BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

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 first 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 final 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 crucified 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 finally gotten the upper hand against Jesus. As He suffered 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 He died and they dragged Him into hell, they released their full fury upon Him. Then, on the third day they found out they had made a terrible mistake! Just as it looked like they were about to annihilate Jesus, suddenly the spiritual realm rocked with the voice of God Almighty. “That’s enough!” He said. “Again I will be a Father to Him and again He will be a Son to me.” With those words, Jesus was instantly raised from the dead. The first Man ever to be born again from sin to righteousness, He started preaching the gospel right there in hell. With demons bouncing off every wall, He took satan’s keys away from him and said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). Then—whoosh—He left the bowels of the earth, went up and got His body, and went to heaven where He poured out His blood on the heavenly mercy seat. 8 : BVOV

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