From Victory to Victory

By Jean Max B. St Louis

Whether you are a new or mature Christian, you are currently engaged in a warfare that will not end until you meet Christ. Victory is essential in the Christian life. Not to experience a victorious Christian life does not fit within the standard we are called to live. In the book of Revelation, Jesus said these words to the seven Churches: "To the one who overcomes." This implies that, although Jesus is the source of victory for His church, He still expects his church to walk From Victory to Victory.
In this book you will learn how to:

* View yourself, the world around you, and the spiritual world from a biblical perspective
* Identify the enemies of the Christian life and the various strategies used against you as a believer
* Recognize and cope with spiritual distractions
* Use your spiritual discernment at all times
* Discover who you are in Christ Jesus
* Operate under His victory to defeat your enemies
* Practice an effective prayer life

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781939748676

Book preview

Publishing.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I want to express my deepest and greatest gratitude to God for putting the passion in my heart to write this book and helping me, in every step of the way, to complete it successfully. I express my deep sense of gratitude to my wife, Naomie St Louis, who was very patient and supportive as I was writing this book. I owe great thanks to Susan Rescigno, who helped me in the editing of the entire manuscript. Her input and her suggestions were very useful. I would also like to thank Dr. Howard McNeill, who, in spite of his busy schedule, created the time to read a part of this manuscript and to give me some good advice.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to people like: Mr. and Mrs. David Anthony Romeo, who gave me some good advice about the manuscript; Pastor Oreste Coulanges and Pastor Joseph Victor, who gave me their words of encouragement; my brother-in-law, Pastor Bernard Laurent, who gave me some great advice and encouragement; and my father, Pastor Jean Bien-Aime St Louis; my mother, Gladys St Louis; my sister, Marie-Bernard St Louis; and many other friends, who were constantly supporting me in their prayers.

Introduction

Let me ask you some questions. Do you notice that whenever you want to do something good, you are being opposed by something bad? Do you feel attracted toward things that are ungodly? Have you ever been in a situation where you understood that it was well planned against you?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, I would like you to know that these situations are signs and pulses of an ongoing warfare that you are facing as a Christian believer. The good news is that it is possible for you to experience victory in the midst of these conditions.

Perhaps you are asking, How can I experience victory? This is the question that my book will tackle--to show that, although the Christian life has many enemies, they were all defeated by one victory, the victory of Jesus at the cross.

Your responsibility is not to struggle for victory, but to struggle under His victory, so that you might live a victorious Christian life on a daily basis.

I invite you, as you are reading this book, to embark on a journey to discover the portions that are already yours in Christ and to take possession of them without hesitation, for they are the only resources that can help you win at all times.

Part I: Identify The Christian Enemies

Chapter 1

The Awareness of the Christian Enemies

The Importance of Being Aware of the Enemies

When Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He gave them many instructions; these included healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and casting out demons. He gave the disciples specific instructions as to what they needed to carry with them during that journey. And He talked to them concerning their responses to the people who would receive them and to those who would not. He even spoke to them about His judgment toward the cities that would not welcome them. One crucial instruction was this: They should always be aware of their enemies.

In Matthew 10:16-17, Jesus told them: Behold I send you out as a sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpent and harmless as sheep. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues…

With these words, Jesus informed His disciples that the mission they were about to undertake was not just preaching the kingdom of heaven or merely performing miracles; but being aware of their surroundings, they needed to be mindful of their enemies.

In fact, if we read the whole passage of Matthew Chapter 10, we will observe that Jesus spent more time alerting the apostles about their enemies and their attitudes towards them than instructing them about anything else concerning their mission. The success of their assignment was, in great measure, dependent upon the awareness of their foes.

It is the same for us as believers. We cannot fully experience a victorious life if we are not aware of our enemies and do not take an appropriate stand against them. The measure of our success in the service of God does not necessarily determine how victorious we are over our enemies. In fact, our enemies are good at using successful ministries to cause the fall of great ministers. The success of our service for God could be used by our foes to distract us from our walk with God. This is why it is not possible for us as Christians to experience a glorious and continuous victory in our lives if we are not fully cognizant of our opponents and have proper behavior towards them.

As human beings, although we are capable of great feats, we can only do well within the limitations of our knowledge and with the elements and conditions within our control. We cannot perform well beyond the scope of our awareness and capabilities. A lawyer cannot be expected to perform well if placed in an emergency room to diagnose and treat the sick; neither can a doctor be expected to defend the accused in a courtroom. Our performance in any given field is largely dependent upon our knowledge and proficiency in said field or endeavor.

Consider another example, the case of an army that is warring against an unknown enemy. They go to the battlefield, but they do not know whom they are fighting. They have no information about their enemies and they are not seeking to learn anything about them. Can this army expect that they will be victorious over their opponents? No way! If they do not know their enemies, how can they hope to prevail against them? If they are not fighting against their enemies, how can they even hope to win the war? In fact, they are exposing themselves to failure. The other army becomes aware that their opponents are not aware of them and seizes the opportunity to attack and defeat them.

Just as it is a great miscalculation for a soldier to engage in a battle without accurate intelligence about the movements and capabilities of his enemy, it is very dangerous for us, as Christians who are constantly at war with the forces of evil, not to be aware of our own adversaries. This is a truth we must all understand: As believers we are constantly engaged in warfare against our enemies, and living the Christian life victoriously requires that we become aware of their identities, sensitive to their strategies against us, and knowledgeable about how to defeat them.

Sometimes, we are preoccupied with other things. We do not seek to know the line of attack that our foes are using against us. But by not doing so, we are setting ourselves up to be defeated by them.

Andrew Murray said: There is nothing that makes an enemy so dangerous as the fact that he remains hidden or forgotten.¹ This is exactly what our enemies desire, for us not even to notice they are there; because the less we are aware of them, the better they will be able to deceive us; and the more they deceive us, the better they will be able to defeat us.

The Victory and the Alertness of the Enemies

Now, let me ask you some questions: Are you truly aware of the extent of the Christian battle? Are you really cognizant of the enemies of the Christian life? Perhaps you might ask, Why should I bother knowing about my foes if I am already more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus? If truth be told, we do have the victory over our enemies in Christ Jesus, but how can we fully understand the glory and the extent of this victory if we are not aware of the power of the enemies that Jesus has defeated at the cross? If we know how powerful our enemies are, then we will understand how great the victory at the cross was. The whole power that triumphed over our enemies at the cross will be clearly revealed to us when we become aware of who those enemies are. Our hearts will gladden greatly when we understand how these enemies held us tightly in their powerful grasp and how, if it had not been for the unrivaled triumph of Jesus Christ at the cross, we would still be subjected to them.

Paul was aware of the fact that Jesus gave him victory over his enemies; nevertheless, that victory did not stop Paul from knowing who his enemies were. In Colossians 2:15, Paul said: Having disarmed principalities and power, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

In this verse, Paul did not describe the enemies that Jesus had conquered as a mere opponent. He knew that the devil and his demons have a lot of power. He was aware of their authority and their dominion over the world. This is why Paul did not merely mention that Jesus disarmed His foes, but he gave a description of whom Jesus defeated. He used the words principalities and power. The words principalities and power are not used here for human governmental authorities, but for evil angelic forces and their position of power.²

So Paul was saying that, in spite of their hierarchy, their power, and their control over the world, Jesus was powerful enough to defeat the devil and His demons at the cross. Even if we believe that Jesus gave us the victory at the cross, which is true, we still need to be aware of our enemies. And as we become well cognizant of them, the news of the crucifixion of Jesus, which reminds us of their defeats, will make more sense to us. In fact, one of the essential lessons that the victory at the cross is teaching is to be well aware of our enemies. And if we are not aware of our enemies, this might be an indication that we do not fully understand our victory in Christ Jesus.

Strategies to Experiencing Victory

Now, I would like to share three significant strategies that can help Christian believers to be aware of their own enemies and to experience victory over them. These three strategies will be used throughout the book for each enemy that I will address.

Know how your enemies operate. The first strategy is to identify your enemies and know how they operate. Who are my true enemies? An enemy is one who hates and desires the destruction of another.³ So anyone, even a friend or a sibling, can be or can become an enemy. Jesus said in Matthew 10:36: and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. The Bible says that death is an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). The flesh, the world, and the devil are our enemies as well (Romans 7:23; James 4:4; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 2:1-3). Are they all the enemies that God wants us to take a strong stand against? Jesus said in Matthew 5: 44: But I say to you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

A neighbor can be an enemy; nonetheless Jesus taught us to love them. Death is also an enemy, but we cannot fight this enemy. In fact, we have to consider it as a gain. As Paul said: For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). And he said also: The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:26). Hence, according to those passages, we are not called to fight against each other, and death is the part of life we cannot struggle against. However, when we read in Ephesians 2:1-3, we will discover the enemies of our warfare: "And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we once conducted in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. According to that passage, our enemies are the following: the flesh (the lusts of our flesh), the world (the course of the world), and the devil (the prince of the power of the air). These three enemies are our vicious opponents that can hinder us from fully experiencing the benefits of our relationship with God. They are the enemies that we should be fully aware of and take appropriate action against.

Although the flesh, the world, and the devil are our enemies, they differ in the way they operate against us. Most of the time, we become confused as to the ways in which those three enemies wage war against us. Some of us possibly do not know them or take them all as enemies. Most Christians believe that the devil is their enemy, but they deny that the flesh and the world are enemies as well. When they are controlled by the flesh, they think that the devil is the one who is trying to control them. When they are attracted by the world, they start to cast out demons. It is not that the devil cannot seduce us, but that the world has the ability to attract us through its vain glory. We tend to take the devil as the only enemy we are battling against. We make him responsible for every wrongdoing that happens in our lives. If truth be told, however, Satan is not directly responsible for all of our failures; sometimes bad things happen in our lives because we have made wrong decisions. We possess the power to make choices. And, as human beings, we are capable of making good or bad choices. When we are seeking to gratify our own selfish desires, however, we always wind up in trouble with God. In these instances, Satan is not responsible; we are the ones to blame. The thing that causes us to have egotistic behaviors is our sinful nature. Therefore, the flesh is the enemy that influences us to commit those sinful actions.

James 1:14-15 says: But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Satan is not the only one that can tempt us. According to James, some temptations that we face originated within ourselves. We should be cautious and aware of our enemies and the way they operate against us. On one level, we might be facing an internal warfare with the flesh that is reinforced externally by the world. On another level, we might be waging a spiritual warfare against the devil who can also partner with the flesh and the world against us. Whatever the case, becoming aware of these enemies and knowing how they operate against us will be a very significant step toward experiencing victory over them.

Avoid distraction. The second strategy that will help us to be aware of our enemies and to experience victory over them is avoiding distraction. A distraction can be anything or anyone that can turn our focus or our attention away from where it should be. Anytime we are not focused on the thing that we should be focused on, we are distracted. Anything that stops us from doing what we ought to do is a distraction. For example, anything that keeps us from praying to God, praising God or reading and meditating on His Word and anything that can cause us to doubt the promises of God is a distraction. As believers, we ought to be aware of anything that can cause us to become distracted, because it will keep us from focusing on Christ and will make us vulnerable to the enemy.

Paul said to Timothy: No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier (2 Timothy 2:4). If the soldier wants to please his commander-in-chief and be very effective on the battlefield, he must untie himself from anything that can sidetrack him. Focusing upon the affairs of his life, thinking about things that do not pertain to his warfare, will create a great distraction for him. If he is trying to focus on the war and other areas of his life at the same time, he will not be able to perform appropriately in the war. Instead of being a threat to his enemy, he allows himself to be threatened by his enemy. This is why nothing should be the object of his thoughts but the war. His focus should be primarily on his commander, who will give him directives.

Another example of distraction is giving attention to something that does not necessarily deserve that attention. We waste our focus and our energy when we are trying to fight an enemy in the wrong way. When someone hates or wrongs us, our first tendency is to retaliate, which is, in essence, fighting the enemy in the wrong way. The Word of God teaches us to love our enemies but to hate the world. If someone offends us in some way; and instead of forgiving this person, we choose to hate him, we are not obeying God’s