HOW SHALL WE THEN
OVERCOME?
Charles Faupel
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me
on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Revelation 3:21; NKJV)
This, and
verses like it in the Revelation and elsewhere throughout scripture have always
posed a problem for me, as I suspect they have for many Christians. The church has, either explicitly or
implicitly, suggested that overcoming requires extraordinary human effort and
extreme diligence in conquering areas of sin in our lives that seem to have a
stronghold. Alcoholics are encouraged to
stay away from bars, attend AA meetings, or even take Antabuse as a deterrent
to using alcohol. Those who deal with
issues of anger are counseled to engage in all manner of strategies, including
“creating space” between yourself and the other person by going into another
room, or even reading scripture verses such as “…do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26) or other
such verses that admonish us to somehow curtail our anger. The problem with all of these strategies is
that, while they may work in any given situation in which we find ourselves,
our attraction to alcohol still remains; the anger within our hearts toward a
particular person or issue is still there.
Every time we encounter a situation that will trigger these fleshly
impulses, we must again attempt to push that giant rock uphill, and there will
be times that we will inevitably fail.
This failure leads to guilt and condemnation, which only adds fuel to
those strongholds in our lives. I
know. I have read all of
the “how to” books—Christian and secular—and applied all of the best
techniques suggested, and was met with utter failure.
Those of us
who have surrendered ourselves to the dealings of God in our lives, allowing
Him to purge and refine us into His image have certainly all faced
discouragement, at times overwhelming us with our inadequacies and
shortcomings. We have, at times
questioned past decisions that we have made.
The church today tells us that when we come to Christ, our path is
lighter, our burdens are lifted. Yet, as
we are going through this severe process of testing and deepening of our faith,
our path does not seem lighter at all. Discouragement,
negative thoughts, even the questioning of our walk with God seems ever
present. How, then, do we overcome all
this that would assail us as we seek to be faithful to His calling in our
lives?
Overcoming
is something far deeper and more profound and involved than merely conquering a
stronghold in one’s life and succeeding in not falling off the wagon (of
alcoholism or any other stronghold). It
is so much more than merely giving ourselves pep talks when we are
discouraged. If we are to be overcomers,
we must understand, first, what it means
to overcome¸ and second, how it is
that we overcome. I must begin by emphasizing that I am writing
“midstream.” That is to say, I am
writing while still in the process of coming to understand how it is that we
overcome, and indeed, what it means to overcome. I write as one who is still in process. I have been impressed to share what this
process has looked like for me as I have struggled with what it means to
overcome.
Let me
address, first, my thoughts on what it
means to overcome. Most of us have
the conception that overcoming means either never being tempted with those
things that have held us prisoner, or if tempted, resisting those temptations
with a more or less perfect 100 percent score.
We know, of course, that we are ultimately being formed into the
likeness of Christ where this complete victory will be accomplished. In the meantime, we are in process. It might be helpful at this point to quote
Revelation 3:21 from the literal translation provided by the Emphatic Diaglott:
The one
overcoming, I will give to him to have sat [with me] in the throne of me,
as also I overcame and am sat down
with the Father of me in the throne of Him.
Notice the
difference in verb tenses here. The “one
overcoming” suggests one in process; one who is being made into the image of
Christ, to ultimately at the end of this process become like Christ, who overcame (past tense). I would suggest, therefore, that what it
means to be an overcomer as suggested in the book of Revelation, is to be one
whom God has called out to sift and to process, to be made into the very image
of His Son. This is significantly
different than what most of us have been taught regarding what it means to be
an overcomer. And it is liberating. It is not that we are being weighed in the
balance, having to achieve some standard of excellence in order to somehow
“earn” the status of being an overcomer, as the King James translation seems to
suggest. The overcomer, rather, is one
who has submitted to the dealings of God.
There are bumps along the way, our flesh nature desperately does not
want to be dealt with and resists—but the overcomer is Christ in us, the hope
of glory. We are the vessel that He is
molding and fashioning, and as we are being molded and fashioned—even while we
are resisting and expressing our soulish expletives—we are overcoming! Overcoming, then, is simply staying in the
fight, remaining in the cauldron of God’s dealings, regardless of our failures.
The question
then becomes, NOT how do we
“successfully” overcome all of our strongholds, BUT RATHER, how do we enter into the process of
overcoming? These are vastly
different questions, which will result in an entirely different response on our
part. I came to the realization many
years ago that I would never, through the most valiant efforts on my part, be
able to overcome the strongholds in my life.
I have shared in other writings of a stronghold in my life that held me
captive throughout my early adulthood, for over 20 years. I had engaged in every conceivable manner to
try to beat it, including getting months upon months of counselling. I would successfully control that beast
within me for days, weeks, and even months.
But then it would rear its ugly head again, and down I would fall. This cycle would lead me to an ever
increasing depression and despair. I was
ready to give up. Late one night after
all of my family had gone to bed, I simply told the Lord, “I’m
ready to do things your way now.” It was
the most frightening prayer that I had ever made because I had no idea what it
might mean. I had not been seriously following
the Lord up until that point, and while raised in a Christian home, I had never
fully surrendered to the Lord. The Lord
met me that night, and those chains were broken. I would certainly have to work out this
salvation experience in the months and years ahead, but I was no longer a slave
to this bondage.
This was my
first lesson in what it means to enter in to the process of overcoming, now
nearly 30 years ago. My job was simply
to make myself available to Him. HE
would do the conquering. It would be a
lesson, however, that would need to be worked into the deepest part of my
being—indeed a lesson that is still unfolding within me. I was on a high of sorts, believing that I
had arrived. And indeed I was committed
to “doing things His way” now.
Nevertheless, I had no idea of the pervasiveness of the beast within
that remained to be conquered. It was as
I began to take up my cross in obedience to Christ that this beastly flesh
nature began to be revealed with increasing clarity. Exposed was a need for control, which would
manifest in anger directed at those I loved most
dearly. Behind this need for control was
a deep-seated fear that ruled more viciously as the years passed. I did not understand this. I had come into the wonderful knowledge that
I had been crucified with Christ, that sin had no power over me. Yet, here I was struggling with fear, anger
and a need for control over my circumstances.
I began to doubt my experience in God, even doubting whether I was truly
one of His called out ones.[1] Over some very difficult years of struggle
with the raging cauldron within me, the Lord began to reveal that He was behind
all of these struggles that I was experiencing for purposes of exposing and
dealing with those hidden parts of my old Adamic
flesh. This old man was lurking there
all along, but I had been able to “manage” it, and therefore was not aware of
how deeply rooted he was. Only after
years of useless self-effort to control my fear and anger was I able to accept
the reality that I would never be able to keep this guy in check. Another lesson in the curriculum of truly
learning what it means to overcome.
Old Adam Has Been Put to Death!
Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6).
I came to a
critical point in this struggle to overcome when I realized that old Adam had already been crucified with Christ. The Greek word used in this passage
translated as “with” is systauroō , which
suggests being crucified “along with” or “in company with.” It is the same word that is used in the
gospel accounts of the two thieves being crucified with Christ. I might be so bold as to suggest that those
two thieves represent all of humanity, past, present and future. The church has been very successful
in thundering forth the message that we are “but sinners saved by grace.” The proclamation is, indeed, that we have
been saved by grace and that through no works of our own but through faith
(Ephesians 2:8). This is indeed a message
that we treasure, even as Paul goes on to say in the same verse that this faith
is not of ourselves but is itself a gift from God. The proclamation that the churches make,
however, goes beyond this glorious declaration.
They further claim that we remain sinners, that the Adamic
nature is still alive and well, and remains the controlling influence in our
lives. The cross of 2000 years ago has
been relegated to nothing more than a forgiveness for
sin, and indeed for our sinful nature.
The church of today fails to appreciate the fact that Jesus’ death and
His subsequent resurrection dealt the death blow to the sinful Adamic nature. The
implication (and all too often the overt message) is that there is a war raging
within us between Satan and God, and the outcome of that war depends upon the
decisions and life choices that we make.
We do, of course, make decisions, and those decisions do have
consequences. I fervently declare,
however, that this battle has been won, and with Paul affirm that this body of
sin within us has indeed been destroyed, crucified. Whatever power it now has is but a
smokescreen playing upon our minds through the deception with which the prince
of this world (Satan) would try to convince us otherwise.
It is very
difficult to come against this deception, as we have been indoctrinated with it
all of our lives through the various religious traditions that have been so
effective in holding us in bondage to this lie of the enemy. It does no good to merely “pretend” that the
doubts, fears or vices which plague us are not there, nor does it do any good
to try to conquer them through any efforts of our own. We have all been around that bush too many
times. What we are called upon to do is
to proclaim His truth over these assaults on our physical and soul man. Paul instructs us
(For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
What are the
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God other than
the fears, doubts and bondages that imprison us to a life of total defeat! What does it mean, then, to bring…into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ regarding these strongholds? I have so often found myself speaking forth
the fears or the hopelessness of the circumstances that I would find myself
in. Such
chatter is coming into agreement with the enemy! I have been so slow in learning that I must
speak forth God’s truth over the matter.
And the truth is that that old man of sin within us HAS BEEN CRUCIFIED! This act of speaking God’s Truth in
opposition to the circumstances we see and the feelings that we feel is
contrary to our natural tendencies, as the natural thing to do is to simply
voice our feelings. Indeed, it feels
hypocritical to speak forth the truth of God’s Word when we don’t feel it in
our sensate soul man. It is not
hypocritical! His Word is truth; our
feelings are the lies. It takes
discipline and practice to speak forth the truth of God over a matter. The truth that we speak may come from a
portion of scripture that the Lord brings to mind. The truth that we are to speak may come from
a direct Word that the Lord has spoken and incarnated into our spirit in the
past. Or, this Word may be spoken to us
by another person. However this Word of
Truth comes we recognize it by the way it resonates Life—not condemnation or
discouragement—within us. Regardless of
how we have received God’s truth, it is that truth that we speak into the
situations in our lives. We cannot
assume, of course, that simply speaking forth His Word on any single occasion
will destroy the strongholds in our lives.
Nor will we necessarily feel the
reality of that truth as we speak it on any given occasion. Speaking God’s truth is the lifestyle of overcoming that He is bent
on forming within us, and that over time will produce great overcoming fruit.
We are a New Creature!
Paul tells
us that “…if any man [be] in Christ, [he
is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new” (2Corinthians 5:17). Our old
nature has indeed been dealt the final death blow on Calvary’s cross. More than that, however, we have been given a
new nature, that of Christ. He now
resides within us, and it is His power within us that will ultimately conquer
the sin and death that is still at work within our consciousness. We know this to be a truth at one level, of
course, but when the temptations come, when the paralyzing fear grips us, or
when circumstances arise that remind us of the hurts and rejection that we have
experienced at the hands of another person, we are naturally prone to respond
out of the old habits that have worn their groove so deeply that we forget our
identity as new creatures in Christ.
Nevertheless, through each of these episodes, He is working His nature
more deeply into our being. We are often
not aware of that new identity, and it does not always manifest clearly in our
behavior during these trying times, but it is being established in us during
each and every one of these challenges nonetheless. We must know this despite what we feel or
think at these moments. And we must also
know that He is the one—not us in our self-efforts—who is now in the process of conquering these strongholds. We participate with Him in this process, but
our very participation is only made possible as He gives us abundantly of His
grace to so participate. We have for too
long taken upon ourselves the responsibility for overcoming, and have condemned
ourselves severely at the point of each failing effort. Let me assure you, dear friend, that while we
might have failed in our efforts, He
hasn’t! Indeed, we have been set up to
fail so that He might receive the ultimate glory for the victory that HE is in
the process of delivering.
There is Therefore Now No
Condemnation!
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)
There is possibly no greater
stumbling block to an overcoming lifestyle than the natural tendency that we
have to condemn ourselves when we fail to respond in an “overcoming” manner to
life’s circumstances. Paul obviously encountered this as
well, as the verse above is in response to the struggle that he had with
dealing with the sin within his own members, a struggle that occupies much of
Chapter Seven of his letter to the Romans.
The crux of this dilemma is found in verse 18 of that chapter:
For I know that in me (that is, in my
flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.
So it is
that we all find ourselves in that unenviable position of knowing what it is
that our new creation man wants to do, but powerless to do it. Many of us have been around the bush dozens
of times attempting the good and being met by failure. Inevitably, we beat ourselves up.
Our mistake,
of course, is believing that WE (that is our flesh
man, old Adam) can conquer those strongholds in our lives in the first
place. That will never happen, nor was
this ever possible. This was
demonstrated through thousands of years of Old Testament history. Israel was never able to keep God’s law. This did not surprise God in the least. God’s purpose in giving the law to Moses was
not to place obligations on His people that He fully expected them to
fulfill. He knew they couldn’t. His purpose was to reveal the fact that they
couldn’t! He had a remedy for that in
the person of His first born Son, who took upon Himself the sins of the world,
past, present and future. We (old Adam)
were crucified with Him that day. And so
it is that that man of sin in our members is a trespasser. We have died to that trespasser, and as Paul
says, it is no longer we who live,
but Christ who lives in us. This is the
reality as declared by God through the pen of His servant Paul. Nevertheless, the trespasser haunts us, and
his greatest weapon is deceiving us into believing that we are that man of
sin. He would try to convince us that we
really are not a new creation, but are “nothing but a sinner saved by
grace.”
And so,
after sharing his fierce struggle with that man of sin, Paul triumphantly
declares that “there is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus, and walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Our failures merely expose the gasping
desperation of the enemy of our soul to convince us that we are not truly “in-Christed;” that we are not truly a new creation, with
Christ Himself as our new identity, but the same old Adam that we always
were. To this assault of condemnation we
resound with Paul that we are a new creature, that
this which is invading our soul man (our mind, emotions and even our bodies) is
a trespasser, a liar, a thief and a murderer.
We proclaim our identity in Christ.
This, too, is a lifestyle that is developed over time. As we so proclaim who He declares us to be, the enemy’s power to condemn us is progressively
diminished.
Our “Failure” is Part of God’s Great
Curriculum
Our natural
tendency is to experience our testings and challenges
as some sort of “final exam” wherein we are examined over all of the principles
that we have learned throughout the course of our “classroom” experience (our
walk with God thus far). We determine
whether we have overcome by what grade we have received on this final
exam. Do we respond with anger as we
once did? Just a
little less anger? Well, I guess
that deserves a C-. Do we submit to the
temptation of alcohol and get blasted drunk?
Hmm. We
failed. An F. Or possibly we had only three drinks and
stopped there. Praise God, we passed,
though with a mediocre C; or maybe we succumbed and went to the tavern but
after entering had to courage to back out and leave. How wonderful we feel. Our great teacher gave us a grade of A-. Better yet, we resisted going to the bar
altogether and earned our coveted A+.
This approach to overcoming is illustrated by a story that I once heard
at a Promise Keeper’s rally that was presented as a picture of how we are to
overcome: A man was walking down the street and fell into an open man hole. He yelled and yelled for someone to pull him
out and waited for hours until someone came.
The next day the man was walking down the same street and fell into the
same man hole. This time he discovered
that there were protrusions on the side of the hole and managed to get himself
out. The next day he was walking down
the same street and almost fell into the man hole, but saw it just in time and
jumped over it. The next day he was
walking down the same street and saw the man hole well in advance and walked a
wide berth around it without ever being in danger of falling in. The next day he took a different street.
This is the
understanding of overcoming that most of us have been taught. Sadly, it doesn’t help us much when we don’t
see the open man hole in the other street that we take and fall head long into
it! The problem with this approach is
that one day we may pass with flying colors and the next day we fail
miserably. New circumstances arise for
which we are not prepared, and we respond by default as we have so many times
in the past. In short, the new street
that we took as the answer to our failures also had a manhole and because it
looked a little different, we weren’t prepared for it and we fell right
in!
The truth of
the matter is that this is not the correct paradigm for understanding this
dilemma that we are facing in our lives.
This is not the nature of
God’s curriculum. To use the same
analogy of a classroom curriculum, the testings that
we face are much more akin to a preliminary exam (not a final exam), the
purpose of which is to simply reveal those areas of the curriculum that our
teacher or professor uses to focus his or her lessons to insure that we will be
prepared to eventually take the final exam. We don’t expect to ace such a preliminary
exam, and there is no shame or condemnation when we fail miserably. We knew we would fail and that is why we
signed up for the course in the first place!
The Great Teacher then designs a curriculum focused on those areas of
weakness so as to perfect us and prepare us for that great “final exam.” And, praise God, our successful passing of the
final exam has already been predetermined by our Great Professor!
We must
understand that God is not surprised by our failures. We have, in a very real sense, been set up to
fail. In my experience, there are at
least two purposes that God is setting out to accomplish in our failures. First, He is demonstrating to us that WE
cannot overcome; that is, the overcoming of strongholds in our lives will never
be accomplished in our own strength.
Without failure, we quickly come (even unconsciously) to attribute our
success to the strategies and techniques that we have learned, and lean on our
own knowledge and strength to continue on in victory. God will have none of this. He has us on a path of complete dependence
upon Him. If He reveals to us a strategy
to overcome, He is determined that our faith and our confidence will not be in
the strategy, but rather in Him, the source of that strategy. At whatever point we become dependent on the
strategy rather than on Him and Him alone, He will make arrangements for a
failure. His primary purpose in all of our struggles is not that we will always
be successful in overcoming, but rather that we become made in His image, which
means total dependence upon Him, complete surrender to Him and His purposes,
and a recognition that it is Him in us who has conquered all sin.
A second
purpose for our failures is related to the first. Our failures are built into the very
curriculum that God has for us as overcomers.
There is much that is wrought within us through our failures. Our very sense of failure and the
condemnation that we so often feel during these times are the very things that
drive us back to God in humility, dependence and surrender. This posture is reinforced and deepened with
every failure. I remember coming to a
place where I felt nothing but disdain for myself—that is, old Adam who seemed
to be continually haunting me—after struggling with several bouts of anger and
fear. You see, I had been operating
under the illusion that I had total control over this man of sin. That was my problem. I thought that I had control. Indeed, as long as I was in control over my
circumstances, I did not have a problem with fear or anger. When circumstances arose that were out of my
control, or when my desires or felt needs clashed with my wife or someone who
was insisting on something other than my felt needs, I began to feel out of
control. Fear ensued,
followed by anger, often at those I loved most.
This is all by God’s design as He is bringing me to a place of trust in
Him, a place of Sabbath rest wherein I lean not on my own understanding or
abilities, but rather on His loving care and provision.
Entering in to His Sabbath Rest
I once heard
a speaker make what seemed like a very strange statement, but one the resonated
deep within me. He said that the most
effective weapon in spiritual warfare is entering in to God’s Sabbath rest. I would also suggest that the most effective
weapon in overcoming is entering into the Sabbath rest of God. This is, of course not something that we can
simply “will” to do. Yet, the writer of
Hebrews counsels us to “labor” to enter in to His Sabbath rest. The Greek word for labor here is spoudazo, which suggests
being very intentional about something.
The same word is used by Paul when he tells young Timothy to “study” to
show himself approved unto God…
Elsewhere the word is translated as “diligence.” Hence, while entering the Sabbath rest of the
Lord is indeed a supernatural gifting of God’s grace, we are participants in
the process of entering that rest.
So how is it
that we enter this Sabbath rest? I would
suggest that this rest comes as we apply the principles that have been
discussed here. This rest comes, first,
as we recognize that the axe has been laid to the root of the strongholds that
have been binding us. This was
accomplished at the cross. The power
that these strongholds have is an illusory power that has convinced us that we
ARE that sinful expression that these strongholds suggest. To state it more directly, we have become
convinced that we ARE an alcoholic or an addict of whatever stripe; that we ARE
a control freak; that we ARE a wife or child abuser; that we ARE nothing but a
sinner; that we ARE, in short, whatever expression that the strongholds in our
life take. The truth is, this is our old nature that has been put to death (Romans
6:6). We who are in Christ are now a new
creature (2 Corinthians 5:17)! It is
true, of course, that the character of this new
creature that we are must be worked out in us.
It does not magically come upon the surrender of our lives to the
Lordship of Christ. Indeed, it is this
surrender that gives the Lord permission to raise these old dead bones to the
surface so that He can purge them from us.
It is indeed this very struggle, and I dare to say, the very failures that we experience, that is the working out of the
new creature that we are. What is
critical to understand, however, is that it is now Christ in us who is doing
this work. Our
stumbles along the way are no cause for condemnation; He knew that we would
stumble all along.
Our feelings
will condemn us when we stumble. Our
feelings are part of that soul man whose redemption is still being worked
out. They are, therefore, still
vulnerable to the incredibly persuasive power of the adversary. This adversary is the thief that Jesus said
is come to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
But Jesus said that “I am come that
they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John
10:10). And so it is that at these times
of so-called failure we learn NOT to give voice to our feelings, but to speak
His powerful truth into every situation in which we find ourselves. As we develop this discipline, we discover
His Sabbath rest.
What an
adventure it is that we are finding ourselves on. I confess without hesitation that I am still
in the middle of the learning curve. The
failures are still very much a part of my experience. I am learning, however, that speaking forth
His truth, and that declaring myself to be who He says
that I now am is the armor that He has provided to withstand the darts of the
enemy. Yes, as we engage the struggle in
this way we are indeed “the one(s) overcoming” (Revelation 3:21)! This is no new deep spiritual
revelation. It has been declared
throughout the centuries by men and women in whom it has become incarnate. Indeed, many who are reading this short
article have entered far more deeply into this Sabbath rest than have I. I pray, however,
that these elementary principles will provide encouragement and strength to anyone
struggling with strongholds in their life that seem impossible to
overcome. He has already won the victory
in your life, and despite the appearances, He is now in the process of working
it out in your experience!