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Keeping the victory
verse 25 'And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them." verse 26 "And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites,and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.' 1 Corinthians 10(KJV) verse 11 'Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.' The anticlimax vividly described in the first set of scriptures is a sharp contrast of 'the victory story' outlined in the preceding verses of the same chapter in the bible, that is, verses 18-25. It provides for us a very timely and practical example of how to lose or keep the victory, even in these perilous times! To lose or keep the victory infers that one had the victory! And to have the victory one has to be in the Lord. To be in the Lord, one has to have a personal covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. To enter into this wonderful relationship, one has to repent from one's sins and believe on Jesus Christ the Son of God as one's personal Lord and Saviour.This is the only covenant that guarantees anyone real victory in any battlefield of life! From the 'negative and bitter' story of how these fellow soldiers lost the victory, we can positively learn how to keep the sweet victory! We shall examine two dynamic concepts based on 'covenant faithfulness'' on the part of the covenant people of God, who make up the army of Jesus Christ on earth:
CLOSENESS: This is in relation with one's intimacy with the Lord (James 4:8,Psalm 27:8 and Psalm 105:4)as one is involved individually and collectively (with other Christians) in spiritual disciplines such prayer, fasting, bible study, praise and worship. As the Lord is jealous (Exodus 20:5) over the covenant relationship, one should not allow anything or anyone to come between oneself and the Lord to take his central and sacred place in one's heart and life. One should not allow anything or anyone to kill or dampen one's hunger for God (Psalm 42:1-2 and Psalm 63:1-2). This does not mean that our human relationships are not important, for one is commanded to love one's neighbour as oneself. CLOSEDNESS: This is in relation with the world system around us. This world system is an ally of the devil and the flesh against God and His covenant people 'who are in this world but not of this world'. Therefore compromise is not permitted (Col. 2: 8, Psalm 1: 1, 2 Tim. 2: 4, Rom. 12:1-2,1 John 2: 15-17, and James 4: 4)! This does not mean that one lives like a hermit in a monastery built in an isolated wilderness! As one reaches out to others with the gospel of Christ in the love of God, one should walk in wisdom (Col. 4:5) towards them so as to preserve one's closeness to the Lord. These two concepts shown us from the scriptures clearly indicate how one can keep the victory, and then go from 'victory unto victory! 1 Corinthians 15(KJV)
verse 57 'But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' ABOUT THE AUTHOR
British-born Nigerian christian writer living and working in London,UK with website:www.firstloveministries.org.uk
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