LIVING A VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE – PART TWO

Welcome back, friends. We want to continue from where we stopped last time. We were discussing: Living A Victorious Christian Life. And we read three short scriptures. Because they are not long, I would want to reread them – because they are a verse each. The first one is:

Romans 8:37

³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

The second one is:

1 Corinthians 15:57

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The finally one is,

2 Corinthians 2:14

¹⁴ Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

Living A Victorious Christian Life

PRAYER:

Father, we’ve come back to continue with this important topic. Help us, O Lord, as we reason in Your Word today. Help us to start living victoriously, if we have failed in the past, in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

Living A Victorious Christian Life

We started by examining what it means to be a Christian; because that is very important – because you are talking about living a victorious Christian life.

What is a Christian – who is a Christian? What is the Christian life? We are asking for pertinent questions that will help us explore this topic.

Who is a Christian; or what does it mean to be a Christian? Who, or what is it that a Christian needs to get victory over? Why is it necessary to gain this victory? And how can a Christian win this victory?

We saw that being a Christian is not being a church member. We saw that being a Christian is not being baptized. We saw that being a Christian does not necessarily mean giving tithe and offering, supporting the work of God, fasting and praying. As important as these are, these are not what would make one a Christian.

A Christian is one who has been born from above, born of God; one who has given his or her life to Christ, and has experienced the New Birth – one who has the life of Christ implanted in him or her by the Holy Spirit. That’s a Christian!

– Because the Christian is a little Christ. The disciples of Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch – Acts 11:26. The word Christian means little Christ.

But let’s move on now to try to answer the second question.

1. What does the Christian need to get victory over?

The word victory gives the connotation of warfare or conflict. It gives an impression that there is an enemy to overcome – or enemies. And this agrees with the prophecy of Zacharias – the Father of John the Baptizer.

In Luke 1:67-79, Zacharias the Father of John the Baptizer was dumb – was made dumb the day the Angel of God came to him in the temple, and told him that Elizabeth was going to bear a son. And he said, how should I know – how can I know this? And then of course he was given the sign he was looking for. And the sign was he would not be able to speak for nine months. And so when his tongue was released the Holy Spirit spoke through him. And in that prophecy, in verse 71 of Luke 1, he says: That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us…

And in verse 74:

To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,

The word ‘enemies’ occurs twice: enemies – enemies. Who are the enemies the Christian needs to gain victory over? It is important to know who your enemy is – because you cannot win any victory, you cannot win a battle – let alone: war, if you cannot identify your enemy. That’s why fighting terrorism is not an easy task; because it is an elusive enemy – an enemy that hides and strikes.

Let me give few illustrations before we go into the spiritual enemies.

Some years back, as a young evangelist, I was attached by evil spirit sent by somebody living next door. He was an occultist. And the reason why he and his apprentices came to attack was because our activities: winning souls – were costing them their clients. And so they decided to settle it spiritually. And they attacked. And that night, this evil influence filled the room. I felt as if bound to the bed – could not move; and the bed was vibrating furiously. And fortunately for me, and unfortunately for them, earlier – not long from that time of attack, the Lord has filled me with the Holy Spirit. And I found myself praying in a language I did not understand. And that force lifted, and was gone. And I spent the rest of the night praying. And the following morning, I knew by their reaction something happened. And the man could no longer practice there, because the demons have been sent away through prayer.

So you can say that God gave me victory over demonic forces.

When I was finishing my studies in the United States, at the doctorial level, the man who was my chairman wanted to frustrate my plans. I think he was determined that i would not leave that place with the degree. And one day it dawned on me what Jesus said in Mark 11: if you speak to this mountain, say to this mountain: move, and it would move. And I said…because I saw him as a mountain standing in my way. I said: move in the Name of Jesus Christ. And then shortly after that he announced he was going for sabbatical in Japan. He was going to Japan for sabbatical – for one year. And as soon as he left I replaced him. And of course that sabbatical stretched to two years. To cut a long story short, before he came back I had left with the degree.

So you can say that the Lord granted me victory over an academic enemy.

As exciting as these may be: these victories, I would still not truly know victorious Christian life if I do not gain victory over what these enemies I want to identify now; I call them unholy trinity represented by self, sin and Satan. And of these three, self is enemy number one. And this enemy number one, self, manifests itself in the form of another unholy trinity of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – according to 1 John 2:16.

What is happening actually is that self enters into an unholy alliance with sin, and both of them give their allegiance to Satan; and because of that Satan has a bridgehead in the lives of people – a landing right as it were, denying you victory. But unlike Jesus, in John 14:30, Jesus said something remarkable. Speaking about Satan, He says,

John 14:30

…The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

Another version says: he has no claim on me. The devil had no landing rights in Jesus – no bridgehead. So, Satan then, walking through self and sin, gains victory over men and women. And one thing you would discover is that Satan gives commands to those under his control. But those who are under the control of Christ He makes suggestions. And it is left to you, the Christian – the believer in Christ, to say no to his suggestions. And that is what it means to live a victorious Christian life: when you can say no to Satan, to self, to sin – and your no will stand. You will be living victoriously.

When we come back, we want to see why it is necessary to live a victorious Christian life, and how that would be accomplished.

Friends, it is important that if you are a Christian that you live victoriously – in other words, that you live a life of Christ: and that is the life of victory. Without that, the world will mock us. Without that, you will not experience God in the fullness – in all His fullness. It is hard to experience Him when Satan is ordering you around, making suggestions, and you accepting them left and right.

PRAYER:

Father, we want to thank You again for the time we have spent. Lord, we cannot gain victory on our own. And it is my prayer that as many as want to live victoriously, dear Lord, that You would enable them by Your Spirit to do so in Jesus Name. Amen!