Overwhelming Righteousness

If enemies could only be more understanding and agreeable, they would be much more easily persuaded to cease and desist. But no, especially the more bent they are on imposing their own evil culture and ways, the only thing they will understand is overwhelming defeat. Since they are determined to completely overwhelm, the only real defense against their intentions is for them to be the ones that are completely overwhelmed. Vince Lombardi has been quoted as saying, “The best defense is a good offense.” as it relates to football. This is also a very clear necessity in war. The one who is passive, leaving the first move to the adversary is the one most likely to concede ground and ultimately surrender to the more aggressive and overwhelming force. To have hope of victory against an evil adversary there must be a very organized and forceful response to any attempts at infiltration or domination. The pre-emptive strike is also most effective to dissuade before attacks are even launched.

Whether or not we’re fully aware of him, we have an adversary that is continually looking for a vulnerable opening to overwhelm with his defeat and destruction. Though his weapons are earthly, sensual, and devilish, completely inferior to ours, he effectively utilizes them to turn many into his obedient subjects. For there to be hope against his storm of fear and death, there must be a very planned and intentional application of the weapons we’ve been given. For every strategy of evil intent, there is an aggressive and overwhelming response from the Word and by the Spirit that will utterly overwhelm him, directing and dictating to him the actions he must take. The greater the fervent response to any threatened compromise to the knowledge of God, the greater will be an encounter with the Mountain Mover, His power, might and faithfulness to empower us with them for battle.

The most common area of weakness is that of a guilt-ridden identity. As long as we are kept in an expectation of a negative result or consequence, we are kept from faith in what has been bought for us in Christ. This comes with any yielding to a known wrong, participation in strife of any kind, and purposeful doubting of God’s promises. Any diversion from who we’ve been made to be in Christ brings with it an identity and claim of unrighteousness. The accuser, satan, uses any failure of the flesh to overwhelm and further keep us from the triumph that’s ours. Taking the battle to him in this area is the only real hope of freedom. Directly confronting with the truth will not only resist the enemy, but totally destroy his ability to extend his reign of sin and destruction.

Notes

Steady vigilance against a prowling enemy

1 Peter 5:6-9 (TLB) If you will humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in his good time he will lift you up. [7] Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you. [8] Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart. [9] Stand firm when he attacks. Trust the Lord; and remember that other Christians all around the world are going through these sufferings too.

As God’s chosen in Christ – administer His response/utterly destroy

Deuteronomy 7:1-3 (NKJV) "When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, [2] and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. [3] Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.

Our God response of destruction – not flesh and blood/thoughts that bind in unrighteousness

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (AMPC) For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. [4] For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [5] [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),

Enemy’s greatest threat – our identity

Thoughts he uses as weapons:

Our own failures
Other’s failures against us
Assumption of independence (pride)
Doubting God’s promises

His thoughts of accusation – intended to overwhelm with condemnation

God’s overwhelming response to unrighteousness – grace

Romans 5:20-21 (NKJV) Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, [21] so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our identity in Christ – overwhelming righteousness

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The truth about you – your overwhelming weapon against the accuser

Colossians 2:9-15 (TLB) For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; [10] so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power. [11] When you came to Christ, he set you free from your evil desires, not by a bodily operation of circumcision but by a spiritual operation, the baptism of your souls. [12] For in baptism you see how your old, evil nature died with him and was buried with him; and then you came up out of death with him into a new life because you trusted the Word of the mighty God who raised Christ from the dead. [13] You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, [14] and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. [15] In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away.

God’s demonstrated love – our continual and progressive access

Romans 5:7-10 (NKJV) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. [8] But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [9] Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. [10] For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

For overwhelming of our identity – the greater weapon of unphased love

Romans 8:34-39 (NKJV) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [36] As it is written: “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER.” [37] Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. [38] For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, [39] nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:1-4 (AMPC) THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. [Joh 3:18] [2] For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death. [3] For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice], [Lev 7:37] [4] So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].

The overwhelming response of God to our challenged identity – utter and complete salvation

Hebrews 7:25 (AMPC) Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them.

Overview:

The enemy comes with thoughts that overwhelm with condemnation regarding failures, strife and doubt.
God’s response to condemnation – overwhelming grace.
To be in Christ is to be complete in Him, separated from the power of condemnation to bind and control.
Our participation in God’s overwhelming response to attacks against our identity – take every thought of failure, strife, and pride captive to a bold embrace of righteousness.
With each God response – drawing near to walk with Him in the light, free from the unrighteous ways He redeemed us from.

Prayer:

“I am drawn with wonder to Your amazing love for me. That You would lay down Your life for me even when I was living in sin is beyond comprehension. Thank you for this work of grace in me that has replaced all the unrighteous identity with who You are in holiness and righteousness. Help me to actively overwhelm any threat to this reality with progressive applied revelation in steadfast resistance.”

Declarations:

God loves me so much that He gave me Jesus when I was in sin and far from serving Him.
His grace towards me is unmoved by anything, including my failures, other’s thoughts towards me, and even my own doubts and disbelief.
In Christ I am freed from any identity with condemnation.
I recognize that any care, worry, frustration, or oppressive thought is an attack against my righteous standing in Christ, and I cast it upon Him, allowing Him to carry it far from me.
Every thought of defeat and failure, I take you captive now and utterly destroy you with a completed identity in Christ.