Shalam, brothers and sisters. I pray that the glorious light of God shines in your life today and that he would take away any doubt or fear from your hearts as you walk on your journey to Zion
It is always a pleasure sharing God’s Word with you. It builds up both you and me and encourages us all to continue in the Faith. God said in the book of Isaiah, “So shall my words be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”(Isaiah 55:11). Therefore, God’s Word goes out into the world, and changes it and changes us for the better. So then, this is not a burden to study and share the Word, but an honor, because we are working together with God to accomplish His purpose.
Today I would like to conclude our topic on overcoming hardship in our lives by writing about victory, the reward of overcoming.
Victory is defined in many ways by many different schools of thought. Victory can be the attainment of much wealth and many riches. Victory can describe attaining a certain goal. In sports, victory is winning the game. The followers of God define victory as overcoming, not only the challenges of life, but most importantly overcoming sin that is in us. Believers overcome through obedience to, and faith in, Jesus Christ. Victory defined thus transcends all worldviews, for it concerns itself with things spiritual and not merely things physical, which do not endure forever.
Brothers and sisters, if we are victorious in this struggle with sin, it will bring us from a mortal state to an immortal state, from corruption to incorruption, from death to eternal life. We would be victorious over spiritual and physical death (Read I Cor15:56-58). In this present time, the spiritual victory is attained when we return to God with all our heart and soul; while the physical blessing comes at the second coming of Jesus Christ to bring Heaven on earth. At that time, we will obtain immortality. This is a state of being sinless where our physical body is free from death and we dwell in God’s holiness for eternity.
The apostle Paul states, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”(Romans 6:23) This victory, which truly is a gift, only comes about when we abide in Christ, doing His commandments and abstaining from the sin nature that is in us. Endurance will be one of our greatest characteristics, brothers and sisters, as we strive daily against sin until we reach victory. (Read Hebrews 12:1-4) Like Jesus our Lord, we will be God’s sons and daughters and we will receive God’s gift of immortality and the kingdom of heaven. (Read John 1:11-13). This is how we shall in fact overcome.
Read Revelations 2:7
This verse educates us about the reward of overcoming: immortality. We must hear and understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. In this case, the churches are the people of God and not a specific denomination or institution. When the word says, “He that has an ear, let him hear…” it’s making a reference to the fact that all mankind should listen. The purpose is two-fold. First, God’s desire is that all humanity should repent and return to Him (Read 2 Peter 3:9). The second reason is to fulfill the prophecy spoken by Christ in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Revelation 2:7 lists one of the rewards of overcoming as the ability to eat from the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God. Before I explain the Tree of Life, we first must remember that to get to it, we must go through a struggle and win. 2 Peter 1:10 says, “ wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, ye shall never fall:” (I encourage you to read verses 4-9 to see the characteristics needed to make your calling and election sure.) We must be diligent in this walk with God, never giving in to sin but abiding in His commandments through Jesus Christ.
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life will be given to those that are victorious in this struggle. The Tree of Life is not new, it was created in the beginning by God and placed if the Garden of Eden (read Genesis 2:8-9). The life of Adam, our first earthly father, is a good example of our struggle against sin. He was asked by God to be obedient to His commandment-“but of the tree of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it.” (Gen 2:17) However, Adam fell by giving in to sin. He would have received the victory and enjoyed the fruits of the Tree of Life, which is immortality: meaning to never die. Genesis states: the result of Adam’s disobedience would be death. If Adam would have abided with God he would have partaken of everlasting life, but now he had both evil and good in him and this state was not acceptable with God for man to be immortal. Genesis 3:22 explains this and confirms the fruit of the Tree of Life, “And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever.”
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kjv/browse.html
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kjv/browse.html
So brothers and sisters, we also have a test before us: to walk in obedience to God and receive the reward of immortality or to continue in sin and receive its’ reward of death. God, by His grace and mercy, has given humanity a way to overcome sin through Christ Jesus because by our own strength we could not. Jesus in his great prayer before His crucifixion summarizes this, “ Father, the hour is come; glorify thy son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” (John 17:1-3) We then by faith, obedience, and endurance in Christ must abide until the end not giving into sin. (Read Matthew 24:13)
Finally, brothers and sisters, I urge you to “examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves. As we draw closer to the end of this world and the beginning of the God’s kingdom, we all should be searching our souls to know if we are truly living a life that is acceptable with God. If we believe that we are His people, that we hear Him through the gift of His Holy Spirit and His Word, and are true followers of Christ Jesus, then we should not walk in willful sin. The apostle John says thus, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life ( I John -20).”
Hear the words of our Lord Jesus as we continue in our journey, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches (Rev. 3:20-22).”
Your brother and servant in the Lord Jesus,
God bless you and keep you till we meet again…
Zarach
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