Date: November 18, 1935, 9 a.m.Place: ChuenchowScripture Reading: John 1:16
There are two things a believer should do before he can overcome: let go and believe. There are also two things he should do after overcoming: confess and consecrate. Victory is a gate as well as a path. The first two enable one to pass through the gate, whereas the last two sustain one in the path. How should a believer conduct himself day by day after he has passed the gate of victory? What should he do? How can the overcoming life be guarded, and how can he go on in the overcoming way? We have to consider these questions one by one.
After we pass the gate of victory, our daily life should be no different than the first day we overcame. Every morning we should commit ourselves to the Lord and allow Him to guard, protect, and uphold us. At the same time, we should fill ourselves with thanksgiving and praise. We have to say to the Lord, "God, in Your eyes I am still weak and I still cannot do anything. I have not changed. But I thank You Lord because You are still my life today. You are still my holiness today, and You are still my victory today. I believe that You will live out Your life in me the entire day. God, I thank and praise You because everything is based on Your grace; Your Son has accomplished everything for me." No matter what our feelings may be, we have to believe that the Lord is living in us, and we have to stand on this fact. We should be very clear that the Lord is within us and that it is no longer we who are living, but the Lord who is living within us.
After we have passed the gate of victory, we have to maintain a proper posture. Every day we have to tell the Lord that there is no goodness in ourselves, that we are still as evil as we were before, and that we are full of sin. By ourselves, we are not able to do anything; only the Lord is able. Whenever we think we can do something, the Lord will not do anything for us, and we will immediately fall. We will overcome only when we do not overcome by ourselves. One line of a hymn says, "Whene'er my heart is lifted up, How very near I am to fall" (Hymns, #578). This is indeed true. Brothers, we have to realize that we are still the same; we have not changed at all. Our only stand before the Lord should be to declare that we cannot do anything. Simply put, after passing through the gateway of victory, our daily life involves (1) committing ourselves into the Lord's hand, (2) acknowledging that we cannot make it, (3) believing that the Lord is living in us, and (4) thanking and praising Him.
An overcoming life is a life that overcomes temptations. After we have received the overcoming life, it is still possible for us to encounter temptations. The Lord also encountered temptations, but He overcame them. Similarly, we cannot avoid temptations, but we can overcome them. We encounter two types of temptations daily. The first kind are temptations that come suddenly; they do not give us a chance to think about them. Before we can think about or pray about them, we have already sinned. These temptations are not restricted to any time; they come haphazardly. The second kind are temptations that come slowly. We can consider them, and they come as incremental suggestions and proposals. One kind does not afford a person time to think, whereas the other kind gives a person time to think them over. We may think that temptations which give us a chance to think them over are easy to overcome, and that temptations which do not afford an opportunity to think over are difficult to overcome. Actually, we can overcome both kinds of temptations. There are two ways to deal with these two kinds of temptations.
There is no time to prepare for sudden and instantaneous temptations. Therefore, we cannot deal with them on the spur of the moment. Long before this kind of temptation comes, we have to set up our defense. In warfare between two nations, one cannot prepare for battle only after the enemy has started to attack. One has to set up a defensive line well ahead of time and ask for the Lord's deliverance ahead of time. Every morning, we have to pray to the Lord and ask Him to deliver us from sudden temptations. We have to ask Him to deliver us from temptations that do not afford us a chance to think about them. Often a person sins because he has not been put on alert ahead of time. Of course, the Lord sometimes allows temptations to come upon us suddenly. When such temptations come, what should we do? We have to remember that faith is a shield (Eph. 6:16). It is not a pair of pliers. Many people use faith as if it were a pair of pliers; they try to pull out the darts that have already been lodged into the body. But faith does not function like pliers. Faith is a shield. It is something placed between ourselves and Satan. When darts come, they hit the shield and bounce back. We do not put a shield behind us. If the shield is at our backs, it will be difficult to protect us from the darts.
Every morning you have to lift up this faith before God. Then you will withstand temptations without even being conscious of it. Very few Christians know what the shield of faith is. We need the shield of faith even before temptations come. If the first thing you do in the morning is to believe, you are holding up the shield of faith, and the darts from Satan will be knocked down. If you lift up your faith in this way to withstand the enemy day by day, you will find one day — that glorious day — that many darts were knocked away from you.
Romans 1—3 is on man's sin, while Romans 4—5:15 is on God's salvation. Romans 5:12 tells us that we sin because we share the life of Adam. This is why we sin without any effort of our own. There is no need for us to exert any effort to lose our temper. The minute we are provoked, we lose our temper. There is no need for us to make up our mind to sin, because we share the same sinful life as Adam. Romans 5:15 says, "But it is not that as the offense was, so also the gracious gift is; for if by the offense of the one the many died, much more the grace of God and the free gift in grace of the one man Jesus Christ have abounded to the many." In the past, our old man was joined to Adam, but today the Lord has made us one with Christ. In the past, we sinned without any consciousness of it, but today we can be patient, humble, and loving without being conscious of it. This proves the reality of our union with the Lord. Just as we sinned spontaneously and effortlessly when we were in Adam, we can overcome spontaneously and effortlessly when we are in Christ and joined to Him. In this way the life of Christ is lived out of us. We will marvel at the transcendency and power of the Lord's life. If we believe, the life of Christ will be manifested in us day by day.
The second kind of temptations are gradual and incremental. Satan gives us suggestions gradually and a little at a time. These temptations are incremental in nature. There is no need to ask the Lord for strength to overcome this kind of temptation. The best way to deal with it is to stand on the ground of a sinner as soon as they come. We should take the stand of a patient who is looking for a doctor and who commits his whole being to the doctor. We should speak to the Lord like a patient: "My mind and thoughts are inclined toward sin. I am prone to lose my temper. I cannot resist anything. I am hopeless. I ask You to resist for me." We have to take the stand that we have died with the Lord. Satan may come with different kinds of temptations, but the principle is the same. He does not need to make us sin directly. The goal of his temptations is to instigate us to act by ourselves. Our position is in Christ; this is the only safe spot. If we remain in this position and allow the Lord to do everything, Satan will not be able to do anything to us. But once we move, even in things like praying, asking the Lord to strengthen us to resist the temptation, or making up our minds not to sin, we will find Satan prevailing over us and defeating us because we have moved out of the safety zone.
The section above covers the steps one should take to live a life beyond the gate of victory. Now we have to know the attitude one should take toward maintaining an overcoming life. Many people have done the things we mentioned above, but they are constantly afraid that the Lord will not come to them, and they worry that they will fail if He does not come. In order to live an overcoming life, we have to pay attention to our attitude. We must remove all fear by faith and allow the Lord to take over everything. When the Lord was with the disciples by the sea, He told the disciples to go to the other side (Mark 4:35). He did not tell them to go to the bottom of the sea, but to the other side of the sea. Yet the disciples did not believe His word. When the storm arose, they were beside themselves with fear and were sore afraid. They did not have faith, and they begged the Lord to do something. Many times, the louder we pray, the less faith there is in our prayer. Sometimes the more earnestly that we pray, the more it shows that we do not have faith. Faith is trusting in the Lord's word. The Lord said that the disciples were to cross to the other side, not to go to the bottom of the sea. If they had faith, they could have all gone to sleep. Having faith means sleeping with the Lord. If one does not have faith, he cannot sleep with the Lord. If a man has faith, even if he does not sleep, he can still go to the stern of the boat and speak to the waves. He can even mock the waves, saying, "You are not strong enough. You are not fierce enough." A person who has faith has peace; he has peace within and without. Satan cannot prevail over such a person. Hence, victory is believing in God's word and His power. The attitude of an overcoming life is being fully at peace through faith.
After a believer has overcome, he should not sin anymore in regard to God's work, provisions, and commandments. However, those who have passed the gate of victory may discover to their surprise that they can sin again. While it is clear to them that they sinned in the past, they wonder why they are still sinning after they have supposedly passed the gate of victory. Some may ask, "If a saved person who has overcome still sins, what difference does this victory make in him?" There is a big difference. There are three differences between an overcoming person and a person who has not yet overcome when it comes to sinning. First, before one overcomes, sin is a compulsory and imperative thing. One has no choice but to sin. There is a power within him which forces him to sin. After one overcomes, the situation is entirely different. Sin is accidental, and it is committed through oversight or carelessness. Second, before one overcomes, he commits the same kind of sins over and over again. He has some so-called private sins which are characteristically his own. He commits the same sin over and over again. Every person has only three to five kinds of recurring sins. These few sins entangle him constantly. But after a person has overcome, the situation becomes very different. He still sins, but only occasionally. Frequent sins do not bother him anymore; they only catch up with him accidentally. Third, before one overcomes, resuming a clear fellowship with the Lord after he sins is hard and takes time. But after he overcomes, he can recover his fellowship with the Lord quickly if he sins again. This is because he has faith, and he believes that the Lord's blood can cleanse him from all his sins (1 John 1:9). Those who have passed the gate of victory should confess their sins to the Lord immediately after they accidentally commit a sin, and they should believe that the Lord can cleanse them with His precious blood. After this, they should immediately praise and thank the Lord, and apply His overcoming life continually. If we accidentally sin, we should not delay our confession for three or five days. If we do, we will commit more sins.
Some may ask, "Since a person has overcome, how can he sin again?" We have to know what faith is. The overcoming life is a life of faith. The Lord wants us to set our eyes on Him all the time. No matter what the outward circumstances are, we should believe in Him. The Lord wants to deliver us out of a life of feelings into a life of faith. He wants us to go on step by step by faith and in grace. Now we need to see how we grow in the overcoming life.
Victory is a gate as well as a path. It is a crisis point first, and then a journey. If we continue on the path, there will be no limit to our future. Some have asked, "Since the Lord is my life, and since He is living in me already, how can I grow any more? Are you saying that this life is not perfect? And are you saying that there is the need for His life to grow?" It is true that the Lord does not change; He neither advances nor retreats. But we have a free will, and we have our own intellect and emotions. Our victory is overcoming the sins that we know of. It is not overcoming all the sins that we do not know of. This is like our consecration; we only consecrate the things we know of. There are many things which we do not know of, which we can only consecrate gradually. Even consecration does not have any absolute standard. For example, I may know that I am powerless in the matter of endurance. When I consecrate myself, the Lord's endurance will be expressed through me. As far as endurance itself is concerned, we cannot have any more growth because the Lord's endurance is perfect. However, growth means that in addition to endurance we can experience meekness. Growth simply means an expansion of sphere and a deepening of measure. There is no growth as far as meekness or endurance are concerned because meekness and endurance are just Christ. But as far as our experience of these things is concerned, it is possible to have a continual expansion and deepening in sphere and measure. This is the meaning of the growth of the overcoming life.
We have said that the Lord is our sanctification. But there is a verse that says that we are sanctified by the truth (John 17:17). This means that we may have a sin today which we are quite proud of and which does not bother our conscience at all. Later, we may find from the truth of the Bible that this is wrong. In this way, we know one more sin, and we can confess such a sin. After the truth exposes our sin through God's enlightening and after we know that it is a sin, we have to deal with it. The way to deal with it is the same as before. We have to tell the Lord, "I have found another sin. Thank You that I now know one more sin and can experience more grace and know more of the overcoming life." The New Testament says that we should grow in grace (2 Pet. 3:18). What does it mean to grow in grace? Grace is God doing things for man. When man does things for God, this is the law, whereas when God does things for man, this is grace. Growing in grace is allowing God to do more things for us. When truth shines on us, our shortcomings are exposed. Then grace comes to supply us. Truth is God exposing our needs, whereas grace is God supplying us with strength. The more light we receive, the more needs we discover, and the more we receive and grow in grace.
How do we receive grace? There are three ways to receive grace. The first is through the Bible. The more we read the Bible, the more the Bible will increase our measure, and the more we will know ourselves. The more we know ourselves, the more we will sense our needs, and the more grace will increase. Second, we can receive grace directly from God. When we listen to a message, pray, or fellowship with God, we receive grace directly from Him through His enlightening. Third, we can receive grace through the help of other brothers and sisters. If a brother has dealt with a sin, and that same sin is entangling me, I can receive help from that brother to achieve victory. In this way I receive more grace. The grace which we receive is limited by the truth we have received. The amount of grace a man receives speaks of the amount of truth he has received. The more a man knows what sin is, the more grace he will receive.
For example, we may find from reading the Bible that we should be anxious for nothing. Once we have this truth, we realize that anxiety is a sin. A sister read Philippians 4:6, which says to be anxious for nothing, and concluded that this was impossible. Then she thought that this was God's Word which could not be wrong. If the Bible was not wrong, she must have been wrong. She brought up the matter with another sister who had nine children, two of whom had died. The second sister replied, "How can a mother not be anxious? Rather, it seems that it is a sin for a mother not to be anxious. My anxiety has sent two children to heaven already, and I am left with seven to be anxious over." The first sister felt more confused after she heard this. Later, she was enlightened to see that anxiety is indeed a sin, and she prayed that the Lord would make her overcome such a sin. Eventually, she did overcome. This is the meaning of truth and grace. Truth tells us what sin is, and grace enables us to overcome such sin. Before we have the truth, we may not think too much of a certain thing. But after we receive the truth and are enlightened, we will know what sin is. In the past, the island of Kulangsu was ceded to the British. Later, more land was reclaimed from the sea, and the British territory subsequently increased. In the same principle, the more truth there is, the more grace there is. Truth shows us what sin is, and when we apply grace, we experience full victory over such sin.
A sister had a watch, which her mother had given to her on her twentieth birthday. On the watch was a golden cross. She kept the watch for eighteen years. One day she read 1 Timothy 2:9 which says that women should not adorn themselves with gold. She had thought that it was all right to have a little ornamentation on the watch. But that day God pointed His finger at the watch and showed her that she had to deal with it. She began to preach to God and argued that such a small thing did not matter, but eventually the Lord prevailed, and she dealt with that little matter. Today we should be bold to search out our sins and deal with them. In the past we might have dealt with gross sins, outward sins, obvious sins, and filthy sins. Today we have to deal with the small, fine, inward, and hidden sins that bring dishonor to God. These dealings will bring us more grace to experience more victories in our daily life.
Whether or not you make any progress in your daily life depends on whether you have seen the truth. You must first find the kind of sins you have and then find how the Lord accomplishes an overcoming work within you. A Western woman missionary was working for the China Inland Mission. She was at odds with Miss Fischbacher and often publicly defamed her. When Miss Fischbacher would report one thing, the sister would deny it. When Miss Fischbacher would deny something, the sister would insist that such a thing happened. Once Miss Fischbacher wrote home to report on her work in China. This sister tried to find to whom she was writing, and she wrote to the same person in an attempt to negate the things that Miss Fischbacher had said. It seemed as if she was going out of her way to prove to others that Miss Fischbacher was being dishonest. After this went on for a while, Miss Fischbacher could not help but harbor some bitterness against her. Later, she read 1 Peter 1:22, which says that we should love one another from a pure heart fervently. It is so easy for man to preach to God. She told the Lord, "It is impossible for me to love this sister. It is even more impossible for me to love her fervently." She prayed for two weeks without any success. She fasted for one whole day and was determined not to leave her room until she overcame this bitterness. However, she still could not get through. Later, she conceded that the most she could do was not to hate the sister. It was impossible to love her. She fasted for another day, but still to no avail.
Finally, she realized that she could not make it by herself, and she said to the Lord, "I should love this sister, but I cannot. This is a sin. I will not let You go unless You make me love her." The next day she prayed continuously for three hours. At about nine o'clock in the morning, the Lord's love filled her. The bitterness was gone, and love came unexpectedly. She felt that she could even die for this sister. She went on and prayed for her the entire night. When she saw the sister the next day, her feeling was entirely different. After another day the other sister also was turned. The overcoming life has God's Word as its standard. God has said many things. If we cannot obey what He has said, we have sinned. We live in this world for only a very brief time, but we encounter too many things during this life. It is in the midst of such a life that we express the victory of Christ.
There were three sisters in Shansi who were missionaries together. Two of them were unmarried by their own choice, and the third was engaged to a man. However, she was the most unhappy of them all. Often she felt lonely. Even though her fiance wrote her all the time, she still felt lonely when she was by herself in her room. One day she was weeping again. The other two sisters came in to console her, saying, "Why are you lonely? You have a fiancé who writes to you! We are the ones who should feel lonely!" Later, they went back to their rooms and were struck by loneliness as well, and they began to cry. While they were feeling sorry in this way, they thought of the Lord's Word: "In Your presence is fullness of joy;/At Your right hand there are pleasures forever" (Psa. 16:11). They realized that the feeling of loneliness is actually a sin. The Lord said that in His presence there is fullness of joy, yet they said that they were lonely. This had to be a sin. They knelt down and prayed to deal with this sin, and the loneliness went away. Nine years have passed, and they have yet to feel lonely again.
Victory is for God to expose our sins continuously and for us to grow through such knowledge. We should not be afraid of others exposing our mistakes. This will afford us a chance to overcome. The more we know the truth, the more we will experience the victory of Christ. I hope that by next year, some will stand up to testify how the truth has come to them and how grace has also followed. This is something very precious. We should all receive the truth gladly so that grace can come to us more and more. In all the meetings, we need to stand up more and more to testify how a certain truth has produced an effect on us. We should not worry whether others will say that we are proud if it is the Lord's doing. We are merely describing the Lord's work in us and how He has won a victory in us. By doing this, those who are in similar trouble or who have not experienced the proper dealing as we have will be able to share the grace we have received.
An overcoming living is wonderful because the overcoming life is wonderful. The Lord can do everything within us. There is nothing that He cannot do. We do not have to be afraid of anything. We can just come to Him continually. We should allow Him to enlighten us with the truth and receive Him as our very victory. If we walk this way, there will be nothing that we cannot do. After a year we will realize that we have overcome some more, and we will be more able to follow the Lord's leading and go on in the way that is set before us.
