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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/1415357
“Well,” you might say, “I certainly haven’t felt like much of a conqueror lately.” Are you born of God? If the answer is yes, then this verse is talking about you. You are victorious over the world! The word victorious means “having conquered in battle or contest; having overcome an enemy or antagonist; conquering; vanquishing as a victorious general and victorious troops.” That’s an accurate description of who you are as a believer. You’re one of the victorious troops of your victorious General, the Lord Jesus Christ. He completely conquered the devil, the world and the flesh; and when you put your faith in Him you inherit His victory. You were reborn in His image, united with Him, and you instantly became a victor. You may not have known right away how to walk in victory, but all the elements of it were born into you. It’s like when you were born physically; you were born to walk, but you didn’t just immediately take off walking. You had to grow and learn to use the ability you were born with. In the same way, spiritually you were born an overcomer with God’s victorious nature and dominion on the inside of you. To operate in that dominion, you must learn some things. You must spend time in the Word of God and learn to think like He does. If you don’t, you’ll continue to think like the world…which means you’ll keep talking and acting like the world…which means you’ll keep getting the world’s results. The world is under the curse, so everything it does results in corruption and destruction. That’s not what your heavenly Father wants for you! He redeemed you from the curse so you can walk far above it in THE BLESSING, and He’s provided you with everything you need to do it. Not only has He multiplied His grace and peace to you, and to all of us, as believers, as 2 Peter 1 says: “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (verses 3-4). Yielding To the Flesh Is Dangerous The word lust, as it’s used there, doesn’t just refer to sexual temptation. It includes all the carnal drives, passions and desires of the flesh. Those things are dangerous. The devil uses them to pressure people into advancing his evil agenda for their lives, and when yielded to, they bring destruction. We, as God’s people, escape that destruction by bringing our souls and bodies into conformity with Him. We find out what His will is, put our faith in His power that’s at work in us, and live accordingly. Instead of yielding to carnal drives and passions, we yield to our reborn spirit and put into operation the principle revealed in Galatians 5:16: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Not all Christians these days, however, have been taught to do this. On the contrary, they’ve been told that because New Covenant believers are not under the law, they can just do whatever their flesh wants. After all, indulging carnal passions and drives is just part of being human, so it’s really no big deal. 28 : BVOV