Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the daylong; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of G-d, which is in Messiah Yeshua our Adonai.
(KJV)
No one is a follower of Adonai who is not a soldier of the cross. The conflict may be long and arduous the battle fierce, but from the onset victory has been guaranteed in Yeshua. If G-d be for us who can be against us; who can prevail against One as mighty as He? Yet the real foe who often defeats us is none other than US. By the Word of G-d it is impossible for anyone or anything to snatch us out of G-d’s Hands for there is perfect security in Yeshua even for the weakest saint who simply hears his voice and follows Him. The peril we face is that we often fail to listen, follow and abide in Him thus cutting us off from His life and victory. In our original design we were given the ability of free will and often times in the exercise of it neglect the mighty keeping and staying power of the one that created us that way.
Liberty always has its part to play for nothing can separate us against our will. If we fail its not from want of Grace, nor the power of the enemy, but from our own neglect to use G-d’s Grace and enabling power. “Be strong in Adonai and in the power of His might.” Being “more than conquerors” is not a passive activity but an active one. We are to be triumphantly overcoming winning overwhelming victory throughout our Christian life. No one ever became a conquer without conquering. We are summoned to be soldier’s not just sheep. There is simply NO peace without a cost. Whether we prove to be conquerors, depends on whether we remain “strong” in the grace, which is in Yeshua, and endure hardship as good soldiers. No one is excused from fighting the “Good fight of Faith”. The conflict is real and the issues are life and death. The freedom of the “New Life” is a militant freedom and we have to fight to maintain it.
Peter declared, “If you through the Spirit do put to death the desires and wills of the flesh ye shall live and if you do not they will live and kill you.” The price of liberty is eternal “Vigilance.” The believer is free only on the condition that he keeps the old tyrants in check who struggle to have dominion once again. The believer is a partaker of the “Divine Nature” who partakes of G-d’s Holiness through submission and faith in Yeshua thereby having the ability to defeat every enemy. Being a partaker does not denote what one possesses in himself as his own, but a communication of what does NOT belong to him. BUT to another, however whatever he does it’s as the “Whole Man.” Therein lies the secret of victory.
The battle we fight we do not fight in our strength but in His as we continually submit to His authority. The believer is continually confronted with choosing whether to walk after the flesh or after the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit you WILL NOT fulfill the lusts of the flesh. No one can walk in two directions at once. If a believer walks after the Spirit, however imperfectly, he is demonstrating a willingness to walk in one direction. He may at times be halting, stub his toe, make mistakes, but still as he walks after the Spirit he walks but in one direction. G-d is profoundly concerned about men’s direction. To those whose direction is towards Him, He imparts the perfection of Yeshua and shares with them His own divine nature. We must continue to choose whether to be carnally minded which tends towards death or to be spiritually minded which tends towards life and peace. There are always two courses open to us. We can only follow one at a time weighing the consequences. The time has come for the believer to STOP passing the blame for their failures on the satan for he cannot compel us to act contrary to our own will and consent. He has NO power beyond that of “influence”. The Word of G-d promises us that as we submit ourselves to G-d and resist the satana that the satan MUST flee.
The battlefield is within ourselves. Its there the conflict is either won or lost. In Yeshua there is Victory for ALL who would grasp it. The power for spiritual conquest is NOT in ourselves but in Him. Yeshua said, “Without me you can do nothing,” Yet I can do ALL things through Messiah who strengthens (empowers) me for “Messiah liveth in me.” Brethren the power for conquest is freely available to all who simply trust in Yeshua for truly “Greater is He that is WITHIN me than he that is in the world.” I CAN do ALL things through Messiah who strengthens me. Adonai Sabboth (Lord of Hosts) goes before us.
The Victory is already guaranteed …STAY on the Battlefield.
-Rabbi Matt