Overcoming

UV 2871/10000 Overcoming
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world
I John 4 v 4
Since we are redeemed by God through Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. The Spirit of God at work in us is greater, stronger than the spirit of anti-Christ that is in the world. He is greater than the prince and principalities of this world, the strongholds of darkness. We war not against our fellow humans who are like us flesh and blood but with the spirits that dwell with them or the spirits under whose influence they come under. As for us, we are under the shadow or the influence of the Almighty God. We are His children and He will not forsake us or leave us. He will not allow us to be preyed upon by the strong but evil one or his agents for He is exceedingly powerful and has already crushed the head of the enemy of our souls in overcoming sin and death. As He has overcome the world, so shall we overcome the world and all the challenges it throws at us.
He that is the Word is greater than He that is in the world. By the word, we shall overcome temptations, lusts, trials, tests, suffering in this world. We might be as vulnerable as little children but the fact the Lord is with us as Emmanuel, Ebenezer and Redeemer makes us victorious in all of life’s situations. From an infinite and eternal perspective, we might appear as tiny as ants but in Him we are Gi-ants or God-inspired ants. The word inspired implies ‘breathed.’ We breathe in the strength and power of the Spirit of God. He fills us with His knowledge, wisdom, understanding. He gives us apt defence and places in our hands the powerful weapons of the spirit. He gives us the ability to discern between truth and falsehood.
As the greatness of the power and character of the Lord is invested in the believer or follower of Jesus, we have access to all the beauty, power, grace, love, wisdom, resources of the kingdom of God. He causes us to be greater than our biggest fears and threats, our biggest foes and enemies, our greatest challenges, our biggest obstacles and difficulties. Weakness is part of human nature but the power to overcome comes from God. He exchanges our weaknesses, known and unknown for His strength. Our deficiencies, vulnerabilities, scarcities, crises are opportunities for the Lord to act in and through our lives and help us overcome. We are declared overcomers or winners right at the beginning. We only need to stay firm and hold our ground in faith that the Lord will fight the battle for and on behalf of us and wrest victory for us. This is the reason we are called by St Paul as “more than conquerors” as a conqueror overcomes or wins by virtue of his own blood, sweat and toil as well as courage. We conquer by virtue of the shed blood of Jesus, the indwelling Holy Spirit and the word that is alive and active in every situation to make us victorious. The power or the victory is not of us that any man can boast or be proud. We overcome by grace even as we are saved by grace. In many things that we struggle with or against,we have failed and became frustrated as we struggled based on our own natural strength and resources and we did not rely on Jesus to give us the overcoming power, the victory.
Prateep V Philip