Destined For Victory (Lesson two) God’s Holy Spirit
Junior Level
Introduction:
We have been given more than what we need to be over comers through Christ. We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus that loves us. We have been set up through the Spirit for victory.
Destined For Victory (Lesson two) God’s Holy Spirit
We have been given more than what we need to be over comers through Christ. We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus that loves us. We have been set up through the Spirit for victory.
We learned in last weeks’ lesson, there are two profound truths that let us know that the Father has destined, we as His children, for victory. Last week we focused on the first truth which was that we that are in Christ Jesus, are under no condemnation praise Him. That truth along with the second one lets us know that we have been set up for victory in the Lord. The second of the two profound truths that we are destined for victory is:
We are under no condemnation, who are in Christ Jesus
We have the indwelling Spirit of God.
Come with me to the book of John where we find Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit. We read here that Jesus is going back to the Father until time for His return to get His bride. We know the bride of Christ is the church, or believers who are born again. There are many scriptures here, I ask you to please read it and take it in as the Holy Spirit leads you, with an open heart.
John 14: 1. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5. Thomas saith unto him, LORD, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but my Me.”
John 14: 13 “And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it. 15. If ye love Me, keep My commandments. 16. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever: 17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19. Yet in a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.”
John 14: 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Finally, reading in Acts chapter 2, we learn when The Comforter or Holy Spirit came to stay. We now see by both last week’s lesson and the lesson today, that the Father has set us up for victory by first taking away something, condemnation, and then by giving something, His Indwelling Holy Spirit. How then can we as believers still be in a stronghold of sin or something that holds us down from getting to where God wants us to be? How can Romans 8:2 and Romans 7:14-15 that we read previously, both be truths? Let us review.
Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2. Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 7:14 “For we know that the law is Spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I.
When we are saved, the Father cleanses and seals the soul. We are still in this flesh until we die. So we still must deal with the things of the flesh. And those things are against the things of God. However, God’s Holy Spirit that now dwells inside us, gives us the freedom through the power of God to fight back against those things in which the flesh desires. We no longer are slaves to that sin. We now can say NO to sin. The power of the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead, is in us and will fight against the desires of the flesh and temptations so that we can shun those things and instead live in obedience to God.
You may be a born again believer today, a child of God, and you may be in a strong hold of sin, you may have an addiction that you have battled for years, or an obsession or compulsion that you cannot seem to get the victory over. Beloved, you DO NOT have to stay in that. That sin or stronghold does not define who you are. I have learned that we cannot overcome such strongholds on our own. We may have set up rules and regulations or tried programs and still they fail. Who you are in Christ defines who you are and who you are is a child of the Most High if you have received Christ as your own personal Savior. It’s so important to remember that.
The reason we try over and over again without victory is because we try to overcome on our own, by our own power and strength, with our list of rules or regulations. Please pay attention to this next statement and get it in your heart. It’s something I learned listening to wonderful Bible teacher Beth Moore, teaching on this subject. She says this, “No amount of following a list of rules will sustain freedom from a stronghold. No legal code or set of rules can save from sins or from spiritual bondage.” What a true statement. If we could have followed the rules and laws, Christ would not have had to come and die to redeem back what the first man Adam lost.
Don’t get me wrong. Laws, rules and programs with accountability are great things to help get started, but they will not withstand against a stronghold in the long haul. The flesh wants what it wants and there will come a time when it will not want to follow a specific rule or there will come a time when no one is around for the flesh to be held accountable. There will come a time when alone and the flesh will eventually come out and do whatever it wishes. We may try over and over again but keep falling right back into that strong hold. Sadly, a lot of times we will not really want out of it until it hurts us so badly that we just cannot stand it anymore. That is the way of the flesh, the way of humanity.
John 5:5-6 “And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, He saith unto him. Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered Him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked:”
This man had been relying on others and himself for help with no victory. Jesus asks him. Do you want to get better? Do you want to be well? When he really wanted to, the source of power was there to give him the victory! We have to really want to get out of our pit or stronghold of sin or compulsion, obsession or habit in order for us to call upon the Holy Spirit to get us out because we cannot do it alone, and others cannot do it for us. You may be thinking, why in the world would someone not want to get out of a pit or stronghold of sin and misery? Unfortunately sometimes humans can get comfortable in a pit thinking we must live there and it becomes home for us and change makes us more afraid than not getting out of the stronghold we are in.
The stronghold, addiction, compulsion, or whatever it is that we are doing, is giving us something in return or we would not be doing it. There is some sort of pay off. Sure it may be painful and it grieves our spiritual man, but our flesh is getting something from that thing we are in, otherwise we would stop. The enemy, satan, knows how weak the flesh is and he gets in our minds and we believe that the stronghold is giving us something that we need that Christ cannot give us. We think that we are more fulfilled in that than in anything Christ could give us. It’s called idolatry. It puts up a barrier between us and the Father. Anything that we rely on for comfort instead of turning to God, is an idol and it can be many different things or people. We have to take back the control in our own minds, trusting the LORD and knowing that He can give us so much more than what we think we are getting from the sin we are in. However in order to get out of that stronghold or pit, we have to truly want out.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in there. Call upon that indwelling Holy Spirit and you can get out, and have victory through Christ. There’s hope in Him. It takes the power of that indwelling Holy Spirit. Praise HIM! There isn’t a stronghold strong enough, an addiction powerful enough, or an obsession to big that God can’t break the chains and set you free Beloved. Cry out to Him. He will rescue you! Thank You LORD!
We can be victorious not of ourselves or on our own, but by utilizing that indwelling Holy Spirit and His power. We must live in accordance with the Spirit. Doing this involves a mindset. We can still think fluently, with the mind of our old flesh. It is similar to being bilingual. We can choose to speak in one language or another and we understand both. We can think according to the old or new man. We can and must choose that which we will follow after or obey. The choice is ours.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Thinking and rethinking a thought is meditation. Our minds are a battlefield, therefore we must carefully inspect our thoughts and mindset. When we catch ourselves in the mindset of the flesh, we must shift to the mindset of the Spirit. WE MUST BEWARE OF OUR THOUGHTS! You will follow the path that your thoughts take you.
Proverbs 23:7 “as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
We must begin to seek the LORD and pray earnestly for Him to change our mindset and our want to. We must ask Him to change our hearts. To change our wants to be the same as what His plan is for our lives. We must pray, ask, and seek after Him with our whole hearts and to more than anything desire to please Him. We need a mindset and attitude to more than anything, do the will of the Father. We are not always going to want to do what is right. There are many times when we will have to pray for the desire to die to self and take up our crosses and follow Christ! The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Psalms 40:8 “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”
Pslams 37:4 “Delight thyself also in the LORD, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
There isn’t anything that the Father can not or will not give us according to His will and His plan for our lives. He is the only one that can fulfill our desires and needs. All glory to Him!
Hallelujah, we have the same power in us that raised Christ from the dead! Do you realize how much power that is? How much power is inside us that we do not understand or use.
Romans 8:9-11 9. “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.”
Praise the Lord, that’s a lot of power. It is there for us to use against the strongholds and temptations of the devil. You can kick the enemy out of your mind, and out of your life. He has no business being there. You belong to Almighty God. The devil has no authority over you whatsoever. Kick him out in the name of Jesus! If there were a man who came into your house and was harassing you and your family to do wrong wouldn’t you tell him to leave? So why not kick satan out of your mind? On the authority of God’s word you can. You belong to God.
We as believers understand and know the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit that dwells with those that believe and receive Jesus as their own personal Savior. That is true, but He is much more than that. What a magnificent and powerful gift the Father gave us with His indwelling Holy Spirit. So many times we sadly live with so much of the Holy Spirit quenched in us. Not just out of carnality alone, but a lot of times, just out of plain old ignorance. I say that with all due respect and to myself as well.
Father, please help us. We just have no idea what treasure and how much empowerment is in this jar of clay, which is the Holy Spirit. We box Him in and in that we limit ourselves. We limit an all powerful source in our lives and we say God I can’t do this, and it’s true of ourselves, but when we want to be obedient we say Father I can’t do this alone, and we ask Him to overtake us and do the work through us for His glory. Hallelujah, that is what the indwelling Holy Spirit does. He is the power that helps us do all things that we cannot do on our own. He helps us be obedient to the Father’s will. He empowers us! Thank You LORD!
Philippians 4:13“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
We are so blessed. The Holy Spirit didn’t always dwell in God’s people constantly. Back in the days of Abraham and Moses, God’s people lived under the law. They lived in the dispensation that was before or on the other side of the cross, which was before Jesus came and paid the sin debt on the cross. They did not have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling inside them all the time.
At that time, the Holy Spirit came only for the sake of empowerment to complete a specific task. We know God would choose someone or a few and empower them with His Holy Spirit to get something accomplished, but not everyone had that privilege. How do we know this? Here are some scriptures that will help you understand.
Numbers 11: 29 “And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His spirit upon them!”
Also we find in Psalms David praysfor the Holy Spirit to stay with him.
Psalms 51:11 “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”
In the book of Judges we find many times it says the Spirit of the LORD came upon Samson to empower him. So we know then, that The Holy Spirit would come and go. However, after Jesus laid down His life and was the supreme sacrifice for the sins of the world. Those that accepted and believed would receive God’s Holy Spirit living inside to lead and guide us. We are so blessed living in the dispensation of grace, and having the gift of the Holy Spirit in us. We should be forever thankful and never take Him for granted. Now, if the people of God who lived under the law and did not always have the indwelling Holy Spirit, were victorious, how much more victorious can we that have God’s spirit with us always be? Hallelujah! We have the power to fight sin and temptation. We are empowered with the power of Almighty Jehovah, the one and only God! That is Almighty, All Powerful! We do not have to cower down to the enemy.
The enemy is constantly attacking our minds, trying to make us stay focused on past mistakes or sins. He wants us to live in guilt and shame; therefore, we must ask God for a new mindset. Satan will lie to you and make you think that this mind torture and this stronghold is something that you just have to live with. NO! He is a liar. It is true that on our own sometimes we can not stop thinking about the past or strongholds, but instead of feeling guilt or thinking shameful thoughts, we can think new thoughts about them. We can think Christ’s thoughts about them because we have the mind of Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:16 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
Tell the enemy, it is written, just as Christ did after He had fasted in the wilderness. Tell the enemy that your transgressions have been cast out as far as the east is from the west, and that you are now under no condemnation. Remind him that if you call upon the name of the LORD, He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Tell him hallelujah that God holds you in the palm of His hand and the future belongs to Him and that no matter what may happen, in God’s perfect love for you, He will work things out for your good and for His glory. Glory to God!
When those habitual thoughts come of past sins, abuse, or compulsion come. Just change your thoughts about them, to thoughts that Christ has about them. Know that the Holy Spirit defines who you are and not your body or deeds the body does. Speak God’s word out loud over those things that torment you and learn through Christ how to turn them into praise and eventually you will have victory over those things. You are free! Speak it to yourself out loud in faith many times. Even if you don’t feel it, Faith it! Say it out loud to the enemy and to yourself this will help you to shift to the mindset of Christ. Get up every morning read Ephesians chapter 6. Ask God to dress you in the whole armor of Christ and to help you live free in the mindset of Christ Jesus your Lord and your Savior!
2 Corinthians 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exaltheth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Praise His name, how can we fail? Romans 8:31 says, If God be for us, who can be against us. Romans 8:37 tells us that we are more than conquerors through Christ that loves us. The only possible way to fail is to be slacking and not trust and obey the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit and the flesh battle one another. I’ve heard my dad say it many times while preaching. It is just as if you have two men chained together. They are constantly fighting. One represents the flesh, and the other represents the Holy Spirit and things of God. The flesh goes after sinful desires one way, but the Spirit goes in the opposite direction toward the things of the Father. Which one will win? The one that stronger in you will win every time. The man that is fed the most and taken care of will be the victor. By doing the things of God, and obeying Him, we feed the Spirit man. We make Him strong when we do the things that the LORD would have us do. We must starve out the flesh and the things thereof so that it will not rise up and kill everything that God has in store for you as His child.
1Corinthians 15:31 “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.”
Galatians 5:16 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
On the other hand, if we continue to follow after the things of the flesh and let it take over, he will override the spirit. We must keep open relationship with the Father, praying and getting His word in our hearts. When the desires of the flesh rise up, we may fall or get knocked down a few times but get back up in the name of Jesus and say those scriptures that pertain to that sin and speak against it with the word. Speak it out loud for yourself and for the devil to hear. Resist him with the word and by doing that we set the Holy Spirit in motion to overcome and to live in our destiny of victory. Praise HIS name. What a wonderful Father we serve.
Colossians 1:27-28 “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which Christ in you, the hope of glory:”
Dear Heavenly Father, How worthy You are to be praised. There is no other like You nor will there ever be. We worship You Father. We pray today for Your will to be done in each of the lives of those that read and try to understand Your word. We pray for wisdom and understanding that only You can give. We thank You so much for your love and that we are Destined For Victory and no longer slaves to sin and under no condemnation through Your Son, Jesus. We thank You for the gift of Your indwelling Spirit and for making a way for us to have relationship with You and we ask You to help us grow closer to You and learn more about You with each passing day that we fellowship with You. Help us surrender to You and Your will for our lives and help us have the mindset of Christ instead of believing lies from satan. We thank You Jesus for dying on the cross and paying the great price that You paid for us. Help us to tap into Your power and to always be thankful and to grow in faith and in our walk with You Dear Father. Help us to accept and show Your love to others as we serve in Your will. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.