Chapter 7
Many people tell me it’s not possible to know whether someone is victorious in Christ or not, but Pastor Sumo pointed out all you have to do is look at the fruit. I agree, the proof is in the fruit, victorious lives produce spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Spiritual fruit isn’t produced through self-effort but through the walking in the Holy Spirit—which is the essence of a victorious life. Victory is the loss of self, identity and control leading to a totally dependent relationship on Him. We die to our old selves for a new life in Him. We die to our old identity for a new identity in Christ, and we release control of our lives to the Holy Spirit. Remember, we don’t seek the fruit or victory but instead seek God and the rest will follow.
Another sign of a victorious life is what comes out of our mouths—as many of the Bible’s proverbs point out. The very things we say are an indication of the state of our heart. Inferiority or superiority complexes and unresolved inner conflicts are signs of someone who hasn’t claimed their victory in Christ, because these begin to fade as we are healed through walking in the Spirit.
WALKING IN THE SPIRIT vs WALKING IN THE FLESH.
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (John 5:4-5). “The problem of walking in defeat is not that we don’t have victory (because we have been set free, and Christ’s life is victorious in us for whatever we face). But we can choose (consciously or subconsciously) not to claim our victory and continue to live as though we’re in bondage. This condition of our lives is called ‘walking after the flesh’ rather than ‘walking after the Spirit’. The world says we attain victory by doing; God says we obtain it by dying or counting ourselves dead to sin. It is exactly backwards from our world system training; the way up is down; we have to fail in order to succeed; we have to die in order to live” (For Me to Live Booklet).
Characteristics of the self life (walking in the flesh):
Stubbornness, Vanity, Pride, Inferiority Feelings, Bigotry, Egoism, Selfish Ambition, Impatience, Envy, Hypersensitivity, Withdrawal, Dissension, Loveless, Anxiety, Guilt, False Modesty, Fear, Self Justification, Indifference, Self Indulgence, Dominance, Self Reliance, Critical Spirit, Self Effort, Depression, Self Righteousness, Nervousness, Laziness, Hostility, and Anger (For Me to Live Booklet).
“Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives” (Gal. 5:16). Walking in the Spirit means “Christ is in control of you.” “If we make decisions based on our feelings and emotions” we are walking in the flesh. “As long as we do not act according to our emotions and wrong thoughts and instead make our decisions based on the Word of God, we are in the Spirit.” (FW Handout). “Once the Holy Spirit has illuminated the truth of our death and resurrection with Christ and it is an experiential reality, we must continue to” (Handbook to Happiness p.103) “walk in the spirit, denying ourselves and taking up the cross daily” (Luke 9:23) (Handbook p.96). Abide in Christ (John 15:5). Abide means to live, dwell, accept or act in accordance with. “This is a lifelong process, during which a person encounters spiritual warfare and the flesh must daily be brought to nothing” (Handbook p.93).
UPS and DOWNS
There are ups and downs in the victorious life. The first thing that happened to the Israelites after their first victory (after crossing the Jordan) was defeat. They had to turn to God and ask Him to point out where they went wrong, and as soon as they found the sin they had committed and repented of it, they were on to victory again. DOWNER starts with negativity, worry, frustration, evolving into anger and depression, and trying to do things ourselves (Handbook to Happiness p.98). It’s a feeling like we aren’t in contact with God anymore; forgetting all that He has already done for us and questioning whether He exists or cares. We’ve lost our joy and “aren’t singing in the shower” anymore. We don’t know where, when or how it happened, but it did. We have to turn to prayer, fasting and fellowship for support; drop whatever we’re doing and open our Bibles. It is amazing how I can be in a downer, feeding my face, feeling numb, and then drag myself to mini-church and suddenly by the middle of the evening I am filled with the Spirit. Jason Lehfeldt’s strategic prayer can also be helpful to find the blockage or wedge in our relationships that is causing our disconnection with God, ourselves and others. We confess and repent of our sins, God cleanses us, and we continue to walk in the Spirit having faith in our position and our (already finished) victory in Christ. “The blood never loses it’s power to cleanse and restore” (Handbook p.105). We are always righteous (in right standing with God) because of Christ’s sacrifice and not because of anything we do today or tomorrow.
Through a series of ups and downs the Holy Spirit shows us the areas of our lives and souls that are prone to sin or self and we begin to be healed and understand how to bounce back into victory faster and longer. Be careful not to work for victory but instead from victory. Walking in the Spirit goes from being a day to day experience to a moment by moment experience. No part of our lives are too small or too insignificant to submit to the Lord and seek His counsel. No moment is too small to seek His will for that moment. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand” (Psalm 37:23-24). It takes work to spiritually mature and accept God’s discipline and discipleship, but never fall into the trap of thinking we have to work for victory. Grace is unmerited favor and unconditional love. We receive his grace not by doing things (works or performance) but just by having faith in Him and that we are already victorious in Him, and the battle has already been won.
THOUGHTS and EMOTIONS
We live in a fallen world and the enemy and/or our sinful nature may attack our thoughts and emotions. We combat this by casting all our thoughts upon Christ, laying all our burdens at His feet. We feel like dying again! So why not die to live? We can base our decisions and better discern His will for our thoughts and emotions through constant Bible reading. I started with the New Testament and read it from the beginning to the end in about four months, reading a few pages a day and meditating on it, NOT speed-reading, not reading for intellectual ‘knowledge’, but instead opening myself to what the Holy Spirit wanted to show me. Read Romans at least twice. After reading the New Testament, I received a copy of the Daily Bible and started reading it from the beginning. The Old Testament is helping me to understand the nature and character of God, whereas the new testament taught me about love and grace. The Daily Bible is extremely helpful in understanding the Old Testament because it is chronologically arranged and has many commentaries that explain a passage’s significance—giving a deeper understanding that would have been lost on me otherwise.
“We cannot always believe our emotions! They may have been ‘damaged’ as a result of the ‘programming’ of the old life. We may be ‘feeling’ good (e.g. I Corinthians 10:12), without being in fellowship with God, even if things ’seem well’ (my note—many non-Christians and carnal Christians are good examples of this). The contrary is also true: times of trial—when everything seems to go wrong—can be times of real faith and dependence upon God (II Corinthians 4:7-11), but our feelings may tell us things are not going well. If, by faith, we claim Christ to be our Life—His Living Life through us—then His Life, His Character, His Fruit, will be ours in experience (Soul) only as we are conformed to the reality of His Life in our Spirit” (For Me to Live Booklet).