Spiritually Alert: Key to Becoming a Conqueror and Overcomer
Preacher
Pastor Pat Taiwo-Oguntoye
Bible Reading
- 2 Timothy 2: 1-15
- Romans 8: 26-39
Sermon
Being spiritually alert is a sacrifice one has to make as a Christian. It is so easy to get lazy about spiritual things and it is so easy to get preoccupied with the day to day business of life that we let the truth we have received slip away. You don’t need to jump into some kind of major sin to lose ground spiritually, you don’t even have to get rebellious, and all you have to do is nothing. That is don’t pray, don’t meditate on the word and you just find yourself empty. Brethren, our challenge is to keep our minds on the spiritual, to truly be on the road to overcoming, to be so busy doing the good things, the work of God that Satan doesn't have a chance to establish a foothold and turn up the temperatures of temptation upon us.
In Romans 8v37, it states that in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. In Proverbs 12 v 24 the bible states that the diligent shall bear the rule, but the sloughtful shall be under tribute .This means that a man that is sloughtful in the spirit can never be a conqueror or an overcomer. Becoming a conqueror requires spiritual thinking. As Christians, we have to seek and center our affection on the things above. In Colossians 3:1- 3 Verse 1 statesthat if you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Verse 2 says set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth having our mind focused on the spiritual. Verse 3 states that for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.So could it be that many of our minds are sometimes too wrapped up in physical pursuits of life? Are our minds filled with earthly material cares and interests? Are our minds simply too carnal to be really focused on the spiritual? We're told to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Do we lie awake at night worrying about how to pay bills? Or do we lie awake at night imagining what the kingdom of God is going to be like? Or how this world needs to be rescued? Do we ever look forward to teaching, or drawing souls to Christ? Are we simply too wrapped up in the physical and forgetting the spiritual? That makes overcoming difficult, and sometimes it takes a siege of fasting and prayer, earnest and determined persevering prayer, seeking God with all our might, staying with it until we get through to truly deal with some of the sins that we have to face. As Christians our prayer should always be that God should establish our footsteps in his word and do not let any iniquity have dominion over us.
Revelation 3:12 - is imbedded in the messages to the churches and it is a great promise for our future, for all overcomers. It states that “Him that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name”. So brethren we desire to be overcomers, and we should be overcomers. We've got several reminders as how to be overcomers. There's great reward in the future for all overcomers. So let's do the best we can to fight the good fight, to stay on the road, to draw as close to God as we can and be about the business of overcoming.
The truth is that it’s not that revelation we have not seen that is causing us to be defeated in certain areas of our lives, it’s the failure to live by the truth we know and also the promise of God which we have failed or refused to put into practice. In John 8v32,it states that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Steps that will keep us moving forward in the overcoming power of God.
This can be found 2ndTimothy chapter 2, Apostle Paul tells us how we can accomplish this.
1. Be strong in grace: That is be strong in the grace that is Christ Jesus 2ndTimothy 2v1.What is grace and what does it do? This can be found in Titus 2v 11-12 it says” for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to the all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Also whenever the spirit of God corrects you, you should listen and obey. The Holy Spirit speaks in a still small voice and if you’re not in his presence and not listening, you’re not likely to hear him.
2. Endure hardness: In 2ndTimothy 2v3 Apostle Paul says “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Christ. Be tough in the things of God. Definitely trials and temptations would come your way, don’t panic when this comes, but get more aggressive with your faith than ever and always speak words of victory and surely your victory will come speedily.
3. Don’t be entangled: 2ndTimothy 2v4, No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. We have been called to live the high life in Christ Jesus, not to be tied down to this natural realm. But all too often we allow ourselves to become entangled in the temporary affairs of this world. We allow those entanglements to drag us into defeat. Make sure you create time for God.
4. Always study the word of God: 2nd Timothy 2v 15 study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Brethren, if we want to live as conquerors and overcomers , we have to keep ourselves spiritually active, be filled continuously with the holy spirit, there has to be a continuity of the flow of the holy spirit. In Ephesians 5v15, Apostle Paul said be not drunk with wine, wherein excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Also in Romans 8v26, it states that the spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.
As we continue to strive for the things above, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depth, nor other creatures shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Amen.