Life is something of a spiritual battlefield and when we’re in the thick of things, it’s so important for us to know what side we’re on. Each one of us has a new identity in Christ, but how many of us know that deep in our hearts, in the heat of the spiritual battle we call life?

GOD’S GRACE

Spiritual victory is something of an odd concept, we live life, we go through all the stuff we go through, we know somehow there’s a spiritual dimension to it all but for most of us, particularly westerners like me, the spiritual dimension of life can feel somewhat distant, irrelevant even in the cut and thrust of daily life. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The battles we fight often appear to be battles against circumstances, adversity, and other people – especially other people. Our daily battles appear confined to the here and now when all along there’s a spiritual battle raging for your soul in the heavenly places. This is what the Apostle Paul writes, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 to 13:

Finally (he says) be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for our struggle isn’t against enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God so that you may be able to withstand on that day of evil and having done everything to stand firm.

So today we’re kicking off a brand new series of messages called Your Road To Spiritual Victory because Jesus didn’t come and die for you and rise again so that you could spend the rest of your life being defeated by your circumstances or by people or by satan or by your sin. Gods plan for your life is victory – spiritual victory. 1 John chapter 5, verses 4 and 5.

For whatever is born of God conquers the world and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world? That the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

And that’s why today and over the next couple of weeks we’re going to focus on spiritual victory, your spiritual victory to be precise. Often when I start talking about this to people I get a response that goes something like this, ‘Yeah I hear you but I’m not good enough, I’m such a weak person, I don’t think I will ever experience the victory that you’re talking about.’

This is way more common than you think. Perhaps you’ve been thinking along similar lines as we’ve been chatting about this whole ‘spiritual victory’ thing today. Well my job is to open God’s Word with you and show you that that’s a whole bunch of baloney.

Let’s go back to Paul’s words about the spiritual battle and putting on the whole armour of God. The whole purpose of that, he says is quote, ‘So we may be able to withstand on that evil day and having done everything to stand firm.’ In other words ‘to win the battle‘.

‘But I’m not good enough,’ I hear you say. No, you’re not good enough, that’s the truth and nor am I for that matter, we’re all in the same boat. None of us is good enough or strong enough or pure enough or holy enough or smart enough to win the spiritual battle, that’s the whole point, that’s why we need Jesus, that’s why we need the Holy Spirit.

And the starting point for the transaction of spiritual victory can be summed up in one word – grace. And that’s something that your God and mine, has available in bucket loads for you and me. Again listen to how the Apostle Paul puts it, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5.

But God who is rich in mercy out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, has made us alive together in Christ.

There are times in our lives when we know that we’ve blown it, I mean completely blown it. There is nothing worse than waking up the morning after the night before and remembering that you hurt someone you loved and damaged a relationship that was so terribly important to you. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have said that? How could I have done that? Yeah I know, you’ve been there right? So have I.

I remember one time when I was in that place when the person I had hurt reached out to me and without berating me, without showing anger, without judging me simply forgave me and opened the door to healing our relationship. I’ll never forget it. That person was Jesus. What He did is called mercy and here’s the thing, mercy is only mercy when it’s undeserved. If we deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy, would it?

The Bible tells us that God is rich in mercy, ain’t that the truth.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it’s a gift from God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9)

See mercy and grace are two sides of the one coin. Mercy is when God takes away the punishment that we so richly deserve for rebelling against Him and grace is when He gives us instead untold blessings that we simply don’t deserve. You and I have rebelled against God and the wages of sin, as we’re told in the Bible, is death and yet because He loves you so much He heaps the death that you deserve on the shoulders of Jesus on that cross. Jesus suffered and died on your behalf – that’s mercy.

And then instead of the death we so richly deserve, He gives us a rich abundant life here and now, a life that we’ll spend with Him for the rest of eternity, that’s grace.

Some days we look in the mirror and we see just what we’ve done wrong. We see how unworthy we really are. We realise that there’s simply no hope and that’s the whole point, that’s why He sent Jesus, for you. He loves you so much, mercy and grace through Jesus Christ.

And so no matter how low the base that you’re coming off is in this spiritual game that we call life, God’s mercy will trump everything. In fact so much so that He’ll wipe away all of your past misdeeds, also known as sin. He’ll make your past completely irrelevant to you, to your life and to your relationship with Him. That’s how rich God is in His mercy and grace. Psalm 103, verses 11 to 14.

For as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him, as far as the east is from the west so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him for he knows how we’re made, he remembers that we’re just dust.

As far as the east is from the west – I recently had to fly from Sydney in Australia, it’s on the eastern seaboard up to Singapore and it takes about seven and a half odd hours to make that flight. Four and a half of those hours, over half of the trip, is involved just in flying from east to west to get out of Australia.

So as I made that flight I looked down on the red dusty land below me and I think ‘the distance between east and west is enormous’. So far has God removed our transgressions from us – as far as the east is from the west. Your slate is wiped completely clean and your past becomes completely irrelevant. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.

So if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away and see everything has become new.

Your past is gone, it’s irrelevant. You want spiritual victory in your life then you need to know the truth so that the truth can set you free and the truth is this, it’s what I just shared with you from God’s Word today, the truth is that you are forgiven, completely and utterly, the truth is that as far as the east is from the west so far have your transgressions been removed from you.

That’s the truth and that’s the starting point of spiritual victory in your life – the truth.

YOUR IDENTITY 

Living our lives in spiritual victory over the devil, over sin and evil, over circumstances and adversity isn’t just some theoretical pipe dream, no it’s God’s plan for our lives. Let me be even more direct than that, it’s God’s plan for your life, Romans chapter 8, verses 35 and 37.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Don’t you love that? Not just conquerors but more than conquerors, not just victory but more than victory. There’s a reason for that and the reason is that God is a God of abundant blessing, abundant mercy, abundant grace, abundant power, abundant love. He’s an over the top kind of God and He wants you to live in this abundant life that Jesus came to give you.

And to make that happen for you, all this abundance, God gives you a new identity the moment you believe in Jesus. Instead of being the sinner you once were in God’s eyes, completely deserving of His wrath and His punishment, He transforms you through your faith in Jesus, it’s the beginning of victory.

And just as a soldier on a battlefield needs to know who he is and who he’s fighting for in order to win the battle, so you and I need to know to understand and to accept our new identity in Christ. Have a listen to this, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In other words, God transferred all our sin onto Jesus shoulders so that now, when you and I stand before God, through our faith we look a whole lot like Jesus to Him. Jesus took your sin, He paid the price, He died for you so that you might become the very righteousness of God. That’s now your new identity if you believe in Jesus – a complete right standing with God no matter what horrible things you may have done in the past.

And not only in the past, in the present and what is to come in the future as well because God has given you a new standing, a standing in fact as a member of His family. Romans chapter 8, verses 14 to 17.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are in fact children of God. For you didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry ‘Abba’, Father it’s that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are in fact children of God and if children then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

When the going gets tough as it invariably does out there on the spiritual battlefield that we call life, it’s so easy for us to imagine that God has abandoned us. There’s nothing worse than that feeling of abandonment because you and I we’re created to belong – families, societies, sporting teams, clubs even countries – they’re all about belonging, we need to belong, that’s how God has created us.

And when the going gets tough that sense of isolation, that sense of abandonment is devastating but our feelings are quite fickle, they aren’t always able to witness the truth into our hearts. In fact quite to the contrary because you and I are frail human beings the devil often uses our feelings to speak lies into us in order to rob us of the truth.

Listen up, God will never abandon you no matter how ferocious the spiritual battle becomes, no matter how heavily you may stumble and fall some days, if you believe in Jesus, yeah some day’s you’ll be called to suffering just like Jesus but that doesn’t change the fact that you are His child, that He loves you beyond measure. He will never abandon you. That’s Gods honest truth because He has given you a completely new identity.

You have become the righteousness of God through your faith in Jesus Christ. You have become a member of His family through Jesus. And there’s something else you need to know about how God sees you, have a listen to this truth from His Word, this is God speaking to you about how He sees you and what He thinks of you and what He’s going to do for you right now, Isaiah chapter 43, verses 3 to 5.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour. You are precious in my sight and honoured and I love you. Do not fear for I am with you.

How we see ourselves – you and I – has a huge impact on the quality and the effectiveness of the lives that we lead and this life of yours, hey it ain’t no dress rehearsal, it slips away a minute at a time, a day at a time. And one day it’s going to be over, one day the end of this life will come.

What a tragedy it would be to have missed out on all that God has to offer you simply because you believed what the world said about you and as a result you lived out your life through your own inadequacies and insecurities rather than believing what God has to say about you.

Hey, do you believe in Jesus? If you do this is what God has to say about you, you are precious to Him, you are honoured by Him and He loves you. That’s who you are, that’s your identity, that’s what God thinks about you. It’s your passport through life. So who are you going to believe, the world or God? Hmm?

When the devil comes against you on the battlefield and whispers lies into your ears, ‘oh you’re not good enough and what’s more you never will be, you can never win, give up, throw in the towel’ all that stuff who are you going to believe? The devil, the father of lies or God?

God never lies and as one whom He has transformed into His very own righteousness, as one whom He’s adopted into His family and is called a child of God. There is something else that you have, something else which is already yours, have a listen to this, 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 to 5.

By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading being kept in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Around where I live real estate prices have become so prohibitively expensive there’s a whole generation of young people who will have to wait for their parents to die before they can purchase a home using their inheritance. In most families children can rely on the fact that they’ll receive the lion’s share of their parent’s estate so why is it then that so many Christians are uncertain about their inheritance from God? Will I make it to heaven or won’t I? Will it be everything I expect? Will God keep my inheritance for me?

The future can be scary some days even more so as we approach that final hurdle out of this life into the next. So in case you’re wondering the truth is this, God has an inheritance waiting for you in heaven that is quote, “Imperishable, undefiled and unfading.” And not only that, it’s an inheritance that He has actively protecting through His power. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Do you see how your new identity completely transforms your own view of who you are? Seeing yourself through God’s eyes changes everything because as we look at ourselves through His eyes, through His truth, all of a sudden we realise that by His grace and His mercy we are a completely new creation.

So when the enemy comes against you out there on the spiritual battlefield of life, you can declare with boldness, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I am a child of the living God and He has an inheritance waiting for me.

Full stop – end of story.

ALL POWER TO YOU 

Power is so important in living a life of spiritual victory. We’re going to talk a whole lot more about power next week on the programme, but in the few minutes that we have left together today, let me give you a taste of the power that God has already given you. Ephesians 1:17-20, Paul writes:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe. God put this power to work in Christ and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

 It took me a long while (and maybe I’m a slow learner), but eventually I came to the conclusion that I cannot overcome my own sin in my own power. In fact, the harder I worked at it, the more I would fail, and the more condemnation I would feel. As far as I can see, working harder at becoming a better Christian is a recipe for guilt, condemnation and failure. What you and I really need is some power. I mean, serious power: Power to overcome our sin, and not surprisingly, God already has that figured out. Through the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 (that passage we just read), God tells us that we already have available to us the same immeasurably great power that raised Jesus from the dead to give us a new life. The literal meaning of that verse, if I take the original Greek words (which is something I don’t often do on the programme) and I kind of transliterate them into English, it reads like this: Hyper ballistic, mega phonic, dynamic power.

See, this same incredible resurrection-power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to overcome your sin. It’s available to you and me here, now, today, through Jesus, so listen up. Stop praying for power, and start praying with power ‘cos you actually already have this power. Paul’s saying: ‘I wish, I pray, that you would through a spirit of revelation and wisdom come to know the immeasurable greatness of His power that’s already available to you.’

Stop praying for power, and start praying with power, but listen up. Prayer isn’t just a one-sided transaction. It’s not a one-sided conversation. I hope this is going to shock you (shocked me too, I have to tell you), but prayer is more, so much more than just rattling off our shopping-list to God.

Now don’t get me wrong; I absolutely believe in asking God for His blessing because without that, nothing I do is going to amount to very much at all, but if our prayer is a monologue rather than a dialog, then it’s not much of a relationship, is it? If our prayer is a one-sided conversation, us talking at God, then just imagine what we’re missing out on. Just imagine how God feels about that. Hearing the voice of God, hearing God speak back to us, that’s what the Holy Spirit is ready, willing and able to do, and there is such power when God speaks to us. Have a listen to what Jesus had to say on hearing His voice. John 10:1-4:

Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, the sheep hear his voice, he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. When he has brought out all of his own, he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

 Do you know His voice? Have you heard that sweet quiet powerful whisper in your heart? If not, be still. Just wait on Him. He will speak. Absolutely, He will. Take this whole communication thing, this whole prayer thing, seriously and you’ll be amazed at the victory that the Lord brings to pass in your life: Real victory, make no mistake. I’ve already said it, but let me say it again: You have the power to live your life in spiritual victory. It’s already been given to you. That’s the God-honest truth, and it’s that truth that will set you free to live your life in victory over the devil, over sin, over every obstacle that this world throws your way

May the Lord truly bless you as you receive His Word into your heart today.

All too often, God’s people – who we’re told are meant to be more than conquerors – lie bloodied and beaten on the spiritual battlefield we call life. What they need is power, but they just can’t seem to find it. Well what if I told you that God has already provided you with all the power you need?

IT’S TIME TO REPENT

I want you to imagine a person who wants to become an elite athlete, whatever their chosen sport may be. This person sets out to become a great tennis player or footballer or track and field competitor and yet all they ever do is they sit on the couch eating chips and sweets and drinking sugar-laden soft drink. Would you expect that person to realise their dream of becoming an elite athlete on that sort of a diet and that sort of an exercise regime? Not likely.

And yet that’s what so many Christians do. They want to live a life of spiritual victory in Christ and yet they fail to turn away from the things that are ruining their lives. Those things have a collective name in God’s Book – He calls them sin. Have a listen to the Apostle Paul’s take on all of this, Romans chapter 6, verse 21 to 23:

So what advantage did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death but now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God the advantage you get is sanctification, the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For much of my life I shied away from God simply because I thought becoming a Christian meant living out some out dated, irrelevant bunch of rules that would restrict me and constrain me, a bit like a straight jacket. That’s the view that so many people have of being a Christian – you can’t do this, you can’t do that, how’s a person supposed to have any fun in this life?

What surprised me though when I looked closer at it is that God only tells us not to do the things that are actually going to hurt us and hurt other people. And the list of do’s and don’ts, well it’s actually quite small in the scheme of things and yet still there’s always at least one of those that we want to hang on to in our lives, isn’t there?

Listen up, there is no such thing as a small sin. Hang on to any sin and eventually it’s going to kill you, let it go and the reward is freedom today and eternal life for the rest of eternity.

Over the last few days on the program we’ve talked a lot about the powerful transformation that happens to you and to me the moment we believe in Jesus. Our past is completely forgiven, as far as the east is from the west so far does God remove our transgressions from us. So much so that our past misdemeanours become completely irrelevant in God’s eyes and in God’s eyes we’re as pure and as blameless as Jesus Himself.

That abundant mercy and grace is a kindness and a generosity that is simply indescribable and that kindness and generosity is actually meant to have a transformative impact on our lives, Romans chapter 2 verses 3 and 4:

Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Don’t you realise that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Isn’t it funny how quick we are to judge others and yet how readily we find excuses to rationalise our own behaviour. Maybe it’s time for us to stop kidding ourselves. Other people’s sin, by and large, isn’t our responsibility but our sin is and one day Jesus will come back and judge the living and the dead, each one of us, Christian and non-Christian alike will stand before Him to give an account for our lives, our behaviour and our sin.

Make no mistake judgement day is coming but right now God has done everything that needs doing, He has shown us every kindness, He has given us every opportunity to repent, to turn away from the things that we know are wrong and to turn our lives back to Him.

The right response, the only response to God’s kindness is repentance. The right response, the only response to Jesus death on that cross is letting go of our sin and loving Him in word and in deed. Surely that’s not too much to ask, is it? And it’s not as though we’re powerless to change because God gives us the very power we need to leave that sin behind. He never takes us to a place where temptation is more than we can bear, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13:

So if you think that you are standing watch out that you don’t fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with a testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Let’s be honest we all struggle with sin, somehow each one of us has that one Achilles heel and one temptation, that one sin that we’re vulnerable to and doesn’t the devil know it. He waits for just the right time, when we’re tired, when we’re distracted, when we’re under pressure, when we haven’t prayed or opened our Bible for a few days or weeks and then whammo, he swoops in and he strikes.

The result, we succumb to the temptation, we stumble, we suffer guilt, we suffer condemnation and we want to run and hide from God just like Adam and Eve did. What’s your Achilles heel of temptation and sin? What are you struggling with? Are you wondering what you can possibly do to overcome it?

Well here’s a powerful promise from God, whatever it is He will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to withstand the temptation and He will always provide you with a way out. That’s Gods promise to you, He will always be there to help you overcome the temptation and that’s important because that sin robs us of the spiritual victory that He wants for our lives. That sin steals the very thing that Jesus suffered and died and rose again to give us, abundant victory.

God’s thought of everything, of forgiveness, to be set free from the past and of the power we need to overcome the future. Yeah, God’s thought of everything

THE POWER OF PRAYER

For many Christians prayer is one of those optional extras. It’s something we fit in now and then when we can and it seems we’re especially good at fitting in a quick prayer when things aren’t going so well. ‘Oh God please help me, oh God please stop the pain, oh God when are you finally going to show up’? Sound familiar?

Imagine that someone you love only ever talks to you when they’re in trouble, it wouldn’t make much for a relationship now, would it? I wonder sometimes if we don’t have a completely wrong view of prayer because the only sort of prayer that the Bible teaches us about is the sort that has powerful results.

Let me say that again just in case you missed it – the only sort of prayer that the Bible teaches us about is the sort that has powerful results. Now when you think of it that way you have to ask yourself, so why do I keep banging my head up against a brick wall? Here’s how Jesus put it, John chapter 15 verse 7. He said that:

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

In other words if we’re close to His heart, if we know what He wants then our desires will be aligned with His and in that context we can ask Him for whatever we wish and it will be done for us. That’s a powerful statement and when we live that out in our lives it yields powerful results.

We’re in the middle of a series of messages called Your Road To Spiritual Victory because that’s what God wants for you, for your life, spiritual victory. And as I said at the beginning of this program, you can’t have that sort of victory if you don’t spend time in prayer. I mean you just can’t.

So many of Christ followers want spiritual victory but they’re too busy to pray. Huh, that’s about as smart as the couple who want a great marriage but are too busy to talk to one another about the things in life that really matter, as though that was somehow going to work. Yeah I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, ‘Berni that’s great for you but I don’t have the sort of faith that you need to get powerful results through my prayer.’

Well you’re not alone, I know many a Christian who firmly believes they don’t have enough faith to go and ask God for the things they need, for the help they need and for the victory they need. It turns out that these people have more than enough faith to believe that they don’t have enough faith but not enough faith to believe that their loving powerful God could give them the breakthrough that they so desperately need.

I mean when you put it like that it sounds crazy but that’s exactly what’s going on here. Now let me warn you, I’m one of these crazy nut cases who takes Jesus at His word. In other words, if Jesus said it it’s not just true but it’s actually true for me. So what did Jesus say about how much faith that you and I need to overcome a whopping great obstacle that’s in our road? Matthew chapter 17 verses 19 and 20:

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘How come we couldn’t cast the demon out?’ and he said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. Look truly I tell you if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain ‘get up, move from here, over there’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you’.

Did you get that? NOTHING will be impossible for you. The answer to how much faith you need is that faith the size of a mustard seed which was the tiniest of all seeds known to human kind when Jesus was walking this earth, faith the size of a mustard seed is more than enough to move the mountain, to move the obstacle, that’s what Jesus said. Question is, will you take Him at His word? Because it’s not about the size of your faith, it’s about the size of your God – a God who is so powerful that He created the universe.

Have a listen to this beautiful and powerful truth, Psalm 33 verses 6 to 9:

For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Isn’t that beautiful?

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle, he put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm.

When you and I are praying that’s the God we’re praying to, the God who created the whole universe, a trillion trillion stars by the breath of his mouth. Do you think that He doesn’t have the power to deliver on His promises? Really? And yet He’s the very same God who wants to hear the deepest thoughts and secrets of our hearts. He is the God who delights in the intimacy of prayer. He wants a relationship, a real conversation.

The sort of prayer I was taught when I was growing up was formal prayer, kneel down, bow your head, clasp your hands together and then come up with some really sensible words maybe words that someone else wrote for you. The problem is though that that’s not the sort of prayer that the Bible talks about at all.

Jesus, just before He was crucified we’re told, threw Himself on the ground and prayed, He poured His heart out to His Father in heaven, He told His Dad exactly what He was thinking and feeling. Matthew chapter 26 verse 39:

And going a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it’s possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but let your will be done’.

Think about it, God loves you more than words can possibly ever say and when you love someone that much you want them to be real with you, you want them to pour their hearts out to you to tell what’s really going on, right? It’s exactly what Jesus did when He was under that terrible stress of being crucified.

Well, your Dad in heaven wants the same, your Dad in heaven wants your quiet times of prayer as the most intimate moments that you and I will ever have with God.

THE WORD OF GOD

I guess in a good loving marriage if you love someone it’s not unreasonable to expect that they would from time to time, even reasonably often, say kind, loving, encouraging, uplifting things to you. Not an unreasonable expectation, right? And yet so many Christians have never heard God whisper those sweet nothings into their ears.

Why? I was having lunch with a friend the other day and he said something along the lines of, ‘Well, look, I don’t read my Bible, I find it boring. In any case I have a deal with God, as long as I have love in my heart that’s all that matters.’ Yeah right. My question to him was this, ‘So if you don’t read your Bible, if you don’t listen to the loving things that God has to say to you and about you how can you possibly have His love in your heart?’

If you want to hear God speak read your Bible, if you want to hear God speak audibly then read it out loud. That Bible is His love letter to you.

As we journey through this series on living our lives in spiritual victory we have to talk about one of the greatest maladies in Christendom today, the Biblically illiterate majority who are so longing for victory, real victory over sin, over the devil, over trials and obstacles and circumstances and situations and yet they leave the one offensive weapon in their armoury locked away in a cupboard somewhere.

The Apostle Paul had this to say about the spiritual battlefield on which we live, have a listen, it’s Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 to 17:

Finally (he writes) be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle isn’t against the enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armour of God so that you may be able to withstand on that day of evil and having done everything to stand firm. Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the Gospel of peace. With all of these take the shield of faith with which you’ll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6: 10-17)

So there is one of the best pictures of the spiritual battlefield on which you and I live that you will ever find in the Bible. The point he’s making is that we focus on the things we see, the things of flesh and blood and yet there is a spiritual battle raging in the spiritual dimension, in the heavenly places, that is every bit as real as anything you and I can see or feel here and now.

A spiritual battle that sits aback of the trials and the troubles that we experience in this world. A spiritual battle that we ignore at our peril. We can’t have spiritual victory without being aware of that spiritual battle and then doing the things that we can do to win it. As Paul puts it, ‘Putting on the whole body armour of God’ not just part of it but all of it.

Now when you think about it armour is by and large defensive, in other words, it’s there to protect you. The belt of truth holds things together, the breastplate of righteousness protects your chest, your heart, your lungs, the shoes for your feet they make it easier for you to run, the shield of faith quenches the fiery darts of the enemy, the helmet of salvation protects your head. All of those are passive and protective to stop the enemy attacks from hurting you, great.

But you don’t win a battle just by defending yourself, you win a battle by attacking, by going on the offensive and in that whole list we are given only one offensive weapon, did you pick it? It’s the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. In other words your Bible – the living Word of the living God is the one offensive weapon in your armoury.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness the devil came after Him by misquoting and twisting God’s Word, how did Jesus respond? Each time He responded with the truth, He defeated the devil with the truth, with God’s Word, Luke chapter 4 verses 3 to 12.

Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you’re the Son of God command this stone to become a loaf of bread’. But Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, man does not live by bread alone’.

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and the devil said to him, ‘to you I will give their glory and all this authority for it has been given over to me and I give it to anyone whom I please. If you then will worship me it will be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve only him’.

Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here for it is written ‘he will command his angels concerning you, to protect you and on their hands they will bear you up so you will not dash your feet against the stone.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, do not put the Lord your God to test. When the devil had finished every test he departed from him until a more opportune time.’

Three times Jesus hit back at the devil with His one offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. But leave the sword in its scabbard; leave the sword in the scabbard at home in the storeroom and it won’t do you any good. We need to get it out, to read it, to let God speak to us through it, to listen to what He has to say about us and this world rather than the perversions that the devil will whisper in our ears.

Let me be perfectly blunt, you cannot, you simply cannot live in spiritual victory without regularly reading your Bible, it just isn’t possible, get it? You and I don’t have the power to defeat the devil, we don’t have the power to overcome the obstacles in life but God’s Word is so incredibly powerful. Why do we miss that? Why do we trifle with the Word of God?

One of the most frightening things that I see in the Kingdom of God today is people who call themselves Christians and yet they trifle with God’s Word. They have a Bible to be sure but it collects dust on the shelf or it’s tucked away in a drawer somewhere. They listen to sermons most Sundays, well sort of but by the time they’re having that post Church service cup of coffee their heart and their mind has already wandered off somewhere else.

In the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, we hear how God created the universe but let me ask you a question, exactly how did God create the universe? Answer, He spoke it into existence, Genesis chapter 1.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light and God saw the light and it was good and God separated the light from the darkness.

God spoke the whole universe into existence. As the Apostle Paul said later in Romans chapter 4 verse 17:

God calls into existence the things that do not yet exist.

That’s the power of God’s Word. I wonder what things, what blessings God wants to call into existence in your life through His Word. And His Word is the place where you’ll discover the spiritual victory that you’ve been looking for all this time. The sword of the spirit which is the Word of God – your one offensive weapon. Don’t leave home without it.

Many who call themselves “Christians” are not, in fact, living the life of victory that Jesus came to give them. Somehow, the promise of victory isn’t happening in their lives. Something has to change. Not next year, not next month, not next week … now!

A NEW WAY OF LIVING

Over the last couple of weeks on the programme, we’ve been talking about the reality that Jesus came to purchase a special kind of victory for each one of us

The sort of victory in life that lifts us up above temptations, that lifts us up above the devastating impact of our sin that lifts us up above the power of the devil to destroy our lives.

The sort of victory that brings a sense of God’s abundance into our world so that no matter who or what attacks us, no matter who or what tries to rob you and me of the joy and the peace and the gladness in our hearts, we can have victory of that who or what and still have the joy and the peace and the gladness in our hearts.

That’s what I call victory and that abundance is precisely what Jesus came to give to you and me. A pivotal passage of Scripture that I come back to again and again in my life when the ravages of the devil and of circumstances are tearing away at my flesh is what Jesus said to His disciples in John chapter 10 verse 10:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.

I sometimes ask people, ‘What sort of life do you think that God wants you to live?’ A boring life, an ordinary life or a stunning life. Come on, on a scale of zero to ten what sort of life do you think that God wants you to live? This God who sent Jesus to die and rise again for you. Zero – a rotten life, five – well an okay kind of life I guess, seven and a half – a pretty good life or ten – a stunning life.

Remember Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and have it abundantly and that anything less than that was from the devil. The original Greek word that sits aback of our English translation literally means ‘super abundantly’. That super abundant life isn’t always a comfortable life or a wealthy life, no often it’s not that at all but it is a life that weighs in and counts for Jesus, a life that bears fruit super abundantly. That’s the life that Jesus has planned for you.

The question is, how do you and I grab hold of that life because let’s be honest, of the millions of people who will listen to this message today in over a hundred and sixty countries around the world, the vast majority, eighty, ninety percent aren’t living that sort of a life?

It seems as though in the Kingdom of God today there are the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have not’s’ when it comes to this abundant victory. Which one are you? A have or a have not? Something has to change right? And I believe, in fact I know that the biggest con out there robbing God’s people of His abundant victory is this, that life is all about being happy, us being happy, me being happy, you being happy.

This big con, the reason that so many people are so unhappy in this world, is that we’re told happiness comes from self-gratification, from buying and having everything we want, that new dress or that new pair of shoes, that new camera, that new car, that new house, that new whatever it is, that’s why most people often think to themselves, ‘If only, if only I just earned a little bit more, just maybe ten percent more then I’d be happy’.

From bitter experience I can tell you that’s simply not true. In fact the biggest shock I had when I became a Christian back in 1995 was that once I started using my God-given gifts and resources to do things for other people, something frankly I had never done much of before, all of a sudden I discovered the satisfaction and the contentment I’d been looking for, for all those years.

That’s exactly what God tells us through His Word, Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 to 8:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ who, though he was in the form of God, didn’t regard equality with God as something to be exploited but he emptied himself, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

These days I bless other people, not because I’m a good guy because I’m not but because it makes me feel good because it brings me the peace, the joy and the contentment that I was always looking for but was forever unable to find so long as I was trying to make myself happy. Why did it take me so long to figure this out?

Probably because right from the beginning, right from when we’re little we’re taught that the aim of the game is to succeed, it’s about winning, it’s about coming first, it’s about me feeling good about myself. It doesn’t matter what game you’re playing the aim, the only acceptable outcome is to win.

Well, winning is all well and good, it’s great to be successful and yet so many Christians think that success is the name of the game that they’ve completely lost sight of Jesus. I even had one Christian tell me once that his aim was to have the latest BMW SUV sitting in his driveway. Really? Is that really what’s going to make you happy, success?

John chapter 19 verses 28 to 30:

After this when Jesus knew that all was now finished he said in order to fulfil the Scripture, ‘I am thirsty’. A jar full of sour wine was standing there so they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine he said, ‘It is finished’ then he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.

When Jesus died on that cross He didn’t even have the clothes on His back. He was beaten, crucified, this miracle working Jesus who had promised so much looked like the biggest loser of all time. They scoffed at Him, they spat at Him, they mocked Him, ‘Save yourself’ they shouted.

And yet through His suffering He purchased eternal life for you and me. It’s fine to succeed but that’s not the aim of the game. Now He wasn’t a loser Jesus, when He gave up His life for you and me, far from it, He did it willingly, John chapter 10 verses 17 and 18.

For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.

In the world’s economy losing makes you a loser, losing the argument, missing out on the promotion, not being as beautiful as the beautiful people, all that makes you a loser but that’s not the way it is in God’s economy. In my life and I know this has happened in yours too, many things have come against me.

I set out each day with faith in Jesus and the joy of the Lord in my heart and like a pack of wolves people and situations and circumstances and things come to tear away at my flesh, to attack my faith, to drag me down and our natural reaction to that is, well God what’s going on here? What have I done to deserve this? Can’t you make it stop?

We behave as though something is wrong when the truth is the moment we step onto the spiritual battle of life with Jesus in our hearts the devil is going to come after us with a pick axe, with all the powers of hell unleashed against us but no matter how bad it gets remember this powerful truth from God’s Word, Romans chapter 8 verses 37 to 39.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In this world there are winners and there are losers but in God’s Kingdom there are only winners, victors, conquerors. No sorry, that’s not quite true – more than conquerors, there … that’s better.

GIVING AND SACRIFICE 

Giving in sacrifice is an interesting notion because inevitably if you and I are going to live in victory we need to discover that real victory in this life only comes when we develop a generous heart. At the moment you decide to become a generous person you realise that it’s not all peaches and cream, generosity inevitably involves sacrifice and sacrifice inevitably costs us something.

More often than not it hurts, a lot, so do you still want to be generous? Do you still want to have victory over your cravings and desires by becoming a giving person? It stands to reason that generosity is one of the things that brings victory into our lives because God is generous and you and I, well we’re made in His image.

Let me ask you this, what was the very last act of creation? What was the very last thing that God did on the sixth day before He rested on the seventh day to enjoy all He had created? Most people would answer that the last act of creation was to make Adam and Eve, to create humanity, God’s crowning achievement and if that’s your answer too then sorry to disappoint you but it’s the wrong answer.

God did one more thing before He was finished, do you want to know what it was? Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 to 28:

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and he said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over everything that moves upon the earth’.

What was the last thing He did? He gave the whole thing away, He gave it to Adam and Eve, to you and me. He blessed them with all He had made, now that’s what I call generous. These days people seem to be in it whatever ‘it’ is for themselves. Generosity seems to be an old fashioned concept. Well in a sense it’s a very old concept, the very first act of generosity happened precisely six days after the beginning of time.

It was Gods idea and when you and I live out who we are, created in God’s image, by being generous with our time, with our money, with our emotional energy, with our gifts and abilities, then we’re living a life of victory. But you see God when He looks at your level of generosity and mine He’s not primarily interested in how much we give. That may sound a little odd at first but it’s true.

I had an elderly woman write to me recently and she said this;

I’m so sorry that I can’t give much to support your ministry, I’m only an elderly pensioner and I don’t have much to live on.

Those were her exact words. Now look I can’t respond to every letter that I receive, I wish I could but I can’t but this one I just had to respond to personally. I was able to write to her and remind her of what Jesus said about the poor widow who dropped her two small copper coins in the offering plate alongside all those wealthy guys who obviously had much more to give. Luke chapter 21 verses 1 to 4.

Jesus looked up and saw the rich people putting in their gifts into the treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in much more than all of them for all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, has put in all she has to live on.

Don’t you love that! Jesus was so excited, He grabbed His disciples, He shook them, He said in effect ‘guys check this out, look at this old widow, she gave more than all the rest because they gave out of their abundance but she gave all she had.’ Jesus isn’t interested in how much we give, He’s blessed each one of us with different things and in differing amounts but what He’s really interested in is how much it costs us.

For Him giving and sacrifice are one of the same, part of that is because He knows that you and I are enslaved by our desires and the one way to break that, the one way to set us free is to turn us into sacrificial givers. Jesus knows there’s a powerful yet very tender connection between our hearts and our wallets, Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 to 21.

Don’t store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will also be.

Jesus said some of the strangest things, basically the upshot of what He’s saying here is, where your wallet is there your heart will also be. Okay so I brought it into the twenty-first century but you get my drift. You read that and you think about it for just a moment and you have to come to the conclusion that He’s got it the wrong way around. Surely the money follows your heart right? But that’s not what Jesus said, He said that your heart would follow your wallet, they’re connected.

Keep spending on your own self-gratification and just guess where your heart’s going to end up. So what’s the answer? Well He gives it to us in the very same breath. Start living your life sacrificially with the aim of storing up treasures in heaven. In other words get focused on serving God and other people.

Do that and two things happen. Firstly, obviously you end up with treasures in heaven but secondly, not quite so obviously the power that money has over you is broken. Sacrificial giving of everything we are and everything we have breaks our enslavement to our own selfishness.

And in that one thing there is so much victory that flows out of learning to become a sacrificial giver. What’s sacrificial giving again? It’s giving that costs you something. God isn’t so much after our money, I mean think about it, He created the whole universe, He doesn’t need your help or mine in anything, no the thing He’s really after is your heart, not part of your heart, not a divided heart but the whole lot.

Let me share another letter that I once received from a man, it’s at the other end of the spectrum from that little old lady who had a real giving heart. This is what the guy wrote:

How dare you ask me to support your ministry? Don’t you trust God, if God wants you to be in ministry let Him provide for it.

Now on the surface of things that sounds pretty fair until you realise that ninety-nine percent of the time God funds His work through His people. The first fundraiser in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 25. God tells Moses to build a dwelling place for Him amongst His people, it was called the Tabernacle. Great God, how do you want me to fund that little number? Exodus chapter 25 verses 1 and 5:

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering from all those whose hearts prompt them to give, you shall receive the offering for me in accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all its furniture, so you shall make it.

So let me ask you, is God poor? Did He need their gold and silver and purple cloth and all the rest of the things He listed there to build the tabernacle? No, He just wanted their hearts. He knew that their hearts were attached to their money and He wanted to set them free to live in the victory that He planned for their lives.

You can’t live in victory if you’re enslaved to your own selfish desires and when we do let go, when we do start giving sacrificially something else amazing happens. The blessing of God, in all sorts of different ways, gets poured into our lives, Luke chapter 6 verse 38:

Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put back into your lap for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

I used to think the more I gave to God’s work the less I’d have for yours truly, numero uno, me. But that simplistic thinking just doesn’t work in God’s economy because when it comes to God’s blessing the worlds formula’s are completely irrelevant. As God graciously led me through the transformation from being stingy to becoming more generous (a work by the way that remains in progress for the Lord), I discovered that the blessing of God began to flow in so many different ways that I simply couldn’t contain them.

Giving to God is not a zero-sum game; in fact it’s anything but.

FAITHFULNESS AND POWER 

When you think about it, it’s only in the tough times that we can in fact discover first-hand, in our very own experience, how faithful God is. In fact, sometimes, life is just plain tough. I don’t care who you are; how super-spiritual you are; how much people look at you and think, ‘Boy! That one there, they have it all together with God’, sometimes life is just a shocker! You believed in God for good; you did good; you gave; you sacrificed, but all you can see around you is devastation.

I love the beautiful old song that goes like this: ‘The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end: They’re new every morning, new every morning, Great is Your faithfulness, o LORD; Great is Your faithfulness.’ Do you know it? It’s an awesome song. It comes straight out of the book of Lamentations, chapter 3:22-24. The writer’s looking around, just after Jerusalem’s been destroyed and raised to the ground by the Babylonians. God’s city is gone; God’s temple is gone; God’s chosen people are gone out of His promised land, and in the middle of all that – that devastation, he writes this because he knows this truth deep in his heart: That the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; great is His faithfulness.

Despite all the evidence you and I may see to the contrary, that’s the truth, and when you and I can stand in the midst of the ruin and the devastation that comes into our lives, during those times of trial and suffering, and whisper those words from our heart – ‘Great is His faithfulness’, that right there is the victory that the Bible promises, and the victory that God calls us to, and the victory that Jesus died and rose again to give to you. In fact, to be honest, it’s the sweetest victory of all.

‘Great is Your faithfulness, LORD, unto me. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed Your hand has provided. Great is Your faithfulness, LORD, unto me.’ Amen to that.

And from the very beginning, Jesus asked His disciples to get out there, and to give, and to sacrifice, but before they went, He gave them the power: The incredible power to do that and to get through it all, the same power that’s available to you and me. Back then after His resurrection and ascension, they began to proclaim Christ, and they began to see thousands of people coming to believe in Him! And they went out and they suffered much persecution, and they laid the foundations of the church and our faith, which still lives on two thousand years on. How did all that happen? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, despite the obvious failures and limitations of those disciples. Let me come back and say it again: The very same power that they had is available to you and me here and now.

Let me tell you the truth, each time I look in the mirror when I’m shaving in the morning, I see my own face – the wrinkles; the grey hair; the dimple on my left cheek; all the imperfections, and if you stare at your own imperfections long enough, you become fixated on them. No amount of wishing we could look different can change the face in the mirror, right? It’s like that with the rest of our lives too. I can’t change the way I am. I can’t remove the bad habits and the dimples and the imperfections from my life on my own, but fortunately I don’t have to. Neither do you, for that matter. Galatians 2:19-20:

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

 In other words, the moment you believe in Jesus, the old person dies; a brand new person comes to life. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It’s no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you. That’s the only power that will ever bring transformation. It’s the only power that will ever give you a new lease of life: Resurrection-power, the only power that will give you victory in this world.

Suffering isn’t a subject most of us like to talk about, or even think about, but suffering is a reality in life. And right in the middle of that not-so-pleasant reality, I have some good news for you today. Your God wants you to have victory, right in the middle of your suffering.

VICTORY IN SUFFERING

People pay a lot of money for wilderness eco tours these days, and yet as Christians, God seems to take us on wilderness tours free of charge on a regular basis. Why does He do that? I mean, can’t our lives just go along on a nice, even keel for ever and ever amen?

Funny thing, but when Jesus was baptised, as He come out of the water, the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and a voice spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”.

Did that happen at your baptism? No, me neither. Let’s take a look. Mark chapter 1, verses 9 to 13:

Just as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’. And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan.

A booming voice from heaven – “This is my beloved Son in You I am well pleased” … and yet, the very next thing that God did with His precious Son was to drive Him out (literally the word means ‘throw Him out’) into the wilderness to starve and to be tempted by the devil for forty days and forty nights. God didn’t even spare His own Son, but when He was finished, Jesus came out of the wilderness we are told ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’.

It’s just how God does things, get used to it. Suffering is part of God’s plan for our lives. None of us enjoys suffering. I don’t and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. But suffering is a normal part of life. And God tells us that when we suffer, we should consider it nothing but … pure joy!! Come on! Is that bizarre or what!? Have a listen to this. James chapter 1, verse 2:

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but pure joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, and lacking in nothing.

God’s plan is that in that wilderness of suffering, He will test and strengthen our faith. That’s one of the main reasons for suffering. So far, my record for bad days in my life, is that I’ve managed to survive each and every one of them just fine. In fact, that’s a one hundred percent survival rate, and there have been some real shockers in that lot, I have to tell you.

As I look back on them, I can see how the Lord carried me through, how He cared and provided for me, how He grew me and moulded me and how He’s used every one of those bad days for good in my life. Isn’t it amazing how the fire of trials and suffering refine us purer and purer each time?

When an athlete trains to compete at an elite level in their sport, they go through a lot of pain. They run until it hurts, they pump iron until it hurts. And what that pain, what that suffering does for them, is, well … it does two things really. It makes them strong, and it gives them endurance, both of those are important. Strength and endurance – you need both of them to compete well in a sport, and you need both of them to get through the tough patches in life. Strength and endurance.

Do you know what the biggest temptation is for you and me when we’re suffering? I think it’s the temptation to start behaving badly. I’ll just go out and get drunk, or I’ll sleep around, or I’ll be nasty to other people that are causing me the pain. Somehow we have this distorted ledger in our heads that goes something like this:

Well, God’s certainly not blessing me at the moment, so why not behave badly? Why not do what I want? Blow God!! What do I have to lose?!

Of course, in the cold, hard light of day, that’s a stupid line of reasoning, because we know that behaving badly, eventually, is just going to make other things worse. So just in case you were wondering, here’s God’s plan for what to do when you’re suffering. Galatians chapter 6, verses 9 and 10:

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

God is a God of seasons. Look at how regularly they roll around – spring, summer, autumn, winter; year after year. Seed time and harvest, season after season. There are seasons of blessing in our lives, there are seasons of trials in our lives, there are seasons of temptation in our lives, and there are seasons of suffering in our lives.

And through it all, here’s the thing, if we don’t grow weary of doing what is right, we will reap the harvest that’s waiting for us. When? Well, at harvest time, of course! So don’t panic. Don’t worry, just cry out to God, pour out your heart to Him.

A few years ago, I was sitting in a small group Bible study with a bunch of earnest, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians. We were looking at that verse in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 that goes something like this:

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Great. So we discuss it, we prodded it and poked it, and we’re about to move on. The Bible study leader summarises with: “Well, that’s is really good, but we still worry, don’t we?” Berni – I can’t help myself at this point – Berni shouts out, “NO!” And they all stare at me.

Come on – do we take God at His Word or not? Here in this passage, He’s telling us, if instead of worrying, we pray and give thanks, His incomprehensible peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good deal to me! All we need to do, is to take God at His Word in those difficult times, and keep on keeping on, and we will discover in our very own experience just how faithful God is.

POWER TO YOU

Spiritual victory is an awesome thing. So many things come against us in this world – people, circumstances, our own selfish desires, the devil and his legion of demons, it’s almost as though we’ve been set up to fail, don’t you think? You look at all the stuff you have to get through in this life and there is just no way that you can live your life the way God wants you to live it.

Way too many people who call themselves Christians are living in that sort of a defeat but Jesus came to give us victory and victory we shall have if only we can get over our desire to be self-sufficient, if only we can get over this natural instinct we have somewhere deep inside us to set out on our own to become better people, to become better Christians if you will. How did we get that idea into us in the first place pray tell?

Well here’s how it generally unfolds in our lives. One of the very first things we try to teach our children is to become self-sufficient. I mean when they’re born they’re completely dependent on us for everything, by the time they leave home we want them to be able to cope with the big wide world out there on their own, we want them to be self-sufficient and that’s good but there’s a downside. The danger is that we take that thinking and that teaching, each one of us, into our relationship with God.

Jesus once said this to His disciples, John chapter 15 verses 4 and 5, He said:

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing.

Allow me if you will to paraphrase that so that we can get it into our thick skulls once and for all. In effect Jesus is saying this, look guys I don’t care how clever you are apart from me you can do nothing. I am the vine, you’re the branches and the only way that you can bear fruit is to be in me.

When I became a Christian that’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I was Mr Self Sufficient, in fact that’s still my natural instinct to try to crash through things on my own so it’s still a lesson I’m learning over and over again. When it comes to overcoming my sin, when it comes to blessing others, here’s what I’ve discovered. Apart from Jesus I can do nothing and nothing means NOTHING.

It’s exactly what God’s Word says by the way, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 56 and 57:

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The only place you get victory is in Jesus. No, you can’t do it alone, the only place you can get victory just in case you missed it is in Jesus. I know what you’re thinking, ‘Berni that’s a great theory but exactly how does that work? Where do I go to actually lay hold of that victory? How can I experience this victory you’ve been yabbering on about in my life? How can I stop being a spiritual loser? How can I start winning the battles each day?

Well the most amazing thing about being a Christian is having the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you. Just stop and think about that for a minute – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three persons, one God, so when the Spirit dwells in you that’s God, that’s the God who created the universe, the Jesus who died and rose again for you, the same Holy Spirit who filled those disciples with power at Pentecost, that’s that God dwelling in you.

A lot of people shy away from the Holy Spirit, He’s a bit harder to get a handle on. The Father, yeah we get that, the Son, we get that too but the Holy Spirit, well it’s not so easy.

Listen up those disciples even though they spent three and a half years with Jesus, were a disorganised uneducated rabble. Even when Jesus ascended into heaven they still lacked that power, that ability, that focus to do what Jesus had called them to do – to be His witnesses even unto the ends of the earth.

Then something happened, have a listen, Acts chapter 2 verses 2 to 4.

Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like a rush of violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.

They were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. He brings such incredible power into our lives, the power to do things we never imagined, the power to be all that God made us to be, the power to overcome sin, the power to live our lives in victory come what may.

The Bible actually commands us, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 to:

Go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And yet some Christians shy from Him, like that makes sense somehow. The very same day that the disciples were filled with the Spirit listen to what Peter, the uneducated fisherman achieved, Acts chapter 2 verses 14 and 41.

Peter standing up with the eleven raised his voice and addressed them and those who welcomed his message were baptised and that day about three thousand persons were added.

He hadn’t been to the elite theological colleges of Jerusalem, no he was a fisherman from Galilee of all places. When Jesus needs him most during their many trials leading up to His crucifixion this Peter, who had promised to stand by Jesus denies Him three times just as Jesus had foretold.

Now let’s wind the clock forward to this day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit falls on the disciples, Peter gets up and speaks about Jesus to this huge crowd filled with the very same people who, just weeks before, had shouted, ‘Crucify Him’. He tells them about Jesus, about their sin. There was every chance that he too could have been arrested and crucified, instead we’re told that on that very day about three thousand people accepted Jesus.

Now that’s what you call power, the very same power that’s available for you today.

THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

So let me get back to that question I just asked you, how are you going to spend the rest of your life? Defeated or victorious? It is such a terrible tragedy that so many of God’s people are living their lives out as losers when everything that needs to be done for them to have victory has in fact already been done.

Let me be blunt and direct with you here, I know that’s going to be a surprise to you given I’m such a shy and retiring type but let me whack you right between the eyes with the God honest truth. This is true for every man and woman and child who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, every man and woman and child who has put their complete trust in Jesus.

God means you to live out the rest of your life in victory through Jesus Christ, full stop, end of story. And He had a plan for that to happen before you were even born. Now granted life is a funny thing, it goes in fits and starts, sometimes there are long boring patches of the same old same old, you know business as usual interspersed with the odd high and the odd low.

All of a sudden something exciting happens maybe a marriage or a birth or a holiday or a promotion and then bang, car accident, relationship problems, the death of a loved one. That’s how life seems to play itself out. Sometimes without rhyme nor reason, more like a lottery than a life but that’s not actually the way it is. God knew before you were born, He already had a plan for your life, He already knew how your life would pan out, what He gifted you to do.

This is what He said to the Prophet Jeremiah about the life He’d planned for him, Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you a Prophet to the nations.

And the same is true for you, your life isn’t a lottery, it’s a part of Gods plan and that right there is a great reason to bounce out of bed every morning with a sense of anticipation ‘I wonder what God has planned for me today’, don’t you think? Sure some days are going to be scary days, some days you’re going to have this feeling that God’s abandoned you, you’re pedalling so hard up hill, into the wind, into the driving rain, pedal, pedal, harder, harder.

Then one day you look up and God is nowhere to be seen and not only is He nowhere to be seen but the storm clouds have thickened and, well you’ve got the picture, you know exactly what I’m talking about because you’ve been there. When the whole world is lined up against you here’s the rub, Isaiah chapter 41 verses 9 and 10. God says to you, He is saying to you today:

You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Do not fear for I am with you, do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

In other words God is still God, God still loves you, there’s no need to panic, there’s no need to be afraid, He’s right there with you closer than the deepest secret of your heart. God will strengthen you, God will help you, God will uphold you with His victorious right hand. Why?

Not because I say so but because He does. Isaiah chapter 41 verses 9 and 10, that’s His promise and when that little truth is tucked away in your heart you can relax. He has it all under control, so much so that right in the middle of one of those life storms He’s going to call you to step out of the pitching boat that you’re in, the pitching boat that seems to be keeping you alive, He’s going to call you out to walk on the water with Him.

Some people, entrepreneurs in particular are natural risk takers, others quite simply are not. Wherever you lie on that risk taking continuum I have something serious to share with you today. If you’ve set your heart on following Jesus you can leave behind any notion you’ll be able to stay in your comfort zone.

The twelve disciples were out in a storm in a small boat on the Sea of Galilee and even though some of them were experienced fishermen who knew these waters the storm became so ferocious that even they were afraid of drowning. Jesus comes walking across the water. They’re even more fearful because they think they’ve seen a ghost. Matthew chapter 14 verses 28 and 29.

Peter answered him, ‘Lord if it’s you command me to come out onto the water with you’ and Jesus said, ‘come’. So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water and came towards Jesus.

Now Peter, if you know anything about him, was obviously a risk taker, he doesn’t wait for Jesus to call him out there but he asks Jesus to invite him to step out of the boat. And when Jesus does just that crazy Pete steps out of said boat and walks on the water right in the middle of a howling storm. Now you’d think that Jesus could have calmed the storm first right? But no, He called Peter out of the boat in the middle of that raging storm. But that’s Jesus, that’s the way He does things, go figure.

You and I want to wait until the storms of life abate until we step out of the boat and follow Jesus but victory, real victory is stepping out and following Him in the middle of the storm. Again Matthew chapter 14 verses 30 to 33.

But when Peter noticed the strong wind…

So he’s out there, he’s on the water right? He notices the strong wind.

He became frightened and began to sink and he cried out, ‘Lord save me’. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him saying to him ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt?’ When they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped him saying ‘truly you are the Son of God. (Matthew 14:30 to 33)

When Jesus says to you ‘follow me’ it isn’t an invitation to an easy life, far from it. Jesus promised His disciples quite the opposite. Hmm, I’ve been out on a few of those stormy oceans like that in my time, stepping out of the boat to answer Jesus call, it seems alright at first but when you’re out there on the water the storm gets your attention like nothing else and what happened to Peter has happened to me on more than one occasion.

The moment you take your eyes off Jesus and you focus on the storm, the problem, you start to sink. Note to self: keep your eyes on Jesus, would you?

One day, the day will come when you and I breathe our last breath on this earth. One way or another, either because our body has just given up on us or because Jesus returned, that can be a scary thought too, particularly the older you get and the more you feel your body aging but here’s another exciting bit of news.

No matter how it ends for you and me if we believe in Jesus, if we’ve been living our lives for Him, walking out on the stormy water even when the storm is raging, we’ve been living for Him the best way we know how then He has a promise that removes even the fear of death. John chapter 14 verses 1 to 3.

Don’t let your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me for in my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it weren’t so would I have told you that I would go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and will take you to myself so that where I am there you may also be.

He has been preparing a place in His Father’s house for you so you can spend the rest of eternity with Him. Whatever happens to be going on in your life right now just let that one sink in for a moment, eternity with Jesus in His Father’s house. Whatever this life throws at you, however howling and raging the storm is between now and your last breathe eternity with Jesus in His Father’s house, that’s His promise – His rock solid promise.

That puts a whole new spin on things doesn’t it? God has a simple plan for you, to live your life in spiritual victory, that’s why Jesus came, that’s why Jesus died, that’s why Jesus rose again.

Sin couldn’t hold Him down and His victory is your victory now and forever.