From Victory to Victory

Jean Max B. St Louis

Description

Whether you are a new or mature Christian, you are currently engaged in a warfare that will not end until you meet Christ. Victory is essential in the Christian life. Not to experience a victorious Christian life does not fit within the standard we are called to live. In the book of Revelation, Jesus said these words to the seven Churches: "To the one who overcomes." This implies that, although Jesus is the source of victory for His church, He still expects his church to walk From Victory to Victory.
In this book you will learn how to:

* View yourself, the world around you, and the spiritual world from a biblical perspective
* Identify the enemies of the Christian life and the various strategies used against you as a believer
* Recognize and cope with spiritual distractions
* Use your spiritual discernment at all times
* Discover who you are in Christ Jesus
* Operate under His victory to defeat your enemies
* Practice an effective prayer life

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Santé et bien-être
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 17 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781939748676
• Langue: English

Extrait

Jean Max B. St Louis

 
 
Copyright © 2014 by Jean Max B. St Louis
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form whatsoever — including electronic, photocopy, recording — without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
 
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ® . NIV ® . Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version , Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the Holy Bible, King James Version. KJV. Public Domain.
 
Scripture quotations marked AMP are from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified Bible, New Testament copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
First Edition
 
ISBN: 978-1-939748-67-6
 
 
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Published in eBook format by Certa Publishing
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this book are solely
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Acknowledgments
F irst and foremost, I want to express my deepest and greatest gratitude to God for putting the passion in my heart to write this book and helping me, in every step of the way, to complete it successfully. I express my deep sense of gratitude to my wife, Naomie St Louis, who was very patient and supportive as I was writing this book. I owe great thanks to Susan Rescigno, who helped me in the editing of the entire manuscript. Her input and her suggestions were very useful. I would also like to thank Dr. Howard McNeill, who, in spite of his busy schedule, created the time to read a part of this manuscript and to give me some good advice.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to people like: Mr. and Mrs. David Anthony Romeo, who gave me some good advice about the manuscript; Pastor Oreste Coulanges and Pastor Joseph Victor, who gave me their words of encouragement; my brother-in-law, Pastor Bernard Laurent, who gave me some great advice and encouragement; and my father, Pastor Jean Bien-Aime St Louis; my mother, Gladys St Louis; my sister, Marie-Bernard St Louis; and many other friends, who were constantly supporting me in their prayers.
Introduction
L et me ask you some questions. Do you notice that whenever you want to do something good, you are being opposed by something bad? Do you feel attracted toward things that are ungodly? Have you ever been in a situation where you understood that it was well planned against you?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, I would like you to know that these situations are signs and pulses of an ongoing warfare that you are facing as a Christian believer. The good news is that it is possible for you to experience victory in the midst of these conditions.
Perhaps you are asking, “How can I experience victory?” This is the question that my book will tackle--to show that, although the Christian life has many enemies, they were all defeated by one victory, the victory of Jesus at the cross.
Your responsibility is not to struggle for victory, but to struggle under His victory, so that you might live a victorious Christian life on a daily basis.
I invite you, as you are reading this book, to embark on a journey to discover the portions that are already yours in Christ and to take possession of them without hesitation, for they are the only resources that can help you win at all times.
Part I: Identify The Christian Enemies

Chapter 1
The Awareness of the Christian Enemies
The Importance of Being Aware of the Enemies
W hen Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He gave them many instructions; these included healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and casting out demons. He gave the disciples specific instructions as to what they needed to carry with them during that journey. And He talked to them concerning their responses to the people who would receive them and to those who would not. He even spoke to them about His judgment toward the cities that would not welcome them. One crucial instruction was this: They should always be aware of their enemies.
In Matthew 10:16-17, Jesus told them: “Behold I send you out as a sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpent and harmless as sheep. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues…”
With these words, Jesus informed His disciples that the mission they were about to undertake was not just preaching the kingdom of heaven or merely performing miracles; but being aware of their surroundings, they needed to be mindful of their enemies.
In fact, if we read the whole passage of Matthew Chapter 10, we will observe that Jesus spent more time alerting the apostles about their enemies and their attitudes towards them than instructing them about anything else concerning their mission. The success of their assignment was, in great measure, dependent upon the awareness of their foes.
It is the same for us as believers. We cannot fully experience a victorious life if we are not aware of our enemies and do not take an appropriate stand against them. The measure of our success in the service of God does not necessarily determine how victorious we are over our enemies. In fact, our enemies are good at using successful ministries to cause the fall of great ministers. The success of our service for God could be used by our foes to distract us from our walk with God. This is why it is not possible for us as Christians to experience a glorious and continuous victory in our lives if we are not fully cognizant of our opponents and have proper behavior towards them.
As human beings, although we are capable of great feats, we can only do well within the limitations of our knowledge and with the elements and conditions within our control. We cannot perform well beyond the scope of our awareness and capabilities. A lawyer cannot be expected to perform well if placed in an emergency room to diagnose and treat the sick; neither can a doctor be expected to defend the accused in a courtroom. Our performance in any given field is largely dependent upon our knowledge and proficiency in said field or endeavor.
Consider another example, the case of an army that is warring against an unknown enemy. They go to the battlefield, but they do not know whom they are fighting. They have no information about their enemies and they are not seeking to learn anything about them. Can this army expect that they will be victorious over their opponents? No way! If they do not know their enemies, how can they hope to prevail against them? If they are not fighting against their enemies, how can they even hope to win the war? In fact, they are exposing themselves to failure. The other army becomes aware that their opponents are not aware of them and seizes the opportunity to attack and defeat them.
Just as it is a great miscalculation for a soldier to engage in a battle without accurate intelligence about the movements and capabilities of his enemy, it is very dangerous for us, as Christians who are constantly at war with the forces of evil, not to be aware of our own adversaries. This is a truth we must all understand: As believers we are constantly engaged in warfare against our enemies, and living the Christian life victoriously requires that we become aware of their identities, sensitive to their strategies against us, and knowledgeable about how to defeat them.
Sometimes, we are preoccupied with other things. We do not seek to know the line of attack that our foes are using against us. But by not doing so, we are setting ourselves up to be defeated by them.
Andrew Murray said: “There is nothing that makes an enemy so dangerous as the fact that he remains hidden or forgotten.” 1 This is exactly what our enemies desire, for us not even to notice they are there; because the less we are aware of them, the better they will be able to deceive us; and the more they deceive us, the better they will be able to defeat us.
 
The Victory and the Alertness of the Enemies
Now, let me ask you some questions: Are you truly aware of the extent of the Christian battle? Are you really cognizant of the enemies of the Christian life? Perhaps you might ask, “Why should I bother knowing about my foes if I am already more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus?” If truth be told, we do have the victory over our enemies in Christ Jesus, but how can we fully understand the glory and the extent of this victory if we are not aware of the power of the enemies that Jesus has defeated at the cross? If we know how powerful our enemies are, then we will understand how great the victory at the cross was. The whole power that triumphed over our enemies at the cross will be clearly revealed to us when we become aware of who those enemies are. Our hearts will gladden greatly when we understand how these enemies held us tightly in their powerful grasp and how, if it had not been for the unrivaled triumph of Jesus Christ at the cross, we would still be subjected to them.
Paul was aware of the fact that Jesus gave him victory over his enemies; nevertheless, that victory did not stop Paul from knowing who his enemies were. In Colossians 2:15, Paul said: “Having disarmed principalities and power, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
In this verse, Paul did not describe the enemies that Jesus had conquered as a mere opponent. He knew that the devil and