1 Corinthians 15:57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to live a victorious life? This question has many different answers from our human perspective, but only one answer will suffice. That answer is found in the gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At a time when we need to see what victory looks like we can rely on the sacrifice of Jesus as the ultimate victory.
When you watch an athletic competition you see two teams battle to win a prize. When they win that battle and victory is there's to relish the feat can lose its luster after a while. Not so with the victory Jesus won over death, hell, and the grave!! This victory does not ever lose its luster because we live in the power and glory of that victory every moment of every day. The victory Jesus won is a victory that is claimed by everyone who has received Jesus and been born again. John 1:12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Those who have received that gift take on a different, spiritual nature that is different from the world. That nature is fed by the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit given to each believer when they received Jesus. There is great power when the Holy Spirit moves in a believer's life. Look at the example of how God showed the apostles what to do in Acts 1:1 In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. God's promise of the Holy Spirit became a reality and just after they received the Holy Spirit the evidence was seen in Acts 1:14-16 Peter says this 14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this.15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel.
And Peter continued preaching and gave this conclusion to the people who were listening in Acts 1:38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” The effect of God moving through the power of the Holy Spirit was seen in the result in verse 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. That number shows that numbers are important to God and should be important to us. Don't look at numbers as the world does, but as the Lord does, and that each number is another soul added to heaven.
The world has convinced us we have the wrong motives and it causes us to crawl back into our fake humble cave and just "exist" and that is the wrong direction. Victory should stimulate us to the point of "stepping up" our movement for reaching more and more people. There is a false teaching that has arisen that says we have nothing to offer to God and just sit back and let whatever happen. The writer of Hebrews said it this way in Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith
Run the race. Share your faith. Keep the faith. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are VICTORIOUS for a reason. Jesus is our purpose, our passion, our power, and our plan. God goes before us in victory. Deuteronomy 31:8 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Victory is Given to Us!!
The Pilgrimage Continues.
David Warren
Comments