I asked the Lord what He meant, and my attention was
directed to the parable of the prodigal son.
He reminded me how the prodigal son left his father's house and spent
all that he had on “riotous” living, worldly living, or sinful living. Then he found himself in the pig pen desiring
to eat pig slop, but then it says “he came to his senses.” He had not been acting like the person that
he knew he was supposed to be.
Then I was impressed with the thought that the Church can be
victorious.
I immediately recalled these passages:
Acts 1:8
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Luke 10:19
“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you.”
I John 4:4
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them,
because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Joshua 1:3-5
“Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I
have given you, as I said to Moses. 4
From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River
Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going
down of the sun, shall be your territory.
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as
I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.”
I may not be what many would consider a “Bible Scholar,” but
I can see in these passages that God identifies his people as victorious. The
will of God for His Church is victory.
These passages of scripture and many others like them, paint the picture
of a Holy Ghost filled, fire baptized church marching in victory, putting under
foot anything that stands in its way.
We are not just survivors of sinful pasts trying to hold on
and hang out till Jesus comes. We are not just a few leftover, beleaguered soldiers
trying to hold the fort until Jesus comes and rescues us. We are not the few, the weakened, the
discouraged just trying to keep our heads above water and just treading water
until we die. Brothers and sisters, we
are the victorious! I read the last
chapter of the book, I’ve had a peek at the end of the story, and I’m here to
tell you this morning, we win!
Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus!
Thank God for that truth, but whatever you do, don't skip the rest of
the book just to get to the last chapter, because the entire Bible, Genesis to
Revelation, is a testimony of the victorious lives of God's people, and it’s a
manual for the strategy of warfare and the key to victory over all the power of
hell.
I know that most of us know these things, but sometimes we
let them slip our minds, so today I want to remind you that the blood of Jesus
is just as powerful today as it was the day that it was shed. We must lift up the banner and we must continue
to sing the victory march, “There is power, power, wonder working power in the
blood of the Lamb.”
The blood of Jesus is not just a defense against Satan’s
attacks, the blood of Jesus is our spiritual weapon for busting through the gates
of hell and setting the captives free. I may sound old fashioned but the
Victorious army of the Lord is a people soaked in blood. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from His veins, and sinners plunged beneath the flood
lose all their guilty stains.
Too many of our churches today are anemic, the blood count
is too low, and they have a blood deficiency. There is no blood in their
preaching, there is no blood in their worship, there is no blood in their
testimonies, and it is because there is no blood in their veins. I know of one denomination that removed all
hymns with the word blood in them because they were afraid of offending
visitors. And they wonder why they don't
have victory in their lives, they wonder why they don't have any power, they
wonder why Satan laughs when they try to bind him from their lives and doesn’t
listen to them, and they wonder why they have no impact on their world for
Jesus.
Revelation 12:10-11
“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation,
and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have
come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and
night, has been cast down. 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.”
The life of the Church, the body of Christ, is in the blood.
Our only claim to victory over the Satan and the powers of this
present dark age, is the blood of the lamb.
We have been saved by the blood.
We are healed by the blood, delivered by the blood, justified by the
blood, protected by the blood, and we can only overcome by the blood.
God has not placed us here, in this generation, and in this
place, just to survive and maintain. We
have not been placed here and called just to blend in. We are here to take over! When the church is walking in holiness,
covered by the blood, baptized in the Holy Ghost, it is the most powerful force
in the world.
Satan has tried to burn it out, flood it out, beat it out, and
kill it, but the blood washed church is still alive and it is still marching
forward, and it is still assaulting the gates of hell. I want you to understand today that a church
covered in the shed blood of Jesus, and baptized in the Holy Ghost is a force
to be reckoned with.
Too many times the picture we get of the church is like the
game when all the kids pile on top of one kid, a dog pile, and the poor kid at
the bottom of the dog pile would struggle just to breathe. But that's not
what the bible teaches us. If there was a game that was more biblically correct
it would be “King of the mountain.” The
bible says: We are the head and not the tail, we are above and not beneath.
I John 4:4
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them,
because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
There's the secret to the victorious church, it' the power
of the Holy Ghost, it's the power of the greater one in us.
Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I
but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Through the power of the Holy Ghost the greater one lives in
us. Greater than what? Greater than he that is in the world. He that is in the world is the devil He goes
by a lot of different names: Drug addiction, pornography, lust, sickness,
disease, poverty, lack, depression, and suicide. It doesn't matter what name
Satan goes by, the Greater One is living inside of you! He is greater than heart trouble, cancer,
diabetes, homosexuality, fornication, or adultery. God is greater, and he is in you.
The church is supposed to be victorious, it's unnatural for
the church to lose, it's unnatural for a child of God to live a weak,
discouraged, and beat down life. We were created to exercise power and
authority over the enemy. We are commissioned to cast him out, to deliver those
in bondage, to preach hope to the oppressed and set the captives free.
Mark 16:15-18
”And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature. [16] He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. [17] And these signs shall
follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues; [18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and
they shall recover.”
Isaiah 60:1-2
“Arise shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the
Lord is risen upon thee. For behold the darkness shall cover the earth and
gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory
shall be seen upon thee.”
We are the church victorious and we are taking our place, we
are taking our position, and we are reigning in life by the name of Jesus.
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