Victory in Apparent Defeat

By N.M. Choga

Do You Know the Process of a Victorious Christian Lifestyle?

To be more than a conqueror calls for a spirit that infuses a royal nature into the soul and body. Your challenge is to live your purpose in accordance with God's will and move in harmony. This makes you rule as king and priest in the spiritual realm for your life to be meaningful and productive.

When the spirit reigns in your life, a spiritual nature flows through you as your body becomes sensitive to producing the fruit of the spirit in a physical sense and practical way. In this way, your conscience becomes aligned toward God and people (Acts 26:16). The explosive power of your wise conscience will dominate as it permeates your entire being to God's glory. Therefore, let the Word of God pierce to divide asunder the soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12).

For you, I pray that God sanctifies your spirit and soul and body to be preserved and blameless up to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23). This is the essence of your victory. Therefore, align your life to God's salvation plan. Pull the trigger now.

This book will build your faith, encourage the downcast, restore the broken spirit, energize your salvation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888322154

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Victory in Apparent Defeat

N.M. Choga

ISBN 979-8-88832-214-7 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-215-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by N.M. Choga

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Supplication

1

The Fallen World

2

Two Antagonistic Kingdoms

3

The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

4

Suffering Is a Purifying Furnace

5

Align Life Storms to God's Will and Purpose

6

Fear Is the Devil's Lethal Weapon

7

Faith Is a Journey to Maturity

8

Put on the Full Armor of God

9

Keys to a Victorious Lifestyle

10

Kingdom Community

11

Redeeming the Time

12

God's Salvation Plan

WORKS CITED

About the Author

To Dainah Elizabeth, my dear late loyal wife of thirty-three precious years, a person of integrity and substance who boosted my confidence in building a firm foundation of ethics, a solid rock of Christian faith, whom I credit for the success of our family. Always remembered. My dear love, rest in eternal peace which only God can bestow His favor.

My sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, for their precious support, be blessed to be a blessing

My wonderful grandsons and granddaughters who are the epitome of excellence in their God-given talents. May you continue to seek God's heart to be able to fulfil a purpose for your life that no one else can fill

All single parents whose world seems to be crumbling and are in need of renewal of their faith in God as they go through various storms singlehandedly but with an assurance of victory only from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

All Christians whose faith is under incessant attack and are prone to giving up. Hold on and be strong, standing firm on the rock of ages cleft for us.

All unbelievers who want to gain an insight into Christianity as a foundation for starting a Christian journey or all those who oppose Christianity but want to know the basis for its existence and why believers are confident in it. Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:1).

Acknowledgments

My sincere acknowledgments go to Munyaradzi and Mitchelle Choga, my dear M and M, for the timeous supply of office equipment for this noble project and spearheading the process of publishing the works;

Gift Mazarura, Tanatswa Choga, and Tatenda Makari for providing necessary technical support.

Kudzai Ruvimbo Choga for sharing great Christian insights during the entire season of COVID-19 lockdown when we harnessed our faith and anchored it on Christ Jesus for us to be productive despite the prevailing challenges and the storms we faced;

Mrs Faith Chizondo, for professional secretarial services;

Komborero Daniel Choga for editing and injecting fresh insights and theological perspectives to improve the quality of the final product.

Jinus Tamang for graphic designs.

I commit this account in the hands of the Holy Trinity.

Supplication

My prayer for all readers of this account is that God uses it partly as my testimony for the storms I endured as a single parent with a young family to cater for and strengthen the faith of those in similar situations. May His grace help such people stand firm on the rock of ages cleft for us.

May God give all of us eyes to see, ears to listen to and hear His voice, and minds to understand His message in His Word in these pages and the passion to apply insights in our lives. May He enable our personal relationship with Christ to begin at the moment of our salvation and continue to eternity as members of His spiritual kingdom. Even though we all come into this physical world physically alive but spiritually dead, we must not fall short on the quality of life for which He created us to fulfil His will (Rom. 3:23).

May we never invite defeat by thinking and talking defeat, for we are more than conquerors who must at all times confess His promises no matter the formidable situations we face. May we never grieve the Holy Spirit. Amen.

How to read this book—each chapter in this book covers synopsis and questions, and equips the reader with a prayer guide.

1

The Fallen World

The angelic fall

In the heavenly places existed a magnificently created angelic being called Lucifer, one of the highest angels in glory. He was in charge of some of the other angels. God created Lucifer with perfection and love and held the highest position in the kingdom of heaven.

God created living beings with free will to decide and choose wisely. Because of his unique creation, ornament, and magnificence, Lucifer was overtaken by pride. Infatuated by selfishness, Lucifer wanted to set up his throne above the stars of God. Instead of seeking to make God Almighty—Originator, Creator, Sustainer, and Owner Supreme in the allegiance and affection of His creatures—Lucifer planned to sit enthroned on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain above the heights of the clouds and be like the Highest (Isa. 14:12–14).

He was determined to usurp divine power and authority by the unilateral declaration of independence. In this regard, Ezekiel (28:12–19) made an explicit and profound analysis depicting Satan as having been in the Garden of Eden, the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, having been anointed as a guardian cherub, and having access to the Holy Mountain of God

From such a profile, why would Lucifer be condemned? For Christians, herein lie lessons that led to his ignominious fall which are a precursor to the fall of humanity. In this regard, the devil

made music his primary focus;

pride, self-exaltation and arrogance were the basis for flatly refusing to praise God (2 Pet. 2:2–4);

stubbornly refused to worship God (Jude 1); and

fell as a morning star who was cast down to the earth in disgrace (Isa. 14:12–14).

Such atrocious behavior traits are rebellious. However, believers are clearly warned when God said, I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness (Isa. 28:17). Failure to measure up to His standard of justice and righteousness will lead anyone to condemnation.

The rebellion caused him and a third of former angels, now demons, to be dishonored and cast down in disgrace. Here, God Almighty affirmed that so I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings (Ezek. 28:17). By doing so, Lucifer forfeited his angelic name. From there on, he became Satan, worthy of no respect both on earth and in heaven. Pride and incorrigible arrogance were the downfall of the accuser, who had been, apart from the Son of God, the most honored of God.

The accuser had stood highest in power and glory among the angelic host. Pride was found in him. As a result, he was cast from God's presence. Incidentally, pride intentionally and willfully opposes God always will result in judgment. We are vulnerable to this same sin; hence, the critical need of the kingdom of God to come down on earth. Since the fall of the devil, the angelic host in the kingdom of heaven lives to serve the purpose for which they were created. God created all and must be exalted above all and by all, as He sustains all and rules over all.

God is love, and He expressed His love by creating the heavens and earth in their fullness in the beginning. The darkness over the surface of the deep was dispelled on the first day when God created light (Gen. 1:2). During the second and third days, God gave form to the universe by separating sky and waters, land and seas. During the next three days, God filled the earth with unique creations such as the sun, moon, and stars; fish and birds; and animals and mankind.

God created the earth in an orderly fashion. He created Adam and Eve in a very special way—as beings capable of communicating with Him. Human beings are the pinnacle of God's creation because He fashioned them in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). In evaluating the quality of His workmanship, God declared all His creations very good because each was a perfect system to function to fulfill His purpose and will for collaborative coexistence.

Creation is good because the good God made it so and declared it good in and of itself. He crowned His creation effort by resting on the seventh day. Implicitly, our times of rest refresh us for times of service on the day He set apart for holy use and devotional fellowship. Spiritual devotion is good rest in His presence as we commune with Him. True rest comes when we cease striving and find peace and contentment in God's presence and His provisions.

The infinite God targets earth and its people as the place He can be known and fellowship daily. It is only in mankind that God birthed life to become a living soul by breathing His Spirit into Adam who was formed from dust. The purpose and identity of mankind centers on God and being made in His image and likeness designed as a coregent with Him over all His creation.

The most fulfilling life is lived in consistent awareness of God's unfailing love and in His persistent presence. Adam and Eve together shared stewardship of creation as vice regents of God and hence entrusted the care of this earth to them. This offered fulfillment through responsibility, accountability, meaningful work, and daily fellowship with Him.

When God delegated some of His authority to the human race, He expected us to take responsibility for the environment and the other creatures that share our planet. The ecosystem was in perfect balance and had peace and harmony in coexistence. Creation, as His workmanship, reveals the immeasurable depth and innumerable diversity within God Himself and whose manifest exists in the universe.

The way we relate to God, to one another, and to the universe reflects God's image and likeness bestowed in humanity. God's holy character and perfect image impart dignity, sacredness, integrity, and harmony to all human life and beauty to nature. God worked to form what was formless to fill what's empty. He who is transcendent, infinitely higher in all His ways, formed and filled the earth by power of His creative Word.

The Lord God is the uncaused, uncreated One, the ultimate cause of all creation and its existence. Because God is the only self-sufficient One, He is worthy of our trust and worship. Life is made for perpetuity through procreation and regeneration. We worship the God who created light, who Himself is Light, whose magnificence and majesty are inexhaustible in love. Light brings clarity, the ability to see, and know and be known as it reveals what is hidden in darkness.

Acknowledging the Creator's reality invites personal accountability to the One who designed the universe and filled it with perfection. Therefore, upholding the value of creation brings honor and glory to God of creation. We are accountable to our Creator to respond to the grace He gives us as we live for our appointed time in this world. Daily, God used to come down to commune with Adam and Eve. What intimacy and fellowship established to last for eternity! What great love that the Creator comes down to His creation for fellowship!

The fall of humanity

In the face of sin, God always offers hope. The hope of a Savior includes a promised seed of a woman, a sacrificial offering, and eternal life. Through Eve's promised offspring, believers in Jesus Christ from every race, creed, nation, and language are redeemed to become God's new humanity (Isa. 53) in and through Christ Jesus. God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins; hence, a sacrifice was made pointing to crucifixion of the Son of God at Calvary for our sake.

The serpent sowed doubt in humanity and opened a fatal opportunity for disobeying God at all times. The devil belittled and disputed God's divine justice by maintaining that Eve would surely not die (Gen. 3:4) when she ate the fruit but instead gained wisdom. The momentary pleasure brought great turmoil in humanity from there onward. Adam and Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit opened a deluge of all forms of brokenness: pain, sweaty toil, death, murder, sickness, arson, terrorism, oppression, racism, and a host of other forms of evil.

Wickedness originates from evil. While Adam and Eve enjoyed unhindered fellowship within a panorama of beauty in the garden, the rest of creation fulfilled God's intended purpose, thriving under His will, authority, and blessing. Once sin had taken root, sadly, human exile from Eden followed—that is, separation between God and humanity. God does not coexist with sin. Because the first family rebelled against God, the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

When God's way of security is rejected, sin escalates into diminishing returns, thereby promising what it cannot deliver. Sin does not offer the freedom promised but results in increasing bondage and deepening damage and exile that yearn for a Redeemer. Death in the human race manifests itself in primary ways such as

Spiritual death which is the source of evidence of decadence, depravity, and broken peace with God Almighty (Gen 3:8–11).

Physical death is evidence for contradiction, tension, and turmoil among body, soul, and spirit. Evil people die both physically and spiritually (Prov. 11:19). Today, wars, enmity, famine, epidemics, and many other forms of evil are common phenomena, causing havoc and distress among humanity.

Relational death which is reflected in bitterness, family breakdowns, rivalry, oppression, and hatred (Gen. 4:11).

Covenantal death which thrives in perpetual opposition to God as human beings persistently rebel against God (Gen. 11:4). In a society devoid of love, rivalry is common practice.

Cosmic death which manifests itself in the battle with all nature and the means of production and hence gains provision through the sweat of the brow (Gen. 3:17–19). Here, heatwaves, floods, veld fires, earthquakes, etc. are common in destroying livelihoods.

Death now pervades every aspect of life on earth as a befitting wage of sin. We are broken people who live in a corrupt world. The payoff for sin is death in all its dimensions. The astonishing grip of something deeply wrong with Adam and Eve manifested as they wore the garment of rebellion. From that point onward, their focus shifted from intimacy with God to the corrupt self, accompanied by painful self-awareness of their guilt and shame.

They desperately tried to keep sin secret to themselves. They fashioned human solution by stitching fig leaves for clothes in a desperate attempt to feel right and whole, though infested with sin. As would be expected, human measures always come up far too short to meet the glory of God; so they vainly hide from the all-seeing, all-knowing, and omnipresent God. The tragedy of their broken relationship is glaring. The face-to-face and voice-to-voice interaction with God they used to enjoy was completely shattered.

In His mercy, God does not abandon us to our fallen state. He searches hearts and seeks the sinner. Hence, in the garden, He called Adam. Where are you? (Gen. 3:9). Embarrassed by their nakedness, they were afraid of God for the first time. Although knowing the cause of sin, God inquired, Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? (Gen. 3:11). Here, God offered Adam and Eve an opportunity to confess their sin and repent. Regrettably, Adam instead blamed both God and Eve. She, in turn, blamed the serpent.

Husband and wife failed to take responsibility for their sin. True confession accepts full responsibility for every personal wrong motive and action. Inadvertently, sin destroys a proper sense of self-worth and of others as it elevates self-righteousness, self-protection, and self-promotion in a desperate but vain attempt to look right. However, all sin hurts us and others but ultimately offends God.

This is so because sin, in any form, is a rebellion against God's perfect standard of living. Whilst God planned promotion of peace, Satan aims for disharmony, disunity, and disloyalty. God's Word is meant to penetrate the deepest recesses of our soul and spirit to make us right with our Creator. It is amazing how contrasting the pattern of sin and the flow of repentance is.

Contrast failure and victory

Adam and Eve felt naked as they realized the devil's power and the evil forces that destroy their moral fiber and worthiness. Unwittingly, they were stripped of their righteousness. Their physical clothing of fig leaves could not cover their guilt before a holy God. Actually, they needed clothes of righteousness which they had forfeited.

Often, most people fail to realize this and live in ignorance of the fact that they are under spiritual attack and bondage. The devil consistently uses one objective and strategy to lure his victims, blinding people to the truth. All people are born to the parents of fallen humanity. We come into this world detached from the life of the Creator and absorbed with interest in finding satisfaction, fulfillment, and significance on our own terms; yet God made us for Himself (Rom. 3:11–12). The devil uses spiritual blindness as a weapon of warfare.

For the devil's objective, Jesus Christ said he comes only to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). As for strategy, the tempter uses a variety of tools to snare his victims and corrupt their conscience in order to instill the following:

Doubt to make his prey question God's Word and His goodness. Here, Adam and Eve were easily trapped and fell (Gen. 3:1–6).

Discouragement to make his target focus only at his/her problems to look insurmountable, rather than at God who is bigger than any problem and provides out of love solutions never imagined. A clear example here is the army of Israel in the valley of Elah where Goliath taunted them for forty days (1 Sam. 17:4–11) until young David came on the battlefield to remove the reproach of God's elect.

Diversion to make the wrong things seem attractive so that one would want them more than the right things. For example, out of sheer lust, Amnon raped his sister Tamar, causing shame, trauma, and turmoil in David's entire family (2 Sam. 13:7–20).

Defeat to make the victim feel like a dismal failure so that one is scared of even trying. After a heroic encounter on Mount Carmel, Elijah fled Jezebel who had threatened to retaliate the massacre of the false prophets. Fear made him forget the source of his previous monumental victory over evil (1 Kings 19:1–4). Elijah thought he was the only person left who was still faithful to God. His self-pity almost diluted his heroic prophetic exploits.

Delay to make the victim put off doing something positive so that it never gets done. Daniel's prayer on transgressions, soliciting for God's favor to remember His people and His sanctuary in Jerusalem, had to call for the intervention of Archangel Michael for him to know that God had already answered his supplications the day he had sought His face for His intervention (Dan. 10:2–21).

Deprivation to make the victim thoroughly corrupt and blind to the truth. It had to take the deaths of all firstborns in Egypt for Pharaoh to let the Israelites go (Exod. 12:29–30). Even so, the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites but perished in the Red Sea (Exod. 14:14, 26–31). Depravity is the source of spiritual insensitivity.

Defilement to corrupt and damage the purity or desecrate or profane something sacred. Here, a person becomes the master of his/her fate and the captain of his/her soul. Therefore, his/her carnal wisdom rules supreme. This falls far short of divine wisdom which only God gives out of a relation with Him. Worldly wisdom induces carnality for the mind to prevent people from accepting God's wisdom enshrined in salvation, which to unbelievers seems utter foolishness (1 Cor. 3:18–19). Deified as God, Herod died a horrible death accompanied by intense pain, as he was literally eaten alive by worms from inside out (Acts 12:23). What a horrible death for someone who assumed the role of a superhero!

Sin set up a devastating, diabolic chain reaction worldwide as evil emerges in various forms such as corruption, cybercrime, genocide, chemical warfare, and so on. This reveals that despite our hopes for a better