Greetings again my Brethren. Last month we started looking at the things in our life we must overcome in our response to the LORD as He sends us to overcome! Boy does that sound great. Did you know the verb form to overcome is victory? John tells talking about Jesus and then sets the stage for inheriting all things from God, “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” (Revelation 21:6-7) Please notice we do not inherit all things from God just because we are saved or we have served Him for years or we have been used mightily. Oh no, the condition we must meet to receive all things, the things God has prepared for us is to overcome. Not too many Christians want to be in the fight they think God is going to do all of the work all they have to do is believe in Jesus and He will take it from there, wrong my friend. Even believing is not enough. We were in the commissary last week and spoke with a sweet much older lady who we see every Saturday. Karen and her usually talk, but this Saturday she opened up talking about the Bible. And made the statement all we have to do is believe and I said yes, but it is much more than believing, even devils believe. James tells us, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” (James 2:19) I then said I know some churches (I guess that hit home) that do not believe the Bible as it is written or even believe the Gospel message. I then began quoting, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7) and told her we must allow God’s word to dwell within us and she then diverted the conversation to, “I have been going to my Methodist church for 60 years. Enough said. She is a wonderful, sweet lady, but I am afraid she knows little to nothing of the word of God. 60 years of faithful attendance will do nothing for her to be able to inherit the things God has prepared for her unless she is an overcomer. Not too many Christians are overcomers. Did you know to be an overcomer we must go over things in our lives? Not under or around them, but over them. We are not called undercomers, but overcomers. We must in victory overcome those things in our lives that would keep us from inheriting the blessing God has for us. You know when I was younger we would sing a song, “Abraham’s Blessing Are Mine.” Everyone would get all worked up jumping and dancing, Abraham’s blessing are mine! Well one day it dawned on me. I do not want Abraham’s blessings I want the blessing God has prepared for me. The song is spiritually wrong. I cannot inherit Abraham’s blessings they are reserved for him like his crown. Now please know Abraham’s or my crown will be inherited. The things God has for us are to be inherited and if we fail in our life to receive our crown it will not be lost oh no God will give it to someone else. Yes to be used of God in His call for our lives we must overcome social claims. Last month we looked at occupational claims, but social claims may even be harder. We humans in 2020 are so social. We even have social media that is destroying the amount of God in us. The more we go towards the world and technology the less of God will be in us. Make no mistake my friend God is calling us into service and He does not want to hear any excuses. He knows what he is doing and He knows who He is calling. In Mark 1:19-20 we see the call of James and John the sons of Zebedee the sons of thunder, “And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. 20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.” (Mark 1:19-20) The brother did it right. There was no second questioning or “who me?” just a recognition of who was calling them and immediate obedience to the call. I liked that so much let me say the again. A recognition of who was calling them and immediate obedience to the call. Do not miss the first step recognizing who is calling. All throughout our lives we will get calls some on phones and more importantly one call for commitment and dedication to someone or something. The call of the phones probably not as important as the calls into service. Make sure, make sure, take heed the one calling is of God and knows where He is going. I have seen so many Christians gather a group of people together to glorify the LORD, well that is good, but what is next. Sadly they have no direction or plan to execute from God. If God is not saying it then He is not sending you. And once you hear and know the call is of God give an unmeasured amount of time and energy to God and His plan for your life. Here is where the overcoming happens. Of course the biggest thing probably you will have to overcome is your self
Next month we will continue to look at some things in our lives we MUST overcome to be able to answer the LORD’s call in our lives. Do you hear Him calling? Please know God is calling. Walter Beuttler said if you build God a temple He will inhabit it. Have you built God a temple? If you do He will abide and wait for you. Written by David Stahl
