More Than a Conqueror
A 3 part series on our purpose on the Earth
Pt. 1
We are Called to be Conquerors.
Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Greek Word for conqueror here is hupernikao. Vines New Testament dictionary says that hupernikao is to gain a surpassing victory, lit., "we are hyper-conquerors," i.e., we are pre-eminently victorious.\
We are not just conquerors (nikao) we are much more, we are super conquerors (hupernikao). WOW.
This may come as a revelation to many Christians, but we are not supposed to be punching bags for the devil, this is not what God called us to be. He called us to be conquerors and to walk in victory over every adversity. Many Christians pray and ask God to please take away the problems of life, they just don’t realize that God has equipped us to do it. We are to walk in the victory that has been bought for us. The Word of God has a lot to say about this, and not just in the New Testament, this is a recurring theme through the whole Bible.
It started in the garden of Eden. Genesis 1:28. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.''
God told Adam to subdue and also to have dominion over all the Earth. Adam was given great authority. He had the legal rights to this planet, yet he gave those rights over to Satan.
It was not until the second Adam, Jesus, that we were able to receive back what was originally given to Adam, this authority was legally purchased back and given to us.
Thousands of years later, Jesus came, but before He started His earthly ministry He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all have accounts of this. Jesus had to go through real temptation and overcome many things before He could start His ministry here on Earth. We have got to understand that Jesus had choices to make or it would not have been a real temptation.
The first thing that Jesus did was submit to God and be baptized, at this time God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit to do service. The second thing He did was to make a declaration of His mission. He declared why He was sent.
Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
- to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.''
Jesus was sent by God the Father to heal broken hearts, deliver the captives, recover sight for the blind, and to liberate the oppressed, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord was the year of jubilee. This was the year of restoration for the Jew’s, when houses and lands were restored, slaves were set free, and restitution was made.
Jesus made it plain this is what He came to do, to free us, to liberate us. He came to restore what was taken. He was called to conquer. I would like to ask you the question, has He changed even a little bit? No He has not, however Satan is still the God of this world.
Jesus gave us instructions before He left, He told us to …
Mark 16:15-20. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.'' So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Jesus has commissioned us to carry on the work in His name. He transferred His authority to us. He called us to conquer. Jesus has restored the authority that Adam lost in the garden of Eden, but many believers are ignorant of the authority that they truly have. We have to learn to walk in this authority by exercising our faith in the Word of God. Religion says no, and has taught us to be mealy bug Christians, just barely getting along. However that is not what God's Word says. Jesus told his disciples to go, however before they could go they were told …
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Just as Jesus had to have God’s anointing, so He gave the Holy Spirit to His disciples to carry out His commission. They had to wait for the Holy Spirit before they could begin to carry out God's great commission didn’t they?
As we step out in faith and go, we will also grow in grace and knowledge. There is a learning process here, as we go we grow. However we are not on our own.
Jesus said …
John 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
The enemy is still here and very real. That is the thing about being a conqueror, you’re not a conqueror if you don’t have an enemy to conquer are you? How are we going to be super conquerors as the Word of God says when we are the ones who are always begging God to take us out of every bad situation that pops up? I’m not saying bad situations are fun, I’m saying we have a purpose on this Earth to stand up in the authority that Jesus purchased back legally for us and to do something about the problem. Jesus dealt with problems every step of the way, He fought devils and sickness every step of the way. He fought religious bigotry every step of the way. He was not here asking God to deliver Him from the sickness disease and spiritual death that was all around Him, He was sent to do something about these things. He was sent to conquer these things. He was here to destroy the works of Satan.
1 John 3:8. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
This is the whole purpose of being a conqueror, to destroy the works of the devil. To overcome every adversity that Satan throws our way. This is not just for our benefit but for the benefit of the whole world. This is the message we carry, we have been given the message of reconciliation to God, and it is our job to share this good news with the world.
We have to receive the revelation of God's Word and realize that beggars and paupers are not conquerors!!! This is just exactly what we are called to do, to subdue the Earth and have dominion over it. We are not talking about conquering land masses but the physical and spiritual oppression of the enemy. If there was no enemy there would be no conquerors, We would have nothing to conquer. We would just be inhabititors. We have been called to walk as children of God and to walk in the authority Jesus has given to us. Jesus said…
Luke 10:19 "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
This authority has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, but it does us no good if we will not learn to walk in it, and to also take this message to others.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This is truly the good news of the Gospel, and we are the ones sent to declare the freedom in Jesus Christ. We have to declare Jesus can heal broken hearts, deliver the captives, recover sight for the blind, and to liberate the oppressed, and we have to declare the year of jubilee is here, now!!!!!! If you have never thought about yourself like a super conqueror then I would like to for you to take stock and begin to see yourself through the eyes of God's Word.
Pt. 2
The Purpose of being a Conqueror
In this second study I would like to start off again with the words of the Apostle Paul, and defining what a conqueror is.
Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We said the Greek Word for conqueror here is hupernikao. Vines New Testament dictionary says that hupernikao is to gain a surpassing victory, lit., "we are hyper-conquerors," i.e., we are pre-eminently victorious.\
In this study I would like to talk about the purpose for our being conquerors. Have you ever stopped to consider the reason for us being called to conquer? Jesus has already defeated Satan, yet he is still in this world and he still has power. However his authority has been taken away. He no longer has the authority to use that power, we are the spiritual police that have been placed here to enforce God's plan for this Earth.
Jesus said in Luke 10:19. "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
This is the New king James version. The original King James said behold I give you power.
The correct translation here is authority as the New King James says it. Vines says authority means… From the meaning of "leave or permission," or liberty of doing as one pleases, it passed to that of "the ability or strength with which one is endued," then to that of the "power of authority," the right to exercise power, also the power of rule or government," the power of one whose will and commands must be obeyed by others, that which is subject to authority or rule, one who possesses authority, a ruler, magistrate.
In other words Jesus said we were given the right to command and exercise power over the enemy. He is the One who has given us this authority. We were given very specific authority for a purpose. Without the authority to use God's power we would fail in our mission here. However God has not called us to fail. We are called to conquer. As we said in the first study, if there was no enemy we would not need to be a conqueror. I realize this sounds like an obvious statement, but it is a truth that much of the body of Christ has not seen. If there was no obstacle to overcome, God would not have needed to give us the ability to overcome would He??? He has given us the authority to overcome and has done so, so that we can fulfill our purpose here on this Earth, to fulfill the great commission.
Jesus said we are the salt of the Earth, what good is salt if it has lost its saltiness. It’s no good at all. We are here to preserve this Earth, not just to take up space. We do this by walking in the authority that Jesus has given to us. We are here to enforce what Jesus has already accomplished. We are here to take back by the power of God what Satan is illegally taking from God's children. That’s the reason for the authority. Not just so there would be no problems. There are always going to be problems. We have been called to enforce God's rule and overcome every problem so that the Gospel can go forth over the Earth.
But first of all we have to understand that there is a process to this. We don’t start out as walking as world conquerors, even though we have been given the authority we have to learn to walk in these things. We start out as babies. We have to learn to walk in this victory so that we can keep and preserve the land that we have overcome, and not loose what we have gained. I have seen people delivered by the power of God and then some months later loose what they had received. The reason for this is that they had no teaching on how to keep the victory. They did not know how to walk in a sustained state of victory and maintain what they had been given. They lost what was legally theirs. They still had the authority to stay delivered, but they didn’t know how to walk in it. God wants us to conquer the land progressively and keep what we have won. It’s hard to take the victory away from someone who has conquered the land and fortified the walls after they inhabited it. On the other hand if they had just walked into the land and pitched a tent, they would be ripe for the enemies picking so to speak.
The Old Testament is full of such examples and they are there for our benefit. We can see how the children of Israel succeeded and also failed if they didn’t follow God's plan.
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
Let's take a look at an Old Testament example of this.
Exodus 23:27-30. "I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.
We can see God's intent here in this passage of Scripture. His sole purpose all along was for them to occupy the land and not loose it. He didn’t call them into the desert to fail, but because they would not accept that, and were disobedient and not trusting, they had to die off first before a new generation could come in and inherited the promised land.
These people of God were never able to inherit the promised land because they refused to put their trust in Him.
They were called to the land that they were to inherit. They were called to the land that they were to conqueror. God did all the work and they got the promise, yet they had a part to play in this. They had to trust God, and walk in obedience. We also see that it didn’t happen all at once for a very good reason. It happened gradually so that the land would not become desolate, and be taken over by the beasts of the field. You don’t have to strain very hard in order to see the New Testament correlation in this.
God went before them and drove out the enemy, then He walked the children of Israel into their land in such a way that they would be able to keep it, and sustain it. Little by little.
The children of Israel had to inhabit the land as they conquered it. There was a process to fulfilling God's plan. God ordains growth this way, least we loose the victory. God always has a purpose for us to conquer the land and we must follow His directions in order to succeed. God has ordained us to conquer our enemies. He has also called us to conquer the circumstances that would get in the way of what He has called us to do. We have all had circumstances in life that have seemed to overwhelm us at times yet God has called us to walk through them victoriously, not die in them. The children of Israel were led into the wilderness into very adverse circumstances, an estimated 3 to 4 million people with no food or water. They would not consider that God had not delivered them out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt, to give them a new life. They murmured and complained against Moses all the time. There are 11 different Scriptures making mention of this in the Old Testament. God had a plan and a purpose all along if they would have just trusted Him. Murmuring and complaining will only defeat you in life. As I have already stated, God did not call them into the wilderness to die, yet that is just what happened because of their murmuring and complaining, and their thankless attitude.
1 Corinthians 10:9-10 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Murmuring and complaining will only open the door to the enemy and gives him an opportunity to thwart the plan and purpose of God in your life, again, this was never God's will for them. God led them through a series of circumstances to teach them to trust in Him, not to destroy them. They were given the opportunity to learn to trust in Him. This was a time of preparation. Have you ever considered that they would have never conquered the promised land if they had not learned to trust in God first? It was through all the wilderness experiences that they truly got this opportunity. They were constantly surrounded by enemies as well as adverse circumstances that seemed to say you can’t succeed, yet God delivered them out of them all!!!!! There is a lesson here for us all. The Lord is our complete resource, yet we have to come to acknowledge His total provision. Let's learn from their experiences.
Let's look at our opening Scripture again, Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have to learn as the children of Israel did, to put our trust in Him. As conquerors we have to come to the place where we put our total trust in God, or we will never conquer the land as our Lord intended.
Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
God is faithful, we must praise him in every circumstance of life, not for every circumstance but in every circumstance. He is all sufficient to meet our every need regardless of what is thrown our way. The children of Israel would not put away their slave mentality and place their trust in God. He can be trusted. Lift up your eyes, we serve the one true God who is more than sufficient in every circumstance of life.
Pt. 3
(Taking The Land)
In this third study I would like to again start with the words of the Apostle Paul, and define what a conqueror is.
Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As we already said, the Greek Word for conqueror is hupernikao. Vines New Testament dictionary says that hupernikao is to gain a surpassing victory, lit., "we are hyper-conquerors," i.e., we are pre-eminently victorious. Literally, super conquerors.
In this study let's look at the ultimate goal of a conqueror. That is to take and inhabit the land that God has called us into. What would be accomplished if we could take the land, but not inhabit and maintain what we have been given?
Lets look at the commission the Lord Jesus Himself gave us before He departed this Earthly realm.
Matthew 28:18-20. Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'' Amen."
The great focus of the modern church has been to go and get people born into the kingdom. This is certainly an important first step, but that is not what Jesus said to do. He said to make disciples of all the Nations, also teaching them to observe all the things that He commanded. Lately, I have come to see this in a new light. A nation can be won to Christ but not discipled. This is a nation that can be lost as quickly as it was won. There are some real examples of this in history. The great Welsh revival of the early 1900's transformed a nation, however approximately 100 years later, less than two percent of the nation goes to church. The impact the revival had on that nation was in itself unprecedented in modern history. However, the long lasting affects of the revival were not sustained. Regardless of the move of God, we have to look ahead through God's eyes and see not just what He is doing, but where He is wanting to go. He always has a purpose for what He does. God doesn't start things just to see them die out. It doesn't have to be that way. We have been given the authority to do what He told us to do.
Think about this, Adam was given dominion over the whole Earth. Consider the implications of what that means. Man was given the ability, the desire, and the authority to walk in total dominion upon this planet. We still have this innate desire within ourselves to want to control and dominate. All you have to do is look at the mess the world is in, and you can see this for yourself. New threats of nuclear disaster are popping up every day. Nations are threating to annihilate one another. To want to control and dominate outside of the plan and purpose of God is a very dangerous thing. However, with God and within His purpose, it is the destiny we have been called to fulfill through Christ Jesus.
The authority Adam lost has been restored. Jesus said "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore. The authority has been given to me, and I am turning that authority over to you, therefore go out and make disciples of all nations. It seems Christianity has become just another religion who co-exist with everyone else. Nobody wants to offend anyone, so in the wake of political correctness we just roll over and play religion. I realize this is a harsh statement. It is not meant to offend, but to be a wake up call, and to make us realize we have a job to do.
If you have spent any time in the Old Testament you will see that here are examples for us to follow, types and shadows of what we are supposed to be. The children of Israel would not trust God, and cross into the promised land that God had ordained for them to conquer. This was a serious thing. God still loved them and took care of them. He blessed them as much as they would let Him, yet this was far below what He wanted for them. They became used to it, and their carcasses died in the wilderness. God wanted to bless them and He could not. They refused the blessing. When you are willfully disobedient to God, you refuse the blessing He wants you to have whether you realize it or not. If you look at the parallel of the modern church, you can see this same attitude. We haven't dared to step over into what God has called us to be. In some circles if you dare step out and declare that God has given you the land, and you say that God wants me blessed and prosperous, you would be called arrogant and greedy. Many would say just who do they think they are anyway? Many have backed away from their destiny because they didn't want to cross that line, never fully considering that it is a line that God called them to cross over. If the devil can make you think you are not worthy to cross over into your inheritance, then he has won the battle without even having to fight.
Lets look at the second generation of the children of Israel that actually went over into the promised land. A land of milk and honey, a land of prosperity, a land that God ordained for them to live in. This is a type of what God wants for us, to conquer and inhabit our God ordained place, our place of prosperity. He does not want us to lay down and die in the wilderness. That was not His will for the first generation and that is not His will for us now in this present generation. The second generation started out with a completely different attitude than the first generation had. Lets look at how they started out.
Joshua 1:16 And they answered Joshua, saying, "All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17. "Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you, as He was with Moses.
They started out with the affirmation, we will follow God wherever he will send us.
Quite a different attitude than the one the first generation had wasn't it? Under Joshua's leadership, the children of Israel began to systematically take the land. They conquered it, then they also inhabited it, and in doing so they fulfilled God's will. If you read through the book of Joshua, you can see how important it was for them to conquer the land and inhabit it. Joshua actually scolded some of them for not aggressively doing what they were told to do.
Joshua 18:2-3 But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: "How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?
Joshua said that God had already given them the land, yet they didn't take it to heart and actually possess the land that God had given them. Joshua called this negligence. When you don't possess your God given inheritance you are being negligent, and this is a form of disobedience. Throughout the Bible, the people of God who were the most successful were not always necessarily the most perfect ones, but they were the ones who fulfilled God's will. King David was certainly not perfect, but he was somebody who fulfilled God's assignment. God highly blessed Him for His obedience. You will see this over and over again. When people put God's kingdom assignment first, God blesses them.
Deuteronomy 8:18 "And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
The word of God said this of David...
Acts 13:22 "And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, `I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.'
Even though David messed up, his desire was to complete the mission God had given him and fulfill God's will. Its not how big of a ministry you build or how well known you are, but did you fulfill God's will? This is a question we each have to ask ourselves, what is God's will for my life? We each have a God given place, God wants us to inhabit the land he has called us to. Our blessing is in the land He has called us to inhabit. We can't get our God ordained blessing going south if God has called us to go north. If you want to prosper, then you have to be obedient. Thats the way it works. If you can enlarge your vision a little, you can take a little more. The bigger the vision the more you can take.
Joshua 17:14-18 Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, "Why have you given us but one lot and one portion to inherit, since we are a great people, inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now?'' So Joshua answered them, If you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you. But the children of Joseph said, "The mountain country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Beth Shean and its towns and those who are of the Valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph to Ephraim and Manasseh saying, You are a great people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong.
Joshua didn't say well you greedy little buggers, don't you know God doesn't want you to have all that land, just who do you think you are anyway? No, and God didn't get angry with them either. Joshua said go for it. You can do it. Take what you need. You can surely conquer the land!