This Is How We Overcome

In the power of the living Christ upon the throne we can
stand as victors in the face of all the hosts of darkness. But you must
never allow yourself to look at the enemy so as to blot out your clear
consciousness of the person of the victorious Christ (see Eph. 1:17-23).

God raised Jesus from the dead and lifted Him right
through the plane of the power of the air to the place above
“principality and power” (Eph. 1:21). He made Him to sit at His
right hand, and “He put all things under His feet” (v. 22).

Furthermore, “[God] gave Him to be head over all things to
the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in
all” (v. 23). Therefore, Christ is above all rule and authority and
dominion and power. He is absolute and complete Conqueror.

His Victory Is Ours
In Ephesians 2, Paul the apostle describes the condition
of the human race and the work done for believers in uniting them to the
risen Lord: “And you, He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and
sins” (v. 1). You cannot save yourself. But the Holy Spirit comes to
you, and tells you that Christ died for you—took your place on the
cross—so that, “through death He might destroy him who had the power of
death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Believe in this atoning
sacrifice of the Son of God, even His death for you; and there will
unfold another life, for He will put into you new life—the gift of
eternal life.

By the working of the Spirit of God, you are quickened
with that life as you accept His death for you and your death in Him.
And just as Christ was raised from the dead into newness of life, you
too, joined to Him, will be able to sit with Him in His place of victory
over sin and Satan.

You were raised with Christ in His resurrection life and
taken with Him to His ascension place. Your God-given place is there
(see Eph. 2:4-6).

You are to live in the clear air above the powers of
darkness, and not in the mists and the darkness of the course of this
world. Yet you say, “I do not feel that I experience it!”

This experience is first a faith position. If you will
apprehend it, and take it, the Holy Spirit will teach you how to abide
in your position until it becomes a fact in consciousness.

Looking to Jesus
God the Holy Ghost is preparing His people for glory and,
like a great master workman, He is working behind the curtain, behind
the scaffolding. You do not know what He is doing, but the building is
going up throughout the whole world.

What we must do now is to get our eyes off the darkness
around us—a darkness that is deepening on the world—and live in personal
victory up to the very utmost of the light God has given us. If we
could look from the throne of God down upon the world, we should see the
Holy Spirit moving here and there, breaking out wherever He can get an
outlet.

Be not afraid of the persecution and the scoffing, the
opposition and the rejection. It is the prince of the air, the spirit
that works in every disobedient child. By the stones of Earth God is
allowing the enemy to drive His children out from the earthly realm, to
live in heaven. You know that if you can get a prop on Earth you will
lean on it; so God allows the enemy to sweep them away, and gladly does
the enemy use His permission (see Job 1-42).

Now that we have looked at the glory side, let us examine
the foundation again, and see if we are grounded on the rock of Calvary.
You must fully understand that you cannot share in Christ’s
resurrection unless you also have a share in the fellowship of His
death. Your foundation is in His death—the place where you must be
rooted and planted, so that no storm will draw you out.

They say that the oak tree lengthens its roots in storms.
If you are like an oak, then God will permit many storms to root you.
The stronger the power of the divine life in you, the more will God put
it to the proof; and as He puts it to the test, it strengthens at the
roots.

More Than Conquerors
Here is the secret of victory over sin. It is not you
cutting off sin. It is you apprehending your place in Christ’s death,
accounting yourself dead to sin and allowing the Holy Spirit to then
bring into fact the internal work of deliverance.

The Holy Spirit never fails to bear witness to Calvary.
The instant you desire, with full purpose of heart, to be delivered from
the power of sin, there is no sin of deepest hue that does not fall
away from you there, and you are set free.

Paul wrote: “For the death that He died, He died to sin
once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you
also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:10-11).

Your part is to reckon it, even though you do not
understand. To reckon not only that you died with Him, but that you are
now, at this very moment, “dead indeed to sin” as far as your choice and
your will go. Then—“Do not let sin reign” (Rom. 6:12).

This is the only way of victory over Satan, for it is
through sin—known or unknown—that he holds us, and it is only as we take
our stand on the truth of God’s Word—when the devil attacks with his
temptation to sin, or when you want deliverance from sin—that you can
triumphantly say, “On the ground of my death with Christ, I am now dead
to that sin, and it shall not reign.” Then the Holy Spirit applies the
power of Christ’s death, breaks the connection with sin, and you lose
even the desire for it.

And, if you want victory over the enemy holding another
soul in bondage, before you deal with that person make sure you are on
solid footing. The only place where the enemy is powerless in on Calvary
ground.

Hide yourself in the death of the Lord Jesus. In the name
of Jesus rise today, and “Do not let sin reign.” Take your place. Reckon
you are dead to sin and cast it off.

We are to be overcomers, going right ahead and burning the
bridges behind us. We cannot look back. It must be on toward the prize!

Jessie Penn-Lewis (1861-1927) was physically frail, but
she made up for it in spiritual strength. She had a remarkable ministry
that stressed the centrality of the cross of Christ in the life and
experience of the Christian. In 1927, three weeks after speaking at a series of
meetings in Wales, Penn-Lewis died on August 15. She was 66.

Adapted from Life in the Spirit by Jessie
Penn-Lewis, copyright 2003. Published by Christian Literature Crusade.
Used by permission.