In Living by Christ as Free, we are Overcomers. By His blood, and our Testimony of Jesus… we overcome.
Is the enemy only Satan? No. Overcoming does not confine itself to simply triumph over the devil. Our “enemy” goes beyond the demonic to include Sin and Self. All things contrary to Christ and His Life can ultimately be placed at the feet of Sin, Self or Satan.
We’ve seen how Sin is our enemy. We were born into its snare because of the Fall. Through The Gate, though, because we were crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated with Christ, this enemy is defeated. We are to simply believe in the Truth of our being in Christ, and Live, Free.
The enemy, as Satan himself, gets far too much credit, his power notwithstanding. But he has been defeated, and we can resist him.
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
In our flesh, we are no match for angelic life, even fallen angelic life. But in Christ, we’ve seen we have only to Testify to our Victory in His finished work. Satan only has words. When we reject them to receive the Truth, he is powerless against us. When every lie has been destroyed through the overcoming testimony of Truth, then the dragon has been slain. He is impotent to control that which he can no longer deceive. Satan will most assuredly come with lies, accusations and temptations toward you. But you can, and are, encouraged to resist him. Did you notice what must happen first before we can resist, though? Submission. We submit to God, which is denying Self. There is order. We submit and then, having submitted to, received from, and Lived out of God’s Life – resist Satan.
But what about Self? As an enemy, Self is not addressed nearly enough. This is the paradox of the Cross. Again, The Path is difficult, narrow, and few find it. The most glaring omission in Christianity is encouragement and exhortation along the lines of denying Self and taking up the Cross. As a result, more than Sin or even Satan, Self is likely our most dangerous enemy.
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.”
We more easily accept the blood of Jesus and our Testimony as keys to Overcoming. But not loving our lives – even to the point of death? Few go here. It’s just too hard. Or, we are afraid of failure. Can I show you some Freedom? God is not caught off guard or upset when we fail. In many ways, He is waiting for us to fail in order for us to see how insufficient Self is, so that we may be reduced to Him alone. He increases, we decrease. The Grace of God is big enough to cover our failures, which God already knows full well. We simply must come to the end of ourselves, and acknowledge our weakness. It is here that Self is crucified, and He is made strong.
This is a significant key to Freedom, and Living His Life.
Do you “see” this? Looking at Self with natural eyes is pride. Pride is the only sin mentioned in Scripture with the additional warning attached that God actively opposes it. Looking at Self with spiritual eyes, eyes of faith, eyes of our heart – illuminates the reality of Self’s disaster – the reality that the enemy of Self must die. God wants us to move from natural seeing to spiritual seeing – from looking at ourselves to “seeing” our Self, and crucifying it.
“Seeing” is Overcoming. “Seeing” is Freedom. When we see with the Lord’s eyes, we can Live with His Life. When we “see” who we are, we know what to do. Christ has provided all we need to Overcome Sin, Self and Satan. We lack nothing. To Overcome, then, is to demonstrate the sufficiency and pre-eminence of Christ in us.
“See” that Christ over all things is our Freedom – from Sin, Self and Satan.
