The Overcomers

To defeat. To successfully deal with or gain control of. To gain superiority. To get the better of a conflict. To overpower or overwhelm in body or mind.  To be able to control our mind and body through our moral understanding of why God created us. We were placed on this earth not by any accident or evolution, but by God. We are here to be transformed from a self indulging half animal / half spiritual being into a consciousness that can relate to our Creator on a personal basis. Through the reading of the Word of God we are transformed into an individual whose future residence is in heaven. We don’t revolutionize our mind when we get there, we do it now so we are prepared for our new awakening and eternal body.

 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer as those of this world walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But, you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, put away all lying. Speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”  Ephesians 4: 17-32 NASB

We do not do this on our own, it is absolutely impossible. “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:5 NASB  We take the first step towards God by accepting the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He was crucified, bury, and resurrected from the dead so that our sins are forgiven through the sacrifice He made for us. We instantly become an eternal being with everlasting life.

We are foreigners on this planet and our residence is in Heaven.  One day we will receive a body that is not confined to gravity, this atmosphere, and temperature requirements. It will be a body of flesh and bones and will have no internal organs to stop us from traveling throughout the universe. We obtain this body and consciousness through DBS&P. Daily Bible study and prayer.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 

The Lust of the flesh is the desire we have for sex that is contrary to the will of God. He put in place for us a system in which we are to have a relationship with the opposite sex, to procreate our family, and to spend our life in a partnership. The name of that partnership is marriage, and it is based on the marriage between Jesus Christ and the church.  Other lusts of the flesh are drugs, alcohol, and gluttony. “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.”, faith Philippians 3:19 ESV  “Be not among drunkards, or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.” Proverbs 23:20-21 ESV ” I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16 NKJV

The lust of the eyes is the desire for an overabundance of material possessions. Our Heavenly Father wants us to spend our time on earth living a comfortable life with need for nothing. However, if He has blessed us beyond our need, it is our obligation to provide for our brothers and sisters. We are to provide not only for our family, and our Christian family, but for all we come in contact with who are struggling with the basics of life. If you reside in North America or Western Europe you been have blessed a thousand fold over your counterparts in the rest of the world.

The pride of life can be defined as anything that is of this world –  pride in one’s self, boasting, arrogance. The first example we have in the Bible of the pride of life is where Adam and Eve sinned. In the garden of Eden they noticed the tree of good and evil, saw that it’s fruit was pleasing to the eye, and desired the wisdom that Satan promised them. They believed the lie that Satan told them that they would become like God. The pride of life is anything that exalts us to be like, or to be greater than God. This was Satan’s greatest sin, and it caused him to be expelled from heaven.

  These are the great and powerful things God promises those who overcome:

1.) “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” Revelation 2:11 NIV  Man is not in control of the final destiny of mankind. There is the physical death of the body which all men will experience one day. This can be a natural death or a life that has been shortened by man on his brother or sister through hatred and malice. Then there is the second death. The eternal death 0f the spirit of man. Only God decides our eternal fate and those who overcome live in heaven with Him for eternity.

2.)  ^“To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” Revelation 2:17 NIV  The hidden manna is the revelation of God that has been hidden from us since the foundation of the world. When Paul visited the third heaven he said they spoke of things that man was not allowed to say. It is a known fact that we use only 10 to 15 percent of our brain. God will open up the rest of the knowledge of all creation to us. It will be the great awakening.

  In ancient times when a man was accused of wrongdoing  and was brought into court, if he was found innocent he was given a white stone so that he could prove to others he had been found not guilty.  It was also used as an admission ticket to enter events. The stone would prove to all others that we have been forgiven our sins and would provide us with admission into heaven.

God changed Jacob’s name, which meant “trickster” to Israel which means  “champion of God.” He changed Saul’s name to Paul, and one day He will give us a new name that will signify our personal relationship with Him.

3.) He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Revelation 3:5 NIV   The white garments stand for our purity that is achieved through our relationship with Christ. Here our King and Savior stands before our Heavenly Father and proclaims that we are His.

4.) “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7 NIV  The tree of life resides in the throne room of the New Jerusalem. An amazing  place that is described in  Revelation 21:10-27. Heaven comes down to earth and Jesus Christ reigns on His throne on earth  for 1,000. years.

5.) And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. Revelation 2:26  NIV  The Bible says, “those of us who God can trust with a few things will be trusted with many in eternity.”

How do we overcome?

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. 1 John 5:4  We overcome the world and its lust through faith.

And how do we receive faith?

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 NKJV  We overcome the world through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through daily Bible study and prayer. It is not a change you or I can make on our own. When we accept the fact that the Bible is true, and we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, we are changed through the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit as we grow in faith through daily Bible study and prayer. Without DBS&P ( daily Bible study and prayer) the Holy Spirit cannot have a work inside of us.

To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelation 3:21 NIV . We will be with our King and Savior throughout eternity not as slaves, not as followers, but as joint heirs of all creation.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 Our Bible is the Word of God, and that which is perfect has come to us through the Holy Spirit and it is “the perfect law of liberty.” There is nothing that can be added to perfection. All we need to know about overcoming this world of sin, death, salvation, and about God’s Son, and the Holy Spirit is found in the sixty six books of our Bible.