For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? IJn 5:4-5 THE VICTORIOUS LIFE
Let your faith entwine around the risen Lord and you will be weaned from all else. Jesus must become all-in-all to you, else you will miss the crown! We need not only the water of repentance, but also the blood of propitiation. When these two are admitted, the Holy Spirit will bear His secret witness to the soul. God is ever bearing witness to the Son by the eternal life that He gives to and maintains in those who believe. Eternity begins even here for those who have the Son as their indwelling guest. [F.B. Meyer] Faith-Beyond What the Eye's Can See To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken; to keep crying out into the vast, whence comes no returning voice, and where seems no hearing; to see the machinery of the world pauselessly grinding on as if self-moved, caring for no life, nor shifting a hair-breadth for all entreaty, and yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving; to desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand; to wait patiently, ready to die of hunger, fearing only lest faith should fail-- such is the victory that overcometh the world, such is faith indeed. -- George MacDonald It is easy to love Him when the blue is in the sky, When summer winds are blowing, and we smell the roses nigh; There is little effort needed to obey His precious will When it leads through flower-decked valley, or over sun-kissed hill. It is when the rain is falling, or the mist hangs in the air, When the road is dark and rugged, and the wind no longer fair, When the rosy dawn has settled in a shadowland of gray, That we find it hard to trust Him, and are slower to obey. It is easy to trust Him when the singing birds have come, And their canticles are echoed in our heart and in our home; But ’tis when we miss the music, and the days are dull and drear, That we need a faith triumphant over every doubt and fear. And our blessed Lord will give it; what we lack He will supply; Let us ask in faith believing-- on His promises rely; He will ever be our Leader, whether smooth or rough the way, And will prove Himself sufficient for the needs of every day. George MacDonald [Streams in the Desert] The Power that Overcomes the World It is usual to limit thought to faith as the power that ensures our victory over our surroundings, our “overcoming the world”; but if this paragraph be taken as connected thinking, it will be seen that John explains what faith it is that thus overcomes the world. It is the faith in the Sonship of Jesus, which links us to Him, makes us sons like Him, and brings to us the victory of obedience and submission which He won. (It will be understood that 1Jn_5:7, in this paragraph, is treated as an interpolation, inserted by some later hand to support a particular theory.)
I. The faith that overcomes.—It is significant that St. John should say, “even our faith.” It may be true—it is in fact true—that faith, as one of the powers of human nature, the power that enables a man to act upon unseen considerations, does enable men to rise above the entanglement and depression of present circumstances. The world could not get on without faith. All her high triumphs have been triumphs of faith. But John’s world is not the world of material difficulties, but the world of moral evils. And he knows well enough that commonplace human faith can never gain victory over that. It is our faith—that specific thing which must be called the “Christian faith,” which alone can overcome the moral world, the world of evil. II. The object of the faith that overcomes.—“Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” It should not be possible for us to miss the point of John’s teaching in these sentences. It is the man who, believing in Jesus as the Son of God, is himself a son of God who overcomes the world. The object of faith is the Sonship, or, more precisely, Christ the Son. His Sonship was the secret of His triumph over the world, which, though He lived in, He was not of. And our sonship in Him will have to be the secret of our triumph, if ever it be said of us, they have overcome the world. III. The grounds faith has for resting on this object.—Jesus the Son is fully attested; the witnesses are altogether sufficient and trustworthy. There are three witnesses to the acceptable Sonship. The Spirit, who testifies of Christ in our hearts. (But it is quite possible that John had in his mind the spirit of the life of Jesus, which was the most perfect expression of sonship, and the satisfactory attestation that He was the Son.) The water, which stands for the direct testimony given by the Father at our Lord’s baptism: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And the blood, which stands for the Divine acceptance of our Lord’s sacrifice—the self-sacrifice of the Son—which was declared in His resurrection from the dead. “These three agree in one” thing; they declare that “Jesus is the Son of God,” and present Him to us, in this relation, as the object of our faith. The Worldly Idea of overcoming the World.—We read in history of one in departed days who fancied that he had accomplished the hard task of “overcoming the world.” We read how he carried his victorious arms over every region of the then known earth—how he subjugated king after king, and brought nation after nation beneath his sway, and then fancied that he had “overcome the world.” We read how he felt it sad to think that his heroic task was done, and how he wept that there were no more worlds to conquer. Oh, far astray, far mistaken! There was one world to conquer yet, to which that conqueror was a slave—a world to overcome for which the arms of Alexander were of no avail. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”— [A. K. H. B. Preacher's Homiletical] Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Comments are closed.
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In this page there will be devotions/poems music and inspirational material The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:28-32 But this is that which was spoken by the
prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: Act 2:16-18 Resources
Madame Guyon - A Short and Easy Method of Prayer / Christian Audio Book (1 / 2) https://youtu.be/eihZWpAk7y4?si=PQ-_J3Y6i8u-N2Ac Union With God By Jeanne Guyon Chapter 1 Of 7 https://youtu.be/d5AfKS2dFLg?si=VtWAeEurkAddTDpL The Practice of the Presence of God - audiobook Brother LAWRENCE (1614 - 1691)- https://youtu.be/rRAs_BK1NR8?si=hGAL4C829aH7 DKMn Gander Story Poems
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January 2025
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