The Victorious

Scripture: 

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Revelation 21:6-8

Devotional:

Jesus preached one message when he was on the earth, and he commissioned his disciples, past, present and future to do the same. That is, preach the gospel (good news) of the Kingdom (sovereign governing influence and dominion) of God! In addition to preaching that message, Jesus displayed it via the works he did while being in complete submission to His Father, the King over all creation. Moreover, when a person accepts Jesus’s message and becomes his follower, they are thrust into an invisible ancient conflict which has been occurring between the kingdom of light (God) and the kingdom of darkness, battling for the final allegiance of each human soul.

The primary battle strategy for both kingdoms is the deployment of doctrines because a person’s beliefs will ultimately determine their actions. Hence why Jesus says “Repent (change your mind), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” – if a person refuses to change their mind, they will NEVER experience all that the Lord has for them. Furthermore, followers would do well to heed the warning Paul gave to Timothy, expressing that followers of Jesus and the kingdom of light will depart from the faith because they heed “deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons”.

A particular doctrine of demons that is of major concern is “once saved, always saved”. That doctrine is a perversion of the grace of our King and those that adhere to it run the risk of falling away from him. A person cannot expect to profess their allegiance to the Kingdom of God and then not obey what the King says. It would be comparable to a man and a woman at their marriage ceremony, solely pledging their whole being to each other, but then once married, one of them goes and frequently has sexual intercourse with whomever, whenever and wherever they want. Obviously, that is a blatant disregard of the vows exchanged and what Paul is precisely warning about when he says “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God”, and “wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God”, found in Galatians 5:21, and 1 Corinthians 6:9, respectively.

Therefore, the divine doctrine is “The victorious are saved”. In the book of Revelation, seven churches are addressed between chapter 2 and chapter 3 – note, since these are churches, it means the people are followers of Jesus. In each case, after a commendation, reprimand, or both are issued, the final statement to the churches includes “the one who is victorious…”. The victorious will receive a reward commensurate with what they had victory over. In Greek, the term used for victorious is Nikao which is derived from Nike and defined as

Nike – to subdue, conquer, overcome, prevail, get the victory

Nikao is a verb, therefore, personal action is required by a person to be victorious. Followers have a directive to be victorious and in Revelation 21, that word in Greek is also Nikao. Behold, citizens of the kingdom of god, continuously change your mind and receive the doctrines from the kingdom and obey them, for in doing so, at the appointed time you will inherit all as expressed in Revelation 21:7. But beware, do not fall into the categories of those outlined in Revelation 21:8 because the only inheritance they will receive is death in fire.

Beloved, I leave you with the admonishment from one of our Kings chosen apostles, Peter, 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

I hope to see you in the new heavens and new earth. Read the scriptures continually – all 66 books – pray as often as you can, and most importantly, obey all that our King commands in his word and by the directions you receive from Holy Spirit that lives inside of you. Go and live a victorious life!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing the divine doctrine that overrules the demonic. Please show me which areas I need to be victorious so that in the end you will be my God and I will remain as your child. If I am holding and believing in any demonic doctrines, expose them now, and I ask that you forgive me. Father, as I search through your scriptures, show me all the divine doctrines that I am to obey so I can remain in right standing with your heavenly government and represent you effectively on the earth, like Jesus did when he was here. Thank you for granting my petition, Amen! I command every demon and evil spirit to cease all activities that are infringing on my inheritance and I bind you by the power and authority granted to me by Jesus, the Christ.