Those of you who have truly given your heart to God are now a people whom Jesus has caused to hate sin, love righteousness, and desire, above all else, to please our heavenly Father. Be assured that the power of God is readily available for us to go through temptations, trials, and persecutions without falling into sin. This teaching will help settle you in the faith and understand how to experience the overcoming power of Jesus in your individual lives. 1 John 5:3-4 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith”. The “world” as spoken of in the Bible is defined as “the orderly arrangement that is in opposition to the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. This means that God has provided for us to experience victory over everything that is not of Him. Romans 6:14 makes it clear that sin shall not have dominion over us and verse 18 declares that we’ve been made free from the power of sin. These and many other scriptures testify that we are no longer bound to serve the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Read 1 John 2:15-17. A life above sin, fulfilling God’s will and pleasing Him, can and will only come to pass by exercising faith in God — “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, . . .”(Hebrews 11:6). Human sufficiency, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with manifesting a holy, righteous walk. Look at the words of apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 — “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life”. The sufficiency to produce righteousness is from God alone. In 1 John 2:6 we read, “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked”. When man perceives this and similar scriptures to be impossible, it is because his calculations are based upon human reasoning and ability rather than gospel truth. In such a case, the heart is still fixated upon the Adam man, or self, and has not turned to Jesus. Consequently, there is no place in the heart for faith in God. Never fall into the trap of basing your calculations of this possibility upon human reasoning and ability. Base them solely upon God’s word —“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Understanding this will help you keep the faith when confronted with opposition to the truth, and it will also be of great benefit in ministering to those who are still in the dark. “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26 NKJV).

We must renounce self-dependence and trust wholly in Christ. Our problem is that self-righteousness and self-dependence are so deeply rooted in the heart of man that this is one of the hardest lessons for the human heart to learn. It is therefore one of the biggest hindrances to a victorious walk. Man has the tendency to offer God his ability yet withhold his heart. God wants to possess our heart, and in doing so, He will possess our whole being. Those of us who know the truth understand that the gospel is the power of God for Jesus to dwell in and live through us by the Holy Spirit. In the 15th chapter of John, the Lord says to us,“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me, ye can do nothing” (vs. 4-5). It is His life in us that produces holiness and strength to overcome the world. Our faith must not be in our own ability to perform but in the working of God alone. Jesus was asked what men should do in order that they might do the works of God, and He responded saying, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:28-29). To properly appropriate and exercise faith in the working of God is to trust wholly and completely that our old man is crucified with Christ and that the Spirit of Jesus, with all His virtues, is ever present within our being to accomplish the will of the Father (Romans 6, 2 Peter 1:1-4). In Colossians 1:25-29, you will also see that Christ in us is our hope of glory. His indwelling in us is the hope of glory because He generates and manifests all His virtues through our vessels. It is His humility, His patience, His righteousness, His wisdom, His strength, and all His other virtues that manifest in the believer’s life. Look at Galatians 5:22-23 to help you get grounded in this — “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. You see these virtues are “fruit of the Spirit”, not of a stronger, more disciplined human. Those who abide in Jesus walk as He walked because the same Spirit that produced His walk is producing ours. Please understand that the righteousness produced in the life of a believer is not his own. Colossians 3:3 tells us that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. You and I have no righteousness of our own for we are dead. God puts the righteousness of Jesus on our account because we are putting faith in Him to accomplish His work in us. Faith is counted to us for righteousness because by it, the righteousness of Jesus is manifested in and through us. His life and His righteousness will be evident in the lives of those who truly yield to and believe God.

God’s grace is the sufficiency you need to go through temptations, trials, and persecutions without falling into sin. In 2 Corinthians 12, we see where apostle Paul was given a “thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan” to buffet him lest he would be exalted too highly because of the great revelations he had received. Paul asked the Lord three times that it would depart from him. Let’s look at God’s response and Paul’s subsequent comments to further strengthen and settle you in the faith — “And He said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (vs. 9-10). The first thing to notice is that God did not remove the messenger of Satan. We often expend too much effort exercising our faith for the wrong thing. It’s not unrighteous to ask God for deliverance from situations, but He usually brings us through the fire, not around it. Consider the three Hebrew children in the 3rd chapter of Daniel. God told Paul that His grace is sufficient and that His strength is made perfect in weakness. His grace is sufficient for us too! The word translated as “perfect” in this verse means, “complete, fulfilled”. In other words, God’s strength shows up when our dependence is solely upon Him. This is why Paul went on to say that he took pleasure in having the thorn. Not because he liked pain and suffering, but because he would rather have the power of God upon him than to rely upon his own strength. Paul described the thorn as infirmities (feebleness), reproaches (insults), necessities (lack), persecutions (pressures), and distresses (difficulties). Paul experienced overcoming power through all these things because he was dead to self-righteousness and self-dependence. He didn’t use his hard circumstances as an excuse to justify unrighteousness. He didn’t complain of his bad lot in life or question God’s providence. He didn’t demand God deliver him because he was the great apostle Paul. He didn’t diligently look up and quote all the deliverance scriptures to remind God of His Word. His faith was set upon the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Galatians 2:20, the apostle wrote, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me”.

Christ in us is our sufficiency. Put your faith in God alone and you will experience the virtues of Jesus to give you victory over the world and a life that glorifies our heavenly Father. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24-25 NKJV).