Overcoming Is Our Assignment From The Lord
All things have been reconciled.
We know that the blood of Jesus reconciled us to Him. But Colossians 1:20 says that all things have also been reconciled. “...and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20). Therefore we need to know that whatever evil comes it is reconciled by the His blood. All evil has the potential of becoming our friend through the Cross and blood of Jesus.
Reconcile is a powerful word.
Strong's Concordance calls it “to bring back a former state of harmony.” It is defined “to repair, to put back into working order, making peace between two opposing views or groups.” Vines Bible Dictionary [1] defines it “to change from enmity to friendship.” The Cross of Jesus Christ takes all of our “enemies,” whether they be people, demons, circumstances, sickness, poverty, everything, and changes them into a friend. This is Wisdom!
2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” This is our ministry here on earth, to take all the enemies of our lives, dip them into the blood and Cross of Jesus Christ, and turn them into friends. I can tell you by the Word of God and by my own experience, that this is true. It works, if you are passionate and radical!
How can it be? Jesus absorbed all the evil into Himself. Nothing was left out! Satan’s best blow was leveled against the Adamic race. Satan finally killed the best that Adam had, the Messiah. However since Jesus was an innocent man, Satan killed him illegally. Therefore, death could not hold Jesus. Death was actually destroyed, death died! Evil was absorbed into good. Evil vanished into Hell and was left there. Satan is the embodiment of all evil. He hates Jesus, and wants to take all people into Hell itself just because they are made in God’s image. However all of Satan’s evil pierced Jesus, nothing was left out! Therefore we have no evil due us, unless we do not believe. If Satan is destroyed, evil is destroyed. “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him” (Romans 6:8,9).
When Jesus was raised from the dead, He was the first born of a new race. He was the last Adam. Death and evil have no more dominion over Him, or anyone else who is of this new race called the New Creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
This is an amazing concept about God. Many times in Scripture we are shown that God actually utilizes the evil that Satan and people perpetrate for His purposes. For instance, in Habakkuk, God informs the prophet that the enemy thinks that he is attacking Israel, but God is actually causing them to come so that they, the enemy, may be destroyed. The same idea is in Ezekiel chapter 38. Psalm 92:7 says, “When the wicked spring up like grass, And when all the workers of iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed forever.”
Psalm 68:22-23 says, “The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea: That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same” (KJV).
God "destroyed" the devil at the Cross.
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14,15).
These verses say that Satan was “destroyed.” What does that actually mean? He seems to be running around doing a job of destroying others. It does not mean to annihilate. Satan is still operating, he has not been annihilated.
The word destroy is defined in Strong's Concordance as:
1) to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative.
1a) to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency.
1b) to deprive of force, influence, power.
Historically Adam had dominion over Satan, but when he sinned he fell to the position of a slave to Satan. One of Adam’s descendents, Jesus, was also “victimized” by Satan and was killed by him. However death and Hell could not hold Jesus because He had never sinned. Adam’s sinful nature was not in Jesus because of His virgin birth.
When Jesus, you, and I were raised from the dead, we were born again as new race that is no longer subject to Satan. He has no more dominion over us. We have dominion over him. Satan used his ultimate power on Jesus at the Cross, and Jesus was resurrected after that. Satan has no more power to exert. He is out of tools and weapons.
He can still destroy an unbeliever, and he can deceive a believer, but if we know the truth, he cannot harm us any longer. As far as we are concerned, he is destroyed. If we stand on the truth, all Satan can do is lie to us. Satan has no power over the new creation; that includes you and me! “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13).
Here is a very absurd example that may help us remember and picture what “destroyed” actually means.
Let’s pretend that you are a cat. A big dog, representing Satan, is harassing you, keeping you on the run, and making you hide. He is stealing your food and even tearing at your hide. Finally, this dog kills you.
Then all of the sudden, by some supernatural miracle, you, the cat, are raised from the dead. This time you are no longer a cat, but a lion! Now this same dog comes and looks at you and he runs because he knows you can kill him! The dog has been destroyed (to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency, to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative, to deprive of force, influence, power)!
Just imagine now that this dog comes up with a plan. He comes to you and convinces you that you are still a cat and not really a lion. What if the dog could get you to actually act like a cat? That is what the dog Satan does to many Christians.
Just imagine that Jesus was this “cat” that died. Just before He died however, He became “pregnant” with you and me in the Garden of Gethsemene. When He died and was resurrected, He became the firstborn from the dead, and was raised as the Lion as the Tribe of Judah. When we are born again, we are also lions. “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:18).
If you thought that you had destroyed your worst enemy, and all he did was get up out of the grave and pursue you, you would be destroyed!
There is a process that God has in transferring His reconciliation to earth. It is not automatic.
Knowing this is called wisdom. It is the process of overcoming. It takes time to convert our problems into blessings, and it takes our patience to hang on after all hope seems to be gone.
In Luke 19:11-27 His disciples thought that the Kingdom of God was coming to earth then and that all their problems would be solved the next day. He taught His disciples a lesson for you and me.
“And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:11-13 KJV).
He told a parable about a nobleman going into a distant country to obtain a kingdom and he would soon return. He called his servants and gave them each an amount of currency equal to about 4 months of salary (a minas). He told them to occupy until He came back. Many of them detested his authority.
There were four classes of people present at his return.
1. The group that detested his authority and did not want anyone to reign over them were banished from his presence and killed.
2-3. Others occupied or did business and traded with the currency. According to their success, they earned more currency and rewarded with kingdom authority over many cities.
4. Others did not occupy because they thought that the nobleman was a mean person whose motive was to punish them. Not only did they not get any rewards but also their currency was taken away. Fear was their motivating force. Fear always neutralizes faith. Use it or lose it! These did not despise the authority, but they were terribly misinformed! Notice, the nobleman said that they would be judged by their own words! They had misunderstood the character of the nobleman and the value of the gift.!
What is this word occupy?
The word occupy means to do business, to trade for profit. Business by definition is to take a raw material or service, add value to it and make it more profitable so it can be useful or sold. It means to exchange or to even change something to make it more profitable. It is used in the Bible to describe people who had businesses, cattle farms, and other businesses both good and bad. In our context it is the same thing as overcoming.
Proverbs 3:13-18 says, “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding. For the profit (merchandise, or occupation) from it is better than the gain from silver, and its produce more than fine gold; she is more precious than rubies; and all the things you can desire are not to be compared with her.” What “currency” did God leave with you?
What is His property?
I believe that it is useful to apply this principle to the talents and assets that God gives to us, but I do not believe this it is limited to that, nor is it the essence of this parable. Notice that the nobleman left his servants his property, not their property with which to do business. In a similar parable told in Matthew 25:14, the Amplified version actually says “his property.”
What was the property that belonged to Jesus when He ascended back to Heaven after His resurrection? Matthew 28:18 says that all power in heaven and on earth was what He possessed. Jesus acquired all authority over every earthly kingdom when He was raised from the dead. Remember, back in Luke 4:5, Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the habitable world. Jesus was tempted because this was one of His purposes, to acquire these kingdoms that were taken from Adam and Eve.
His property that you find yourself with is His authority to turn every earthly affliction into a Kingdom jewel.
While Jesus did indeed acquire dominion over all earthly things legally, He had not yet acquired them experientially. Hebrews 1:13 says, “But to which of the angels has He ever said: ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?” (Hebrews 1:13). Hebrews 12:26-29 says that God is shaking all things on earth now so that only what is of His Kingdom will remain. I submit therefore that we are the agents who are responsible to change what is in our realm of responsibility from earthly to heavenly.
Did Jesus take all of your infirmities? Do you still experience them? Then you are to change those to something of eternal value. Did Jesus take your poverty? Do you still experience a form of poverty? Then you are to change that circumstance to something of eternal value. Have you been left with some “junk” in your life? Then “occupy” with that junk, or do business with it, and turn it into “jewels” for His Kingdom; something of eternal value. This does not mean that we are to avoid resisting the devil. We should do that with all of our strength. At the same time, while we are resisting, we also can do business with our infirmities and turn them into blessings.
Another aspect of His property is represented by the minas, or the currency He left us to live this life. He does not expect us to make our own way in life. He wants to add all those things that we need as we seek first His Kingdom according to Matthew 6.
I believe that the minas were hidden inside horrible looking containers. They did not see the hidden mina embedded within the "package."
I have often wondered how this parable can reconcile the idea that God did not leave us with sufferings and curses, but He is the God that blesses us. He does not leave us with cancer, He does not leave us with rebellious children, broken families, poverty, etc. Yet we find ourselves with curses that overwhelm us, some of which are passed down to us and some of which we perhaps brought on ourselves, or maybe even a combination of both.
I believe that those things that we find ourselves with to overcome, are simply containers or packages and wrappings for the “minas” that Jesus has for us. Minas are good. Jesus gave us minas, good rewards, but they are embedded inside of our challenges, sufferings, and generational curses.
Not everybody recognizes the package that they receive. They are not familiar with the resurrection power of Jesus; therefore they feel that their challenges in life are something to be avoided. They are discouraged because they do not see God removing their trials. Or worse, they believe that God has given them bad things to teach them a lesson or to punish them. However, if they are wise, they will discern the “mina” inside of the horrible looking package and they can be change agents for the Kingdom of God and for their own lives and those in their realm of influence.
I believe those people in the parable who thought that the master was a mean person, simply could not see beyond the wrapping of the package. They could not see that Jesus was actually giving them a mina.
Those people who did not want the master to rule over them are those who have not placed themselves under the authority of Jesus and in particular, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
Junk does not just dissolve.
As we overcome, or occupy, or in other words, “do business” with these packages, the outer “junk” does not simply disappear, but it is transformed by the supernatural power of God. The death and resurrection of Jesus has defeated every evil. The Cross and resurrection when applied to our “outer evil packages” will transform those outer packages, and not only reveal the minas embedded within, but the transformed substance of what was previously evil actually adds to the beauty of the finished product. This is the principle of how jewels are produced. Junk, under lots of pressure and heat for a long period of time, is the process of diamonds and other jewels.
The Cross and resurrection has made every bad and evil thing a potential “friend.” Notice I did not say friend, but potential friend. It all depends upon you.
Colossians 1:20 says that all things are made “friends” by the blood of His cross. “and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
Purpose for our lives. Most people, even Christians, never really understand their God-given purpose for life. As we go through the overcoming process, I believe that our purpose for and in life is manifested.
In this parable Jesus said that He would give authority to these overcomers. This process of turning Junk into Jewels is parallel with the process in the Book of Revelation.
Going through this overcoming process or this process of occupying, turning junk into jewels produces our ultimate purpose in life.
I submit that our purpose is as follows:
1. Revelation 20: Satan is dislodged from his strongholds. “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1-3).
2. Revelation 21: We inherit all things. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Revelation 21:7). We are conformed to the image of Jesus and have a stronger relationship with our Father. The word “son” used here means one that is like Jesus in full relationship with the Father.
3. God’s Kingdom is established in your realm of influence. Notice also in Revelation 21:12 and following that John sees the foundation of the Kingdom of God made from jewels. This is the result of converting junk to jewels.
Junk: Something that looks and seems worthless. Even something you would not rather have.
Jewels: A priceless treasure that can only be produced by junk that is subjected to heat and pressure for a long period of time.
4. Revelation 22: You have an anointing for ministry. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations [literally the Gentiles, or those who have no covenant with God]” (Revelation 22:1,2).
This list outlines our purpose for life. You enter into it as you cooperate with God in the overcoming process.
One more thing.
The mina, or purpose for your life and what it looks like during and after the overcoming process is God's business and not yours. Often we make mistakes attempting to interpret what God has in mind for us.
Our responsibility is to live the overcoming lifestyle as outlined in Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” Revelation 12:11. We will focus on these three lifestyle attributes throughout this book.
Revelation 11:15 says, “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’” (Revelation 11:15). I believe that this represents a time in your overcoming life when the junk you have been overcoming is actually converted to jewels. The stuff of the world that was left with you, whether it is some sort of curse or whatever, has become jewels. Notice this is the seventh of seven trumpets. Revelation 11:18 says that this is a time of reward for the saints and judgment for our enemies.
Don’t give up at the fifth or sixth trumpet. Wait patiently for the seventh trumpet to sound!
This mindset will raise your view from simply asking God to solve your earthly problems, to knowing that those earthly problems are the raw material for something eternal. Sure I want my earthly problems solved, but if that is all I am living for, I am living on too low of a level!
We are to change our problems into profit.
We are to take the raw materials of problems and do business with them by producing blessings. Another word is reconcile, which means to turn something from an enemy to a friend. How? By the overcoming process, by standing on the Word of God.
I have never enjoyed the severe tests and trials in my life, but I can honestly say that without them the most valuable and eternal things in my life would have not been accomplished. Joseph would have not been the Prime Minister of Egypt if he had not been made a slave and a prisoner. Moses would have not been the deliverer of Israel if he had not been given a 40 year assignment as a shepherd in the desert. The Gospel would not have been preached around the world if Daniel had not suffered in the lion’s den.
Wisdom is knowing and relying on the fact that the Cross of Jesus absorbed all the evil and everything must turn out to be a blessing. The law of gravity says that whatever goes up must come down. The law of reconciliation says that all evil has been disarmed, and now must be a blessing, if you believe.
Job chapter 28:12-22 indicates that true wisdom is really found in suffering. Job 28:12 says, “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” He goes on to state that it is not in the land of the living, not in the deep of the ocean, cannot be purchased for gold, silver, precious stones, crystal, jewelry, coral, quartz, rubies, topaz or even pure gold. It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds. Death and destruction however do have a testimony about wisdom. Job 28:22 says, “Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.”
Death said in affect, “Yes, Wisdom was here, but He did not stay long.” The answer, I believe, indicates that when our flesh dies, when we are going through dark places of “death,” then we can hear true wisdom. Proverbs 11:2 also supports this when it says, “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”
This is the script of life. We need to recognize where we are in it. It will make suffering more compatible. Yes, Jesus is returning to earth someday, but He will also return for you now, to turn your problem into a blessing. We also need to know that the path we are on is a path through the Valley of Shadow of Death. It is the path of taking up our cross. It always seems like we are loosing the battle, but wisdom knows that we are winning it because we are on His path!
Our enemies always get closest to us just before their defeat! “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways” (Deuteronomy 28:7).
If we really believe this, then all of our enemies will actually be revealed as friends.
One of the by-products will be the absence of fear. If all things have been reconciled, then what have we to fear? Fear is cast out by perfect love! Fear has torment and that torment is caused by things and circumstances that look like they will destroy you or your loved ones. If you continue in fear, it will finally have the power to overcome you. Dogs have an intuitive sense when you fear them, so do many other animals. When they sense your fear they are more likely to attack. I have heard that this is the same with some insects. Perhaps this applies to demons as well. If Satan knows that whatever he throws at you will be turned into “jewels” for God’s Kingdom, perhaps he will think twice before he gives you more raw material with which to do business.
I want to make a quick disclaimer here. I am not saying that our life will be loaded with comfort. Enemies do not bring comfort! Also, only God can define what that enemy will look like when we turn it into a friend. We dare not be presumptuous and play God with our lives. The rewards, however, will be eternal. That is one reason that we often do not understand what God is doing in our lives. His goal is eternal jewels. Our goal is to know God, obey Him, and leave the driving to Him. Most likely the next enemy will be a greater challenge than the one you now have. If it is, you will be a greater warrior!
What is our responsibility during the waiting period?
The overcoming lifestyle is our responsibility. Focusing on what the blood of Jesus did for us, continually taking up our cross and not loving our life, and speaking the Word of God as our testimony against the devil.
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[1] Vine, W.E. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary. Atlanta, GA: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996