Conquerors

 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37......"Jesus Christ didn't die so that we might have the ability to cope, but the ability to conquer" Jimmy Evans

We cope more than we conquer. That's a sad testimony for His church. We believe that on the cross Christ conquered the power of sin and death, yet somehow, we cannot receive that He passed that victory onto we who believe in Him. Someone said that we don't believe the God that we say we believe in. We see the truth of that in countless ways in the lives of His people. We live below the fullness of His promises. He sets a bountiful spiritual table before us and we are satisfied with eating the crumbs that fall from that table.

So many in the church seem to live in cycles of defeat, usually defeated by the same thing(s). One step forward followed by two steps back seems to be the norm for many, as well as the expectation. I can't find any place in His Word that tells us that this is to be the expected life of a child of God. Yet it is what many expect. Why?

Teaching is a great part of it. Whether it is intentional or not, a lot of the preaching and teaching of the church tells us that we cannot expect to know real freedom on this side of eternity. Sin in the life, and the failure and defeat that go with them are to be expected. Our lot is to expect God to give us the grace and ability to cope with that and keep them all at bay. I don't believe His work on the cross and the power of His resurrection give us such a life. That life will never win the name of "more than a conqueror." Yes, on this side of eternity there are issues, behaviors, attitudes, most of them sinful, to be faced. His death and resurrection give to us the power to overcome them all as we face them. Face them head on in the power of His resurrected life. For the believer victory comes by way of surrender. Surrender of all in our life that isn't Him as we see that replaced by all that is Him. He transforms and frees from the inside out. In the OT, God gave Israel all the land, but they stepped out in faith and conquered it as they went. The power and authority to do so was theirs from the beginning. So too for the believer is the power to overcome all that is against us in this life. We conquer as we go. We come to Him in consecrated surrender and He responds with sanctifying us with His Holy Spirit power. Then He leads us on a walk of victory as we, in Him, confront all that is against Him in our lives, and conquer them in His power. We fight battles along the way, but the outcome has already been decided at the cross. This is what it is to live a conquering life instead of a coping one.

I think we have coping lives because we focus on ourselves and our problems instead of upon HIm and His resources.

We cope because we have accepted the enemy's lies and labels upon us, instead of believing and knowing that our identities are sealed in Him, and in what He says about us. So we cope instead of conquer. Scripture says that we were born again into a living hope. A living hope! We were created to be more than conquerors. Let us fulfill that purpose in Christ, because in Christ, we CAN do all things.

Blessings,

Pastor O