More Than Conquerors
Writer Author Jerry Lee Kay Sr.
Christian Article
:
Christian Living
- Fiction No
Once upon a time I lived in a small city that had a fantastic police force. Not only were they good at keeping peace, they excelled in their interest for the youth of the area. They constantly had something going on to keep us busy. One of those things was a boxing club for the young men. Well, Poppa was at that age when I thought I probably was the toughest guy to ever put the gloves on.
As time went by, I gained quite a reputation, for I had managed to have a lot of fights and won all of them. Oh, how I loved it when a champ would come from a neighboring town and I would give him a good thrashing.
I started writing poetry when I was very young and was known for that also. For that reason some of the young men thought of me as a sidewalk sissy. Until after a couple of years in the ring and I was still undefeated. They always introduced me as the 'Fighting Poet'.
In our local club there was this one guy that I 'whupped' so many times I wondered why he kept coming back, until one devastating day, he put me on the floor three times
before they stopped the fight.
I tried three unsuccessful times after that to bring this guy down. His name was Noel but I always called him No-will. After the fourth time he gave me a good 'whupping' I started calling him "Mr" Noel and became his coach and corner man. Noel went on to be a Golden Gloves champ and as long as I knew him he never lost a fight, a few he barely got by and sometimes they were draws, but he never lost.
Some years went by and we had become the best of friends. So one day I ask him, why, since he had all this power, it took so long for him to beat me in the fight. I want to inject we were both Christians. His answer to me that day has stuck with me throughout the years. Mr.Noel, by the way, went on to become known as the 'Thrasher'.
'Mr.Thrasher' said, " When my grandfather passed away they gave me his bible. If anyone has ever loved the Lord, my grandfather was that person! He was a preacher and
his bible is marked and has notes all through it. One day I was thumbing through it and found his notes on a sermon he preached. That sermon enabled me to become the
champion, or if you prefer "The head and not the Tail". He said, "Every time you put me down, I made mental notes of your tricks, and how you threw a punch, and after a while
you couldn't trick me any more." Oh Glory! Poppa getting happy right now. Trying to not go in the preaching mode. If I were to stop right here. You should let the Holy Spirit finish
this message for you. Amen
1st Corinthians 3:16
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1st Chronicles 26:27
"Out of the spoil won in battles did they dedicate to repair the house of the Lord"
If you have the time come with me and let's allow the Holy Spirit to minister to our hearts. I don't want to dwell so much on the battles, for I do believe there is never a shortage of them.
When I was traveling all the time and away from my family in my younger days, I wanted to make sure they had a home, and among family and friends, so I asked one of my wife's
uncles to build a house not far from where her people lived. He had presented himself as a first rate carpenter and I felt comfortable letting him do it. The house was finished, we moved
into it and dearly loved it. However as time passed we were having to constantly do a lot of repair. Some of it was extensive and costly. But we liked the place so much we decided to stay with it, and whatever the cost, we would maintain it. We set up a maintenance fund to cover any problems.
We had a lot of problems getting the house built in the beginning because we built it upon a hillside. So we knew something about that, but here in our scripture they are not talking about that, they are talking about when the building is done it must be preserved. It must have its original beauty and splendor kept, or maintained. Something has to go on after the initial work of the building.
The word that's translated 'Repair.'in 1 Chronicles 26:27 really means to strengthen or to make solid. There must be something to keep it the way God intended it to be, or His original plan for it. God never intended for his children to be in constant defeat any more than He wanted His temple falling in to disrepair. Here is where the power of this scripture comes in. "Out of the spoil won in battles did they dedicate to maintain the house of the Lord."
I believe God is a sovereign God, I also believe He will allow conflict to come into our lives, to perfect that which He has started.
I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
(Luke 12:49,51).
If you and I are going to be men and women of the Spirit, we are not going to have an easy time. Hell will see to that.
Although 'No-Will' had flexed his muscles and been on a few missionary trips, sung in the choir, and taught Sunday school class, (trained and won a few fights), he had now come up against the master
of pain, and I wasn't going to give him anything.
So at once the clash arises and it is true that the more the Holy Spirit is able to have His way in us and to lead us into all the will of God, the more we find this opposition, this antagonism. And it not only
comes between us and the world, it sometimes comes in the circle of the Lord's own people.
It is inevitable provocation. You wonder why, sometimes. As you read the New Testament you wonder, ‘What is the matter with these people? Why should they be so upset and so annoyed? And why should it
be so spontaneous, this thing? And persistent; so unreasonable?’, but there it is. There is the fact. It is inevitable. You see, this thing that the Lord came to do and is doing, will not allow for any neutrality. It
is going to be one thing or the other. It is going to be for or against.
'No-Will' had to make his mind up to go for it, he either is, or he isn't going to be the victor, Amen?
Victory will not allow lukewarmness or anything that is of the Laodicean character. The fire is a positive element always, and it will create positive situations. If everything is all just nice and quiet, no
disturbance, no trouble and no antagonism and opposition, you have reason to question whether the Holy Spirit is doing much, because He does aim at such a positiveness, which is a very, very costly thing. It is either with the Lord, or not with the Lord, and there is nothing between.
It is going to come out sooner or later and be precipitated. Now, the Lord says that is what He came to do. This is not an accident, a chance or things having gone wrong or miscarried. This is exactly what He came to do, to scatter fire on the earth and these are the inevitable effects of the fire. They are going to work out.
Divine wisdom working sovereignly allows conflict, as a way to keep things strong, pure and healthy. Battles seem to be necessities for the very purity of that which the Lord is seeking to have. Conflicts,
in the Divine judgment are essential to maintenance. We do not always look upon them like that; indeed, it is very often difficult so to regard the terrific conflicts into which the Lord's people individually
and collectively are so frequently thrown.
We know something about the conflicts. It is not necessary for me to tell you that there are such things. We know that they are increasing in their intensity, and sometimes they get almost, if not altogether,
beyond our powers of endurance. It seems there is very little "let-up" in the number of battles that have to be fought. It is in the plural here - "Out of the battles."
You and I know a good deal about the battles, the real spiritual battles, the enemy coming in like a flood, the fury of the oppressor, the constant effort on his part to break and to destroy us. Our question often is as to why the Lord allows it. We are hardly out of one before we are in another; and there is no doubt about it, the Lord allows it.
It may be that there are some things which could be done much easier but on the whole, the Lord allows His people to know very much conflict and pressure; and as we enquire why, this little fragment does
give us at least a part of the answer. When we examine the history of things, we can see it is quite true that any increase, any preservation, any maintaining, has come along the line of what we have gained
from our deep experiences.
Noel knew if He did not become a whiner (in those days we called it a weiner) and quit, if he just kept coming at me sooner or later he would have the Armour he needed to put a 'whuppin' on this bad boy.
If we could walk around our spiritual building we would be able to see quite a lot in it which we could relate to, definite experiences of conflict and trial through which we went, and we could say, that came
out of so-and-so. That was the result of that particular bad time that I had. Spiritually, it is like that. Even now we can see it in our lives, and it shall be so right up until the end.
If we use our imagination, the truth holds good that the Lord will be able to take us around His completed work and say, Do you see this and this? Do you remember what you went through? That is the result from it, the value of it, that is the good that came out of it. It was all built into the fabric, the great eternal edifice of God's own house. It was something secured through battles; it was the spoil that went to the house; it recovered something that was lost of original glory, purity, fullness. It safeguarded some breakdown. The Lord put you through something, and out of that He secured what was necessary to guard against a threatened loss of which He was aware.
Noel told me every time we fought, even though it was hard to see it then, he was using my onslaughts to defeat me, and every punch I threw he was to use against me, because he was repairing his shortcomings. I will not let my imagination carry us too far, but I like to think if the enemy would give me just a little of his time, I could take him around and show him the results of his onslaughts-he would not be a happy camper.
You see what you did! You meant it to destroy; it has worked the other way. Does this mean, then, that when the Lord is aware of some threat, loss, or failure, a need for strengthening, a repair, a recovering, when He sees that things are weakening, crumbling, He lets the enemy in and allows him to make an onslaught? Does it mean that?..... Yes it has proved to work like that.
You can find much of it in the New Testament. It was not only connected with the securing of the house, with the winning of a way for the building of the churches and the Church, that there was conflict. But so often, after the Lord had established a church, the saints in it went through great conflicts, and you find that it was in that way that things were kept pure. We cannot keep the Lord's things pure by sound doctrine alone. A lot of people think we can..that we are bound to have a pure thing according to God's original thought if we have the doctrine right. It just doesn't work out like that.
It does not mean that the doctrine is a matter of little concern - of course, it must be right and sound - but there is something more than sound doctrine needed to keep things straight. You will never keep things wholly in a spiritual way according to God's mind by having only a perfect technique and perfectly orthodox teaching.
They are kept living and pure only as we go through the fires with them, as we know the conflict which is associated with these things. Every bit of truth which we receive, if we receive it livingly, will take us into conflict and will be established through conflict. It will be worthless until there has been a battle over it.
Take any position the Lord calls you to take, and, if you are taking it with Him, you are going through things in it, and there will be an element added by reason of the battle. You have taken a position - yes; but you have not REALLY got it yet, the real value of it has not been proved. You have not come into the real significance of it until there has been some rough conflict in relation to it. The enemy assails you. But, you say, where is Divine sovereignty at work? Can the enemy do just as he likes?
No, he cannot. The Lord has allowed the assault, knowing quite well that by so doing you are going to get something as a result which you never would have got by just taking the position mechanically. It has to come to you, not technically, but spiritually.
Out of the battles some extra factor will come. Do you not think that that is precisely the meaning of the Apostle's words, "We are more than conquerors..." (Rom. 8:37)? The Lord does not allow battles just to bring us to victory, simply to have a fight in order to win. To be more than conquerors means that there ought to be something out of the fight that is more than just being where you were before, a maintaining of your position; something out of it - the spoil of battle. You have not only beaten your foe, you have taken something from him.
That leads to another thought. Has the enemy got things which are of value to the Lord? Can he really yield values to what is of God which are only secured through this conflict?
Yes, it is true; he has much, very much, which, taken from him, can beautify the house of the Lord and strengthen that which the enemy meant to destroy.
Well, it is out of the battles and the conflict that there is that dedicated to repair, strengthen, maintain, keep pure and healthy, the house of the Lord; and we have to seek this grace that, when we pass into conflict over some position we have taken in obedience to the Lord, some line that we are following which we know to be the Lord's way for us, and we find ourselves thrown into the vortex of a terrible conflict, we may remember that it is not loss that lies in that direction at all. It is something extra, it is spoil from the battle; the conflict is going to yield something for the house of the Lord. If we can only believe that and accept the pressure and the trial in that light!
Many years have passed since my boxing days, but the Spiritual warfare has never ended, and I find myself praying, seeking the face of my Master and asking that he make me a "Noel" a "Thrasher" and not a 'No-Will'.
The Lord give us strength so to take hold of the conflict in faith that we really do believe that there is something coming out of it which is more than there was before, something very much for the Lord. Amen !
Editor's Comment:
About the Writer Author
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United States
Email:
jerryleekay@suddenlink.net
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www.jerryleekay.net
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