1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.
As we are entering some of the most turbulent times in history, we’ve been receiving an unbelievable amount of email expressing concern about the future. But I want to tell you a little something — the future is VICTORY!
It’s not defeat or loss. If you think about it, all the great leaders of the Bible shone in the hardest of times. When the giant Goliath stood against the army of Israel, David didn’t sit around with his brothers complaining about how big Goliath was. Though David was a dwarf next to this evil giant, he was still convinced he was going to be victorious because God was on his side!
When the apostles saw Yeshua die, they must have felt utterly defeated — then, suddenly, there he was, out from the grave, gloriously alive before them — and from then on they walked in His victory! They didn’t sit around complaining about Roman persecution, the Sanhedrin, or the Pharisees. They didn’t get wrapped up in how evil the world was becoming; instead, they pressed forward in the worst of times and in those dark days they shone like the stars in the midnight sky.
In the face of everything that’s happening around us, let’s be sure we’re not developing a defeatist attitude. We are called children of the King, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. Despite how bad things may be getting — don’t forget we’re on the winning team! We can stand against this evil and overcome it… with good!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Returning from their ‘mission’ trip, the 72 disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) were filled with joy. “Even the devils are subject to us through your name”, they exulted. Yeshua responded that He saw Satan fall like lightening from Heaven and that He had given them authority to trample snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt I'm sure several million people were wondering, "How am I going to be fed? How am I going to survive in this wilderness?" Imagine the logistical nightmare. An incalculable quantity of food and water were needed to survive in the desert. Where would it come from? Yet, in this seemingly impossible situation, God provided!
There was a mailman, John Hand, who rode his mail truck through Los Altos Hills of California on his 50 mile route each day. The route was plain, all brown and virtually no color. One day he began to throw wild flower seeds out of the window as he drove. Today, if you travel his route in the Los Altos Hills you’ll find beautiful patches of flowers throughout, blossoming in many colors.
A farmer and his friend went duck hunting. Eventually, they got to talking about the things of God, as they always would. "You're always talking about these battles you have with the devil," the farmer's friend said to him. "It's so silly – I mean, I'm not even a Christian and I've never experienced anything like that."
Have you ever noticed that when people are in love, they tend to forget everything else? Everything becomes secondary — cars, houses, money — nothing matters — it is all secondary to love. Then, when they fall out of love, as in a divorce, all of a sudden those things mean everything! They argue about all the little meaningless things they ever owned together. Each wants it all for himself.
The Hebrew word for a dried up river bed is "Nachal". Israel has many of these. Here, in Israel it rains in winter, but not in summer. In the summer, these places stand as a testament of the rains that once fell and of the rains yet to come. Then, when they do come, the Nechalim (nachal plural) almost instantly fill with water. This is what the Scripture means when it says, "I will give you rivers in the desert." There is a promise in that for us.
In 1917, the Ottoman Empire controlled the city of Aqaba which seemed impregnable to any attack. Behind the city in every direction was a vast desert, and overlooking the city’s harbor were huge naval guns protecting it against any enemy attack from the sea.