Scriptures: Romans 8 v 36 - 39: "As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
There are men in the Bible who have done brave and outstanding deeds and been honoured in scripture. Moses the stutterer who rebuked Pharoah and led Israel to freedom;
King David who defeated the giant Goliath and won the respect of a nation;
Joshua who overcame all obstacles to deliver Israel into the Promised Land. These are those who would be labelled "Overcomers".
In the New Testament, Jesus was the mightiest of all Overcomers because He overcame Satan, demons, sin, disease and death to enable us to be truly free if we overcome these too. Paul overcame being a religious Pharisee who persecuted Christians, to becoming one of the strongest apostles.
In Judges 6 we meet a man favoured by the Lord called Gideon. In verse 12 we read "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."
Gideon complained to the angel that the children of Israel were under attack from the Midianites. He said also I am the youngest child of a poor family how can I do anything. He must have wondered why the angel saw any valour in him.
The angel said The Lord will fight for you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Gideon was not convinced and asked for a sign. He got one when he was cooking food under the angel's direction and the angel put forth his staff and the food was consumed by a flame of fire.
This caused the man of valour to panic because he had seen an angel and would now die. God Himself reassured him that he would live so Gideon immediately built an altar to worship the Lord. He was then instructed to destroy the other altar that had been built to Baal, which he and his servants did.
This Baal worship CAUSED Israel to be victims of attack because the Lord does not protect those who worship demons. The ones who had built the altar now wanted to kill Gideon. His father, Joash, said let the god speak and fight for himself.
After this the Midianites gathered to do battle and Gideon blew a trumpet which summoned all the armies of the 3 tribes of Israel nearest to him. He then laid a fleece of wool on the ground and asked the Lord to show him that if he really would win this battle through the power of God, then He would wet the fleece and the ground around it stay dry. The fleece got wet the ground did not! If you want to know the out come of the battle read Judges chapter 7.
Gideon is like so many of us. Not really that brave when it comes to trusting God when the chips are down and defeat is staring us in the face. God can tell us face to face that we will win because He is with us and we still seek a sign, a confirmation, a word from scripture or a prophecy, and we still panic. This is human nature, but how our faith grows spiritually when we trust the Lord and see that He is true to His Word. Not just once but every time, every day, every battle He brings us through. Gideon was an overcomer and we should be as well.
So don't tempt the Lord, don't fall prey to doubts and fears, but believe and see that YOU are that mighty man or woman of valour and you will triumph over all adversity because of the power of Jesus in your life. Of all who have been born on this Earth He is the truest Man of Valour you will ever know.
Revelation 2 v 17: "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 hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."
In the last book of the Bible Jesus instructs the Angel over each of the seven churches to reveal their errors and show the reward for those who repent and overcome Satan's invasion into doctrines, behaviour, and perceptions.
Where there is nobody discerning and dealing with these deceptions in the church, apostasy is growing and causing many to fall. We must overcome all this to avoid our names being removed from the Lambs Book of Life!
We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be in full operation in the Church to achieve it. He was given to the Body of Christ to build, strengthen, teach, demonstrate, comfort and empower us. Whoever thinks we can make it without His powerful gifts is delusional. Whoever believes that baptism in water gives us the power of the Holy Spirit is deceived.
Acts 19 v 1 - 6: "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.
4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied."
We need the whole church to be in unity, in the strong overcoming power that will challenge Satan and his demons as Jesus did in the wilderness. As Smith Wigglesworth did when he was awakened by Satan rocking his bed...."Oh its only you!" he said before turning over and going back to sleep.
Jesus said that nothing, repeat NOTHING, shall by any means harm us. We have the Armour of God covering us, we have the power in the Blood covering us, we are sheltered in the Rock. Satan has to overcome all those obstacles, in fact he has to kill Jesus, to reach us. Not going to happen. Our King has everlasting life, he destroyed Satan, and just needs us to do the mopping up.
Because we are ignorant of what mopping up means, we have allowed the wily Devil to become bold and threatening, to get laws passed that contradict the Word, to invite sinners to lead the flock and break the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Mopping up means that we have all the tools to overcome Satan in our lives, homes, communities and nations, but if we do not use them or find out how, he wins.
Just pleading with God in prayer to help us will not get the job done. He equipped us, gave us full authority over Satan and his demons, gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, gave many examples of victory in the Bible, and expects us to get on with it. When its done Jesus can return, He is depending on us to do it. There are not many teaching deliverance these days, its very unpopular, but if we do not know about it, we will suffer.
Revelation 3 v 5: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."
The only thing we have to overcome is Satan, his demons, his lies, temptations, sins, diseases by faith in Jesus. We need to grow up spiritually to tackle this and win. Satan is terrified of us because we alone can stop him, he bluffs about his power, and tries to scare us off.
We are inundated with horror movies from Hollywood, to keep us afraid and weak, I urge you all to stand against him and teach your children from an early age that he is already defeated and we can with boldness overcome him and stop drugs, sex sin, alcoholism, bullying, deception and all its consequences, if we believe.
The last days of this age are upon us. Jesus warned us of the calamities that would come before He returned. The world leaders are desperately trying to find solutions to climate change, pandemics, terrorism and anarchy, financial meltdown, famine, etc. These are the last things that need mopping up, and Satan is furiously turning the screws. We have authority to take that screwdriver out of his hands and stop him, will we?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, You have made a way for us to be Victorious in every situation. His name is Jesus Christ. When we are alive in Him who can be against us? Show us how our faith can be strengthened, Father. Lead us to be Overcomers doing bold things for Your Kingdom. In Jesus' name. Amen.