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“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!”
Romans 8:37
Although the entering of the Promised land was a wonderful, long-awaited day for Israel, there was one snag; the giants were still there!
Why?
Why, after seeing His people wandering in the desert for forty years because of these giants, had God’s indignation not poured out fire on them to utterly destroy them? Why risk yet another generation being turned back by their intimidation and size?
Surely God knew of the battles that would have to be fought, the constant challenges to faith that His people would be presented with. The sword and the spear seemed to be such a contrast to a “land flowing with milk and honey” as promised.
This is where we must understand God’s objective, for it is the same today with you and I. From the very beginning of time, God has always had the power to destroy the devil and his hordes. There has never been a time when the Lord and His angels could not have hurled every last demon into the lake of fire and left them there. Our God is sovereign and His authority is absolute.
Why then has He tolerated this sin-blighted world and the demons that so ravage it?
The answer is found in knowing God’s ultimate intention for those of the human race that have chosen to serve Him as undisputed Lord. Consider the clear declaration of these scriptures:
Revelations 5:10 “And have made us kings and priests to our God;And we shall reign on the earth.”
Revelations 20:6 “…and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
But there is one more scripture that brings even more understanding:
2 Timothy 2:12 “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him”.
The capacity to reign, the authority to rule, is not a gift; it is a developed spiritual muscle. It is only as we exercise it that it develops.
If we are ever to be the Overcomers that we all desire to be, that will not be because the Lord has removed the potential of conflict from our path. It is quite the opposite. It is the very process of being confronted and having to decide to exercise our God-given authority in prayer that actually develops that spiritual dominion within us.
If we see this clearly, we realize why it was so necessary for those giants to be left alive, awaiting God’s people. It also tells us why it was that Jesus did not remove all evil from the Earth at the time of His triumph at Calvary.
Let me declare it simply and plainly: Our adversaries exist to be conquered by you and I! They are our fuel for growth.
Now let us consider Matthew 28:18 "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
There is no dispute that Our King utterly annihilated Satan’s legal rights to rule and express evil on the Earth.
Colossians 2:15-16 “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. [the cross]”
Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
So, that is established. But it is the next statement in Matthew 28 that says it all: “Go ye therefore”! In other words, “I paid the price to purchase all dominion and rule but it is you that must now enforce that and see it acknowledged on a daily basis by the enemies of the kingdom.”
The legal document that guarantees us our potential victory over the flesh and the devil is the declared Word of God. It alone is the truth.
What our past failures declare and the lying suggestions of the Accuser declare are not the truth; they are highly persuasive, very convincing, unrelenting lies from the father of all lies. But the tragedy is that everything that is human in us reaches out to accept their logic and the apparent reasonableness of their suggestions.
We also must be more discerning when it comes to accepting as truth some of the tantalising philosophies being declared today by misguided Christians.
One of note is the thought that in order to be free and overcoming, we must continually deal with the sins of our forefathers and remove “generational curses”. Somehow those who have lived before can reach into our present reality and paralyse our effectiveness on an ongoing basis. I see absolutely no scriptural foundation for any such philosophy being applied to a born-again Christian who has repented and is now living passionately for the Lord.
I am not denying that specific areas of vulnerability and weakness, received through the family line, may have to be confronted and broken but this can be done in one decisive act of applying the blood of Christ in the power of His Name. Any thought that denies the full atonement of the shed blood of Christ and it’s power to set an individual 100% free, is totally counter-productive to God’s purposes in you as a “new creation” empowered for His service.
At times it can be a major challenge to believe in God’s integrity and that of His Word, turn your back on all that persuasive human reasoning, and declare: “we are more than conquerors through Christ!” (Romans 8:37) and “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens [empowers] me.” (Philippians 4:12-14)
Does it take faith? Absolutely. But He has already placed that faith within you. It is by your decision that you must draw upon that faith and determine to live by it. It is as you cry out to Him in prayer and claim the power of His Word that faith is released.
In future Inspirational Thoughts we will speak much more of this process of establishing our spiritual authority. We will see clearly from scripture, and the lives of contemporary heroes of the faith, that such an overcoming life is not for a few elite superstars but for everyday followers of Jesus like you and me.
Forgive me if I get a whole heap excited about that! |
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