come with Me. I want to show you Calvary.” I want you to hear what I am saying. Jesus wanted to show me Calvary. He took me from the time they gave Him the first blow (when the centurion slapped Him on His face with the back of his hand) to the crucifixion. After the centurion’s blow, they beat Him with the cat-o’-nine tails. That thing strips your back. That was how the first Blood was drawn. Then they took thorns and twisted them into a crown. I do not know what you call it, but they are thorns that grow on a long string and you can wind the string into a crown. Some people call it “crown of thorns,” some call it “Jerusalem thorn,” or something similar. So, they made a crown of thorns and put it on His head. A man took a rod, hit Him on the head (Matthew 27:29-30), and it fastened down like a pincushion—right through the flesh of the scalp.

I am telling you what He showed me. You need to be able to read the account of Jesus’ crucifixion and understand how the Blood was shed. You need to get it embedded into your mind and into your heart. Christ said that when we come to communion, we are to remember Him and this Blood (I Corinthians 11:24-26). Remember! Remember! These are God-created barriers of memory in your soul. Remember! We are psychological creatures and there is no need to try to get away from that and there are certain things that have to be done to us in our minds in order to get us to be ready to move in God.

The Blood came through the skin at the base of the head. That is the first vision He gave me. He then showed me all the abuse. He showed me how they abused Him on the way with the cross and how He fell beneath the cross. He told me that the worst thing that hurt Him was when one man spat in His face and He could not even wipe the saliva because His hands were bound. Again, another time, one raised a hand and cried, “Crucify him! Crucify Him!” and the hand that was raised was a hand that He had healed.

I am just telling you how I learned the Blood. He showed me all this concerning the time when He went to Calvary and how He was hung on the tree. Brethren, after that got into my mind and I read through the account in the Bible, it became a permanent foundation in my heart.

You need a permanent foundation of the Blood in you! Do you know why? The Blood is your life! The Blood is your life! God said that we in the last days are going to fight the last fight. He said that you are going to fight. Did you hear that? The last fight—which God is ordaining a church to fight—He said that it is “…by the Blood” that you are going to overcome the enemy! And it is not just the Blood alone, but He said, “…and by the word of their (your) testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, January 1997, pg. 13-15)

Thought for today: Read about the Blood of Jesus Christ in the Word and meditate on it until it becomes a permanent foundation in your heart. Only then you can face the greatest battle of mankind that is right ahead of us and be an overcomer.

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Get a Bigger Gun!

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , on May 27, 2024| 1 Comment »

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Scripture reading: II Thessalonians 2:1-10

God is bringing forth an army and this army is going to face some things that the men of old did not face. Paul said in I Corinthians 15:32 that he fought “with beasts at Ephesus…after the manner (similitude) of men.” Paul, however, never faced some of the things and the kind and the quality of man beasts that we are going to have to face in our time and in this end of the age. God put it in the Word that it is at the end of the age that “the beast” is formed.  It is “THE” beast, not “a” beast. Not “one of” the beasts, but the epitome of all the beasts—the beast of beasts. The “666” is going to be formed before you come forth in Christ. That means we have to face him before we get the deliverance. We are asking God, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” in this earth, Lord God, “…as it is in heaven.” We are going to have to face the beast before we get that deliverance!

Now what are we talking about? We are talking about “666”—the fullness of man—all that man can be. This will be the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth. This will be the man that is scientifically wise. That is, he will be physically, mentally, and psychologically wise; powerful, and strong. This man that is being created is the man who will have the fullness of all that man can be. This is the man we face.

We are facing this man in the people and in the very minds of the children. The government now is fighting for the minds of the children. If they can, they are going to make laws to get your children. Homeschooling is a bother to the government and to the plans of the One World Government. Soon there will be no homeschooling. Soon they will take your children from you and teach them what they must know and your children will have such scientific knowledge that they will be so high above you that you will not be even able to cope with what they teach them. Look at what the kids can do with computers. When you were kids, you did not know anything about that, but the thing is coming to a head. Therefore, God told me some secrets concerning the man He wants us to be, in order to be able to combat the “man of sin” (Ref. II Thessalonians 2:3-4) and to combat everything that is coming forth in the world to overtake and overcome us.

They do not believe they are going to be overcome by us. They believe they are going to overcome us! We, therefore, must know that we were born to be the dwelling place of God! We were born to be the home of the Spirit of God. We must know that no man can cope with a man who is filled with the Spirit. A man who is filled with the Spirit is absolutely not even man. He is beyond man! He will perceive what man cannot perceive. He will rise to any occasion.

We think of Daniel. They were going to kill him, because the order went out to kill all the wise men (the magicians and soothsayers) and they had classified Daniel among these. They said, “Kill them!” The man who was to kill him came to him to tell him what his fate was. Daniel said, “Tell the king not to be so hasty, but to give me a little time.” Daniel believed in his God. I want you to hear what Daniel said. He said, “Give me a little time and I will tell him what his dream was.” Daniel had no doubt that his God was going to tell him so he went down into prayer and fasting and God came to him in the night and told him and showed him the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was immediately exalted above humans. He was exalted above the scientists. He was exalted above the great soothsayers.

Did I talk about different guns? Different weapons of warfare? Different men who handle different weapons? If tanks are coming against you, do you grab your rifle and shoot the tanks? No! You had better get out of the way and get something heavier. You had better get somebody who handles a heavier thing like a bazooka or something similar to it in order to hit those tanks. You do not stand up and shoot a tank with your little gun. This is the reason why God is telling us now the secrets of how to get our guns to be bigger and how to fight the warfare that He is preparing for us. 

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, January 1997, pg. 4-6)

Thought for today: We cannot fight our enemy in these last days with the small weapons we have been using so far. Let us go before God and have Him increase the power of our guns so that we will overcome the enemy and not be overcome by him.

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Second Step Towards Being Dead in Christ

Posted in Christian Walk, Overcoming, Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , , on April 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 10:13

In our previous devotional we discussed the first step towards being “dead in Christ”. Let us now look at the second step. The second step brings us into warfare or confrontation with the forces, which strive to take over and reign within our mortal bodies. One’s mind must be made up not to submit one’s members to sin regardless of the pressures. This is easier said than done. The constant grind of reality is designed by Satan to wear out the saints and to convince the believer that God has left him because of his unrighteousness. Very often this is the very opposite. If God was not with me when I was a sinner, I would never make it to be saved. I remember the time when God translated me out of a fight, when there was nothing but murder in my heart. It says in Romans 5:6, 8-9: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

If God is with sinners and takes care of sinners, how much more then, “He will never leave nor forsake us.” Satan is constantly telling the believer that God will leave him because he sinned. This is a lie, as is everything which Satan says.

John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

The believer who is struggling to overcome sin must know that he has God for an ally and that the Lord is working every device to bring him from sinfulness to righteousness, even to the very image and likeness of Christ. It is a fact that some of the devices of God are repulsive to us, but then, our thoughts are not like His – all we have to do is to trust Him.

The language in Romans 6 suggests warfare. “Let not sin therefore reign,” suggests that the believer should take away from sin the legal right to his body. Does sin under any circumstance have a legal right to my body, and by what law? Unfortunately, “Yes.” In any war the victor has the right to reign over the vanquished. Romans 6:16 states: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

The same law that works for us through obedience to the Lord, works against us when we yield to Satan. We obey what we know to do in the Lord, then that activates God and He gives us power to become His servants. I could not overcome the sin of anger and violence until I obeyed Him in fasting and prayer and He gave me the strength to do it.

“Let not,” means that you should not allow sin to reign. This means that if sin reigns in our physical members, we are the one who allow it. Some believer complains that God did not give them the power to overcome the sin which overtook him, but in every case of deliverance, the final action belongs to the believer. Jesus said to the man in the Synagogue, “Stretch forth thy hand.” It was not until that man obeyed and made the motion, that he was healed. “Rise up and walk.” – The command is given, the forces of deliverance are activated, but it is up to the believer to do the final act.

In Romans 10:13 the word, “Yield” is again used, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness.” – Do not surrender! This is the order from the Commander in Chief in Heaven.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1984)

Thought for today: Are you struggling to overcome sin? You must know that you have God for an ally and that the Lord is working every device to bring you from sinfulness to righteousness, even to the very image and likeness of Christ.

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“I Shall Overcome!”

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , , , on December 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 4:5

I wonder how many of you realize that in order for you to overcome the spirits in your life, you have to take two steps. First, you have to believe for faith is the substance of everything you hope for (Hebrews 11:6). Then, you have to speak the word. Do you realize that many of us have problems because we speak the wrong things? You are in trouble, somebody is bothering you, you have a distress, you let certain words come out of your mouth, and the devils crowd around. The moment the words come out, the devils take them as a command, and they can do things in your name that you never intended to do. You must learn to speak the positive word! It is looking dark, it is looking hopeless, but you speak the word, and say, “I shall live and not die. I shall overcome this thing.” Keep speaking it every day. “I shall overcome this thing.” You fall down flat on your face, “I am going to overcome this thing! By the grace of God, by the Blood of Jesus Christ.” The moment you speak the words, God sends His angels to be with you. The next time you will have a better chance, you will find the strength to do it. Amen.

I am talking about 50 years of learning. Fifty-odd years of learning from God. I am giving it to you free. One day, I put my finger on the welding iron. I smelled the flesh burning even before I realized that my finger was on the iron. I grabbed the finger and said, “In the name of Jesus, it shall not hurt me!” I don’t know where the words came from. I didn’t contemplate it before, but I just said it. And no pain! I got happy, and bold, and wanted to show my wife, Mavis, the finger burnt. I didn’t want the finger to be healed right away, I wanted to show her! So I ran inside with the burnt finger, and said, “Look here!” I was ashamed. No burnt finger at all! I am talking about the power of creation that God has put in every little one of you. Don’t go around thinking, “Lord, how sinful I am, how poor I am.” Don’t think about that! God knows that! Begin to speak the Word of life and life will come forth. Amen.

When you have an infirmity, get before the mirror in the mornings and say, “By the grace of God, this infirmity shall be healed. I shall overcome.” You must overcome it. Do you know why? Because you are speaking what God wants. God doesn’t want you to be sick. God doesn’t want you to have infirmities. God wants you to be well, God wants you to be happy. Amen! Don’t you understand? Because you believe God, He said, He will count it for righteousness (Romans 4:5). You try your best, but you are not righteous. But God says, if you believe Him, He will count you just like a righteous person. He will do everything for you like He would do for a righteous person. Can you understand? Look at all these men – Abraham, David… God said David was a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22). A man after God’s own heart going out and committing adultery and murder? But he was a man after God’s own heart. His heart was belonging to God. The devil took hold of his flesh. He didn’t have Jesus, so don’t believe I am telling you that you can do that. He didn’t have Jesus. But then, even those of us who have Jesus and fail, God is still saying to us, “All power is given unto me, in heaven and on earth. Now, you go preach the gospel” (Matthew 28:18-19).

Do you understand what that means? It means that if you turn your mind to believing God, the things that you believe will come to pass and it will make you righteous. Oh, yes! We believe God that we are going to be perfected while we are alive in this flesh. That’s what I believe in God. I believe God that I can stay ten minutes without sin. Do you think that you could do that? Stay ten minutes without sin? If I can stay ten minutes without sin, then I can stay twenty. And if I can stay twenty, I can stay an hour. And if I can stay an hour, then I can stay a day without sin. He will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him (Isaiah 26:3). So then, it means that we sin with our minds. The body only manifests what is in the mind. We sin, therefore, with our minds. So, God is saying that if you keep God in your heart, in your mind, you will be free from sin.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 8, 2002, pg. 11-13)

Thought for today: You must learn to speak the positive word! It is looking dark, it is looking hopeless, but you speak the word, and say, “I shall live and not die. I shall overcome this thing.”

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“God, Have Your Way!”

Posted in Faith in God, tagged , , , on December 6, 2023| 1 Comment »

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 12:1-2

I have noticed that some of us go to God in prayer and say, “Oh, God, I’m so poor and needy. Lord, God, such and such a person did me so and so. Oh, God, they talk about me. They do this and that and the other.” You are complaining to God everything that God knows already! What God wants to know is what you want to do about that!

So you go to God and say, “Father, You and I have a blood covenant and I want to see righteousness come forth in me!” Oh, God is so glad to hear that! He is going to give you every opportunity to be righteous. That means He will let the trouble come down on you. He will let the devil loose on you. Yes! He said, “All right, you are strong enough.” Let the devil loose on you, sit down and watch how you handle the devil. Amen.

Hebrews 12:1 says that the brethren who have gone on before are a cloud of witnesses watching us and seeing how we run the race. What does that mean? That means that there are certain things happening to you because God wants to find somebody who He can let those things happen to in order to give an object lesson to those who have gone on before who did not overcome! Let me give you an example: you have a temptation to drink. Some of you hide it, of course. You have a temptation to drink and every now and then you go take a little sip. The angel of God is watching you. He wants you to overcome that spirit because it is a spirit that is coming and taking you. Yes. He wants you to overcome that spirit because Tom Stokes (or whoever) who is in heaven did not overcome the spirit. I know mighty men of God, who never overcame the spirit of drinking. For example, Brother Allen. I knew him personally. I worked with him, and he couldn’t stop drinking. The man was one of the most powerful men you have ever seen. He would come in and command the devils out of people! They brought to him a mad man, chained, and he just commanded the devil out of him. It was because God gave him the gift and he practiced, he knew what he was doing. God would not take the gift away from him. He had the faith yet; God gave him the faith. He should have used it on his own behalf.

Brethren, use the faith you have been given to overcome the spirits in your life. You see, first, you have to believe. But then, you have to go forward. You say, “I am going to do it. I am going to let God have His way.”

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 8, 2002, pg. 11)

Thought for today: Go to God and say, “Father, You and I have a blood covenant and I want to see righteousness come forth in me!”

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