Faith in Christ Overcomes

 

 

 

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

—1 John 5:4

 

 

Faith is not a mental exercise born of emotions, feelings, and reasoning. It does not come from the logic of your mind. It comes from the Word, which has been heard in your heart (Romans 10:17). 

 

1 John 5:4 says whatever is born of God overcomes the world. You are a new creation in Christ, born of the Holy Spirit. The measure of faith God has given you (Romans 12:3) has the power to overcome whatever comes against it because Jesus has overcome the world. He has overcome sin. Death, fear, disease, and all the destruction sin has brought into this world have been overcome through God’s love poured out for us in His Son. Through faith, we receive Jesus’s finished work of grace. Our faith in Christ overcomes the charge of sin against us and all the destruction sin brings.

 

Exercising the measure of faith you have received from God is a choice. The Holy Spirit renews your mind as you read the Word with the mindset that it is greater than what you think, feel, or reason. As your mind is renewed, the seed of God’s Word is sown in your heart. When you protect the Word sown in your heart from doubt, fear, reasoning, and the lies of the enemy trying to steal it, the Holy Spirit bears witness to its truth. You believe it by faith. The sown Word becomes established in your heart, and the new person you have become in Christ is who you are. The seed you have sown produces the truth of the Word in your life, and you receive God’s truth. 

 

When whatever you are taught becomes established in your heart, you believe it. If it is the truth of God's Word, it speaks of life and peace. If it is wrong teaching, it speaks of death and curse. Wrong teaching is a roadblock to believing the Word of God. To believe, you must know God's truth. 

 

“For to be carnally minded is death” (Romans 8:6a, NKJV).

 

Any belief based on your feelings comes from your natural mind—what you sense and your emotions. Living by your feelings is detrimental to believing the Word of God. If you experience something that is a disappointment or a disillusionment, emotions try to overwhelm your heart. When your feelings and senses tell you that believing in God’s Word isn’t working, you begin to doubt. When you give in to doubt, you give in to defeat. You judge God’s truth with your feelings. When those feelings dominate your thoughts instead of faith in God’s Word, you are carnal—worldly—and naturally minded. 

 

“But to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6b, NKJV)

 

Don’t allow your emotions to mold your mind and what you believe. Renewing your mind with the Word is essential to overcoming your feelings and believing the Word of God is faithful and true (Romans 12:2). When you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into God’s truth, you renew your mind to believe and prepare your heart to receive. Being spiritually minded means you act and react out of the truth of God’s Word, no matter how you feel. Thinking about the things God says are true, just, pure, and lovely and are of a good report brings peace (Philippians 4:8-9). When your mind is focused on God, you experience His goodness and peace (Isaiah 26:3).

 

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:13-14).

 

God’s truth is only discerned spiritually. The natural man lives by what he senses and cannot understand the things of God. A man ruled by his feelings believes one way one day and another the next. A double-minded man is unstable in all His ways (James 1:8). His opinion changes based on what he senses. When you are double-minded, you have not decided in your heart what you believe. But when you allow the Word of God to take root and grow in your heart, you experience transformation. A change of heart from unbelieving to believing is difficult when you doubt the truth of God’s Word. 

 

Not believing the truth of God's Word holds us back from receiving from Him. To help us grow spiritually, the Holy Spirit meets us where we are in our faith and encourages us to believe in God’s truth. Feelings are easier to control as we are transformed by the revealed truth of God’s Word. It is easier to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Because Jesus has overcome on our behalf, we can believe by faith that the circumstances of our lives are also overcome.

 

The Holy Spirit wants you to experience victory in every area of your life. When you know God’s truth, it sets you free (John 8:32), and when you exercise faith by choosing to believe God’s truth over what your emotions tell you is true, you overcome doubt. Everyone has thoughts of doubt from time to time. Doubt becomes a problem when you sow it into your heart because as you think in your heart, you are (Proverbs 23:7).

 

We might be flawed in our natural ability to discern the things of God, but we receive understanding through the Holy Spirit. When we surrender our human senses and seek God’s spiritual sense, the Holy Spirit guides us into His truth. 

 

Your natural mind might not grasp the revelation of God’s Word, but your heart can believe and receive it. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit. Choose God’s Word over how you feel. Believe His truth. Be spiritually minded, and choose life and peace. You are born of God. You have the mind of Christ. You have the faith of Christ. You have the Holy Spirit, so you can know without a doubt and believe that Christ has overcome your world (1 Corinthians 2:11-12,16).

 

 

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