The Triumphant Christian - Part Two (why Defeat Persists) by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

From Acts 8:5, Philip went down to Samaria and there he preached Christ unto them, and the people gave heed with one accord to the things they heard, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many who were taken with palsies were healed. And the Bible says in Acts 8:8 that there was great joy in the city.

Recap: Our Destiny in Christ

This is part of the series titled The Triumphant Christian - Part One (Our Destiny in Christ). The previous session covered the following:

• The man without Christ has three problems. He is spiritually dead, because every creature must remain in touch with its habitat for survival and maximum efficiency. He is legally under the dominion and captivity of sin, of Satan, of the flesh, and of the forces of darkness. And his destiny beyond this life is doom and damnation, having lost what scripture calls the blessed hope.
• Jesus is not God's recommendation. He is the only solution. He is not the most superior solution to man's problem, he is the only solution to man's spiritual problem. Any predicament man has faced, is facing, or will face, its solution is wrapped up in Jesus.
• Scripture calls Jesus savior, the lamb of God, the reconciler, the ultimate portrait of God's love to man, the son of God, the word of God, the author and finisher of our faith, the mediator between God and man, and Lord and Christ.

Salvation opens the believer to three gifts:

1. The forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1:7
2. Legal standing, or righteousness, before God, Romans 3:22
3. Access to the life of God through his Spirit, 1 John 5:11-12

Why Jesus specifically? John 14:6 says he is the way, the truth, and the life. Acts 4:12 says salvation is found in no other name except the name of Jesus. And Jesus came as a gift from God to man.

A Christian, based on Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16, is a believer in and a follower of Jesus Christ, one who has consciously received salvation by believing the gospel and placing faith in Christ. A Christian is also one who is born again, made by grace a recipient of God's life and a partaker of God's divine nature. Every Christian is empowered to live like Christ, manifesting God-like character through a recreated human spirit, and to function like Christ, displaying his wisdom, his mighty works, and extraordinary results.

Scripture describes believers this way:

• Sons of God
• The righteousness of God in Christ
• Joint-heirs with Christ, heirs of God
• A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people
• Ambassadors of Christ
• Kings and priests unto God who reign on earth, Revelation 5:10
• Light and salt, Matthew 5:13-16
• His workmanship, recreated in Christ Jesus
• Witnesses, Acts 1:8

Psalm 49:20 says man that is in honor and understandeth not is like a beast in the field that perisheth, so it matters that a believer understands what they have become in Christ. Son here has nothing to do with gender, it is a generic term speaking of connection and maturity. Paul prayed that the church in Ephesus would know the hope of God's calling, which is maturity through sonship. When God saved us, he desired for us to grow until we get to a point of maturity: Isaiah 9:6 says unto us a child is born but unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon the shoulder of the son, not the child. Galatians 4:1 says an heir, for as long as that heir is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, even though he be lord of all.

Why Defeat Persists

In spite of all that Jesus has accomplished for us in salvation, why do believers still fail? Why are they still defeated? Isaiah 5:13 says, therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge, and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dry up with thirst.

We have been called to be triumphant Christians, and God has made available everything for our victory in Christ. Our victory and dominion is a finished reality in Christ. And yet we do not see all things under the feet of man. Believers who love the Lord sincerely are still buffeted by plagues, failure, and satanic attacks. The answer as to why darkness still seems to prevail, in spite of the fact that they are in Christ, is ignorance, inaccurate or incomplete knowledge. There are three levels to this:

1. Ignorance — no knowledge at all. The ignorant believer is bankrupt of light, in darkness.
2. Inaccurate knowledge — knowledge that is not accurate. Satan himself can appear as an angel of light. There are bodies of knowledge that sound like the truth, look like the truth, have a presentation of the truth, but do not sustain the power to establish victory in your life. The one carrying a semblance of truth needs deliverance by the word.
3. Incomplete knowledge — knowledge that is accurate but not complete. It is possible to dial eight of ten digits of a phone number and it will not call, not because the numbers are wrong, but because it is not complete. It is dangerous to carry incomplete knowledge, because you have the truth and yet you don't win with it. The truth must be whole, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

Three Levels of Knowledge Every Believer Needs

1. Complete knowledge of how God functions

   If you do not know how God functions, you will hate him and blame him over so many things. There is a way God works and a way he does not work. Learning how God functions also builds discernment, so you know when it is the devil masquerading as God, because Satan can appear as an angel of light. This is particularly important for preachers, whose zeal opens them to all kinds of influences.

2. Knowledge of how the life of God in us functions

   Eternal life, the Zoe life, is like a software you need to know how to use. It is one thing to receive the life of God, but you must be trained to know how that life functions and how to release the riches embedded in it. If all it took for victory was receiving eternal life, what then would be the value of transformation, of impartation, of prayer, and of a continual walk with God? Receiving salvation is only the start of the journey, not the culmination.

3. Knowledge of how the kingdom functions

   From Matthew 5, Jesus began the beatitudes by contrasting kingdoms, showing how the kingdoms of this world function against the kingdom of heaven. Many instructions in scripture only make sense inside the kingdom. Scientifically, when a person is depressed, they run. But scripture teaches believers to lock themselves among many keys, to dance, and to thank God in the midst of pain, and though the fig tree does not blossom, yet I will rejoice.

A Relational God Who Operates by Pattern

God is a relational God, but he operates and executes based on patterns, systems, and principles. Knowing how God functions helps a believer understand the value of spiritual operations like prayer. Until you know how God functions, prayer can look like a display of selfishness on God's part: if he loves us that much, why wait for us to pray before he responds?

In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel both brought an offering, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. Scripture never says God hated Cain. It was not an issue of love or hatred, but of compliance to divine ordinance. Genesis 4:6-7 records God asking Cain why he is angry, and saying if he does well he will be accepted. The same Lord is rich unto all, yet our possibilities differ based on our understanding of, and alignment to, God's mode of operation.

Leviticus 9:6 records Moses telling the people to do what the Lord commanded, and then the glory of the Lord would appear unto them. He is Lord over us whether or not we see his glory, but seeing his glory appear requires compliance to what he has commanded.

The Man Born Blind — John 9

In John 9, Jesus saw a man who was born blind, and the disciples asked whether the man or his parents had sinned that he was born blind. Jesus answered that neither had sinned, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Jesus spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, anointed the blind man's eyes, and told him, go wash in the pool of Siloam. It sounded cruel to tell a man born blind to go and wash in a pool, but he obeyed, and he returned seeing.

When the neighbors asked how his eyes were opened, he said, a man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and told me to go wash, and I went and washed and received my sight. When they asked where this man was, he said, I do not know. He had received healing through obedience to a pattern, without pursuing a relationship with the one who healed him.

• There are those who reject the relationship, but they study the pattern.
• There are those who reject the pattern, but they keep the relationship.

Moses' answer to this dilemma was to ask God, show me your face, and show me your ways. His face is for relationship, his ways are for dominion, and both are needed. This explains why unbelieving nations can have exceptional economic and political systems while rejecting the God of the Bible: they have learned kingdom principles, pro-kingdom principles of integrity, diligence, and character, all locked up in scripture, and applied them, without acknowledging their source, and without wanting a relationship with the one who authored them. Meanwhile, many believers have depth of relationship with God, hearing him and seeing visions, but do not build anything, because they have not learned his ways.

Every blessing and every spiritual resource needed for victory and dominion on earth has been made available in Christ, but it will only manifest in your life, and for your profit, when the principles connected to it are understood and engaged.

Ephesians 1:3 says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. A trumpet illustration was used to picture this: a father who loves his child and gives the child his trumpet has not withheld the gift, but if the child does not know how to blow it, the trumpet will not sound, not because the father did anything to it, but because the child has not learned how to operate it. Receiving is potential and access, but knowledge makes it experience.

Spiritual growth, authority, healing and health, deliverance from demonic spirits, dislodging limiting thoughts, favor, and influence are all God's finished desire for the believer in Christ, but each carries principles that must be understood and engaged for it to be experienced.

The Life of Christ and the Mind of Christ

The ignorant believer will still remain a defeated believer. The ignorant Christian may never emerge to become a triumphant Christian. Triumph in the kingdom demands knowledge, knowledge of how God functions, how to release the riches of eternal life locked up within, and how the kingdom functions.

You need the life of Christ alongside the mind of Christ to walk in the experience of dominion. The life of Christ is received instantly, but the mind of Christ is a gradual process of progressive transformation. It is the union of the two that produces victory and dominion.

• An unbeliever who is failing lacks both the life of Christ and the mind of Christ.
• An unbeliever who is excelling has likely incorporated dimensions of the mind of Christ, even while rejecting the life of Christ.
• A Christian who is failing has received the life of Christ but ignored the mind of Christ.
• A triumphant Christian has the life of Christ, now activated by the mind of Christ.

There is no superstition, and no amount of manipulation, that will produce a well-rounded, victorious Christian with passion for God who is also excelling within their sphere. It is impossible without the life of Christ and the mind of Christ. Repeated failure in the life of a believer is a misrepresentation of the power of the cross and of the victory that is in Christ, and it can cause the world to reject the Jesus that believers proclaim, because they cannot see the value of him in a defeated life. Being victorious for Jesus is not optional if the world is to be drawn to the obedience of faith.

Nations Will Flow to the House of the Lord

Micah 4:1-2 says, in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.

The God of Jacob is the God of encounters, but he does not stop at the encounter, he teaches his ways. The progression is: an encounter with God, relationship, intimacy, consecration, priesthood, then he teaches his ways, and then, empowered by that knowledge, we walk in his paths, and nothing stops us from being victorious.

Show them the way of victory. Show the nations the power of intimacy, the blessedness of a rich prayer life, of a strong word-study life, of loving and prioritizing Jesus above all else, of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but also show them the ways of the kingdom: how God functions, how the life we have received functions, and how the kingdom functions.

• Father, in the name of Jesus, open my eyes that I will see the path of victory.
• We declare that this is a season of the dominion of the church, a season of unquestionable victory.
• We declare the need to reveal Jesus to the nations in power and in wisdom, and to be epistles of victory, epistles of triumph, whose lives are such a witness.