3
"To Him Who Overcomes..."
Revelation 2:7d, 2:17c, 2:26a, 3:21a
In the first month that I had received the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I had many life changing experiences. One of these experiences began when I was
told that I must study the seven overcomes in Revelation. I had only begun a Bible study a few months
earlier, and I did not know where I would find these Scriptures. I asked the leader of our Bible study what
this could be. He very graciously gave
me all the scripture references. The
Scriptures were the ones listed in the chapter title and these four; Revelation
2:11c, 3:5a, 3:12a,
All the gifts that would be given to one
who overcame were beautiful. I marveled at what one could receive by
overcoming. Still, I wondered, what was
meant by overcoming? Only the last
Scripture on the list that the minister had given to me had some help as to
what I must do to gain in this area.
“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;”
As was becoming a pattern in my walk with
the Lord, life continued to be normal while I was considering all of this. My Husband traveled often for his
business. He was away on a trip and I
was ending the day by sitting in our bed reading the Bible. I became sleepy, so I laid down the Bible. I reached up and switched off the lamp beside
our bed, and there was an instant change in the atmosphere of our room. The room was filled with the presence of
evil. I could barely breathe and I was frightened.
(I must add here that as a child I
attended Christian schools. And I had
learned that Satan was the
Prince of Darkness. In my child’s mind I
took it literally to mean that when it was dark, Satan came out. As an adult I had reasoned those
thoughts away, but something remained.)
Out of fear, I reached for the lamp that I
had just switched off. I heard the
Lord’s voice softly say; “Praise Me!”
Tentatively, I began to give God praise.
I can not remember exactly what I had said in Praise of God but I
remembered that in a few minutes I was able to focus on the words of Praise and
began to really speak them from my heart.
I focused more and more on the Lord’s presence in the room. I knew He had spoken to me. After what seemed like a long time (it was
only 5 or 10 minutes; I had looked at the clock before I switched off the
lamp), the oppressive spirit left. I
immediately fell asleep.
In about an hour, I was awakened by this
oppressive spirit who returned to our bedroom.
This time I did not reach for the light and I immediately said and sung
Praises to the Lord. The spirit left
quickly and I fell back to sleep.
Again in an hour, I was awakened. This time everything was different. Our room was filled with the Spirit of the
Lord. I felt His Love and Light even in
the darkness of the room. I knew the
Lord had been there before, by faith, now He showed me He was there. It wasn’t until I related my story to a
minister friend that I understood what had happened. The minister simply said, “Ah, you overcame your fear of Satan.” That word, overcame, leaped out of his sentence to
my soul. Now I knew what overcoming
would mean. I was really happy to have
this understanding. And I also realized
that the true life of a Christian would require work that would be difficult.
To me it meant that no matter what the
circumstances looked like or seemed, I must believe
the Lord and His Word. I saw that when
Jesus was in the desert for forty days, He overcame
Satan’s attack by
proclaiming Scripture. All the difficulties that came to us over the years were
not new to the men and women of the Bible.
There were Scriptures that spoke to these difficulties and to their
end. Jesus’ testimony in the desert was
the Word of God. I began to believe the Word rather than the fearful reports
the enemy was always trying to plant in my mind. I could proclaim these verses
out loud and often. I continued to work on being an overcomer
by the Word of my testimony; God’s Word.
I found another Scripture that showed that
if I obeyed God’s commandments and believed that Jesus was the Son of God, I
had everything I needed to be an overcomer.
“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. “ (I added the emphasis.)
1 John 5:3-5.
It was about nine years before the Lord
showed me the need for deliverance.
There were many areas in which I was not able to overcome. The Lord brought me to safe places where I
received deliverances from generational curses, strongholds, mind sets and
curses. At that time the Lord gave me a
very important Word.
“Overcoming is the back door to
deliverance.”
The deliverances seemed easier than overcoming. The Holy Spirit wanted me to make a more truthful connection. When He showed me a scripture and made me see I needed to pray it; I would. After six weeks to three months of praying this Scripture, the Holy Spirit would send me for deliverance. I had seen that even after I was delivered in an area, I needed to be vigilant for the enemy will not give up old strongholds, easily. The Scriptures that had been given to me were directly related to the weaknesses where I needed deliverance. By praying these Scriptures I was strengthening my soul. I was more ready to overcome in these weaknesses because I had the perfect Scriptures to use in any battles. And what I gained by overcoming the return of the enemy made me strong in the Lord and in belief in His Word. It also made me His vessel with more to give in prayer intercession for others.
Jesus’ idea of what I needed did not always match what I “thought” I needed When God’s enemy hung around for days or weeks, I would want to seek out a deliverance ministry for more help. There were times as I prayed to do this that Jesus would surprise me by saying,
“In this area you must overcome."
The one constant was Jesus and His grace. Jesus told Paul that,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9b
I had learned that Jesus’ grace was
sufficient for me because it was bountifully given. It seemed that Jesus’ grace handled
ninety-nine percent of the problem and that my part
was only one percent.
For the last eleven years, I had been able
to be truly thankful to the Lord for the struggle to overcome that continued to
today. The original verses about
overcoming in Revelation were now an important message to me. This message had
little to do with the gifts promised by Jesus.
They were still beautiful to me but not the focus of my need to
overcome. I simply wanted to do whatever
work the Lord would have for me to do while I was on earth. To write this
chapter I had to overcome in many strong areas of distraction.
Many books had been written about the
Blood of the Lamb, so I talked more about the Word of our testimony. That did not mean that I had chosen one over
the other. I had found that both worked
together for greater grace to overcome. Every morning and evening, I applied the Blood of Jesus by faith over my
entire family and any one on my prayer list. I applied it over every part of
our beings; both physical and spiritual.
The Power in the Blood of Jesus was mighty for protection and for so
much more. It was the Power of the Blood
of Jesus that stopped the enemy’s unchallenged gains here on earth. When the Blood of Jesus was applied to any
situation and to the minds and hearts of anyone involved, the Lord’s Victory
became close at hand. My prayer partner
and I always applied the Blood of Jesus during prayer for anyone. A part of that prayer was:
“According to the Words in Romans (5:9) and the
Words in Exodus 12, when you see the Blood of Jesus covering them and their
situation, no destructive blow will come upon them nor will the destroyer
come to strike or smite them. We praise and thank you Lord, for the Blood of
Jesus. “
As I ventured into new areas for the Lord’s
work, I had seen many who had not understood the need to overcome in their
life. All seemed well or they accepted what was there as part of their life.
The most difficult thing for me to see was when God’s enemy stole back
deliverances and healings from people who could not stand and overcome his
efforts to return.
If you study the few scriptures I
mentioned in this chapter you will see that overcoming will be required by all
Christians. And more importantly I knew
without a doubt that Jesus would come again. I may be someone who will be here
on earth when Jesus returned. I must be
an overcomer to stand in what will still need to come
forth. Clearly, this was one of the
end-time requirements.
For this requirement I will pray a prayer of
encouragement.
For the sake of Our Lord Jesus and a
continued walk with Him, I pray that all who read this book would be encouraged
to seek the Lord Holy Spirit for an understanding of overcoming and what it
would mean in their life. Holy Spirit, I humbly ask that Your
grace would flow mighty for them, so they could hear Your answer. And Lord Holy
Spirit, I pray that You would give them the courage to
follow Your guidance. I pray this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Prepare for His Return! Praying
the End-Time Warnings and Requirements
©2005 Paula Russo
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Paula Russo | P.O. Box 950987 | Lake Mary, FL 32795 |paula@acloserwalkwithgod.com