Written by: Dr. Ernest Fink (Senior Pastor | Director) City Harvest Family Church, USA
2 Corinthians 11:23-24 (NKJV)
“Are they ministers of Christ? –I speak as a fool–I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.”
- Some Believers think that if a person walks in faith, that somehow that means he will escape all adversities in life.
When you read the New Testament, you find that the early believers and the apostles faced many adversities. Certainly, God didn’t plan those hardships. The devil was the one who shrewdly planned those attacks to stop the preaching of the Gospel. Satan is still working nonstop to prevent people from stepping into the plan God has designed for their lives.
- When believers survive all sorts of ordeals and attacks, that is proof that they do possess the God-kind of faith.
Don’t get the impression that walking in faith removes you from all challenges. Faith just gives you the ability to overcome the challenges that will attempt to assault you. Even Jesus said, “…In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
The word “tribulation” is Greek for a situation so difficult that it makes one feel stressed, squeezed, pressured, or crushed. It can be translated as distress, affliction, or trouble, always indicating a level of intensity that is almost unbearable in the natural.
Jesus tells us to be of “good cheer”. These two words are from a single Greek word which literally means to be courageous. It is consistently translated as “Fear not,” but a better rendering would be “Take heart!” It is a word that would be spoken to strengthen someone who is facing some kind of hardship or difficult ordeal.
- Jesus was literally saying, “In this world you will go through some distressing times but take heart and be courageous….”
Then Jesus tells us, “I have overcome the world.” The word “overcome” is a Greek word that is also the word for victory, but the grammar used in this statement does not imply a single victory in the past, but a continuous and abiding victory. The idea this Greek word presents is this: “I have overcome the world; I am still overcoming the world; and I will always be in an overcoming position over the world!”
Paul was so committed to fulfilling his God-given call that he wouldn’t let anything stop him! After being repeatedly beaten, he’d get up and go right back to what he was doing before he was beaten. He had ALREADY made up his mind. He would not stop until his mission was complete!
What are you facing today? I’m sure it isn’t a beating of thirty-nine lashes, yet it may still seem overpowering and overwhelming. How are you going to respond to these things? If you’ve been knocked down, are you going to stay there, or are you going to get up, brush off the dirt, grab hold of the Word of God, and start moving forward again?
Never forget that Jesus said, “In this world you will go through some distressing times. But take heart and be courageous, for I have overcome the world; I am still overcoming the world; and I will always be in an overcoming position over the world!”
Make the choice today to get up! As you rely on God’s power to bring you to the place of victory you desire, you will learn how to overcome every challenge you will ever face in life!
Romans 8:37 (NKJV)
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
Blessings
