THE ABUNDANT LIFE OF THE OVERCOMER
THE ABUNDANT LIFE OF THE OVERCOMER
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
August 24, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
At our Sunday evening study group, we have been studying the stumbling blocks which keep Christians from walking and living in the abundant, overcoming life-style which is the Glory of God.
John 10:10: “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Romans 5:17: “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.”
There is more than one gate into the glorious City. There is more than one entrance into the Kingdom of God, the City of our God, Mt. Zion, and the Glory of God.
The Kingdom of God tells us who runs it and the Kingdom of Heaven tells us where it is.
The Lord spoke to me once of a certain famous evangelist who had entered His glory through intercession. There are four things which will disqualify us from being intercessors: (a) Materialism (Phil. 2:1-5); (b) Uncleanness (Psa. 24: 3-6); (c) Rebellion (Mt. 6:10); Ignorance (Eph. 6:13) ---a person who is enlightened to what God is saying NOW to the Church; not a fox who will run in fear.
There are four things that are always in the life of an intercessor: (a) Character; (b) Concern; (c) Compassion; (d) Consistency.
Sunday evening we realized we are having prayer five times a week at our church. We have Wednesday night prayer group who have faithfully met together for 12-years.
There is more than one stream of Christianity flowing into the River of God. This teaching presents twelve of those ways –on the journey---but is not limited to these twelve:
1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” Jesus is not talking about finances here and is certainly not implying a spirit of poverty whereby we walk around flaunting a poor spirit or dishonor the Lord by telling others how poor we are. It is a spirit that says, “I need you Lord!” It is the beginning point of accepting Jesus as our Savior from our sins. Many never mature past this initial step, for it is more blessed to give than to receive. To balance this, we must continually be dependent upon the Lord as we mature. My first stumbling block as a Christian was, “Lord I will do it by myself if you just don’t do anything to hinder me.” I had accepted Jesus as my Savior and had enough faith to recognize that if he didn’t hinder me, I would not be able to accomplish my ambitions. But at that beginning point of my Christian walk, I cannot say I was “poor in spirit”.
2. By being born of the Spirit, and thus receive a new nature: John 3:3: Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say to you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
1 Pet. 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.”
James 1:18: “Of His own will He fathered us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.”
We are spirit beings of which God is the father. Heb. 12:9: “We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits, and live?
We receive a new nature, even his Divine Nature.
- By Being Righteous (part of the Divine Nature): Mt. 5:20: “I say to you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Our righteousness of faith rests upon Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law. Here is no room for boasting. Only as we walk as we have received does our faith become life. Then we become an expression of Him on this earth. Again we see those who “are poor in spirit”. “We are as an unclean thing and all of our righteousness is as filthy rags.”
We live in the Kingdom abundant life by resting in Jesus. If we move back into the realm of sin and death by struggling in self-effort. The law of sin and death says, “I’d like to but I can’t”. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus says, “I can but I don’t like (want, desire) to commit sin”.
- By Seeking: “Seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” (Mt. 6:33)
We have a “manna’ spirit – “Manna means, “What is it?” Seeking and searching. Seek means thinking, meditating, and reasoning, to enquire into, seek after, and demand something from someone.
- By Being Childlike (The Nature of a Lamb): Matthew 18: 3-6: (Amplified) “Truly I say to you, unless you repent change, turn about) (and become like little children (trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving), you can never enter the King of Heaven (at all). Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child (trusting, lowly, loving and forgiving), is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin (that is who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought), it would be better (more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea.”
Childlike is not childish. It is teachable, able to receive instruction. Willing and flexible to change from our ways to the Lord’s ways.
- By Being Instructed: Matt. 13:52: (Amplified) “Jesus said to them, every teacher and interpreter of the Sacred Writings who has been instructed about and trained for the kingdom of heaven and has become a disciple is like a householder who brings forth out of his storehouse treasure that is new and treasure (that is) old (the fresh as well as the familiar).”
Matt. 13:52: (K.J.V.): “Every scribe which is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man that is a householder which brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.”
Householder means “the master of the house” and points to a spirit that is disciplined, instructed and trained.
- By Doing the Will of the Father: Mt. 7:21-23: “Not every one that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? and in Your name have cast out devils? And in Your name done many wonderful works? I will profess to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you that work iniquity.”
Some spirit-filled folks will end up in witchcraft. (1 Sa. 15: 22-23).
- By Being Violent in the Will of the Father: Matt. 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force (as a precious prize---a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion.)
A Caleb spirit – conquering in God’s will (Joshua. 14:12).
- By Purging Out the Offenses (Traps, Snares, Hindrances): Mark 9:47: “If your eye causes you to stumble and sin, pluck it out! It is more profitable and wholesome for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell fire.
The eye gate is the light of the body and if lust, greed, covetness, etc. enter our eye, we are to pluck it out. Deliver yourself by definite and drastic action-cast it out.
We have been focusing on purging out stumbling blocks, snares, hindrances, and offenses at our Sunday evening study group for five months and we are still purging.
- By Pressing (Walking Alone At Times): To each one of us who are called to the Kingdom Walk, there will be many times on the path that we must walk forward alone, standing, pressing, trusting.
Luke 16:16: “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the Kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it.”
“Every man” – this is a personal and often a lonely walk. This is the walk which has been required of those who have been called out during this season of “change”.
- By Tribulation (Loneliness, Misunderstanding, Rejection, Crucifixion):
Acts 14:22: “Establishing and strengthening the souls and the hearts of the disciples, urging and warning and encouraging them to stand firm in the faith, and (telling them) that it is through many hardships and tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Amplified)
Continue in the faith – no turning back. Keep on moving forward.
12. By Adding to Your Faith Until You Reach the Sum (End of Your Faith.
11 Peter 1: 5-11: “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 you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things, you shall never fall; so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
We keep maturing until we reach the sum, which is a man in the throne with a ministry energized by a nature of love, the nature of God.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Church
Scripture from Amplified Bible and K.J.V. as indicated.
In entered into the labors of Sermon On the Mount by: Dr. Kelley Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Dr. Varner