Fight From Victory

Hello dear beloved one of God, I hope you’ve enjoyed this week in The Lord. It’s more than 12 days since the year has begun and you probably already have at least a skeleton for your new year resolutions.
If you’re a little bit like me, then you have a (very) long list of things which you were absolutely to achieve in 2017, and it’s probably painful to go through this list now in 2018 while realising all the places where you fell, and failed and lost.
Chances are that when you fail at something, you remember your year with respect to where you failed and not with respect to how you’ve improved.
This leaves us all with battles to fight this year which we didn’t succeed in winning over last year. Or, new battles which last year we never imagined we would have to face someday.
How easy it is to feel desperate about it and to feel like giving up, mostly when we have the deep feeling that we’re never going to make it ever.
This brings us to the title of today, Fighting From Victory.
Ok, this is a term I didn’t get well the first time I heard my pastor, pastor Steven Furtick ( lead pastor of Elevation Church) say “We do not fight for victory but we fight from victory ”
It took me a certain time to understand what it meant. To get this better, we’ll look at a few verses.
Hebrews 11:1‭ NLT

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Fighting from victory means fighting from a position of victory ie fighting knowing that in Christ Jesus you have already won.
Romans 8:37 NLT

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT

But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fighting from victory through faith in Christ Jesus means that you haven’t experienced the victory yet in the physical realm but through faith you see your victory in the spiritual realm.
You see what hasn’t yet come to pass with your faith eyes, just as Abraham saw himself as father of many nations with his faith eyes before it came to pass, because he trusted God.
Hebrews 11:8‭-‬12‭, ‬17‭-‬19‭ NLT

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

What is faith? Taking God at His Word.
Faith means that if God said you have victory over the addiction/the disease/the trauma then you believe it and start living knowing that you’ve got Victory in Christ Jesus.
This is where this blog post gets practical.
I have a “thorn in the flesh” I never planned it, I never expected it, I never imagined I would have to face it, but I am facing it. I thought it would remain in 2017, but it followed me to 2018. What do I do now? Do I give up? Or do I fight from a position of Victory in Christ Jesus.
I have no choice but to fight from victory, knowing that in Christ Jesus I have already won.
I won’t be specific about my “thorn in the flesh”, but in your case it may be a sin which you’ve struggling with for months or years, an addiction which doesn’t want to leave you, a relationship which is suffocating you, a disease which is leaving you hopeless, a task which you keep procrastinating, depression which keeps coming at you etc.
Here’s how we’re going to fight our thorns in the flesh this year:

1. Look for The Bible verse(s) which is/are relevant for your situation

Are you struggling with sin ?
Romans 6:14 KJV

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Are you battling disease ?
Isaiah 53:5c NIV

and by his wounds we are healed.

Are you on a journey against depression?.
Nehemiah 8:10c NIV

Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Find the specific Word of God which is relevant to your situation. Memorize it, write it on pieces of paper, stick it to your walls, have it as desktop background.

2. Claim it (Positive confessions)

When you doubt, claim it
When you have flashbacks, claim it
When you’re sad, claim it
When you’re worried, claim it.
Keep claiming The words which God said about your situation till you start seeing and believing.

3. See and believe

You gotta open your spiritual eyes and see yourself free from sin, see yourself free from the addiction, see yourself healed, see what God sees when He looks at you.
When your perception of self will align with what you read in The Word your faith will increase and you’ll claim The Word on you even more.

4. Give thanks/ Praise Him

With faith, praise Him for the result. You aren’t seeing the result yet, but you have to believe and see it with your faith eyes and to praise Him for it.
“Lord I praise You because sin shall have no dominion over me”
“Lord I thank You because by His wounds I am already healed”
“Lord I thank You because Your joy is my strength”
Before you realise it, you and others will see the change and results in you.
But for it to work, you’ll have to be consistent.
If there’s only one resolution to make in 2018, decide to fight from victory everyday all through this year.
Prayer
Father Lord God King of Glory, without faith it is impossible to please You. I place my faith in You today and I trust You for victory over my “issue”/ “thorn in the flesh”. I may not see the victory yet, but I see with my faith eyes and I rejoice in You. Help me fight this year from a place of victory in Jesus Christ‘s Name. Amen.
Thank you so much for reading.
Please post your prayer requests in the comments section so that we can pray for each other as we’re dealing with our issues.
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God bless you, and thanks so much for reading.
Victoria Eyog.