For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4-5.
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. Revelation 3:21.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Today we are continuing Life Lessons on how to live the abiding life. The abiding life is the abundant life that Jesus came to bring you. It is life now and forever. It joins you with Me in the perfection of unity—an everlasting Covenant of love. It is the life where we walk together in agreement. It is the narrow road that few travel through the world on. The first one who did was Enoch, who walked with Me so closely that he just walked from this life right into My eternal life.
Jesus made you a promise, “If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7. This promise is conditioned on you abiding in Him and His Words abiding in you. If you do not live in My Words you will live in fear, anxiety, and stress, for you have no anchor in the storms of life without being securely built on the rock of My Word. “You keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is set on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.” Isaiah 26:3-4. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27.
I draw you out of the miry swamps of the world and place your feet on a height with a new song in your mouth. I have given you the victory in Christ Jesus and I lead you forth in triumph, for My Son has borne your sins, your sickness, and your pains as He conquered death and the grave. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Hebrews 2:14-15. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.
The abiding life is not new. It has been since the beginning for mankind. The first man and woman walked with Me in the Garden and they were created to enter into My rest, for man was created on the sixth day, but his true existence with Me was in the seventh day. Enoch and Noah both walked with Me. So did Abraham, he walked before Me in My light and there was the blameless place. Genesis 17:1. I gave instruction to Moses on the abiding life with he shared with all the people, “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as days of heaven upon the earth. For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.” Deuteronomy 11:18-25.
And I gave Joshua instructions on the abiding life and he lived it in a way few have. He even commanded the sun and the moon and they held still after he consulted Me. You see, if you abide in Me and My Words abide in you then you shall ask for what you want and I shall do it. And here is what I told him, “Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:5-9.
Do you see a recurring theme here? And you will find it all through the Bible. Be strong, be courageous. How? By abiding in Me and My Words abiding in you. My Words are words of empowerment, enablement, healing, and strength. My Words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” 1 John 2:14. My Son upholds all by His Word of power. And that Word is in you. Stand on it as the rock of your life, with your head held high above your enemies on every side.
And this is Life Lesson No. 7: Never Give Up, Never Quit, Be an Overcomer.” Now, let Me list for you the promises from the Book of Revelation for those I call “overcomers,” and be mindful that this Book of the Bible starts with a blessing for the readers and hearers thereof, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” Revelation 1:3.
And here begins the list of the rewards of living the life of the overcomer:
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. Revelation 2:11.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. Revelation 2:17.
Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. 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. Revelation 2:25-28.
He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Revelation 3:5.
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. Revelation 3:12
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. Revelation 3:21.
Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowards (fearful) and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:6-8.
Look again at the last sentence of the above promise for the overcomer and consider who is excluded from entrance to the Heavenly Kingdom. Who are at the top of the list? The cowards (fearful) and unbelieving. Do not fear, only keep on believing. I have given you many magnificent promises and have shown you mighty deeds, I have created you and sustained you, and am willing to do very great things for you and with you. I can order your day aright and give you wisdom of heart if you will let Me. I have given you My Spirit and poured My love, My very life, into your heart. I have promised you eternal life. I made Jesus sin for you so in Him you could be righteous with My very own righteousness. I have given you through the knowledge of Him all you need for life and godliness forever. I have promised you never to try you beyond your strength but to offer you a way out. The answers, the provision, and the goodness are there for you and you can be filled until you overflow but you must take it all by faith. You must live the life you were born to live, and that is the life of the overcomer. I have made you more than a conqueror.
And if you are saying you do not feel like an overcomer but feel weak, then what do I tell you to do? Let the weak say “I am strong.” Actually in Hebrew, the language in which My Words to the prophet Joel were originally written, it says for the weak to say, “I am a mighty hero.” And so you are, for as Jesus is so are you in the world and He overcame the world. He tells you that twice, in the Gospel of John and in the Book of Revelation. In fact, in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation He makes you another wonderful promise, and it is the promise that infuriates the devil against you more than any other promise for it was what he was seeking and could not have: “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.” Revelation 3:21. Seated with Him in Heaven above all the angels and reigning with Me from the throne forever. Revelation 22:5. One. A family in My own image united, triumphant, and true.
You can only be an overcomer if you continue (abide, remain, dwell) in My Word as My disciple and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Once you know who you are in Christ and all that I have given you in Him, you have only to take it and walk it out. And how do you take it? The same way Joshua became an overcomer though all the rest of his generation except Caleb died as cowards in the desert, he refused to focus on the giants and adverse circumstances and looked instead only at My Words of promise and victory. He believed My Words and stored them in his heart, and he spoke them with his mouth, and he permitted himself no other option of what to say and think. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
You have a choice. Will you let go of My Words or will you hold fast to them and not let anyone or anything get them away from you? And that is the fight of faith that wins.
The word “overcomer” is also translated “victor.” In the Greek language that the New Testament was written in it is the word “nikáō,” which is from the word “níkē,” which means “victory,” so nikao means to conquer (overcome); in other words, to carry off the victory, come off victorious. And it implies a battle has been fought and won.
Now I want to take you to an example of an overcomer in a situation that looked like all odds were against him. And you will see he conquered first by the words of his mouth and then the actions followed. And you will see that in every conquest in My Word. Just look at Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah in their impossible victory, 2 Chronicles 20, and Paul’s overcoming a shipwreck and a poisonous snake, Acts 28, victory and increase start in your heart and your mouth, but so does cowardly defeat. Just look at the difference for the outcome for Joshua and Caleb compared to the rest of their generation that came out of Egypt by My mighty work of redemption. Joshua and Caleb had all My good promises fulfilled in their lives, but the rest of their generation did not. And yet, My promises were for all of them equally. But only two believed and spoke in agreement with Me. I called that following Me fully. The rest chose to talk fear and unbelief and they got what they said.
Now let us look at David. He was an overcomer from his youth to his old age. Just read the Psalms he composed and you will see why by the words he spoke and sang. But let us look at his battle with the giant Goliath as there are lessons to learn about being an overcomer here.
The Philistines gathered their armies for battle and were coming to take territory from the Israelites. They set up camp in Judah and Saul, who was then king, and the men of Israel gathered and camped opposite them, ready for battle. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them. But no battle started, instead a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was about nine feet and he was all arrayed for battle. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze. He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; his shield-carrier also walked before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.” Again the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, instead of looking to Me and reminding Me of My gift of the land to them as Jehoshaphat later did in an even more dire situation, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. They retreated and hid in their tents. 1 Samuel 17:1-11. No one so much as consulted Me in the matter. And yet I was the true leader of the armies of Israel.
The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took his stand, while the Israelites ran and hid in their tents. They had given in to a spirit of fear, which of course was the tactic the enemy was using against them.
David was the youngest of eight brothers and three of David’s older brothers had gone to join Saul in the battle. David’s father sent him to take supplies to his brothers. David was curious to see the battle that he thought would be going on so he left off the supplies with the baggage keeper, and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them. When all the men of Israel saw the man, David watched them flee and noticed that they were all greatly afraid. But he had a different focus. He was out for My honor and glory and was not worrying about himself as they were. He was not looking at Goliath in the same way they were. His attention was on Me. So he said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. Faith gets attention in a situation where everyone else is in fear.
And now begins David’s faith declarations that saved the nation of Israel. David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 1 Samuel 17:32. Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.” 1 Samuel 17:34-36. What David was doing was what an overcomer does, he was remembering the great works I had done for him in the past and applying the confidence he had in those occurrences as strong evidence for the present that I would come through again. And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” This was total trust in My actions on his behalf—that I would do again what I had done before. Most believers are not like this. Even though I have worked a great miracle of healing for them, the minute a new challenge comes they panic and do not have the confidence that I will save them again. That was the way the Israelites that I redeemed out of Egypt acted. I could have just gotten water for them out of the rock and in a few days if they got low on water again they were in a panic and bitterly complaining that they had no water and would die. They had zero confidence that I would take care of their needs again. I called that stiff-necked and hard hearted.
David’s faith convinced Saul and he told David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.” 1 Samuel 17:37. Saul tried to clothe David in his armor but it did not fit and David refused to wear it. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. David had a battle plan from Me and he was not going to draw back and perish.
So David took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine. I will work with what you know how to do and are comfortable with.
Then the Philistine came and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine saw David, he disdained him; in his pride he was insulted that the Israelites would send an untrained youth to answer his formidable challenge. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.” 1 Samuel 17:45 And now began a battle of words. The devil will try to make you get off the rock of My Word, as he did to Eve and as he tried to do to Jesus after his forty days in the wilderness, but David was not about to back down. He answered the doubt the Philistine was trying to inject into his mind by saying, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’s and He will give you into our hands.” And these were the last words they exchanged for David’s words of faith and reliance on the Covenant he had with Me prevailed over Goliath’s ungodly speech, and brought David through exactly as he had believed and spoken. Years later, Jairus employed this same principle and exactly as he had spoken that his daughter would be healed by My Son, so was it, even though she died in between. But he too was an overcomer.
Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David did not draw back, he went forward with his faith declaration. This was a key point, for he could have suddenly given in to fear and realized this was very different from the bear and the lion. But he went forward. So David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.
Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand. So David took Goliath’s sword and finished the work he had set out to do. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines.
An overcomer does not quit, does not give up, and does not give in to the enemy. And the result? The overcomer has the victory, for the victory that overcomes the world is your faith—faith in My love for you and My goodness at work in you and for you.
I love you. Never give up, never quit—be an overcomer. How? Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And the One is you is the Overcomer. And He is with you always. I never leave you or forsake you. Just as I was with Moses, with Joshua, with David, so I am with you. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for I, the LORD your God am with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12.