Rom. 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
I often ask people if is there anything else that God
needs to do on His part to provide salvation for anyone? Most know and of
course respond that no there is nothing else He needs to do. But for some
reason we don’t seem to equate that with other areas of our life that are
included in the saving work of Calvary. When most think about salvation they
are only thinking of the price paid for us to go to heaven. But salvation is
far more than just a ticket to heaven. Our salvation also includes the ability
to walk in surpassing victory here on earth over all the work of the devil.
If our God has already provided all that is needed for us
to have eternal life then is not that eternal life already ours? Certainly it
is because there is nothing more God needs to do for us to obtain eternal life.
Would it not be silly then to think that we have to fight the devil for
instance to obtain this eternal life that is already secured for us? There are
some who think they must do so, but most believers know that we do not have to
fight the devil to obtain eternal life. It was already secured for us by our
faith in Jesus Christ.
As our foundation verse reveals we are not going to one
day become more than conquerors, we already are. For example we are not one day
going to become children of God, if we have received Jesus as the Lord of our
life we already are. As Paul states earlier in this chapter if we are children
of God then we are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. I wanted to
address this in my study with you this week because I come across believers all
the time who are always talking about fighting against something. They are
either fighting the devil, fighting some disease or sickness, or more
unfortunately fighting with one another. If we are more than conquerors what
are we fighting against?
Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
If God did not spare His Son for us but in fact offered up
His Son to pay the price for our sin, then how will He not also with the
sacrifice His Son made for us also freely give us all things? Would healing not
be included in that? Would deliverance not be included in that? If He is going
to freely give us these things what are we fighting against? I have taught on
this before but people need to fully understand how to walk in faith, for many
read in the writings of Paul to Timothy about fighting the good fight of faith
and then immediately think we have to fight against sickness, disease, demons,
etc., but if we do that would mean we are not yet more than conquerors. But we
are according to the Word of God.
You see in fighting the good fight of faith we are not
fighting against what Jesus has already given us victory over. That is exactly
what satan wants us to do. He wants us to live with this mentality that we must
fight against the things he brings against us. When we do we are not fighting
the good fight of faith. As simple as this may sound it will make all the
difference between victory or defeat in our lives. For example if in the
natural someone took on an enemy of yours and defeated them why then would you
want to fight them? But that is exactly what Jesus has done. He defeated our
enemy and is not one day going to make us more than conquerors, He already has.
Col. 2:15 [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
Our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ has already
disarmed the powers of darkness that were arrayed against us. This is not something
He will one day do. God triumphed over them in and through Jesus Christ on the
cross. If He has done so why are we trying to fight against the one whom God
has already defeated? It is often because we don’t understand the fight of
faith. Realize that in God defeating the powers of darkness that came against
us He has also secured our victory in all that has come as a result of these
works of darkness.
In Acts 10:38 we see for example how God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good and healing
those who were oppressed of the devil. You see God calls sickness and disease
an oppression of the devil. So everything attributed to the devil as a result
of the fall God in Christ has overcome. He did not do this for Himself; He did
so for you and me. So what we need to realize is that we are not one day going
to become more than conquerors, we are not one day in the eyes of God going to
become over comers, in the eyes of God we already are. We must begin to see
ourselves as to who we already are. To do this we must understand several key
things.
Eph. 6:16 In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan.
The first key thing to understand is the fight of faith.
Yes we are to fight the good fight of faith, but we need to know what we are
fighting against. Here in the book of Ephesians we find what our fight of faith
is all about. We are not to be fighting against the devil, nor are we to make
statements that we are fighting against some type of disease or attack on our
life, but in fact what we must fight against is the thoughts that come to our
minds trying to convince us that we are not more than conquerors.
This is primarily a work of the devil with his fiery
darts, which are thoughts coming to our minds, trying to convince us we are not
victorious. He will do this by trying to deceive you through these thoughts
that you are either not an over comer or he will try to get you to fight
against the physical attack itself. But the fight is not against the physical
manifestation in the natural realm, nor is it against the devil himself, but
against the thoughts that come which work to get you to believe you are
anything other than what God says you are. He does this by getting you focused
on the physical and not who you truly are as a spirit being.
The fight of faith is where we learn to take God’s Word at
face value no matter what our circumstances say. We instead choose to side in
with the Word. If the Word says I am healed then I believe the Word above what
my body and what my thoughts are trying to tell me. This is why our faith is
not based on what we see in the natural, but on the Word of God. We are to walk
by faith in the Word, not by sight. This is what fighting the fight of faith is
all about. Natural circumstances and those fiery darts will try to convince you
to believe them instead of what God’s Word says. The Word of God is true
whether we choose to believe it or not, but when we choose to believe the Word,
faith goes to work and faith always works.
This leads us to another very important key. We must
develop our spirit man so that we will be dominated and led by our spirit
instead of our soul, or our bodies. When we are governed by our soul, or by our
bodies we will be what scripture reveals is a carnal Christian. This is someone
who is governed by their carnal flesh. When we are governed by our carnal flesh
we are going to believe our natural circumstances instead of the Word of God.
But when we develop our spirit man, which is where faith comes from, then we
will walk by faith and not by sight. We will begin to live out who we truly
are, more than conquerors.
This is where we as believers are truly lacking in our
life, in developing our spirit man. The average human spends far more time
developing their bodies or their soul, mind will and emotions, instead of
developing their spirit. To develop your spirit man you must learn to feed your
spirit man. You must also learn to get rid of things that are not good for your
spiritual development. If an athlete wants to develop their bodies they know
they must not only eat the right foods, but they must also get rid of the foods
that are not good for them. They change their diet to accomplish their goals.
They also must become disciplined in exercise as well.
So it is with our spiritual development. We are told in
Proverbs 4:23 we are to guard our hearts with all diligence. Another way to say
that is you must work hard at protecting your heart. This pertains to what we see
and hear. If you want to walk in what Christ has already done for you, then you
must change your diet. You must change what you are feeding your spirit man.
Doing so will help you begin to see what you already have and who you already
are. This renewal of the mind to seeing who we now are in Christ is vital to
our victory in every area of life.
Praise God we are not one day going to become more than
conquerors, we already are. It is something we have now through the completed
work of Christ. We must learn what the fight of faith is all about so that we
can begin to see who we already have been made in Christ Jesus. In doing so we
will walk in the overcoming victory that Christ has already given to us.
See You Again Next Week For More
“Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl Baker
