Victory over sin is not a means to salvation, but salvation is the means to victory!
If you don’t have victory over sin, then the Devil still has victory over you. Satan will try to convince you that you are alone in your sin and that you will never have victory. The Devil is a liar! You are not alone and you can have victory!
When I came to Christ I brought much sin with me. I may have been saved, but I had not yet been set free. But then the Holy Spirit filled me! Jesus promised me, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). Jesus always keeps His Word, but you have to receive it.
Friends, I want you to know that Jesus did not come here just to save you from your sin, but to give you victory over it. The battle was won, but most of us have yet to walk in victory.
The reason so many Christians cannot overcome sin is because they try to do so by the power of man. But sin is a problem within man, and can never be solved by man, but by the Holy Spirit in him. The Lord said, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). God knows you need Him, do you?
The lie from the pit of hell is that victory can come by your own hand. The self-help teaching of our day is the trickery of the Devil meant to destroy you by your own hand. “In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress…” (Job 20:22). You don’t need a program, you need the Holy Spirit.
The Lord told Cain, “…if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). You are meant to rule over sin! Stop living the miserable half-baked defeated Christian life, and be filled with the Spirit of the Lord that you would walk in victory.
When you concede defeat, the Devil will claim victory. Stop agreeing with the Devil and live the life of victory in Christ. Your victory is not a goal to achieve, but a gift to receive. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Dead men don’t sin. “For he who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). When we kneel beneath the Cross, His Blood covers our sins. But we must climb up on that Cross and die to our flesh that He could set us free from living in sin. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).
Once you die to yourself, then He will live in you. You cannot overcome yourself by your own power because it is you against you, checkmate, nobody wins. Victory in Christ has more to do with realizing what He already accomplished than anything being accomplished in you.
You can be victorious over sin. The problem is you think you just need to be stronger. You are going the wrong way. You are reviving the wicked old man and hoping he will save you. He will not save you. “…our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with…” (Romans 6:6).
Nobody can defeat you like you. That is why you need to die to your flesh, that your natural man can be conquered, so that your spirit man is freed to be victorious. Your natural man is the oppressor of your spirit man, and until the old man is crucified, you will remain in bondage to him.
The victory is not yours but His, your only job is to surrender. Victory is found where surrendering begins. Victory is not found in your strength, but His. Jesus said, “…My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Those with the greatest victory are the weakest.
Stop saying you cannot change and just let the Holy Spirit change you, or admit you don’t really want to. The unsaved sin because they must. The Christian sins only if they want to. Be honest about your sin. The Lord does not need your confession so He knows, but that you would agree.
Friend, I want you to know that you can walk in victory. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, and watch what happens in the life of a saint daring enough to be filled of God. Jesus promises you today, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).
There is no greater power on earth than God dwelling in the heart of a saint.
Blessings to you,
Paul