A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
In 2 Timothy 4:1 Paul says to Timothy, “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom.”…He says that at the judgment seat he would be rewarded the crown of righteousness, which would be awarded to all those who have loved His appearing (vv. 6-8). He reminded Timothy that…we should have a living that loves the Lord’s appearing.
This is also a reminder to us, and this will cause us not to be discouraged, not to backslide, and not to become weak but to remain faithful to the end.
At the end of the first century, the Lord said, “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:12), so that we would consider His reward to be rendered at His coming back. This is the Lord’s warning…We should not think that because the Lord has been tolerating the situation for more than nineteen centuries, He is slow to come back. We need to look at the world situation today. We do not know what will happen within the next few days. In this age things happen very quickly. Therefore, we must pray and be watchful. We must also be prepared in spirit and in our daily life. May the Lord cover us so that we may be a watchful, praying, and prepared people. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 435, pp. 4449-4450)
Christian warfare is a matter of warding off defeat; it is not a matter of fighting for victory. We have already overcome. We fight from the position of victory, and we fight to maintain our victory.
We are not fighting to win a victory. We fight from victory; victory is something that is in our hands. The warfare spoken of in Ephesians is the warfare of the overcomers. We do not become overcomers through fighting.
How does Satan tempt us? He causes us to forget our own position and our victory. He blinds our eyes to our own victory. If we give in to his tactics, we will feel that victory is far away and beyond our reach. We must remember that the victory of the Lord is complete. It is so complete that our whole life is included in this victory! Once we believe, we overcome. Satan is defeated and we have overcome in Christ. Satan wants to steal away the victory which we have gained. His work is to taunt us to secretly find out if we still have the faith. If we do not know that victory is already ours, we will fail. But if we know our victory, his work will fail. (CWWN, vol. 50, “Messages for Building Up New Believers, (3),” ch. 43, p. 741)
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