“How long will the wicked, O Lord, how long will the wicked by jubilant?” (Psalm 94:3)
The psalmist David asked this question of the Lord, and, perhaps, you, too, have said the same thing or at least held the same question in your mind.
This question seems relevant for our day. We see wickedness all around us, and sometimes it appears as if the wicked are prevailing. All over the world, threats of terrorism are ongoing. We’ve already experienced two gulf wars with constant rumors of more wars. We hear about crime wave after crime wave as gangs fight each other for more territory, and corporations resort to fraud to gain ground against their competitors. Many who are hungry for more money and power have a “dog-eat-dog” mentality as they reach for the top, and they don’t care whom they hurt along the way.
Everywhere we look, we can see many good people struggling to triumph over obstacles and enemies. And, often, justice seems to be nowhere to be found. It’s enough to cause one to have a negative attitude and/or be pessimistic if we allow it.
But God is a God of justice, and He doesn’t want His people caught up in a battle of survival, attempting in their own strength to triumph over the opposition that challenges them. Our limitless God doesn’t want His children struggling with limitations that have been placed before them. God doesn’t want us to just “survive”—He wants us to “thrive!” He wants us to live beyond limitations.
God designed man to triumph over the limitations of life. God put something inside man that causes him or her to want to win over adversity. It seems that some are more motivated than other, but almost everyone has within him or her the desire to achieve and excel in life.
We are all fascinated by people who have defied the odds and won battles that were by all appearances “un-winnable.” We have tremendous respect for those who come from obscurity to prominence because of their “never-say-die” attitude and their will to succeed. We are motivated and inspired by their stories of victory over hardship and by their zeal for life and for winning. We are attracted to their positive attitude.
Have you ever been told to throw in the towel and quit? Have you ever been told you were not going to make it? If you have, something inside you resisted that idea, because God put within you the desire to win!
Some of us still remember the Winter Olympics where many millions of Americans sat glued to their television sets while its hockey team squared off against the Russian team for the gold medal. Experts and analysts predicted an overwhelming victory for the mighty Russian team. But when the final buzzer sounded, the Americans had defeated the Russian team, and American fans roared in unspeakable joy!
Likely, if you were watching that you jumped up from your seat in your home and rejoiced with all those in the arena that memorable day. You couldn’t go any place without hearing about the “miracle on ice.” They were not supposed to have won the gold, but they did—against all odds! They had a winning spirit about them. Something inside of them said, “we are winners.”
There are two battles that man can’t win on his own. Number one, he cannot escape a sinful existence. On his own, man cannot be free from sin, be reconciled to God, and enter heaven as his eternal resting place.
The Bible says “The things that are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Christ has translated us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13). Christ has translated us from the kingdom of defeat to the kingdom of victorious living in Him. It is no longer our destiny to live defeated in life.
What has God done for us in Christ? He has given us a new destiny—a destiny of life eternal, and a destiny of happiness in Christ so that on this earth, we can enjoy “ little bit of heaven to go to heaven in!”
While the world is waxing worse and worse, we have a hope. Christ has won eternal victory for us over sin. He won victory for us over death, hell, and the grave. And we can appropriate and enjoy this victory if we will simply believe in and call upon the name of the Lord. We can escape a sinful existence from the kingdom of darkness and live in the reality of being reconciled with God.
Jesus said, “ . . .My peace I give unto you” (John 14:27). The world cannot understand our peace, because they do not know the Peace-Giver. Many try to find peace in meditation, and world religions, drugs, and alcohol. On their own, they cannot find true peace or escape a lifestyle of turmoil and confusion. They need a Savior, Jesus-the Prince of Peace.
The second battle man can’t win on his own is against Satan and his tyranny over the world. Man must follow God wholeheartedly to win this battle.
In your home, or office you may have plaques, trophies and certificates of outstanding achievements in sports and other fields and you are rightfully proud of that accomplishment. But if you’re going to triumph spiritually, you’re going to have to follow God’s orders—His instructions. You can’t do things your own way, by your own efforts and intellect.
You see God is the all time Champion of the ages. In the Old Testament, you’ll notice that God always enabled His people to triumph over adversity and foe. He often did it against all odds. Ultimately, for God’s people to win those battles, they could never forget that God was the Almighty One. In your spiritual battles, you too, should remember the great fact that it is God that is the All Mighty One!
The enemy may be accusing you, and threatening and harassing you, telling you that you’re not going to triumph over him. But if you will remain calm and aware that God is Almighty, you will triumph over all opposition. God is God, and He will do what He said He will do. God said He would deliver you and if you will trust Him, He will deliver you! He said He would bless you, and He will bless you! He said He would see you through, and He will do it!
2nd Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be unto God, WHICH ALWAYS CAUSETH US TO TRIUMPH IN CHRIST, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”
The New Life Bible reads that verse like this: “We thank God for the power Christ has given us. He leads us and makes us win in everything.”
YOUR FAITH WILL SEE YOU THROUGH
Triumphant faith is faith that will take you through the storm, through the test, or through the dark valley of adversity. As you put your faith and trust in the Triumphant One, you may be walking a road that looks black and bleak, but He will lead you out of darkness into the light of victory!
Too many people want to see the entire road ahead before they will take hold of the Master’s hand. But God is saying, “Fear not, Walk on, and I will be with you.”
If you want to see God’s delivering power, you’re going to have to walk by faith, one step at a time. It doesn’t matter what it looks like or feels like, you will win when you walk with God and have the positive attitude, “My faith will see me through!”
It doesn’t matter who you are, this promise of victory and deliverance is for you. 2nd Corinthians was written to folk just like you and me, people with natural, human limitations—people who will believe in the Word of God and the promises of God, and who will take hold of those promises in faith.
God said He would take you through all of your trials, and as you look to Him, you will walk out on the other side of those trials victorious! AS you believe Him and take hold of His hand, He will lead you through to victory.
God will never turn loose of your hand. It’s always man that turns loose of God. But if you don’t give up on God, God never gives up on you.
David wrote, “O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.” (Psalm 25:2).
David was well acquainted with adversity, but as we look over his life, we see him triumphant over and over again. God caused David to triumph over the lion and the bear when he was a youth tending his father’s sheep. Later, God gave David a spectacular victory over a giant, and eventually he became king of Israel while performing greater exploits in God.
Before David took office as king, he triumphed repeatedly over King Saul’s attempts to kill him. At one point, Saul threw a javelin at David at a very close range, but missed. God always caused David to triumph as David walked with Him.
FAITH MUST BE A LIFESTYLE
Let’s take a closer look to a time in David’s life he experienced a victory that had national ramifications. It was a time that God used a boy’s faith and five smooth stones to defeat one nation and save another.
God causes us to triumph, but it is our faith in Him that allows Him to do so. It is through our trusting Him that He causes us to win. But we need to learn to trust God before we reach the battlefield. “We cannot wait until we’re squaring off with the enemy to learn to receive from God by faith.”
David’s faith was a lifestyle. We see it when he prevailed over a lion and a bear that tried to destroy his father’s sheep. By the time David faced Goliath, he knew what to do. He knew that his victory was not in his own strength, but in God’s.
Goliath had taunted David, “come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field” (1st Samuel 17:44). David let him talk. When Goliath sputtered to a close, David stepped up and told him exactly what he was going to do to him (see verses 45-47).
Our enemy boasts of himself against us, telling us what he’s going to do to us. But, he really hasn’t had anything new to say since the beginning when he was created. Once he said, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13, 14)
But we all know what happened to him after that! Isaiah 14:15 says, “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Jesus said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Yet, since that time, the enemy of our souls has been saying, “I this…and I that.”
MAKE YOUR BOAST IN THE LORD!
When Goliath boasted against David, David didn’t answer him in his own strength or mighty. He answered, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: BUT I COME TO THEE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL, whom thou has defied” (1st Samuel 17:45).
David boasted in the Lord, He said, in effect, I don’t come as a fighting man, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord God of Israel!”
David had the attitude that his God was more than enough to see him through and give him victory. Then he let go of that sling with one hand—with one stone, took down the pride of the Philistines.
David realized that he was facing a giant, but he also understood that he was not facing the giant in his own strength or power. It was the power of God flowing through David that caused him to triumph. In your battles today—whatever it is that you may be facing—it won’t be your own power that will cause you to triumph, but the power of God within you that will bring you through to victory.
You may say, “Yes, but, preacher, you don’t know what I’m going through. My situation seems hopeless.” Remember that the children of Israel faced situation after situation that seemed impossible too. But when they turned to God in covenant, they always came out winners. Under the New covenant, Christians are God’s children, and the Bible says that our New Covenant is a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6).
“Well, how is God going to do it? How is God going to deliver me from this mess I’m in?” When your mind, your flesh and the devil scream out, “No way! I can’t happen,” let your spirit rise up and talk back! Say, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6)
Christ has already purchased our victory. Christ has already triumphed over the enemy in His death, burial and resurrection. The work has been done, and He did it for you and for me.
The body of Christ as a whole has not grasped that fact. We’ve received glimpses of revelation from the Word, and we’ve moved forward with the truth to a degree. But then it seems we allow ourselves to fall back, and we see ourselves as victims instead of victors.
We have God’s Word and His power over the enemy. God has designed you to triumph in Christ! When you become a new creature in Christ, you still live in this world, but you are not longer of this world. This world no longer has any hold on you if you will rise up in Christ and walk in newness of life. Your citizenship is of heaven, and all the rights and privileges of heaven belong to you.
It’s time to take hold of the truth and press on beyond the limits the world has tried to place on you. It’s time to press beyond the limits of your past and live a life beyond limitations.
How can this happen? If I can’t win the battle in my own strength, how do I take hold of the strength of God?
By fighting the good fight of faith!
