From the time that Christians are converted, they are never in a position where they do not have victory. They may sometimes accept defeat, but they never fail to have the victory. This sounds like a paradox. What does it mean?
The victory was won for us and given to us by Jesus Christ. We read in I Corinthians 15:57: But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
At no time are we without that victory. It is part of the redemptive provision of the Lord that we have victory over sin, over Satan, over the flesh, over hell, and over the grave. From the moment we are saved, we have that victory.
Then why don’t you have it? You do have it! It is just that you accept defeat in your spirit. The victory remains yours, but you accept defeat.
In the realm of the spirit, you have the provision of victory; but in your spirit you accept Satan’s great offensive to delude you into accepting defeat. And when you listen to Satan, you have accepted a lie which becomes valid in your life.
You have accepted all the innuendos, positioning yourself as a person defeated in his spirit, when in reality the victory at all times has been provided and given to you. It is an absolute fact: theologically and doctrinally, the victory is yours.
Do you feel that you have great needs? That, too, is an illusion, for God shall supply all your needs. …His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.… II Peter 1:3.
He has …blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3.
If we are so positioned, and this is really our life, then anytime we admit that we have needs which cannot be met or anytime that we are defeated and oppressed because our needs are not met, we have given way to Satan’s great offensive to delude us into accepting defeat.
What power we will have when we believe that we are what God says we are, that we have what He says He has given us, that we can do what He says He has given us authority to do! God give us the grace to possess our possessions and not to accept the delusion of Satan as to limitation.
We read in II Corinthians 2:14: But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place.
Also, in II Corinthians 10:3–6: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds); casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full.
This does not speak of any limitation. Paul is not saying, “Well, we just might be able to make it now. If we just hang on and fight a little longer, we might win the victory.” Christians start in a position of victory. That is why Christ died and rose again—so that we could stand in His victory.
We are more than conquerors. …In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:37.
For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. I John 5:4.
It is not our struggle, not our effort, not even what we strive to attain—but our faith. We overcome the world because we have faith in Christ’s victory that is given to us. We believe in His provision. We accept the riches of His grace, simply and purely. We believe in the grace of God. There is no message more important for people when they become despondent and discouraged than to realize that they have the victory.
There has been no time since your conversion that you did not have the victory. It is part of a package deal that God gave. You have victory over all things that assail and come against you. You are to be a triumphant overcomer.
Why are more Christians not walking in victory? Because Satan, the great deceiver, is continually battling them—into a feeling of inadequacy, into a wrong assessment of their circumstances, into a failure of faith in the midst of testings and trials, into discouragement over various problems that seem to be assaulting them—until they accept defeat in their spirits.
Although you have the victory, you can walk in defeat. But you will never walk in defeat or know what it is until you have first been defeated in your spirit.
That is why the continual assault against a Christian is to reach his spirit, and the beginning of all failure to walk with God begins when an individual has a bad spirit. When you are defeated in your spirit and you become discouraged or you give up, then you are defeated in every area of your life.
It does not matter how discouraging the circumstances appear which you face in home, in business, or in your personal life; you cannot be defeated if your spirit remains in the victory of Jesus Christ.
When you walk and live in the Spirit, you are going to overcome. Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16.
No defeat is valid, nor can it reach you, when your spirit is right and you maintain that the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ is yours absolutely. It was given to you. It is yours. It is your authority. It is your legacy. It belongs to you. It is an endowment of the grace of God that rests upon your life. No one can take it away from you unless, in your spirit, you voluntarily open the door to defeat.
The defeat in a Christian’s life is not in harmony with the Scriptures we have just read: thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ…thanks be to God who giveth us the victory…blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places…granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
How can you explain these Scriptures in the light of any evidence of defeat in your life? You either make God a liar and His word a farce or you have to realize that what God says is true, and through a lie and the deceit of Satan you have accepted defeat in your spirit.
Better is …he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32.
If you keep your spirit right before the Lord and walk carefully before Him, you can have defenses in every area of your life—mental, psychic, physical, and spiritual defenses that will be almost unequaled.
Be reminded again of the power and the victory you will have in your life when you believe in the victory that God has given you, when you believe that you are what He says you are, when you believe that He is what He says He is to you, when you believe that you can do what He says you can do, when you believe that His promises are valid and they are yours. You can claim them.
You have now what He says you have. Claim it and stand upon it. Appropriate it, and fight the good fight of faith.
You need not fight the fight for victory; you must fight the fight of faith. Faith turns aside all the fiery darts of the wicked one. You are victorious when you meet the assault of Satan by saying, “Satan, you are a liar and the father of it. I believe in Christ Jesus. I believe in what He has done for me, and what He has made me. I believe in what I have become in Christ Jesus, the Lord.”