In Christ

Spiritual warfare is an exciting topic. It's so incredible to think about the promises in God's Word, when it comes to defeating the enemy and living victoriously!  We are more than conquerors when we take up the armor of God and wield it against the prince of this world, who has been destroyed by a weapon of his own arsenal, called death.

As a young Christian, newly awakened to and in love with the lifestyle of a "Gospelteer", I was eager to see this victory played out in my own life. And in many ways, it was. I gave my life to Christ, and spent a long, painful, but beautiful season cleaning out the temple of my heart. I wrestled in prayer passionately for the first time, and was given an incredible answer. I started to write devotionals for a little blog, called Real Christianity :) and watched to see God at work through it.

But then I came across the words of Jesus in Luke 10:18-19:

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

These verses quickly became my favorite promise of victory from God. And yet, the more I thought about them, the more it bothered me. My spiritual walk was growing..... but I was becoming less and less convinced that it was "victorious". I was sometimes able to say no to elements of selfishness in my life, but I was defenseless to trample any scorpions in the lives of others, and even in areas of my own walk. There were moments when I made a small choice to take a less traveled route because wouldn't lead me into sin, but could I really say that I had overcome the power of the enemy?  And even though some elements of sin had been denied, there were still areas of my life where the flesh was on the throne... it was there to harm me, and it was often succeeding.

It wasn't until a few months ago that I realized my spiritual battleground was missing the most important factor in gaining a victory: the simple Biblical phrase "In Christ".

An analogy Pastor Eric Ludy often uses to illustrate this idea is the law of gravity. You can jump off the ground, and temporarily defy the law of gravity. You can have some form of "victory" over it. But you can't stay in the air forever; gravity will keep pulling you back down. The only thing that can defy the law of gravity is the law of aerodynamics, and flight. And you don't have it.

But a plane does. A plane was built to defy the law of gravity, and rise above. And that plane's doors are open to you. But you are not going to defeat gravity by believing that the plane exists. You're not going to defeat it by looking at the plane, praising it, or even touching it. Even if you go so far as to hold onto the outside of the plane, gravity will still pull you down in the end. It's only when you're in the plane that the victory is won.

One Ellerslie sermon from 2011 gives a list of 66 elements of victory found in Christ. Each one of them, if you stop and think about it, are beyond belief!  Here are ten of them:

      1)  Our sins will be removed from us
      2)  We will have peace with God
      3)  We will overcome the Devil
      4)  We will bear much fruit
      5)  All the promises of God will be "Yes" and "Amen" to us
      6)  Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ
      7)  We will be new creations, and all things will be made new
      8)  We will be the temple, the very dwelling place of God
      9)  We will have the power to rejoice!
    10)  The love of God will be perfected in us

Talk about victory!  And the offer stands fully available to us today. The plane door is open. In Christ, there is freedom and forgiveness, and newness, and the complete fulfillment of the work of God. There is true, real, tangible victory.

Over the past few weeks, my spiritual growth partner and I have been taking up the challenge of spending one hour in prayer every day. At first, it was difficult. I couldn't keep my focus, and I found myself continually stopping to read Bible verses just to keep my mind awake. But last week, God opened up a whole new door to me. I found myself on my floor, praising Him for all that He was, and finding a deep love and security I had never experienced before. The hour passed by so quickly I hardly noticed it. I had found myself in Christ, abiding in the depths of His presence, in a way I didn't know was possible. And there was victory that night.

The plane door is open. Are you ready to defy the chains of this world?