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Posts Tagged ‘Overcoming’

The Company of Overcomers

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , on April 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

In the book of Revelation, John saw all of us sitting here. John said he looked at the company of the overcomers and they were all worshipping the Lord. He saw you! Before you were born, he saw you, and you were worshipping the Lord; and God said, “It is good. Let them be birthed.”

So, we are born in various, different circumstances. Some of us were born in darkness: “Lord, when I think of the night… my soul… in the past! It was so dark; it was so terrible; it was so hopeless!” Yet, God said, “It is good!” For God saw the end of it.

Although I cannot see the end of it, I am rejoicing in the end of it, for I know that God is seeing it. He said that all them that He called, He perfected (Ref. Romans 8:29-30). He said He called you because He already perfected you! He knows what you are going to go through!

Today we are up against the Church’s greatest battle up to this point, and I believe there will be no greater when we overcome. The reason is that we are just a few years from the end of this age, and according to my understanding, after the end of this age, Christ must come forth and walk and talk in human flesh and blood. He must walk on the streets of the city and bring forth the glory of God; and mankind must see God walking through men! This is the promise. He said in Jeremiah 31:33, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

This promise was made to Israel, and as God engrafted us into this Israel, we became a part of the promise. So God must, I say, God must bring forth this thing on earth before He finishes the job! He cannot finish this age until He has brought this thing to pass! God must be God, and we must be a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, and a peculiar people unto God (Ref. 1 Peter 2:9). You are not satisfied with what you are right now and I am not satisfied with what I am. Then, if we are not satisfied, God is not satisfied either!

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2000, pg. 27-28)

Thought for today: Let us strife in our daily lives towards having God’s law written in our hearts.

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God’s Order in the Church

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , , on December 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: I Timothy 3:1-13

Let us look into God’s order for the church. His order is that the church should be ruled by elders appointed. It is a plural ministry that God appoints in the church. You might say to me that the word “bishop” is in the Bible. Let us read the King James Version in I Timothy 3:1, “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” The whole verse is incorrectly translated. NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THE WORD OF GOD. What is wrong is what man says the Word of God says. Let us look at the Greek. The following is from the Textus Receptus by J. P. Green. I Timothy 3:1, “Faithful the word. If anyone overseership aspires to a good work.” This says that if a man has a desire to take care of God’s flock, God’s people, he desires “a good work.” Notice, there is no word in the Greek which suggests a HIERARCHY or an OFFICE called “bishop.” Also, nothing is said about being a bishop. The word is “overseership.” The word “bishop” is another Latin word that comes in to promote the idea of a hierarchy. The word “bishop” came into the denominations from the Roman Catholic church that ordained a hierarchical set-up, from the Pope on down to the Cardinals, Bishops, etc. This reveals how much the church has departed from God. Divine order, which God set in the church, has been destroyed by traditions.

Let us look at the Greek word “episkopas,” erroneously translated in I Timothy 3:1 as “bishop,” in another place in the Scriptures. In Acts 20, Paul is about to bid a final farewell to the brethren in Ephesus. He was not going to be coming back for he was going to Jerusalem to be offered up. He knew it was the end and he was giving the last message to the church. Acts 20:17, “And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.” The message he is giving them concludes with verse 28, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” In this case, the same word “episkopas” is translated “overseers,” where as in I Timothy 3:1 it was translated “bishop” bringing in that hierarchical concept.

I Timothy 3:12, “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.” This word “deacons” was coined from the Greek word “deakonon” which means “servant,” and in this specific place was called “deacons.” There is no such thing as a “deacon.” It should be translated a “servant.” All servants of God should “be the husbands of one wife” and rule their own household.

From the above scriptures we can see that there has been much error brought into the church. Nevertheless, God’s Word prevails.

Revelation 2:7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

God always has His overcomers. He is revealing to us that even in this Ephesian church, where some people had fallen away and lost their first love, there were some who were going to be overcomers. We see two churches in the one church – one as overcomers and one as those who do not overcome. This is a picture of all of the churches throughout all of the ages even unto our time. Make your calling and election sure for you can either be an overcomer or a loser.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 34-35)

Thought for today: May we strive to walk in God’s divine order so that we overcome and are blessed to eat of the tree of life.

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War on the Saints

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , on December 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Revelation 12:7-11).

In every type of warfare, in order to be effective and to win, one must know the enemy. There are two basic tricks that Satan plays on humanity:

1.  He appeals to the carnal mind to deny his existence and hides his work to convince the carnal mind that it is just natural and sometimes coincidental. He did it to Eve, and tried it with Jesus.

2.  He intimidates some, convincing them of the greatness of his prowess.

The time has come as never before in the history of mankind for the saints to fight and to overcome the devil. In the heat of the battle, when one is oppressed with all manner of circumstances and what seems to be coincidences, one is apt to think, “Why me?” When, however, we understand the nature of the battle, we will rejoice at the wonderful implications which it portends.

The first glorious implication that we will deal with in the passage of scripture from Revelation 12 is that portion where it is written, “…neither was their place found any more in heaven.” If we rightly assume that the word “heaven” in this rendition is speaking of the kingdom of God and that this dimension of the kingdom is referring to the kingdom within us (Ref. Luke 17:21), then this verse would be saying that Satan and his angels had a place in us, but that at some time in the history of the Church they will lose that place.  If then, time is so far spent that we are at the end of the sixth day and within a few short years the seventh day or seventh millennium must dawn, then it is now time for us to be totally delivered from every evil spirit of darkness.

In order to achieve this, there must be a travail (Revelation 12:2). The travail of the Church is the war that we are experiencing at this time. The only pattern that this attack has is that it is satanic. The war has no boundaries, nor venue. The enemy is using every element, every devil, and every person who can be used against us. The war is total. Every weakness, which in time past was permitted to lodge within us and had a place in us, is being exploited and there is no place to hide. The families are under attack as never before. The children are under attack as never before. The husbands who could hide their weakness behind the skirts of their wives are being exposed and the wives who were hiding behind the masculinity of their husbands are being exposed. Our only hiding place now is in Christ.

Sin has lost its hiding place in us. Only true repentance will set us free from imbibed or besetting sin, for now is the time when the fullness of salvation shall come to us.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1991, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Let us fall before the Lord and repent before Him from every sin which doth so easily beset us so that we may find our hiding place in Christ.

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The Power of an Endless Life

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , , on November 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Hebrews 7:14-16

Some weeks ago, the Lord brought to my attention the fact of the absolute necessity of overcoming.

The way out of the bondage of sin and self and humanness into the Divine nature is through the “flaming sword.” Since this sword turned every direction, there is no way of escaping the fire of purification.

It certainly is not enough to say, “I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour,” or to relax and feel okay, waiting for Him to come and take us away to heaven. The forgiveness of sins brings one into the experience of knowing Jesus as Saviour, but after this experience, one should willingly and deliberately desire to know Him as Lord, which means giving Him perfect control over one’s life. There would be no place therefore for cheating, lying, drinking, swearing, malice, strife, bitterness, wrath, cunning craftiness and all unrighteousness. This can only be done by the regenerating, sanctifying work of Christ, which is the purpose for the indwelling Holy Spirit. God wants to destroy sin, and the Holy Ghost brings to us the Life of Christ Jesus, which does just that.

Adam and Eve were tested and tempted in the garden: if Eve would have resisted, they would have overcome the enemy then and there. Temptation does not necessitate a fall, but resisting builds strength and virtue.

The tree of life is made available to man through Jesus Christ. He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. Unless we eat Him day and night, we have no life in us – thus no overcoming.

Love, mercy and truth are conditioned by holiness; therefore, when God establishes His law in man’s heart, it constitutes a revelation of holiness – thus through GRACE, man finds a true revelation of LOVE.

Blessed are the people who have been brought into a relationship with Jesus Christ through His blood, and have been established in His grace to embrace that LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST – when man ceases to be an outsider of the Kingdom, and realizes the liberty of the SONS OF GOD.

Overcoming daily establishes holiness as a permanent state of the soul. One writer said, “Our conscience and power of self-control act as a sort of watchdog over our worst selves during the day, but when the watchdog is off duty, the primitive or natural man is at liberty to act as he pleases, and our soul has left us at the mercy of our own evil nature.”

God’s divine power, however, greatly counteracts the forces of evil. This power and anointing is Christ, which can only be experienced as the believer gives way to the Holy Spirit. In this way, man is brought to the place where total redemption overcomes total depravity, and God’s redemptive power shines forth in spite of ourselves. It is the Spirit that brings redemption; human nature can take no credit; the flesh is weak, but the indwelling Christ has power over all THINGS.

When the believer comprehends Christ’s relationship to man as a whole, and to the Christian in particular, then he is enabled to declare as never before the saving, keeping, resurrection POWER OF JESUS CHRIST – LORD, MASTER, KING. Giving way to the persuading influence of the Holy Spirit empowers believers to bring under subjection the dreadful and evil soul nature, which hampers and resists the power of the LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS. Yes, the Holy Spirit is always revealing US to US, but He does so that man, by this power of “an endless life,” might be lifted out of this carnal, natural state to the spiritual, heavenly realm. We have been raised together with Him, Jesus Christ, and the vital union causes us to sit in heavenly places with Him. As we have borne the image of the earthly in Adam, so through Christ Jesus, we will bear the image of the heavenly – a place not only over sin and human weaknesses, but a place of authority and glory.

(Excerpt from Nuggets for the Needy, pages 61-63)

Thought for today: The tree of life is made available to man through Jesus Christ. He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. Unless we eat Him day and night, we have no life in us – thus no overcoming.

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The Spirit Indeed Is Willing – Part 2

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , , on November 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Zachariah 4:6

Taking a look at the Old Testament, there appears much evidence of the weakness of the flesh, like…

DAVID – chosen of God, courageous, a champion, a good soldier, but was led by passion to violate the law; (to) yield to gross sin. When the Spirit of the Lord anointed him, he did mightily; outside of that, he was an ordinary man subject to the weaknesses of the flesh.

MOSES – leader and law-giver of Israel; was as God to the people; spoke with God’s personality; moved mightily under the anointing, but manifested as an ordinary man when provoked.

SAMSON – Showed such supernatural power and might, yet there was the expression of the carnal appetites; weak in resisting temptations.

The plotting, planning, cunning, scheming JACOB (could have been a familiar spirit; mother deceived Isaac, Laban her brother deceived Jacob) had a bout with the angel all night, but thank God he had the tenacity to hang on for the blessing or measure of deliverance which he received towards morning. The Jacob nature must be dealt with by the Spirit before any possession of the Land. No one is going to conquer those giants in the land, but the one who owns the land. The Land is OURSELVES. Each individual is well acquainted with the giants that rise up in his or her own soul to challenge the Spirit. Some have been there so long, that they appear to be part of the person. The individual may even be afraid to lose that spirit which might well be a controlling spirit. Anything that cannot be identified with the gift of the Holy Spirit and righteousness (Christ’s nature) is of the carnal, evil spirit, and must be driven out of the land.

There are so many examples in the Old Testament proving the weakness of man, that it is virtually impossible to deny the fact that “in man dwells no good thing.” Without the Spirit there is bound to be failure.

Take Peter as an example. In the New Testament, Peter had been with Jesus for three and a half years, and seen and shared in all that Jesus manifested; yet, in his humanness, he denied Him before the people, and returned to fishing after Jesus left. No wonder Jesus said to him, “Peter, lovest thou me?” – asking the same question three times and receiving the same answer from Peter, even with a little disgust at the last. Then Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” At one time, Jesus told Peter, “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee.”

Peter, as well as all of us, have to be fortified by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, or there is no overcoming of the flesh (the world, the flesh, and the devil). Peter’s impulsiveness and all other weaknesses of the flesh, as well as all of us, have to come under the effectual working of the Spirit if we are to be transformed to HIS IMAGE.

It is not because these characters mentioned in the Bible were bad or evil that they fell short of the expressed image of God, but because in the Old Testament, (or in other words under the old covenant), the Spirit of God was not yet come to indwell the believer (John 7:39), and in (the) three and a half years that Jesus was on the earth with His disciples, the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore, Peter was without strength. Jesus said, “when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” When the Spirit fell at Pentecost, Peter rose up in the midst and proclaimed the wonders of salvation.

The willingness to the Spirit anointing was not enough for the Old Testament believers. Some did mightily in spite of their limitations, yet they were judged.

God expects greater overcoming from those to whom He has given not an overshadowing of the Spirit only, but an indwelling portion to all who will receive.

To this FORTY-SECOND GENERATION, therefore, He says, “Thou art inexcusable, O man,” (Romans 2:1), in that God has, through Jesus, laid the way wide open to redeem man from the bondage of corruption (bondage of human nature), and raised us through the Spirit to overcome the weaknesses of the flesh.

“…Not by might, nor by power (in the natural), but by my SPIRIT, saith the Lord of hosts,” Zechariah 4:6.

There is no sin or weakness that the blood of Jesus, the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit cannot overcome.

Walking in the Spirit destroys or retards the weaknesses of the flesh, (and) builds spiritual character, thus the true nature of Christ is formed in the believer.

The Holy Ghost is given and is always willing and ready to purge the dross, that the gold (which is the nature of God) may come forth; that the world may see Christ Jesus living in His temple. As the temple of God, we should allow the Spirit to deal with the weaknesses of the flesh, so that the Divine Nature might destroy the evil nature, and take full control of the man for Christ’s sake. Amen.

(Excerpt from Nuggets for the Needy, 1997, pages 71-74)

Thought for today: There is no sin or weakness that the blood of Jesus, the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit cannot overcome.

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