We Are Victorious!

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through

our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:57

My older son, Grant, has discovered a new way to entertain himself while at the same time burning some energy on a winter afternoon, “hurdle jumping.”  He lines up two or three laundry baskets in the living room, runs and jumps over each one of them, one by one.  He is not the athletic type.  He doesn’t like sports, but he is fascinated by this activity.  He spent most of this lazy Saturday doing this.  After watching him run and jump over and over again, I think I’ve figured out the reason for this newly discovered fascination.  I believe my son enjoys this activity because it has allowed him to experience the thrill of victory, even if just to himself. 


Just like my son, even if we don’t live competitive lives, we all need to delight in the exhilaration of victory once in a while.  Sometimes, however, it may feel as if we are permanently stuck in a deep and dark pit of despair, where hopelessness and defeat keep us on our knees.   It is at those moments when we need to tune-into our Heavenly Helper, the Holy Spirit so we can hear His whisperings.  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest...” (Matthew 11:28) were the words of our Lord Jesus to those who followed Him when He walked upon this earth; and to those of us who still follow Him today.  This is one of His eternal promises.  How hard it is to let our souls be at rest, however.  In the midst of our busy lives, our convoluted world, our messed up society, we fear and we struggle and we become weary just watching the evening news.  How are we to find rest when our children are under constant attack and we fear they will not know the way they should go, even after our tireless efforts to educate them in the faith?  Though we know in our minds it is a promise, and we believe our God is faithful, we can’t help but wonder if we ever will experience such rest. 


Scripture, however, also clearly teaches us that our God, not only promised His children that He would comfort us when the burdens of this world seemed unbearable.  He also promised us that we would have power, authority and ultimate victory over our enemies, as we see in Luke 10:19:
“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy…”  This is a statement to remember at all times, but especially when we feel the blows of the enemy on our back.  Yes, on our back, for he is a coward, who stabs the children of God on the back, when our guards are down, when we are not paying attention, and when we are immersed in doing God’s work.  That might seem a controversial statement.  However, the enemy attacks us the hardest when we are focused on our mission.  When we are in our most productive time for the kingdom of God, the enemy strikes us with his dagger, sometimes straight to the heart, churning it inside of it until he sees us defeated, until he succeeds in making us fail at our work. 


That is why the enemy attacks us while we are doing something significant for the Lord…to see us quit, to see us abandon it.  This is the battle ground of the enemy of our souls, and unfortunately, he wins many battles in there.  The only way to not let him win is by knowing that we are victorious from the beginning.  By knowing and believing that we have already won the war, even when he wins the occasional battle; we derail the enemy’s objective of seeing us quit on God.  Nothing pleases the enemy more than seeing a child of God down, deep down in a pit of defeat.  On the other hand, nothing mortifies him more than seeing that same child of God take stand; and from that pit, call on His Lord to his rescue; and see this child of God climb out of that pit in his God’s loving arms.  Nothing works even better at defeating the attacks of the enemy than to recognize them the moment they occur That way we can take our stand right there and then, before his back stabbing has any effect; before we find ourselves in the pit. 


We must, therefore, be alert at all times, so when we feel ourselves deviating from God’s plan for us, from what the Bible instructs us as godly living, from what we know God has asked us to do; we take our stand against the enemy and firmly say, “stay behind me Satan,” “He who has overcome the world dwells in me.   He who is victorious, lives and He lives in me.  Therefore, I am victorious too and you have no power over me.  I am in God’s hands.  I am God’s child and you must flee.”  Trust in Him who lives in you and voice your stand against the enemy.  You will see him flee in terror.  He is relentless, though, and he will be back.  It is our job then to be alert at all times and aware that he wants us defeated.  We must know that the enemy wants to separate us from God and he knows what buttons to push.  Surrender your all to Christ and pray without ceasing that the Holy Spirit will guide you, and keep you aware.  In the meantime, continue standing on the Solid Rock.


Jesus concluded His promise in Luke 10:19 saying, “…nothing will harm you.”  And as stated in Romans 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  This is when the “rest” that Jesus Christ offers us comes to our weary and burdened souls.  This is when we find the peace that surpasses all understanding.  When we believe in our victory through Him who lives in us, and exercise our power against the attacks of the enemy, we find perfect rest in Him regardless of the circumstances that surround us.


As I watch my son clear his home-made hurdles across our living room I feel my “cup running over.”  Hope comes to my soul for I know that regardless of the obstacles, struggles and difficulties that he will experience during his life on this earth, he too already shares in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Ephesians 6:12

God sure does stretch us to our limits so we can be the best that we can be!