01/02/24 DEFEAT OR VICTORY?

01/02/24 DEFEAT OR VICTORY? 

The question is not, "if we are perfect, righteous, sufficient, worthy, based on our own merits?"
The question is, "if we trust Christ to forgive us of our sins, give us life, transform our inner man, empower us to follow Him, lead us into all truth, enable us to obey Him and do that which is pleasing in His sight, love Him with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength?"

Even then we are only able to be what He wants us to be and do what He wants us to do because it is no longer self, but Christ living in us that makes us free from sin, darkness, and death.

The question is not whether we have always been faithful to Him, but if we are faithful to Him now.

The question is not whether we can or will keep from sinning, but if His grace, His blood, His word, His Spirit is able to cleanse us from all sin and to set us free from the world, the flesh and the devil.

If we fill our minds and hearts with doubt, darkness and doctrines of demons, we will live in defeat.
If we fill our minds and hearts with faith, light, the teachings of God's word, we will live in victory.

Do you focus on your failures or on God's victory?
Do you magnify your sin or God's salvation?
Does God constantly aim you to disobedience or to Christlikeness?
Does God's word call you to failure or to spiritual success?
Does God's word require faith or doubt?
Does God's word excuse sin or encourage and exhort to obedience?
Do you read and listen to people who laud the power of Satan and sin or do you read and listen to people who glorify and honor God?

Will God's Spirit lead you into sin or deliver you from the evil one?
Will God's Spirit leave you as a victim to sin and Satan or will He lead you into truth and victory?
Will God abandon you to be tempted beyond what you can handle or will He make a way of escape?

I am not talking about the power of positive thinking, I am talking about trusting God's word, following Christ and living in the Spirit, lauding and applauding God, His word, His salvation.

I am saying, as God said through John,
1 John 2:1-17
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.