Overcoming Life

I John 5:4, “Faith is the victory that overcomes the world”. 

II Peter 1:3-9

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Brother, I think I see it now. There is no sin that Jesus Christ has not overcome. The reason we struggle is that we are not looking to Him, in faith, for the power to conquer our natural lives. The lynchpin, the foundation, is our faith. But as Peter says, we must ADD to our faith a chain of virtues that ends in Love. 

I believe faith must be like an emulsifying agent. All of the righteousness of Jesus Christ dwells in a believer, but we must activate it by faith. As we heard at the conference, we are not talking about some sort of works that make us at least more holy than we were before. Many have tried this. All have failed. Instead, there must be an APPROPRIATION of the life of Christ that is already in us. 

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live, Romans 8:13

What is Paul saying here? If we try to do this on our own natural power, we fail. But if we activate the power of the Holy Spirit in us, and TRUST him completely, victory is the result.