In the first study we started with the words of the Apostle Paul, and defining what a conqueror is. I would like to start off with this again.
Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We said the Greek Word for conqueror here is hupernikao. Vines New Testament dictionary says that hupernikao is to gain a surpassing victory, lit., "we are hyper-conquerors," i.e., we are pre-eminently victorious.
In this study I would like to talk about the purpose for our being conquerors. Have you ever stopped to consider the reason for us being called to conquer? Jesus has already defeated Satan, yet he is still in this world and he still has power. However his authority has been taken away. He no longer has the authority to use that power, we are the spiritual police that have been placed here to enforce God’s plan for this Earth.
Jesus said in 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.
This is the New king James version. The original king James said behold I give you power.
The correct translation here is authority as the New King James says it. Vines says authority means… From the meaning of "leave or permission," or liberty of doing as one pleases, it passed to that of "the ability or strength with which one is endued," then to that of the "power of authority," the right to exercise power, also the power of rule or government," the power of one whose will and commands must be obeyed by others, that which is subject to authority or rule, one who possesses authority, a ruler, magistrate.
In other words Jesus said we were given the right to command and exercise power over the enemy. He has given us this authority. We were given very specific authority for a purpose.
Without the authority to use God’s power we would fail in our mission here. However God has not called us to fail. We are called to conquer. As we said in the first study, if there was no enemy we would not need to be a conqueror. I realize this sounds like an obvious statement, but it is a truth that much of the body of Christ has not seen. If there was no obstacle to overcome, God would not have needed to give us the ability to overcome would He? He has given us the authority to overcome and has done so, so that we can fulfill our purpose here on this Earth, to fulfill the great commission.
Jesus said we are the salt of the Earth, what good is salt if it has lost it’s saltiness. It’s no good at all. We are here to preserve this Earth, not just to take up space. We do this by walking in the authority that Jesus has given to us. We are here to enforce what Jesus has already accomplished. We are here to take back by the power of God what Satan is illegally taking from God’s children. That’s the reason for the authority. Not just so there would be no problems. There are always going to be problems. We have been called to enforce God’s rule and overcome every problem so that the Gospel can go forth over the Earth. But first of all we have to understand that there is a process to this. We don’t start out as walking as world conquerors, even though we have been given the authority we have to learn to walk in these things. We start out as babies. There is a process here, we have to learn to walk in this victory so that we can keep and preserve the land that we have overcome, and not loose what we have gained. I have seen people delivered by the power of God and then some months later loose what they had received. The reason for this is that they had no teaching on how to keep the victory. They did not know how to walk in a sustained state of victory and maintain what they had been given. They lost what was legally theirs. They still had the authority to stay delivered, but they didn’t know how to walk in it. God wants us to conquer the land progressively and keep what we have won. It’s hard to take the victory away from someone who has conquered the land and fortified the walls after they inhabited it. On the other hand if they had just walked into the land and pitched a tent, they would be ripe for the enemies picking so to speak.
The Old Testament is full of such examples and they are there for our benefit. We can see how the children of Israel succeeded and also failed if they didn’t follow God’s plan.
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
Let’s take a look at an Old Testament example of this.
Exodus 23:27-30. "I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.
We can see God’s intent here in this passage of Scripture. His sole purpose all along was for them to occupy the land and not loose it. He didn’t call them into the desert to fail, but because they would not accept that, and were disobedient and not trusting, they had to die off first and a new generation had to be the ones that inherited the promised land.
These people of God were never able to inherit the promised land because they refused to put their trust in Him.
They were called to the land that they were to inherit. They were called to the land that they were to conqueror. God did all the work and they got the promise, yet they had a part to play in this. They had to trust God, and walk in obedience. We also see that it didn’t happen all at once for a very good reason. It happened gradually so that the land would not become desolate, and be taken over by the beasts of the field. You don’t have to strain very hard in order to see the New Testament correlation in this.
God went before them and drove out the enemy, then He walked the children of Israel into their land in such a way that they would be able to keep it, and sustain it. Little by little.
The children of Israel had to inhabit the land as they conquered it. There was a process to fulfilling God’s plan. God ordains growth this way, least we loose the victory. God always has a purpose for us to conquer the land and we must follow His directions in order to succeed. God has ordained us to conquer our enemies, He has also called us to conquer the circumstances that would get in the way of what He has called us to do. We have all had circumstances in life that have seemed to overwhelm us at times yet God has called us to walk through them victoriously, not die in them. The children of Israel were led into the wilderness into very adverse circumstances, an estimated 3 to 4 million people with no food or water. They would not consider that God had not delivered them out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt, to give them a new life. They murmured and complained against Moses all the time. There are 11 different Scriptures making mention of this in the Old Testament. God had a plan and a purpose all along if they would have just trusted Him. Murmuring and complaining will only defeat you in life. As I have already stated, God did not call them into the wilderness to die, yet that is just what happened because of their murmuring and complaining, and their thankless attitude.
1 Corinthians 10:9-10 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Murmuring and complaining will only open the door to the enemy and gives him an opportunity to thwart the plan and purpose of God in your life, again, this was never God’s will for them. God led them through a series of circumstances to teach them to trust in Him, not to destroy them. They were given the opportunity to learn to trust in Him. This was a time of preparation. Have you ever considered that they would have never conquered the promised land if they had not learned to trust in God first? It was through all the wilderness experiences that they truly got this opportunity. They were constantly surrounded by enemies as well as adverse circumstances that seemed to say you can’t succeed, yet God delivered them out of them all!!!!! There is a lesson here for us all. The Lord is our complete resource, yet we have to come to acknowledge His total provision. Let’s learn from their experiences.
Let’s look at our opening Scripture again, Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have to learn as the children of Israel did, to put our trust in Him. As conquerors we have to come to the place where we put our total trust in God, or we will never conquer the land as our Lord intended.
Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
God is faithful, we must praise him in every circumstance of life, not for every circumstance but in every circumstance. He is all sufficient to meet our every need regardless of what is thrown our way. The children of Israel would not put away their slave mentality and place their trust in God. He can be trusted. Lift up your eyes, we serve the one true God who is more than sufficient in every circumstance of life.
