A Tale of Two Churches: Becoming an Overcomer

By Dan de Kock

As believers we stand at a fork in the road.

Two different expressions of Christianity are emerging in the Body of Christbelievers growing in love for Jesus and others sliding back into apostasy. This book explores the two choices before us, patterned after the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea in Revelation. Many churches contain a mixture, but as time progresses the two streams will progressively separate. The choice we make will radically affect our destiny in this life and in eternity.

Wherever we are spiritually right now, we can choose which way to go. The choice is ours! All rewards described in Revelation are given to overcomers. It is Gods desire for each of us to become an overcomer. The principles in this book are not just good theory, but have been lived out in real life. The more of Gods ways we walk in, the more we will walk as overcomers. The purpose of this book is to encourage you into the joy and victory of walking with the Lord in His wonderful and overcoming ways!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490846910

Dan de Kock

Dan is from South Africa, and his wife Jan is from Pennsylvania. They lived in Canada and then New Zealand. Dan worked in the everyday world for many years and is a Bible teacher. He wrote Standing Firm in a Time of Shaking and It’s Time to Walk on Water. Jan is an artist. They have two children and five grandchildren and are members of Grace Restoration church in Augusta, Georgia.

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Copyright © 2014 Dan de Kock.

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-4690-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-4691-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014914847

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/20/2014

Contents

Forward

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Neither Cold Nor Hot

Wholeheartedness

Questions

Chapter 3 True and False Prosperity

A Life in Balance

Gold Purified by Fire

Questions

Chapter 4 The Church of the Self-Righteous

The Illusion of Self-righteousness

Set free from self-justification.

Questions

Chapter 5 Spiritual Blindness

An Eternal Perspective

Questions

Chapter 6 Jesus on the Outside

Questions

Chapter 7 An Open Door

Questions

Chapter 8 The Church with Little Strength

Questions

Chapter 9 The Faithful Church

Faithful to His Word

Faithful to His Name

Questions

Chapter 10 An Amazing Promise

Perseverance

Choice

Questions

Chapter 11 Parable of the Ten Virgins

Becoming and Staying Filled with the Holy Spirit

Maintaining Our Spiritual Life

Questions

Becoming an Overcomer

Chapter 12 Introduction to Becoming an Overcomer

Chapter 13 It Begins with Honesty

Questions

Chapter 14 It Takes the Power of the Holy Spirit

Our Power is Inadequate

Questions

Chapter 15 Overcoming through Faith

A Balanced Life of Faith

What we say

Meditation in the Word of God

Healthy food for our hearts and minds

What we do

Questions

Chapter 16 Overcoming through Patience

The Christian Race

Questions

Chapter 17 Overcoming Evil With Good

The Priority of Forgiveness

Prodigals and Elder Brothers

Questions

Chapter 18 Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb and Word of our Testimony

The Blood of the Lamb

The Word of Our Testimony

They Did Not Love Their Lives to the Death

Questions

Chapter 19 Overcoming the Ropes of the Past

The Bad

The Ugly

The Good

Questions

Chapter 20 The Power of Prayer and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Questions

Chapter 21 Overcoming through Praise

Praise overcomes depression

Praise Brings Victory

Questions

Chapter 22 The King’s Highway

More Power

Questions

Chapter 23 Wearing the Armor of God as a Lifestyle

The belt of truth

The breastplate of righteousness

The preparation of the Gospel of Peace

The shield of faith

The Helmet of Salvation

The Sword of the Spirit

Prayer

Chapter 24 Living in God’s Presence

Staying in His Presence

A Time for Miracles

Endnotes

Forward

In A Tale of Two Churches Dan De Kock has laid out a powerful vision of what this thing we call church can and should be. The word church conjures lots of different meanings to different people. To some it means a building. To others it’s some sort of institution. In reality, the ekklesia of God consists of all those believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation. It crosses denominational and sectarian lines and includes people from just about every race, ethnic group and nation on the planet. The Greek word, ekklesia, that we translate church means called out ones. Jesus said in John 17:14 that we are not of the world and yet we are still in the world. As believers we all fulfill diverse roles and callings as different and individual parts in the body of Christ, but there is a common theme to the Christian life that we sometimes fail to grasp. Jesus did not die to give us a religious experience. He died to bring us into relationship with the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered life that makes the difference. Galatians 5:25 tells us that If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

In A Tale of Two Churches Dan has laid out the elements of the Christian walk that will take the believer from relying on self to relying on God. Dan has clearly and concisely spelled out, not only the argument for our need to live the Spirit-led life, but how to actually do it. When I first reviewed a copy of Dan’s manuscript I was struck by what a powerful tool he has created for new believers. I wish that I had been given a book that so clearly explained the true calling of the Christian life. I was growing and learning, but there were indeed a lot of stops and starts along the way. A book such as A Tale of Two Churches would have been of immense value in my early walk.

For the more mature believer A Tale of Two Churches offers encouragement and inspiration. What kind of Christian life are we called to live? It is very easy to slip into a comfortable, compartmentalized walk where God is neatly kept on the sidelines. Sure, we go to church and read our Bible on occasion, but our walk with the Lord is just one part of everything else instead of the driver and motivator of our lives. A Tale of Two Churches calls us out of apathy and complacency and into a vibrant walk with the Lord that will permeate every area of our lives. The Word of God has a lot to say about this faith journey that we are on. The Bible deals honestly with our frailty and fallibility but also with our tremendous potential in Christ. While some Christians try to argue and explain away the experiential power of God, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a testimony of a God who works powerfully in and through His people. We serve a God who is still working, still speaking, still equipping and still empowering. None of that has passed away. A Tale of Two Churches will encourage you to take hold of the fullness and abundance that God offers and desires for your life and equip you to be salt and light in a lost and dying world so desperately in need of Jesus!

Frank Garner

Pastor, Grace Restoration Church

Augusta, GA

Preface

For many years the church in our own nation and other Western nations has coexisted with the world in a reasonably peaceful way. Now however, the norms of society are changing rapidly and becoming increasingly hostile to the Christian world view. We no longer live in a society with Judeo-Christian values and much of the church has been slow to wake up to the change that is taking place. This book has two purposes.

The first is to alert the reader to the change taking place and to the fork in the road before us. Jesus said No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). We are going to have to choose to become more openly and unashamedly on fire for Jesus, or to compromise more and more with the world around us and grow increasing cold towards Him. Nothing stays the same!

This book encourages the reader to make the right choice, for if we are passive and just drift, we will find ourselves drifting farther and farther away from our Lord, and our love for Him growing cold. The future for those who fall back into the world and its loves and values may seem to be easier in this life, and perhaps it is. But life without fellowship with Him will become as dry as brick dust and desert sand! And the future in eternity for those who eventually deny Him – because that is what will eventually happen – is not good.

The future for those who go on with the Lord will have its trials and its battles. However, we will have the joy of daily fellowship with Him and with the Father, and the security that only a relationship with Him and with the Father can give. We will also enjoy His blessings, for God is a loving Father and Jesus is a wonderful Friend! In eternity a future lies ahead that is too marvelous for us to fully imagine.

The second part of this book gives the reader Biblical ways to become more and more of an overcomer. If we choose to Yes to Jesus and No to the values and idols of this world, we will need to be! In addition all the rewards in Revelation are given to overcomers, and I believe that it is God’s desire for each of us to become an overcomer.

May this book open your eyes to the change taking place around us, and encourage you to make the right choice – a choice for life, love, light and true freedom in Him. And may you become an increasingly fearless overcomer, shining with love for the Lord in the growing darkness of the world around us.

God bless you!

Dan de Kock

Acknowledgments

I want to give special thanks to my wife Jan, who has stuck with me in peaceful and easy times, and in stormy and tough times for over 46 years. She has been and is a tremendous blessing in my life. I am grateful for our two children who expanded us and contributed more than they realize to our growth in maturity.

Many thanks to a true friend, Bob Kingdom, who encouraged me concerning this book, and did an outstanding job of the cover design. Thanks to my sister in South Africa, Anamarie Pringle who graciously made time in a busy life to edit the first part of this book.

Thanks also to Frank Garner, pastor and brother for his personal encouragement to me and my wife, and for his encouragement concerning this book.

To my sister Elsa Horrell in New Zealand and others who generously contributed to the publishing costs, a big thank you!

Most of all I am grateful to Jesus my Lord, who saved me, befriended me, healed me, baptized me in the Holy Spirit, and brought me into a wonderful relationship with God as my Father.