The Life of Victory

The hymn Victory in Jesus says a lot about living in the victory of what Jesus did by defeating death, hell, and the grave. The resurrected life of Jesus also gives us victory in every area of our lives. Sin is defeated, and righteousness replaces a dead life with an abundant life that lives in the power of that resurrection. 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! What does this new life in Christ look like? To some, it means nothing at all, and it is just religious information without any real power or change in a person's life. To the followers of Jesus, it meant giving their lives to His message of hope, and the Holy Spirit supplied power to live and share that message.

The reality of the life change that takes place when we are born-again is incredible, and the Holy Spirit does a redo on our priorities, our lifestyle, and our vision for everyday life. We become vessels for the master, and these vessels need to be filled and refilled again and again. Paul wrote this to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 5: ¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. As pastor Greg Laurie once said," We need to be filled again and again, because we leak!"

In Acts 4:31, it shows the disciples who were filled at Pentecost, being filled again with the Holy Spirit to speak the word of God. Acts 13:⁵² And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Paul wrote to Timothy about the need to fan into flame that which was in Him, and that is the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 1:6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God is always doing a new work, and we need the Holy Spirit to guide and empower that work. Some Christians reject change because of their adhering to old traditions that have long since lost their punch, but it doesn't change the words of the prophet Isaiah where he prophesies the following words in Isaiah 43:¹⁹ For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

I have to decide if I am ready for that new thing or not, because it may stretch me to the point of surrendering old, dead traditions for a new way of living my life. If God is in the new, then I need to give up the old and pursue the new. Then I will experience victory in Jesus, and in that victory find my place in God's plan. I call this the life of victory, and it is accessible to all who come seeking and asking. God is always listening to His children when they ask for a Word from Him. If we don't ask, we may not receive that fresh new thing that God is doing, and may actually reject it on every level, and thus miss what God is planning for us. Do not let old, dead thinking be the driving force of your life. Have open ears and an open heart to this new thing God is doing and move on with it.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren