ON BEING AN OVERCOMER

ON BEING AN OVERCOMER

                Bonnie’s sister Alilia passed away last night at about 7 pm. She had been suffering from congestive heart failure and advanced kidney disease and she came here to Tennessee from Washington State to die in peace. So Bonnie nursed her and took care of her as her abilities continued to decrease into complete helplessness. The situation became quite desperate towards the end as she became helpless to move on her own and it was all that Bonnie and I could do to move here around as needed.

                Not everything that we do in this life is easy. Not every opportunity that God offers us is glamorous. But there are important lessons to be learned in terms of compassion and love and it is easy to delude ourselves with grand ideals and good intentions, but when compassion is called for… then our words must turn to actions and our sense of self-preservation must give way to the needs of others.

                Bonnie ministered to “Lili” (as her brothers and sisters called her) with utter love and devotion, helping her not only physically, but spiritually as well… getting all of her accounts strait with God and  preparing her for eternity. And what greater thing can we do in this life than to help our friends and loved ones prepare to meet their Maker? So Alilia died peacefully in her sleep. Her long battle with sickness is over and she is in a much better place now.

                We are called to be overcomers in this world and that means we are faced with many things that we must overcome. The world, the flesh and the devil come to mind as general categories, but within each of these categories there are issues of pride and selfishness… faith and love… motives and will… wisdom and understanding. And if we honestly walk with the Lord, He will mold and shape all of those things according to the character of Christ.

                Each of us, on a daily basis, is faced with the choice between our will and God’s will and each day we either die to self and learn to abide in Christ, or we allow the world, the flesh and the devil to win the day. But between the world, the flesh and the devil, flesh is by far our greatest enemy.

                Paul cried out in Romans chapter seven saying: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of this death?” Rom. 7:24. In this chapter Paul decried the fact that the things he wanted to do, he ended up not doing and the things he didn’t want to do he ended up doing after all.

                Where the rubber meets the road we often find that our good intentions give way to the flesh   and our flesh seems unable to do much about it. We often fail to do the things we should and just as often we end up doing the things that we should not… and in many cases our not doing, involves shirking opportunities to show compassion, or to witness, or to encourage, or help others along the way.

                If left to the flesh we will usually choose the easy way out. We will tap our spiritual headphones as if we can’t hear the voice of God, even as we cry out to hear His voice… but we are waiting for Him to say what we want to hear. We don’t put it into words, but in effect we are telling God, “Come on Lord give me something glamorous, something exciting, something for which I will receive some glory and or notoriety and I will do what you say… and even as we do so, the word “Lord” begins to ring hollow in our ears. Self is on the throne wanting the “lord” to serve “Us.” (Notice the capital letters)

                We as Christians have been lulled into complacency by an overly simplistic understanding of salvation. Salvation is as simple as believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31 The thief on the cross serves as an example of those who will be saved apart from any growth or progress and so maybe even the vast majority of Christians will be saved on that basis of simple faith.

                But there are two resurrections… the resurrection of the righteous only and a general resurrection of all who are in the grave both good and evil. Some will be raised to eternal life and some will be raised to judgment. That is the general resurrection that Jesus spoke about in John 5:28, 29 saying:

                “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming in which all who are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come forth; those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”

                This then is the general resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked… but Paul was striving for a better resurrection… not a resurrection OF the dead, but a resurrection FROM the dead. It is a resurrection of the righteous overcomers only. ( Also mentioned in Hebrews 11:35) This is the resurrection that Paul was talking about in Philippians 3. He was not striving to be saved. Salvation is a free gift apart from any works on our part. But there is a resurrection of the righteous only when the dead in Christ shall rise first. This is called the “First Resurrection.”

                This first resurrection is mentioned in Revelation 20:4, 5. Here John includes those saints who were martyred during the tribulation, as being a part of the first resurrection. Notice that they are not caught up to meet the Lord in the air as are those in 1 Cor. 15:51-58, or 1 Thess. 4:16-18. Instead it says that these will simply come to life and reign with Christ for 1000 years. Read it carefully for these will come to life at the second coming when Jesus returns WITH His saints (Rev. 19:14) when Jesus will also bring WITH HIM those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 1 Thess. 4: 14.

                So when these RESURRECTION SAINTS return with Jesus, a group of tribulation martyrs will also come to life and join them to reign with Christ for 1000 years, or in other words, Christ’s earthly millennial reign. There are details about the resurrections that have been bypassed by our traditions, but I believe that these details are being revealed to those who seek answers as we get closer to the coming of the Lord.

                Not everyone who is saved will reign with Christ during that 1000 year reign… only those who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. In fact, when Jesus gave His messages to the seven churches, He made special promises to those who would overcome and one of those promises is this:

                “And he who overcomes and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces as I also have received authority from My Father and I will give him the morning star.” Rev. 2:26-28.

                Like I said, our views of salvation have been overly simplistic. We never stop to ask just when the overcoming saints will rule with Christ over the nations. It can’t be in eternity for sin and death and all of that will be no more and God will be all in all. And it can’t be now as some think, because the Book of Revelation chapter 13 tells us that in the end times the antichrist will have authority over all of the nations and he will make war with the saints and overcome them. Read it:

               

                “And it was given to him (the antichrist) to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over EVERY tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. “(Rev. 13:7-8)

                It certainly doesn’t sound like the saints will be ruling the nations with a rod of Iron during the last days, so that rules out the present time. But in Revelation 19 and 20 we see the saints returning with Jesus and a special group of tribulation martyrs coming to life to join them in ruling the nations of the earth for 1000 years and it tells us that this is the first resurrection and the rest of the dead, (both the righteous and the wicked) will be raised at the end of the 1000 years, some to life and some to everlasting judgment. And you will notice that there will be books opened both the book of life and the book of judgment. It will happen just like Jesus said in John 5:28, 29.

                We as Christians don’t ask enough questions. We simmer in our traditions, unwilling to seek God diligently or to seek greater revelations of end time events as we get closer to the time. We presume that our simplistic views are complete and so we, unlike Paul, see no reason to strive for a better resurrection or to overcome even as Jesus overcame. We often live by our traditions rather than by the Spirit… just as the religious people did in Jesus’ day.

                We forget that we are in training to reign with Christ and so we see no particular need to overcome. We don’t see the obstacles that God puts in front of us as opportunities to grow and to learn. We complain about our troubles and we tend to attribute all of our obstacles to the devil.

                We need to remember Jesus’ messages to the church in Rev. 3:21, 22. “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  

                When Lili came the first time she was still full of spit and vinegar and she fought Bonnie at every turn. I finally sent her back to the west coast saying that as Bonnie’s husband, I could not stand by and watch her being used and abused like this. Besides it threw a major wrench into our peaceful plans. But 3 months later she was back again and this time her illnesses had overcome her and she came back here to die in peace.

                The situation had now changed and Lili was seeking for the kind of relationship with God that would make her ready to come face to face with Him. So Bonnie (and more specifically I) began to see this as a time of great need in Lili’s life and an opportunity given by the Lord for us to show compassion and to meet a greater need in Lili’s life. After all, if we aspire to be overcomers we must look at things very differently. The principles that Jesus has given us to live by are not just grand ideals. They are rather practical applications of love that make the difference between our being clanging cymbals or real followers of Jesus Christ. 1Cor. 13:1

                So Jesus gave us an opportunity to overcome and to learn and to grow and I think that we passed the test… although a bit grudgingly on my part at least at first. But life is not always glamorous and serving the Lord is not always about singing or peaching or teaching or writing. Sometimes it means getting our hands dirty… putting plans on hold… learning patience and above all, learning how to live by the Spirit rather than by the flesh… for as Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Mt. 25:40

                Lord, open our eyes to see You in the needs of others. Also Lord, help us to have a right perspective of your coming. Don’t allow us to become complacent thinking that we have all the answers. Help us to see Your Word with fresh eyes as we become diligent and eager to understand Your ways and plans in earth’s closing hours.

                Like I always try to remind us:  Don’t make doctrines out of new insights. Some of our biggest mistakes in the past have involved setting our interpretations of Bible Prophecy in stone, making inflexible doctrines out of things that should be allowed to unfold progressively as the Lord’s return approaches. Instead use what you discover as principles to grow by that will motivate us to live more fully by the Spirit of Christ.

                I would invite you to diligently study Phil. 3:8-15. Here Paul tells us that he is striving to attain to the resurrection from the dead ( Greek Ek: Out from the dead). We know from the rest of his teaching that he was not working to attain salvation. Instead he wanted to be a part of the resurrection of those who will rule and reign with Jesus. Remember, there are different levels of rewards in heaven for Jesus said that: some would rule over five cities and some over ten. What is all that about if not the millennial reign? Luke 19:17-19. Study the Bible and ask God for fresh revelations of these things that we tend to overlook.