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OVERCOMING: (NIKAO-to conquer, overcome)
Life does not exist because it has no opponents; it exists because it overcomes its opponents. Evil opposes good and the person who wants the benefits of good must overcome the rotting process of evil. Good and evil are the products of words accumulated in the brain. There is a constant battle between these words to see which will rule the person. Like an army, the side which has the most powerful weapons wins the battle and each battle won brings that side closer to winning the war. Satan’s big gun is the lie which is mounted in the desires of the physical body and arrogance of the brain. God’s big gun is truth and God instilled in each person a sensor that detects truth. That person must then choose between what the lie tells him to do or what truth tells him to do.
The Bible contains much truth about God but because that truth must be processed through the carnal brain it is often edited or diluted. God’s Word is the force that created all things so it is reasonable to believe it is able to meet the needs of any person. Satan’s only recourse is to find ways to keep people from learning God’s words written in the Bible, shackle that Word with religious traditions and convince them when God’s voice becomes a conscious thought in the brain, that really isn’t God but a thought generated by the brain. This effectively reduces God to a historical myth or more and denies his existence in the everyday life of people.
Here are statements from the Bible that reflect how Satan uses words espousing evil to rot man’s total being and how God gives clear instructions concerning the necessity of a believer to overcome. God only gives life to those who want life.
Winner takes all:
Luke 11:20-22: If I exorcise demons with the finger of God, do you still doubt the kingdom of God has arrived in your presence? When the dwelling of a strong man is guarded by armed guards his possessions are safe but if someone stronger than he comes, he overcomes his fully armed guards and portions out what he confiscates.
The struggle:
John 16:33: You will have pressures in the world but rejoice, I have overcome the world.
Romans: 12:21: Don’t be overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. (There is no neutrality.)
Romans 3:4: Let God be true and every man a liar, even as it stands written, “So you might be proven righteous with your words and overcome when you are judged.
I John 2:14b: I wrote to you young men who were strong enough to overcome the evil because the Word of God resides in you.
I John 4:4: Children, you are from God and have overcome that which imitates and opposes Christ because the one in you is greater than the one in the world.
When Satan overcame Jesus:
Revelation 11:7: When they completed their witness the beast came up from the depths and to engage them in war. He overcame them and killed them. (These two witnesses represent Jesus when he was crucified by people under the command of Satan.)
The weapon Satan uses to overcome Christians:
Revelation 13:7: Authority was given him (Blasphemy-to speak hurtful or critical-criticism) to engage the saints and overcome them. He had authority over every tribe, people, tongue and nationality. (Criticism is the power of Satan that overcomes everyone, including Christians.)
Every person’s choice- the truth of God or the lie of world leaders:
Revelation 17:12-14: To be able to rule for a short period of time, the leaders of the world, with singleness of mind, gave their authority and physical power to Satan. They engaged in war with the Lamb and the Lamb overcame them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings and with him were the faithful who accepted God’s invitation to become Sons of God. (The Lamb is the Word of God which empowers people who believe him to be Lords who own and Kings who rule. He neither owns nor rules people who don’t believe him.)
God’s promises to the Christian while is reaping the unsaved:
1. Revelation 2:7: The person who overcomes will be able to eat from the Tree of Life in the Garden of God. (This is not physical and future but spiritual and current.)
2. Revelation 2:11: The person who overcomes will not be treated as being unrighteous by the second death. (Only the human spirit can die twice. The first death is when it rebels against the Word of God while residing in its human body and the second death is when it leaves its human body without being redeemed by Jesus.)
3. Revelation 2:17: To the person who overcomes, I will give hidden manna and a white stone with a new name permanently inscribed upon the stone which no one knows except the person who receives it. (The relationship of a believer with God is not as a part of a group like religion but as an individual child with a personal and unique relationship to the Father.)
4. Revelation 2:26: The person who overcomes and remains in the assignment I give him will receive authority from me over people of different nationalities. He will shepherd them with strict principles and dismantle the clay fabrications of the potters of the world. (There are no people boundaries for the person committed to sharing the message of Jesus because, like Jesus, he does not dilute God’s Word to accommodate a different opinion.)
5. Revelation 3:5: The person who overcomes will be dressed in white clothes and his name will not be left out of the Book of Life. I will introduce him to my father and his messengers. (White clothes represent the righteousness provided by the blood of Jesus, there will be no oversight regarding his citizenship in Heaven and he will be introduced by the person of Jesus…WOW!!)
6. Revelation 3:12: I will make the person who overcomes a pillar in the Holy of Holies of my God and he will never be thrown out nor will he go out. (Holy of Holies represents the Presence of God. Nothing can separate him from that presence and he is not dumb enough to leave on his own.)
7. Revelation 3:21: The person who overcomes will sit with me in my throne in the same way I sit with my Father in his throne. (The throne represents authority. Imagine yourself with the authority of Jesus.)
The Final Reward -The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).
Revelation 21:7: The person who overcomes will inherit these things (all that God possesses) and I will be his God and he will be my son. (All that a father owns is equally owned by the child who loves him.)
How many are defeated: (Hattao- to make less, inferior, decrease-The method used by Satan and his people to seduce people too weak to stand pat on God’s Word).
Embracing or living by the written words of God may provide confidence for a better standard of living but is not the same as embracing and living by the words God speaks to a person in his daily life. A name that represents some brand of religion indicates acceptance of some theological idea about God or interpretation of Scripture. If the idea only satisfies religious obligation, the Living God remains a mystery. For this person religion becomes an opiate to deaden guilt and fear of death and provide a “hope so” hope that will never find fruition.
Allegiance to God’s Word must be greater than allegiance to loved ones, religious affiliation or any enticement from one’s society. It is only in placing God’s Word above all else that God is placed above all else. A person who does not know what God says about the details of his life will not know how to give God’s words preference in his life. Peter explains how religious teachings and endeavors can temporarily promote thinking and conduct to do good without changing the basic nature of a person. He warns against religious recruiters who substitute good conduct for blood atonement and whose motive is to enlarge their own interests.
2 Peter 2:19-22: People who have a track record of being slaves of corruption are promising you freedom to decrease your self-reliance and control you. If by learning about Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, you escaped the efforts of the people of the world to rape you, you resume dependency upon them by again entangling yourself with them, you are worse off than before. It would have been better not to have known the way of righteousness than to know and then turn away from what the Holy Commandments gave you. This is comparable to the truth of the proverb, “The dog returns to its vomit and the bathed hog to wallowing in its dung.”
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