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Called To Conquer Pt.1 Series
Contributed by Mark Baker on Jul 26, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Learning to walk in the authority Jesus gave us.
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Romans 8:37-39. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Greek Word for conqueror here is hupernikao. Vines New Testament dictionary says that hupernikao is to gain a surpassing victory, lit., "we are hyper-conquerors," i.e., we are pre-eminently victorious.\
We are not just conquerors (nikao) we are much more, we are super conquerors (hupernikao). WOW.
This may come as a revelation to many Christians, but we are not supposed to be punching bags for the devil, this is not what God called us to be. He called us to be conquerors and to walk in victory over every adversity. Many Christians pray and ask God to please take away the problems of life, they just don’t realize that God has equipped us to do it. We are to walk in the victory that has been bought for us. The Word of God has a lot to say about this, and not just in the New Testament, this is a recurring theme through the whole Bible.
It started in the garden of Eden. Genesis 1:28. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’’
God told Adam to subdue and also to have dominion over all the Earth. Adam was given great authority. He had the legal rights to this planet, yet he gave those rights over to Satan.
It was not until the second Adam, Jesus, that we were able to receive back what was originally given to Adam, this authority was legally purchased back and given to us.
Thousands of years later, Jesus came, but before He started His earthly ministry He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all have accounts of this. Jesus had to go through real temptation and overcome many things before He could start His ministry here on Earth. We have got to understand that Jesus had choices to make or it would not have been a real temptation.
The first thing that Jesus did was submit to God and be baptized, at this time God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit to do service. The second thing He did was to make a declaration of His mission. He declared why He was sent.
Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19. to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’’
Jesus was sent by God the Father to heal broken hearts, deliver the captives, recover sight for the blind, and to liberate the oppressed, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
The acceptable year of the Lord was the year of jubilee. This was the year of restoration for the Jew’s, when houses and lands were restored, slaves were set free, and restitution was made.
Jesus made it plain this is what He came to do, to free us, to liberate us. He came to restore what was taken. He was called to conquer. I would like to ask you the question, has He changed even a little bit? No He has not, however Satan is still the God of this world.
Jesus gave us instructions before He left, He told us to …
Mark 16:15-20. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’’ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Jesus has commissioned us to carry on the work in His name. He transferred His authority to us. He called us to conquer. Jesus has restored the authority that Adam lost in the garden of Eden, but many believers are ignorant of the authority that they truly have. We have to learn to walk in this authority by exercising our faith in the Word of God. Religion says no, and has taught us to be mealy bug Christians, just barely getting along. However that is not what God’s Word says. Jesus told his disciples to go, however before they could go they were told …