Victory is Ours for the Taking!

It's not big news when I say that Jesus died on the cross.  It's not big news when I tell you that in dying on the cross, He died to take away our sins and make a way straight to Him that isn't through sacrifice.  But when Jesus died, crying out, "It is finished," (John 19:30) what was He really saying?

I'm sure there are many different things that Jesus meant when He cried out these words.  He could've meant that His reason for being on Earth was done or that He knew it was His last moments.  What I think it means - well, one of the meanings of this phrase - was that He had given us victory.  That when it was finished, the victory, over situations in our life, battles, is ours. 

See, as a Christian, we are in constant battle with Satan's forces.  The devil will come against us faster than we can think.  He tells us lies, very convincing lies, brings us down, strikes us with fear and sickness, but we don't have to live that life.  Why?  Because the battle has already been won!  When Jesus died, He took care of that for us!

When God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us on the cross, He knew that with His death we would have victory.  So why are we still fighting these battles that have already been won?

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

It's simple.  We're human, and we want to do things on our own.  We want the doctor to fix our aches or medicine to take away the depression.  But we have to learn to let that go.  Reach out and grab your victory.  It's there for the taking.  

God wants us to live a life of honor and glory in His Name.  That also means that we can use His Name to proclaim our victory because it gives GOD the honor He's so deserving of.  We have power in the Name of Jesus to overcome devils, make mountains move!  That means that our mountains, the things that cause us to stumble or completely stop us from having faith because they are weighing us down, will MOVE simply because we have victory through Jesus!

Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: (Zechariah 4:7)

Put your faith into that victory.  I know that it's hard, but if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed  (That's about the size of a poppy seed.), we can move mountains, casts trees into seas, and they will have to obey us because we are speaking this in the Name of Jesus.  (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6) 

That's not a lot of faith that is required of us if you think about it, but somehow, we make it into a lot.  We make our molehills mountains instead.  Step back, take a deep breath, and step over that molehill before it becomes a mountain.  Who art thou, O great mountain?   Who is this mountain to stop us?  In the Name of Jesus, it will be nothing but a plain - flat land for us to walk across instead of being stopped by a gigantic rock.  

Step into faith and cast away that mountain.  WE HAVE THE VICTORY!  CLAIM IT TODAY!


For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  (1 John 5:4)

It's a Relationship, not a religion!

Too often we focus on the religious aspect of church instead of a relationship with God.  We go to church, sit there and listen to the songs and preaching, and then leave, forgetting what the sermon was even about.  This isn’t what we need to be doing.  We need to develop a relationship with God instead of just being religious.

How often do you read your Bible?  Every day?  How much do you read a day if you do?  A few verses?  We need to get in the Word and stay in the Word!  It needs to be in and on our hearts, our lives.  We need to live in the love of God – forgetting the traditions of man.

Mark 7: 5-9, 13

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.   For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.   And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition….Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

We cannot rely on men to make our lives better!  How much better to live in the love of God, to live a relationship with the almighty than to focus on our earthly and worldly lives?  What can that life bring us that God can’t abundantly give us?  Absolutely nothing – nothing but heartache and pain. 

This is what happens to us when the things of man are in our hearts: Mark 7: 21-23

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:  All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

These are what come out of hearts if God isn’t what’s occupying our hearts.  We need to push all of this aside and focus on what God wants for us to do.  He wants us to love Him, not just like Him on Sundays, to lay aside all earthly feelings, doings and focus on Him.     

We need to actively seek a relationship with God.  Talk to Him.  Love on Him and let Him love on us.  We need to wake up every morning, talking to God and knowing that without Him our life would be nothing.  We don’t want to live in what Mark 7: 21-23 says we will if we don’t have God in our lives or hearts.  We want to be blessed, and if we actively seek that relationship with God, we will. 

Deuteronomy 6:5

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

The other night, Eddie James came to visit our church.  He sang a song, Nazarite Cry, on his new CD Shift, which I strongly suggest buying.  When I heard it and as I was worshiping to it, I had this thought:  We need to love God as much as a lover loves.  We need to be a lover of God.

Here's that song:  I think it goes well with this devo.  Take some time to listen to it and let it soak in.  Focus on God and worship him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuh_pUUr6-0