Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelations 12:10-11
The word of our testimony is a powerful weapon we have been given to fight the battles of life. One definition of testimony is the written Mosaic Law, the commands that God has given us in His word. When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus not only quoted the “law” back to Satan, He also obeyed the law Himself. The world we are living in wants us to believe that there are no absolutes and that truth is relevant to the situation or our perspective. John 8:32 “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus came to earth as the living word of God. John 1:14 “the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He came to give us back the authority Adam gave away in the garden and for us to have an abundant life. God promised in Isaiah 55:11 “So My Word which goes forth from My mouth, will not return to Me void. But it shall accomplish what I please, and it will prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” God’s word will always produce the promised outcome that God sends it to accomplish. Sadly, many people in the modern church do not believe in the power of the word of God. They have never been taught to stand on God’s Word and to take the sword of the spirit, the Word of God, and to use it to take dominion over the circumstances affecting their lives. Several years ago, Stormie Omartian wrote a book called the “Power of a praying wife,” and she taught women how to pray God’s will over their husbands, and yes the book starts teaching the wife to pray and get the sin out of her own life before she can pray God’s word over her husband. (She has gone on to write other books, “Power of a praying husband,” and “Power of a praying parent.) Too often, as believers we want to take control over the circumstances around us and in the lives of those around us while ignoring the sin in our own lives. Jesus asked in Matthew 7:3 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” When we do not allow the Word of God to wash and cleanse us, we become ineffective in the spiritual battles we face. When Balak asked Balaam to curse the children of Israel in Numbers 23 Balaam responded, “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?” When the enemy cannot curse God’s chosen people, he will attempt to tempt the people to curse themselves by turning the sword of the Word against themselves by sinning. In chapter 25, the Children of Israel joined the Moabites in Baal worship. God told the Israelites in Numbers 30:4 “You shall not make yourselves an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation, for those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations to those who love and keep My commandments.” (Obedience is a clear sign of our love. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”) The people who joined in the Baal worship were put to death, because God knew that unchecked compromises would curse and destroy even His chosen people. The modern church has neglected the truth of God’s word and strived to be nice (nice is not a fruit of the Spirit), not hurting anyone’s feelings and allowing compromise to water down the foundation we are supposed to build our lives on and now we see so many people whose foundation has crumbled and their lives are being washed away with sin and compromise. “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and when the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” If we want our lives to withstand the storms of life, we must build our life of Jesus and what the Word of God says. When we spend time in God’s word, we allow His word to show us the sin, wrong motives and compromises we have allowed to rule in our hearts. “For the Word of God is living, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.” Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” The written word of God should be what we use to navigate the decisions we make every day. The Psalmist said in verse 11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against God.” God intended for His Word to cut out the sin and compromise in our hearts and lead us in all truth, but when we do not address the sin in our lives, it will become a sword that will bring destruction instead of healing.
Another way we live in compromise is in the relationships and covenants we make with other people who are not supposed to be n our lives. God told Joshua that when the priests stood in the Jordan, He would make the waters of the Jordan to be cut off so the people could walk across on dry land. God told Joshua in chapter 3 that this would be a sign that God would drive all the people who were living in the land promised to Abraham that the children of Israel were given as an inheritance. God was driving them all out. In Joshua 9, the Gibeonites saw the hand of God on Joshua and they were afraid that Joshua would destroy them, so they devised a plan to trick Joshua by deceiving him and getting him to make a treaty of peace with them. Joshua made a treaty without asking God for directions and had to stand by his vow, honoring a manmade vow above obeying the perfect will of God. God will fight our battles as well and drive out the things that are standing in our way of the promises. Too often we make treaties (compromises) with the enemy without asking God for His will or direction. How many Christians have married a non-believer (which we are commanded not to) and the vow made with a human hinders that person from being all God designed them to be? Maybe it is a business partnership with someone who is not a believer and does not share the same Christian values. Have we allowed compromise and sin into our churches? (While we are called to love the sinner, we are never called to condone or excuse the sin.) Do we shy away from speaking the truth of the gospel, because we do not want to offend someone? (I believe the truth should be spoken in love, but it has to be taught.) When we condone sin and make compromises, it weakens the body of Christ and hinders the blessings of God on our lives. Obedience brings blessings and disobedience brings cursing according to Deuteronomy 28. We are definitely seeing the affects of sin in our nation. The church allowed the opinions of society to dictate what is truth instead of upholding all the truth found in the word of God. Too many Christians will vote for a political party whose foundation is abortion instead of standing with truth and saying we will have no part of such an evil thing. My husband sent me a video the other day of a Church Conference of a mainstream denomination, and each person went to the microphone and introduced themselves by telling their “pronouns” (he, him, his or she, her, hers, or it (non-binary)), and the they told their sexual orientation, and the position they held in the church, many were lesbian or gay pastors. Instead of standing on truth and fighting the spirit of compromise, too many in the church have welcomed the watered-down word of God into their doors and behind their pulpits.
In order to be an overcomer, we must take serious look at our own lives and see if we have compromised and allowed sin to take residence in our hearts. Sin will It is time to take the sword of the Spirit, the word of God and examine our belief systems and ask God to show us the areas in our lives we have compromised and ask for forgiveness, changing our beliefs to match what God’s word says is truth. Psalm 139:23 “Search me O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts (anxieties).” Unrepentant sin will separate us form God Isaiah 59:2, sin keeps our prayers from being heard Psalm 66:18, sin enslaves us John 8:34, it will keep us from inheriting the kingdom of God 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and the wages of sin is death Romans 6:23. It is so easy to think we have arrived and we do not have any sin, we are deceived 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” All sin must be dealt with and confessed. It is our sinful human nature that wants to coddle one sin or another, because that sin brings us comfort or relief, but we must crucify all sin. In 1 Samuel 15 Saul was told to destroy the people of Amalek because they attacked the weak children of Israel after they left Egypt. Saul was instructed to kill both man and woman, infant, and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” Saul gathered the people and went to deal with the Amalekites as he was instructed. Saul spared the best of the livestock and the Agag the King. God saw his partial obedience as disobedience and God rejected Saul as king. Samuel told Saul that obedience is better than sacrifice. Then Samuel took a sword and cut Agag into pieces. Is there any sin that you have allowed to live in you? If we ask the Holy Spirit, He will show us the sinful things and habits we have allowed to live in our lives. We must repent and turn form the sin and allow God to forgive us of our sin. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess or sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” An overcomer is someone who confessed all sins and changed their lives to reflect what God’s word says. We are called to live with Christ and to accomplish all He has called us to be and to die to sin and the lies of the devil. 1 Corinthians 6:20 “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.” Romans 6:13 “Passionately answer God’s call to keep yielding your body to Him as who has experienced life. You know live for His pleasure, ready to be used for His noble purpose.” Paul was talking to the Roman church in Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies , dedicating all of yourselves , set apart, as a living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical , intelligent act of worship.”
Cathy Nesmith