Victory Through Death

Victory Through Death

Someone who advances too quickly suffers defeat, just the same as the person who is too slow. God’s time is our time. Therefore keep in step with Him, and you will be in the victory procession. It is not strenuous to keep in step with God, but the one who runs ahead as well as the one who is too slow has to struggle. The one who keeps in step with God rests in God and advances quickly, but the one who runs ahead of God will be just as late as the one who is too slow.

The person who keeps in step with God is victorious in rest over all obstacles. Obstacles are trials of faith. There are no obstacles with God. If you think that the obstacles are enormous, then die to them. The person, who dies to obstacles, overcomes them. The obstacles are not outside of you—they are within you. The obstacles are your unbelief. The victory is yours to the same degree that your unbelief is being crushed. Die to all the difficulties and opposition that you meet in life. If difficulties and opposition cause you to die, thank God for them, for then they will disappear just as quickly as they crush you. Life’s circumstances work together with the inner process toward the goal that God has set for us—to be conformed into the image of His Son. Obstacles cause us to suffer defeat even until death, but then God gives us the victory. We forsake everything because of our own impotence, but after that we overcome through omnipotence. Christ was crushed on the cross; yet He was victorious on the cross.

That which we die to has no power over us; therefore we are victorious through death. Obstacles can be so great that the only way out is to die to them. The war against Satan is so intense that we must lose our life in order to overcome him. This is how Jesus made a public spectacle of powers and principalities, triumphing over them on the cross. Col. 2:15. His way became so narrow and the opposition so great that there was only one option left: to die—to die in order to live, and to live in order to overcome forever and ever. A way has now been opened; it is called, “No Way Out.” “No Way Out” is the way of death. This way is narrow. Nevertheless, the person who dies in Christ will also live in Him.

It costs something to keep in step with God. We must lose in order to gain; we must die in order to gain space to live. “No Way Out” is the consecrated way, and this way does not lead to death, but through death to a life of victory.

Obstacles are like a Jericho. Jericho is just as much within you as outside of you. However, if that which is outside of you is within you, then you overcome within you that which is outside of you.