I want to announce to each and every one of you that the enemy of all of mankind IS ALREADY DEFEATED! Whatever battles he may launch — they’re already destined to fail!
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death!” (Revelation 12:11)
The sealed victory is revealed in this verse in three parts: 1) the blood of the Lamb; 2) the word of their testimony; 3) they did not love their lives to the death.
The blood has already been shed and in the shedding of His blood Jesus “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Colossians 2:15, Hebrews 2:14b respectively)
Another translation says that Jesus paralyzed the devil! GLORY!!!
Now we come to our parts; the word of our testimony regarding the triumph of the cross and not loving our lives unto death.
First, we must daily testify to what Jesus did for us! Tell those symptoms of sickness, “I’ve BEEN healed by the strips of Jesus.” Tell your checkbook: “my God supplies ALL of my need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus!” Everything that pertains to life and godliness, it was all purchased at Calvary with His blood – apply it, speak it, tell it, ENFORCE THE VICTORY! His power (grace) will cause the results, for He watches over His word to perform IT (not your pastor’s version — the raw, pure word of God) and His word will not return void. If it seems void in your life I have to ask: Are you returning it to Him?
Then the last thing is where most of us fall off: not loving our lives to the death. What does that mean? In every realm of God we all come to a crossroad where we have a choice. The choice boils down to this: following the dictates of the flesh (what seems reasonable, and maybe even responsible) or allowing the witness of the Spirit of God lead us into the unknown.
There’s a death we all face when it comes to obeying God. We want to know the beginning to the end before we step out and do something that seems ridiculous to our thinking (bless our hearts!). But God doesn’t work that way. He says to step out of the boat (on to His word — written or personal) THEN He’ll uphold us!
Well, is it the end of time or not? Is God speaking truths today that challenge us to do the works of Jesus? Or—are we going to be complacent, live OUR lives in the realm of same-ole, same-ole? How will that affect our eternity? What will we have to say to Jesus on that Great Day when He judges the hearts and works of man?
Beloved, it’s not my intention to bring you down, but to lift Him up and encourage us all to prioritize our day with the here-after in our minds!