We Are More Than Conquerors
In ourselves we are weak, but through Christ we find our strength, our peace, our guide and counselor, and light for the journey. At my lowest, God is my hope....At my darkest, God is my light... At my weakest, God is my strength.... at my saddest and loneliest, God is my comforter & friend...
Romans 8: 11 “For if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
(skip to verse) 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
You know Church, I’ve been walking this Christian way longenough, that I’ve found out something..... I may get hit by discouragement but I don’t have to stay discouraged... I may get knocked down but I don’t have to stay down.... I may get buffeted with some storms here and there, but if I can keep the storm out of my boat, I’m going over to the other side.... I may experience times of not enough, but if I can hold on to the one who is more than enough, it’s gonna be alright.... And I may have to deal with situations and circumstances that are more than my strength and abilities, but if I can stand in His strengthand power, I am more than conqueror!
Whether it be a single mom, a person struggling with illness, a widower, or a retiree who is entering their waning years, the message is the same... We’ve been made more than conquerors.
Say with me today.... “When my thoughts are not His thoughts, I will change my thoughts.... When my ways are not His ways, I will change my ways”....
This is not hardwired into any of us. We do not come into this world with this concept. It comes into us through mentoring, discipling and impartation in the home, the church, (it used to be the school system), our Godly peers, and immersing ourselves in the Word of God.
A man told his doctor that he wasn’t able to do all the things around the house that he used to do. When the examination was complete, he said, "Now, Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what’s wrong with Me." The doctor replied, "You’re just lazy, sir"
The most dangerous thing in your house is probably your easy chair. Not because of what it might do to you, but rather because of what you might not do when you are in it. I mean the name says it all “Lazy boy”
God’s part does not eliminate our part, because this is a partnership. A group of researchers published a study of Japanese mothers and mothers in the U.S. The mothers were asked to rank the most important things that a child needs to succeed academically. The answers tell a lot about the difference in our two cultures today. The mothers in Minneapolis chose "ability." The mothers in Japan said "effort."
Someone told me, that they put their scale in the corner and it’s going to stay there until the little liar apologizes.... (an honest look at ourselves is not easy to handle)! Many times we forget that God is not as interested in our abilities as he is in our availability. There is a well known book called “The road less traveled” it starts out with a 3 letter phrase that a lot of people would agree with. That 3 letter phrase is “life is difficult” but that’s not where the statement ends for the believer, because even though live is difficult, “God is more than enough”....At the end of myself, I find the Eternal, all powerful, all wise, all present, all knowing God!!!
You need to watch out for Rabshakeh. Cause he wants to make you “SHAKE-A, SHAKE-A” .....When it comes to the overcoming life, Rabshakeh will dog your steps every mile of your journey.
Rabshakeh, was the messenger and emissary of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, who had surrounded Jerusalem with the intention of keeping King Hezekiah from rebuilding the city and the temple when the tribe of Judah came out of Babylon after 70 years of captivity. The same Babylon where the fiery furnace story, Daniel and the lion’s den, and Queen Esther all took place.Remember that Persia defeated Babylon and absorbed it by the time of Esther, which was part of Daniel’s prophetic dream. Daniel and the first captives were taken to Babylon around 605 BC. The second group of captives were taken about 10 years later. 10 years after that, the third wave of Jews are taken captive. About 50 years later the Jews are allowed to return under Cyrus the great of Persia to rebuild the city.
The message Paul gave the Ephesian church is that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.
Well, Sennacherib, and Rabshakeh are some of those guys.... Look at it...
2 Kings 18:17 “The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field”.
Rabshakeh is a real potty mouth and his message to the people of Jerusalem was full of lies, boasts, and blasphemies which were designed to divide and dishearten their mission and purpose.
• he questioned the object of their faith and trust
• he ridiculed Hezekiah’s strategy as weak and ineffective
• he discounted any help they might receive from Egypt*.....
• he told them the Lord had turned against them
• he claimed the Lord had sent him to destroy the land of Judah
• he wanted them to focus on the horrors of being under siege
• he accused Hezekiah of deceiving the people
• he scoffed at the notion of trusting in the Lord
• he offered gifts of land and peace to anyone who would surrender
• he reminded them that no nation’s gods had yet been able to deliver them from Assyria
• he compared the Lord with the impotent gods of the other nations. He asks why, if the Assyrian army has managed to defeat everyone else's gods and desecrated their temples, wouldn’t they now do the same thing to the Jewish God? Of course, he isn't able to do that to Jehovah because his army gets totally massacred by an angel and he is killed in battle.
What was Hezekiah’s response to Rabshakeh at this time.... I need to know, because Rabshakeh is still messing around with the thinking of God’s people today, and he’ll show up every time God hands you an assignment...
2 Kings19:14 “So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God. 17Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands. 19 And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
It’s good to know when you are beaten, because then you cannot be defeated. Because you trusted in the Lord Your God you can surrender to God, not the enemy, and let God fight for you, “If God be for us then who can stand against us”
Hezekiah laid it before the Lord... Hezekiah knew that just because he was not able to see the answers, didn’t mean that there weren’t any answers. Oh, yes, God will always give you an assignment that won’t happen without Him. It’s more than enough for you, but He’s the “More than enough God”! As a matter of fact, one of the names He gave to Moses, was El Shaddai.... “I am more than enough”
It was El Shaddai that told Moses to stretch out his rod, and the Red Sea opened, so they could cross over, then closed it and drowned the army of Egypt. When they had nothing to eat, it was El Shaddai that sent manna from heaven to feed them, and water from the rock to quench their thirst.
It was El Shaddai that gave them shade by day and fire by night to light up the camp... He was their umbrella and their night light.
When they ran out of wine at the marriage feast, El Shaddai showed up and brought out His best!
That’s all great, for sure, but there’s more.... His name is also “The All Sufficient One” Listen, at the end of yourself, you are looking into the face of El Shaddai! I can admit my weakness because of His sufficiency!
When I am weak He makes me strong. When I’m poor I know I’m rich, for in the power of His name, All things are possible.... (How about this one)...He's never early, He’s never late It takes
Courage and it takes faith, Trust Him and see, He’s got all the power, you need... All the power you need, All the power you need!
This All-Sufficient, Unchanging, More than enough God tells us in
Psalm 91, that He would do seven things for those who set their hearts upon Him. He promises to:
1) Deliver you, 2) Set you on high (promote you), 3) Answer you when you call on Him, 4) Be with you in trouble and deliver you, 5) Honor you (that’s His favor), 6) Satisfy you with long life, 7) Show you His salvation (the word salvation means “completeness and wholeness”)
Being more than conqueror means that through Christ, you have not only conquered the enemies around you and outside of you, but you have conquered the enemies within you. That’s so exciting!
You no longer live for “num-ero uno”.... but you care about the health and success of others.... You no longer try to “just get by”... You have moved beyond the “us four and no more” mentality and you understand that you are a piece of a bigger puzzle...
A Teen was talking with his father and he picked up an imaginary phone and said "Hello, sir, I was calling you to see if you could use a lawn boy to do your yard work!" "Oh, I see you already have one!" "Well, is he doing your work to your satisfaction?" "He is! Thank you, sir, I was just checking," then the young boy hung up the imaginary phone. The father looked at his son and said, "Sorry son, you didn’t get the job!" "Oh, no"said the boy. "I’ve already got the job. I was just calling to check up on myself!"
It is my prayer that we would all check up on ourselves from time to time. And find that everyone is going the extra mile. Thatwe’re doing our best to be the kind of friend we would like to findfor ourselves, and be the prayer warrior we would like, when we need prayer, to discover that we are the kind of encourager we would like to have, when we are trying to push through confusion, fear, worry or doubt... that we are a person who is filled with the joy of the Lord, who is compassionate and patient, and that we would reflect the kind of Jesus that others would want to be like.
I’ve got the job, I’m just checking on my performance!
I read an article about A Massachusetts doctor who was a Harvard graduate, who has been suspended for leaving a patient on the operating table in the middle of a spinal surgery, so he could deposit a check at his local bank before they closed.
The state board of medicine said that the orthopedic surgeon, posed "an immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare" after he left the patient with an open incision in his back.
According to Reuters, he left a surgeon who was not qualified to complete the surgery. After his trip to the bank, he returned to the operating room and finished the surgery a few hours later.
How many minor and unimportant distractions have caused us to leave folks on the operating table who have big holes in theirlives, because they have not been introduced to the God of more than enough, who can move them from defeat to success, from lack to sufficiency, from lost and struggling to more than conqueror!
That means when you plan your calendar, you block in some God time first. When you write your budget that God gets the first fruit, not the left overs. You ask yourself, “When people think of me, who is it they see as the most important thing to me.”
The same God who turned the best that a little boy had (5 small cakes of bread and 2 fish) into a feast for over 5,000 people, is available right now for all of us.
We feel that we have to have all of this great faith for God to do something like that in our lives.... but hold on a minute.... Scripture says that God’s men of faith and power were skeptical and unbelieving, during that multiplication miracle, but,someone say BUT, but they were obedient. Obedience is better than sacrifice.... They simply did what He asked of them, and He displayed to them that He was “The More Than Enough God”!!!
There will always be the sick, the hurting, the lonely and forsaken, but tragically, there will not always be those who are simply obedient,
Who will discover that little is much when God is in it, and that is the super power we all have that can transform the sick, the hurting, the lonely and forsaken, into MORE THAN CONQUERORS!!
Don’t let offences, someone’s ignorance, a careless statement, or action, distract you from opening God’s treasure chest to “More than enough”....
There will come times in our life, when the problem seems so overwhelming, so over the top, and so impossible, that we might respond to Jesus and say, look God, I’ve got this problem and not go any further.... But always finish that statement, with “But You are the God of “More than enough”..... and watch Jesus turn it around and use your problem as the light someone has been waiting for! Don’t miss those defining moments someone has been praying for you to grab hold of...
(song says) “It’s in your hands, you hold a miracle. Though not much to you, it matters to Him and He’ll take what you give to Him, and make it what it needs to be, a miracle, it’s in your hands.”
Let’s do something.... Just open your hands for a moment and hold them up to God...
Now say with me, “Father, this is all I’ve got, but I give it to You, take it and use it as you will, I believe You are the God of More than enough. All you ask from me, is obedience.”
Now, I want you to take those hands that you lifted to Him, and go over and put them on someone’s shoulder and expect to see God do what you or them, could never do.!! Watch God turn that person to the overcomer, the conqueror that He said they were!!
Prayer.... Heavenly Father, we come into agreement in the wonderful and powerful Name of Jesus Christ, that where two or more are gathered, there You will be in the midst of us and anything we agree upon as touching in obedience, You will surely do. Lord, in Your name, we have the power to overcome whatever difficulty we may face. It may be through it, around it, under it or over it, but we can conqueror it, through Your victory which you have given us.
The past is behind us and the future is full of hope and promiseand we speak to any hindrance and command it to bow down and yield to Jesus Name! Let Your peace flow where there was worry and fear, let Your favor now flow where there was struggling and resistance, let Your victory overwhelm all failure and defeat! We declare that we are no longer under the problem, but it is under our feet.
Every obstacle is moving out of our way, and the Holy Spirit within us is greater than all that may be against us. No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper and every tongue that rises against us shall only work for good and not for evil. We declare it, believe it and receive everything we’ve prayed and give You glory in advance for the answer, by faith in Jesus Name!
Now give Him praise and thank Him for the answer before you see it, feel it or enjoy the manifestation! It’s time to take back what the enemy has stolen from you..... It’s time to take your family back... It’s time to take your job back..... It’s time to take your joy and your strength back.... it’s time to take your vision, your promise, your mission back... It's time to take the gifts of the spirit back......Take it back.... Satan you can’t have it anymore....
