Light of the World Today
Parts 1 to 3 showed you what was promised, how to position for it and how to take delivery of it. Part 4 answers the question that every restored person eventually asks. How do I make sure I keep what I have received and continue to live in the victory that God has established?
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:37-39 NIV
Romans 8:37 does not say we are conquerors. It says we are more than conquerors. That phrase in the original Greek is hypernikao. Hyper meaning above and beyond. Nikao meaning to overcome and to be victorious. We are above and beyond victorious. Not occasionally. Not on the days when circumstances cooperate. In all these things. The phrase all these things refers directly to the list that Paul just gave in verse 35. Trouble. Hardship. Persecution. Famine. Nakedness. Danger. Sword. In all of those specific and deeply unpleasant things. More than conquerors. The victory that God has established for the restored believer is not a fragile thing that can be knocked over by a difficult week. It is a comprehensive and permanent reality that operates above and beyond every circumstance that attempts to challenge it. But it does need to be actively maintained. And knowing how to maintain it is the most important practical skill available to the person who has just come through a season of restoration and who is determined not to go back.
Victory Is a Position Before It Is an Experience
The single most important thing to understand about maintaining a victorious and restored life is this. Victory in the kingdom of God is first a position and then an experience. It is first a legal and spiritual reality established at Calvary and then a daily manifestation that grows as the person understands and occupies the position that was established for them. Ephesians 2:6 in the NIV says God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Seated. Past tense. Already done. Your position above every circumstance, above every spiritual opposition and above every expression of darkness is not something you are working toward. It is the position you currently occupy in Christ whether you are experiencing the reality of it or not.
The practical implication of this is enormous. When difficulty arrives in the life of a restored person, the question is not whether God is still in control or whether the victory has been reversed. It has not. The question is whether the restored person is occupying their seat or whether they have vacated it under the pressure of the circumstance. You cannot be defeated from a position above the fight. You can only be defeated by leaving the position. And the daily disciplines of the victorious life are not the activities that produce the victory. They are the practices that keep you seated in the position where the victory is already established.
"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."
Ephesians 2:6 NIV
A Biblical Example: David After Goliath
The story of David and Goliath is the most well-known victory narrative in the entire Bible. But the part of David's story that most people never discuss as carefully is what happened after Goliath fell. 1 Samuel 17:51-52 records that after David killed Goliath the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines. The victory over Goliath did not produce a moment of celebration followed by a return to the status quo. It produced a momentum that Israel pursued. They surged forward. They did not stand still admiring what had just happened. They moved into the territory that the victory opened.
And David himself did not rest on the single victory. 1 Samuel 18:5 in the NIV says whatever mission Saul sent him on, David behaved himself wisely, and Saul set him over the men of war. He was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. The person who maintained the victorious life after Goliath was a person who continued to behave wisely, to accept new assignments, to serve faithfully in every context and to allow each new challenge to become the next stone in the cathedral of what God was building in his life. The victory was not maintained by David sitting down and protecting what he had. It was maintained by David continuing to be who he was in every circumstance that followed. The restored life is maintained the same way. Not by defending what was received but by continuing forward with the character, the faithfulness and the daily practices that made the restoration possible in the first place.
"Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David behaved himself wisely, and Saul set him over the men of war."
1 Samuel 18:5 NKJV
Seven Daily Practices That Maintain the Restored and Victorious Life
1. Keep your mind set on things above, not on things below
Colossians 3:2 in the NIV says set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. The mind is the primary battleground of the maintained victorious life. Not the circumstances. Not the finances. Not the relationships. The mind. Because what the mind is consistently set on determines what the person consistently becomes. The restored person who allows their mental attention to drift back to the locust years, rehearsing the losses, replaying the pain and measuring the present against the past, is the person who is most vulnerable to losing the ground they received during restoration. Set the mind above. Daily. Deliberately. On who God says you are. On what his Word says about your situation. On the promises that are still unfolding. And on the character of the God who started this and who does not abandon what he begins.
2. Guard your mouth and speak life consistently
Proverbs 18:21 in the NKJV says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. The fruit of the tongue is the life the tongue is consistently producing. The restored person who speaks doubt, limitation, fear and the language of the old season over their new season is eating the fruit of those words as surely as the person who speaks faith, abundance, healing and the promises of God is eating the fruit of theirs. Maintain the victorious life by making the daily deliberate choice to speak what God says rather than what the circumstances suggest. Not as a denial of reality. As the declaration of a higher reality that is more permanent than the temporary one that is currently visible.
3. Stay in the Word every single day without exception
Joshua 1:8 in the NLT says study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. The condition for the Joshua-quality of prospering and succeeding in all you do is continuous engagement with the Word. Not occasional. Continuous. The Word of God is the primary instrument through which God communicates his will, renews the mind, recalibrates the drift, provides wisdom for specific decisions and maintains the quality of faith that the victorious life requires. The person who maintains a daily, unhurried, genuine engagement with the Word is the person who is being continuously recalibrated toward the position of victory that Ephesians 2:6 describes. Let nothing displace it. Not the busyness of the productive season. Not the discouragement of the difficult one. The Word is the daily nourishment of the victorious life and a life without it will become gradually malnourished regardless of how full the schedule is.
4. Pray without ceasing and never allow the prayer life to drift
1 Thessalonians 5:17 in the NKJV says pray without ceasing. That is not a command to spend twenty-four hours on your knees. It is the description of a life in which the consciousness of God and the dialogue with him are so integrated into the fabric of the day that prayer is not a scheduled activity set apart from ordinary life. It is the ongoing posture of a person who is continuously aware of who they are talking to and continuously drawing on the resource that the relationship provides. The restored and victorious life is maintained by prayer in the same way that a fire is maintained by fuel. When the fuel stops the fire reduces. Keep the prayer life burning. Give it the first hours of the morning as the priority it deserves. And let nothing that arrives in the day feel too urgent to be brought to God before it is acted on.
5. Remain in genuine Christian community and never isolate
Ecclesiastes 4:12 in the NIV says though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Isolation is the environment in which every form of spiritual vulnerability is most acute. The restored and victorious person is the person who is deeply planted in genuine Christian community, who gives and receives honestly, who submits to spiritual covering and who builds relationships that are authentic enough to provide real accountability when the drift begins. The person who withdraws from community after a season of restoration, believing they are now spiritually established enough to manage alone, is the person who is most likely to need the same restoration again in a shorter time than they imagine. Stay connected. Stay planted. Stay covered.
6. Walk in continuous gratitude and thanksgiving
Psalm 100:4 in the NKJV says enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. Thanksgiving is not a spiritual supplement. It is the specific posture that keeps the heart in the correct orientation toward God and toward what he has done. The person who maintains a consistent, specific and daily practice of thanking God for the restoration they have received, for the blessings that are now visible and for the promises that are still unfolding, is the person who is most consistently positioned in the atmosphere of faith that the victorious life requires. Gratitude keeps the eyes fixed on what God has done and what he is doing rather than on what is not yet complete. And that orientation is the most consistently productive spiritual posture available.
7. Use the restored life to serve and give back generously
Luke 6:38 in the NLT says give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. The victorious life is not a life that accumulates what it has received and protects it. It is a life that gives from what it has received and watches as the giving produces more return than the protecting ever could. The person who emerges from a season of restoration and immediately begins looking for who they can serve, what they can give and how the specific experience of their locust years and their restoration can be used to help others who are still in the middle of theirs, is the person who has fully understood what the restoration was for. It was never only for you. It was for everyone who is waiting on the other side of your testimony, your generosity and your willingness to give back from what God gave you.
So the Light of the World word for today and for the final close of this four-part series is this. You are more than a conqueror. Not because the circumstances have all resolved in your favour. Because Romans 8:37 says so and it says so in the middle of a list of the most difficult circumstances available to a human being. Your seat in the heavenly realms in Christ has not been vacated. Your restoration is not a temporary loan. Your victory is not conditional on the cooperation of the people and situations around you. It is the permanent, legally established, blood-purchased reality of your life in Christ. Set your mind on it. Speak it. Feed it with the Word. Fuel it with prayer. Maintain it in community. Express it in gratitude. And multiply it through generosity. The locust years are behind you. The restored and victorious life is in front of you. Walk into it today and do not look back.
Memory verse for today
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
Romans 8:37 NIV.