Overcoming is not merely an event; it needs to become a lifestyle.
It is like military training. When a crisis hits, the soldier immediately defaults into his disciplined behavior without thought. Training and boot camp has renewed his mind of what to do in a crisis. A human being cannot think properly and soberly in a crisis, therefore you must have an automatic response built in. Spiritually that response must be the stance of overcoming. You must immediately find out what the blood of Jesus did for you, click into the disciplines of loving not your life (as described herein), and exercise the spiritual warfare which includes testifying and speaking the Word of God.
I believe this is why so many of God’s people do not choose to overcome. It is a radical lifestyle, and it requires one to turn his/her back on the world’s culture and system.
Overcoming has three major components, three major lifestyle disciplines. Knowledge (the blood of the Lamb), discipline (love not their lives to the death), and standing on the Word of God (the word of their testimony). This is the overcoming process, and it takes time.
Here is a summary of what we will continually refer to as the “path” when we speak of overcoming. “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). Here is the summary of the “overcoming path.”
I am going to help you to remember this path by calling it “The Big Three.”
The Blood of the Lamb.
This is the knowledge of the blood covenant. This is the Cross from God’s side. Grace, God’s amazing finished work. This reveals our position in Christ based upon His work. Study to know the finished work of the Cross on a continual basis, not just one time. Meditate on who you are in Christ because of His Cross. You cannot read your Bible ten minutes a day and expect to develop faith in the finished work of the Cross. You must soak yourself in the Word, day and night. You might say, “I don’t have time.” My answer is, then you have not made overcoming a priority! Many Christians fall into that category. Read Proverbs 2,3, 4, 6, 7, and 8. They will tell you that you should seek for Wisdom, the Word, as you seek for fine gold. “For wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her” (Proverbs 8:11).
Love not your lives to the death.
This requires discipline to take up your cross daily. The blood covenant from your side includes your obedience and fellowship with Him. This will include walking through the Tabernacle (in a later chapter) into the very presence of God. As you are progressing, your old nature is decreasing and God’s nature in you is increasing.
When you take up your cross daily, you shed all the things in your life that do not line up with the life that Jesus wants to live through you. Walking in love is the big issue.
The word of your testimony. That is standing on the Word of God. You must put the Word of God in your heart until it flows from your mouth, which will be the testimony against your spiritual enemies. Speaking the Word out loud will also give peace to your mind, body, and emotions. It will put you at rest in the midst of a fiery trial.
Ephesians lists this same “The Big Three.”
SIT. The first two chapters of Ephesians deals with our identity, who Jesus made us by His work at the Cross and the resurrection. It tells us, that we are seated with Him. “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).
WALK. After we understand our new identity and God’s love towards us, then we are free to choose to live properly. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Ephesians 4:1). Attempting to live properly simply by legalism or conduct alone will cause us to loose our living relationship with the Lord. But knowing His promises, His facts, His grace and His work will empower Him to live His life in us.
STAND. Satan always will attempt to thwart God’s plans for you. The Word of God spoken to him will defeat him. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
Here is the confession for you, an overcomer.
“I am an overcomer because the original and chief overcomer Jesus Christ lives in me. I recognize that His Cross has made me a new creation in Him and has given me victory over all my spiritual enemies. I daily take up my cross, forsake my old life, and allow Him to live His life in me and through me by His grace. I put the Word of God on my lips and say, ‘And I overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony, and I do not love my life to the death’ (taken from Revelation 12:11).”
When knowledge and discipline, His Cross and our cross combine, we have real time connection with God and His blood covenant goes to work on our behalf. When we add the word of our testimony, that is, testifying with the Word of God and what it says about His Cross and His blood, we become overcomers.
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John 8:31,32). This verse says we are set free by knowledge and discipline just as the example in Revelation 12:11.
Believe and faith are both words that indicate knowing and doing. We need to know what God has done, we need to know what He expects us to do, and we need to testify to what the Word says about what He has done. When these are put together the blood covenant will radically affect our lives.
I wish to emphasize something here.
While we do need all three ingredients to overcome, the blood of the Lamb is the supreme and main issue. What Jesus did for you and for me at the Cross through the blood covenant ranks first and foremost. We cannot take up our cross, nor will the words of our testimony be of any value, if we do not truly see the value of Jesus, His love, His grace and what He did for us at the Cross!
Jesus, the creator of the universe, now invites you to join Him in creating New Jerusalem. “And He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son’” (Revelation 21:6,7).
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10). “The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass” (Revelation 21:18-21).
Where do all these precious jewels come from?
Jewels come from ordinary, natural matter, which undergoes intense heat, pressure, and is buried in the earth over long periods of time. Jewels are a derivative of junk, your junk, and my junk!
Notice I said “intense heat, pressure, and buried in the earth over long periods of time.” Overcoming is painful! Overcoming is not an instant fix! If you are signing up for overcoming with God, be prepared to hurt. Be prepared to doubt. Be prepared to have to press in to God with all of your might. Be prepared to stop manipulating others to obtain your needs. Be prepared to fast from the dictates of your flesh. Be prepared to fast from your strengths and your crafty ways. Be prepared to drop your agenda. Be prepared to simply worship God even if nothing changes! Expect to see your character changed, expect to live out God’s purposes for your life here on earth, and expect to be a co-creator for something eternal in God’s Kingdom. You will not be ashamed!
Revelation reveals more that you think!
I am going to look at Revelation from different point of view than many are accustomed to. I am going to use it in the same way that God has used it in my life. God has used it for me as a present day devotion, something practical to show me what is going on in the spiritual world as I am overcoming. This is not so much my theology as it is my personal testimony and experience. Dr. Mark Rutland, president of Global Servants and Southeastern University, says that Revelation is more like a Hebrew opera, a drama with music and poetry, than a theological text book. I am not saying that Revelation does not have to do with future world history, but I am saying that is more than that. It applies to your current history as well.
Remember back in chapter two we pointed out that the Book of Revelation ended with jewels and began with affliction. What happened in the process?
John was suffering on the isle of Patmos (definition: my killing- a rugged and bare island in the Aegean Sea). He had ministered with Jesus; he was His closest friend at one time. Jesus entrusted His mother to John at the Cross. John saw Jesus for many days after His resurrection. John had a powerful ministry during the early church days, starting with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He, as an elder, wrote His precious epistles in an effort to get people back to basics, a relationship with Jesus.
Imagine how John must have felt now that he was a prisoner on barren island of Patmos. He was carrying rocks from a quarry up and down the hills as his daily work task. Perhaps he was wondering: “Jesus, what is going on? Peter is crucified, James is beheaded, the church is persecuted and in shambles, and things do not look good. What is this all about?” Have you ever felt like John?
Than suddenly, on one Lord’s day, “Bang.” He sees Jesus in all of His glory, but not like he had know Him before. Jesus was so on fire and powerful looking that John fell at His feet as dead (Revelation 1:9-18). Read it.
Not only did Jesus want to make some sense out of John’s affliction and the affliction of the church in those days, but also He had John write the Book of Revelation so that you and I could make some godly sense out of our afflictions. He wants us to know that He has not deserted us, but that He is on task wanting to turn our junk into jewels.
Jesus started out by revealing Himself to John as the One in control, and as the Judge. Jesus also revealed to John who he was, and who you and I are, that is kings and priests. We are destined to rule and reign and to be the bridge between lost mankind and God.
Then in chapters 2 and 3 the church is told that they need to get their lives cleaned up because they are about to go to war and overcome. A soldier with a rusty rifle and a broken helmet cannot be victorious. We go into greater detail on this subject in chapter 9.
Then in Revelation chapter 4 John sees a door opened in Heaven and he hears the voice, “Come up here.” We need to obtain God’s view of our circumstances so we can see them as He sees them. John noticed that he was in a courtroom; he saw God the Judge, he saw the Throne, and he saw a rainbow as a covenant promise.
The word “throne” used here in Revelation chapter 4 means a tribunal bench used for judges. God is now on the throne as a judge! There are multitudes of other examples showing God to be the judge. Some might say, ‘Oh, the Book of Revelation, and the judgment therein is for some future time in history.” Well it might be, but it is also in the now! We have the right to bring the Kingdom of God to earth now! I personally have experienced these kinds of judgments!
In chapter 5 John saw the Scroll in God’s right hand. The Scroll is the curse of the entire human race and for you and for me personally (Zechariah 5:3). Jesus unrolls the Scroll one seal at a time confirming the price He paid for our bondage to sin and curses. He is the only one worthy to do this. John wept because he thought that nobody would be worthy.
Then John heard the song, “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:9,10).
As each seal of the Scroll is broken open, judgment is executed. Judgment is two sided with God. For those who are consecrated and obedient and are overcoming, judgment is very good news. It means that Satan has been judged guilty and we have been judged innocent and set free! It is for our deliverance and the enemy’s destruction.
While I cannot explain all of the disasters and suffering to the very detail in Revelation chapters 6-18, I can say that they represent God’s judgments that are setting us free. The trouble is, so many of us feel these judgments and we feel like God has forgotten about us. We can feel like we are just victims, when in fact we are being delivered by all of this trouble. We just need to see it from God’s viewpoint.
Remember, as these disasters take place, you are only feeling their potential, but Jesus is holding your Scroll, and He is being pierced with your curse. He bore your curse and the penalties thereof.
Remember our blood covenant mandate. The three main things to observe.
“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). Here are the “The Big Three.” His Cross, your cross, and words against the covenant breaker, Satan.
Finally in Revelation chapter 18 and 19 we begin to see the world system fall, not only the one time in history when it will fall, but also the system that has kept you and me in bondage for so long. As we stand in the overcoming process, we see our enemies defeated.
In Revelation chapter 19 we see Jesus coming to rescue us on His white horse, and we see other saints, maybe you and me riding with Him rescuing others. We see the marriage supper of the Lamb, which speaks of a greater bride-like intimacy with Jesus, after we have endured so much.
Then in chapter 20 we see the devil who has been deceiving the unbelievers chained and disabled. I see that as a picture of the spiritual authority we have gained during the overcoming. Then we see in chapters 21 and 22 the glory of the Kingdom of God, which is more real to us now since we have overcome. Revelation 22:2 speaks of ministry when it says, “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 (nations, meaning gentiles, or unbelievers)” (Revelation 22:2). Notice the ministry we partake in after overcoming.
Finally, Jesus said, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).
In Watchman Nee’s devotion titled A Table in the Wilderness,[1], he says:
"I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star" (Revelation 22:16). The book of the Revelation is the unveiling, the apokalupis, of Jesus Christ. It draws aside the curtain to reveal him. Its object is not primarily to enlighten us regarding coming events - the antichrist, the supposed revival of the Roman empire, the rapture of the saints, the millennial kingdom or the final downfall of Satan. John’s remedy of our ills is not a matter of so many seals and trumpets and vials. It is not in fact designed to satisfy our intellectual curiosity at all, but to meet our spiritual need by revealing Christ Jesus himself in fullness, that we may know him. For Christ is the answer to all our questions. Get clear first about him, and we shall know all we need to know about ‘things to come.’ He is the risen and victorious King of kings. All the events that follow are the outcome of his being that.
Be prepared! If you are interested in joining God’s team of overcomers, read on.
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[1] Nee, Watchman. A Table in the Wilderness, Daily Meditations, Wheaton, Ill; Tyndale House Publishers. Fort Washington, Pennsylvania; - Christian Literature Crusade. p.p. May 19