BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

6 : B V O V If you're a believer, then God is talking to you in those verses! He's telling you that you have an Eden Covenant. He's promising that if you look to Abraham and follow his example, you can walk in the fullness of His BLESSING and it will turn your life into a veritable Garden of The LORD. Gloria and I know what that's like. It's been happening to us for quite a while. Not because we're some kind of spiritual hotshots, but because almost 50 years ago we started learning how to cooperate with God's system. We started learning what He meant when He said, "It is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed" (Romans 4:16). Faith and grace are big with God. Faith is big because it's the spiritual force that connects us to grace. Grace is big because it's what made the way for God to bring things back to the Garden of Eden level without having to wait until this whole age is over. When you connect by faith to God's grace, He can treat you like sin never even happened. Talk about big! That's as big as it gets! Even the Gates of Hell Can't Stop You "Well, faith and grace are great, all right," someone might say, "but what about the devil? How do I live like I'm in Eden when I'm still in this sin-infested world dealing with him?" You do it the same way Jesus did. When He was on earth, He defeated the devil every day of His life. He not only overcame every temptation to sin and walked continually in God's BLESSING on a personal level; He brought that BLESSING into the lives of others. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). "But that was Jesus, Brother Copeland. He's the Son of God." Yes, He is—and you're a son of God, too. You're not just an old forgiven sinner saved by grace. You're a new creation. "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God" (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). You've been "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23). Your spiritual DNA and Jesus' DNA are exactly the same. Spiritually, you're identical twins. You also have the same faith He has. The very faith of God Himself was given to you as a gift the split second you were born again (Ephesians 2:8). It's so powerful that the fi rst time you used it, it changed you forever. It connected you with so much of God's grace that your old sinful man died; you became the righteousness of God in Him; and you were raised up to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Just think; you were still a spiritual baby when that happened. You probably didn't know nearly as much about The WORD of God as you do now. Yet just by believing, confessing and acting on what little bit you knew, you blasted out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the light of God's dear Son, and the gates of hell themselves couldn't stop you. "Yeah, but that was a spiritual victory," you might say. "In the natural I'm still subject to all the mess the devil is stirring up in the world." No, you're not. There's nothing in this world order your faith in God won't overcome. "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). When you use your faith in God's WORD like a weapon against the devil, he's helpless against it. If you want to see how helpless, look at what happened in his fi nal showdown with Jesus. Jesus went before us with the same measure of faith we have. He developed His faith by feeding on The WORD of God the same as you and I do, and all the forces of hell combined couldn't stand against Him. After He went to the Cross, He whipped and disarmed them so completely that if they'd known what was going to happen, "they would not have crucifi ed the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). If you've read the Bible, you know the thrilling story of how Jesus' victory unfolded. It began with satan and his bunch thinking they'd fi nally gotten the upper hand against Jesus. As He su¤ ered on the Cross where His form was so marred He no longer resembled a human being, they didn't know He was paying the price for the sin of all mankind. They didn't realize He was acting by faith as our substitute, so when B V O V : 6 "There's nothing in this world order your faith in God won't overcome. 'For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.'" (1 John 5:4) POINTS TO GET YOU THERE: 1 As a believer, you have an Eden Covenant. (Isa. 51:3) 2 It's a covenant of faith and grace. (Rom. 4:16) 3 The devil doesn't have the power to rob you of your Eden BLESSINGS because Jesus has defeated him. (Col. 2:15) 4 When the devil hits you with doubt, hit him back with faith like Abraham did. (Rom. 4:20) 5 There's nothing in this world order that can overcome your faith in God. (1 Jn. 5:4)

• Cover