Overcoming for God’s Glory: Your Life Is Not a Waste

By Dawn Bonisa Stamper

“OVERCOMING FOR GOD’S GLORY, Your Life Is NOT a Waste” encourages young and old alike that God is for you, not against you. He loves you just as you are. He sees you and wants you to see him. He wants to give you victory over the battles you are facing. This book unfolds numerous keys in the Word of God that will lead you into a life of victory through Christ Jesus. As He brings you from despair to repair, and from fear and paralysis, into peace, joy, and assurance of God’s good plan for your life, you will develop intimacy with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He will bring you from glory to glory through Jesus Christ the Lord, Victor over the dark domain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664283305

Dawn Bonisa Stamper

Having admittedly messed up many times in her own life, the author boasts only in the Lord. After numerous failed attempts to deal with the storms of her own life, she finally learned that completely trusting and obeying Christ is absolutely the better way. He deserves all the glory.

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Copyright © 2022 Dawn Bonisa Stamper.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-8329-9 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022920642

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/23/2022

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Unit I: You Will Have Trouble

Chapter 1 Does Anyone Even Care?

Chapter 2 Don’t Panic!

Chapter 3 The Extravagant Lover of Your Soul

Chapter 4 Keys to the Kingdom of God

Unit II: In His Presence

Chapter 5 The God Who Sees You

Chapter 6 Come On In!

Chapter 7 Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Chapter 8 When You Walk through Deep Waters

Unit III: Surprise!

Chapter 9 Unexpected Benefits

Chapter 10 Hiding No More

Chapter 11 Do It Again, Lord!

Bibliography

To the Lord, Jesus Christ,

who saved me from myself through His sacrificial death on the cross, taking my sin and struggles with Him and rising from the grave to give me life and life more abundantly

Thank You.

To everyone who has lovingly and patiently encouraged me, prayed for me, taught me, and believed in me

Thank you.

To everyone who is struggling or ever will struggle with the pain and sorrow of this life

May you find victory and the peace that passes

all understanding that you are seeking.

Preface

Awakening in the wee hours of the morning in the spring of 2015, I was aware of Holy Spirit urging me to listen and do what He had told me to do. He reminded me that Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice (John 10:27a KJV). The urging was clear and powerful: I was to listen, to hear His voice, and to do what He had said. A few hours later, I reached into the desk at church, where I sat to do volunteer work, and pulled out a sticky note I had written the previous fall. It read, Not a waste. Overcoming for God’s glory. Write a book. 10/22/2014.

God had spoken those words to my heart, my spirit, late one Friday night at a prayer meeting with my Master Life class, a discipleship group. Not sure what to do about it, I stuck that note in my desk. Now, five months later, He reminded me about it.

It had taken me until then to wrap my head around the fact that God would ask me to do something so far from my imagination. I knew then that God really had directed me to write, although I did not have a clue how to do that or what to say.

Yes, Lord. I hear You, and I choose to obey You. In my weakness, I trust that You will be strong.

Introduction

The goal of this book is threefold:

1. God wants to reveal His truth to you: He is for you; He loves you; He wants to heal you, spirit, soul, and body; and He wants you to overcome.

2. God wants you to know and experience Him in immensely powerful and comforting ways.

3. God wants to produce His glorious image in you.

This book is full of Bible verses; thus, God already has written a great deal of it. I stand on the Word of God and hold it dear to my heart. Some verses are repeated in various chapters, where appropriate. The Bible is the inspired Word of God—perfect. In it are all the instructions that we need in order to know God and to live a rich, full life, according to His plans and His purposes for us. It leads us to forgiveness, away from sin, and toward a life that is pleasing to God. Bible references are from the New International Version (NIV), unless otherwise indicated.

A wise contemporary of King Solomon declared, Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in him (Proverbs 30:5). Similarly, King David wrote, As for God, His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him (Psalm 18:30).

A priestly man conversed with God about the value of the Word to him: I have hidden your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You … Your Word is a lamp for my feet, and a light on my path (Psalms 119:11, 105).

Isaiah wrote God’s assurance to us that His Word is true and dependable:

He says, I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right. (Isaiah 45:18–19)

Take time to read, think, and pray as you go along. Answer the Discussion Questions, and speak the Declarations over yourself, which are based on the Word of God, at the end of each chapter.

Please, Father God, give all of us eyes to see and ears to hear what is on Your heart and that cause me to write for Your glory. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Your will, Your way, and Your timing. Praise Your most holy and precious name. I ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the Lord, and for Your glory. Thank you for all You are about to do.

UNIT I

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You Will Have Trouble

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1

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Does Anyone Even Care?

DOES ANYONE EVEN CARE? YES, MORE THAN YOU KNOW. GOD cares, and so do many others. We care and are here to help you. Hang on, friend. There are days of turmoil and spiritual warfare that are difficult and make us wonder what we are doing wrong. Some days, we pray and seek relief from problems and troubles that seem huge. We feel overwhelmed because the battle seems impossible to win. But whatever is impossible for us is possible for God! The Bible not only warns about the hard things, but it also teaches us how to trust God to bring us through to victory in Jesus’s name. Consider all the scriptures. Apostle John quoted Jesus, the Overcomer, as saying, In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33b).

Let us see things from God’s perspective, the way they really are. First, let us establish, once and for all, that God loves you. He is not mad at you. He wants only the absolute best for you! That is why the Father sent Jesus to take our sins upon Himself and die for us. Some are saying, Yes, thank God! Thank Him for saving me. I cannot do this life without Him. But others (perhaps you) may be saying, I am not sure He even knows I exist. I feel like He is so far away. Or maybe it is, I am not so sure about that. I have done too many bad things. I do not think God even likes me. Or maybe you are thinking, If He loves me, why am I going through this?

Be assured that God is always about raising you up to new and better heights. Jeremiah, the prophet, wrote the following incredible passage, quoting the Lord, and it is for you, dear one:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come to pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jeremiah 29:11–12 English Standard Version)

Did you catch that? God Almighty, Creator of all that exists and ever will, has plans to do what for you? Cause you to prosper and have a future full of hope, in which He to listens to you. Yes, my friend, God loves you, and He longs for you to find Him and to let Him meet your every need.

Satan’s goal, however, is to take you down! Ever since he tricked Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden into disobeying God and bringing sin into the world, we have had troubles. In the Bible, Satan is called by many names that reveal his character: crooked serpent (Isaiah 27:1 KJV), father of lies (John 8:44), enemy (Matthew 13:39), ruler of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12 KJV), tempter (Matthew 4:3), thief (John 10:10), evil-one (Matthew 13:19, 38). He is wicked.

But God intended for all of us, including you, to live and walk with Him forever in that garden He created, where He provided for all our needs, all your needs, including eternal fellowship with Him. God’s reason for sending Jesus to die for us and Holy Spirit to live in us and help us is because of His extravagant love for us. He sent Jesus to take our sin upon Himself, your sin upon Himself, and bring healing to our spirits, our souls, and our bodies. And He sent Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus, pointing us to Him, and to help us stay out of troubles, to help us amid troubles, and to accomplish His purposes for us on the other side of troubles.

Apostle John wrote that Jesus said, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10). That is why God did and does and will always do everything we need to be in a good, healthy, righteous relationship with Him. His love and faithfulness toward you will never end.

You Are Not Alone

The reality is that we sometimes feel as if we are alone—alone in our troubles, in our hardships, in our day-to-day struggles. We feel that we have no one to turn to, no one to help us, no one to encourage us, no one to fight our battles with us, no one to fight our battles for us. The reality is that we fix our eyes on the circumstances or how we will deal with our circumstances—how will we keep ourselves from drowning? —not on the One who is greater than our circumstances. Ask yourself, Where is my focus—on God or on my problems?

According to the Word, if you answered the latter, you are not alone. The disciples were in the middle of a large lake when a huge storm came upon them, causing them to fear for their lives and fret among themselves. Apostle Paul’s fellow worker Luke wrote that the disciples went below deck in a panic and awakened Jesus, complaining to Him,

Master, Master, we’re going to drown! He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. Where is your faith, He asked His disciples. In fear and amazement, they asked one another, Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him. (Luke 8:24b–25)

The reality is that our perspectives, the way we see things, can be wrong. They also can be changed to align with the Word of God. How? Notice that Jesus asked the disciples where their faith was. There is every indication that if they’d had greater faith, the way they saw their situation would have been different. Faith would not necessarily have prevented the situation, but it would have changed their response to the situation. Do not get me wrong; I am not suggesting that if you are in a dangerous situation that you just sit there and do nothing. No, you must get to safety. But do not panic. Fear can paralyze you. Fear can cause you to make bad decisions. Fear can change the course of your life.

So how do I decrease my fear and increase my faith? you ask. Apostle Paul tells us we do it by hearing, reading, and absorbing the Word.

So, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. (Romans 10:17 ESV)

The more you hear the Word and the more you read and meditate on it, letting it renew your thinking, the more faith you will experience. Whether you are reading the Bible yourself or hearing it spoken from the pulpit, TV, radio, or other believers sharing what God has done for them, it will arouse greater faith in God and decrease your fear. As your faith arises, you will see your various situations with less and less fear and doubt, helplessness, and hopelessness because you will see them through God’s eyes—the God who is with you and will never forsake you, the God who has all the answers because He knows all the questions. Just as you eat food and drink water daily to strengthen your body, I encourage you to read the Word daily and allow God to speak truth to you to strengthen your faith.

Did you reply, I know I should read my Bible more, but I just do not have time? Please take this to heart: you cannot afford not to read your Bible. Put a devotional with scriptures in the bathroom, pick it up and read it as you sit there. Put a Bible app on your phone that has an audio feature, and listen to it as you drive to work, take the kids to school, exercise, cook, or mow the lawn. Tune in to a Christian radio station as you drive those thousands of miles each year. If you are not already in the habit of reading or hearing the Word every day, make a new habit. It is food for your soul, and it will make an enormous difference in your life! Not to do so is a waste. The Word is God talking to us.

Apostle John wrote that Jesus is the Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning … The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

Who was it who was with God from the beginning and was God and became flesh and dwelled among us? It is Jesus, the One and only Son of God. So, dear one, when we read and hear the Word of God, it is as though we are sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to what is on God’s heart. This has the potential to change us if we listen and allow Him to do His excellent work in our hearts, souls, and spirits. As the author of Hebrews wrote,

For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints, and