Introduction
We live in a world where we all have to overcome challenges, adversity, and issues that impact each one of us in different ways. Sadly, most of us do not have someone that specifically knows how to successfully help us get through it. This leaves us then to struggle alone through it as best we can and sometimes, we overcome it, and sometimes it overcomes us. Eventually, we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, Are you an overcomer?
God has Expectations for Us
Since God first created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there were certain expectations God had for humanity. Likewise, God had the foreknowledge to know what experiences all of us would have and the challenges we would have meeting those expectations. However, God did not leave Adam and Eve nor the rest of us without instructions on how to carry out His expectations. Nor did He leave out any details of what the consequences would be for not following His instructions (Genesis 2:15-17).
God Provides an Answer
Over the centuries as God interacted with man, He provided an entire library of Scripture to give us the Wisdom and knowledge we need to navigate through all the experiences of life without failure. In 2 Timothy 3:1-17 we see a description of how perilous times will come as there will be more and more people that claim to be Godly but reject the Truth and Wisdom of Scripture. They will also reject God and the Truth of Scripture and persecute those that embrace the instruction of Scripture to live Godly lives to honor God out of love for Him because of His gift of salvation (See 2 Peter 1:2-12).
God Enables Us to Overcome by Trusting Christ
So, if we look to God for help to overcome life’s challenges, where do we start and what can we expect? Let’s start with 1 John 5:1-5:
1 John 5:1-5: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
We see in these verses that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we are “born of God.” Born of God means we are reborn as a child of God into His family when we trust Christ as our Savior. At that moment, we are also given the power through our faith in Christ to “overcometh the world” in victory.
Trusting Christ as our Savior means we believe that He provided salvation from death for us when He died on the cross to pay for our sins. Read details about this in the articles, Salvation in the Bible and Got Jesus?
As we look deeper into overcoming, we find that God provides strength and guidance to every person that seeks His help to provide strength and a safe port refuge from the storms of life:
Isaiah 25:4: “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, A strength to the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, When the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.”
Seven Ways God Enables Us to be Overcomers
As born-again children of God, we see seven specific ways God enables us to be overcomers. These seven ways are summarized in Revelation Chapters Two and Three as part of a description of seven specifically named churches. God revealed these churches to the Apostle John as candlesticks in a vision in Revelation 1:19-20:
“Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”
We will see that the names of these churches have meaning that speak to the specifics of how we will be empowered to overcome different challenges all believers have had through the ages. The seven specific ways God enables us to be overcomers are listed as follows:
(1) Eternal Life
Found in Revelation 2:1-7 where John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus. The name Ephesus means “Desirable” and speaks about a desire of eternally overcoming Spiritual hunger by eating directly from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God:
Revelation 2:7: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
To learn more, see Revelation chapter 22.
(2) Salvation from Death
Found in Revelation 2:8-11 where John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna. The name Smyrna means “Suffering” and speaks of overcoming the suffering of a second death in the Lake of Fire:
Revelation 2:11: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”
To learn more, see Revelation 20:6,14, 21:8.
(3) New Name in Heaven
Found in Revelation 2:12-17 where John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Pergamos. The name Pergamos means “Marriage” and speaks of overcoming the “marriage” of church and state government mandated religious worship practices under different names and having a new name written in Heaven as Christians:
Revelation 2:17. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”
To learn more, see Revelation 3:12,19:11-16, 20:12-15; Luke 10:16-20; Daniel 12:1; Exodus 32:30-35.
(4) Given Holy Spirit
Found in Revelation 2:18-29 where John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira. The name Thyatira means “Continual Sacrifice” and speaks of overcoming the seduction of false church doctrines promoting sacrificial worship practices that deny the nailing of the law to the cross by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Morning Star, to destroy the sacrificial requirements of the law and indwelling of the Holy Spirit giving full access of the believer to God the Father:
Revelation 2:26–29. “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
To learn more, see Revelation.22:13-20; 1 Kings 16:31-33; 1 Kings 21; Psalms 2; 1 Peter 2:18-24; 2 Peter 1:16-21; John 6:28-58
(5) Given Eternal Security
Found in Revelation 3:1-6 where John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Sardis. The name Sardis means “Remnant” and speaks of a remnant of people, both Jews and Gentiles throughout all time that lived in a fallen world, but trusted Christ as their Savior. Trusting Christ as their Savior makes them the bride of Christ and overcoming any possible loss of salvation. They are dressed in white gowns, awaiting their Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who will confess their names to the Father at the marriage supper of the Lamb:
Revelation 3:5-6 “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
To learn more, see Revelation 19:5-14; Revelation 21; Romans 9-11; Ephesians 4:30; Acts 2:22-47.
(6) Made part of the Eternal Church
Found in Revelation 3:7-13 where John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Philidelphia. The name Philadelphia means “Brotherly Love” and speaks of those overcoming imperfect temporal churches on earth and becoming part of the heavenly church of brotherly love in the New Jerusalem of the future where believers serve in God’s presence as pillars of truth:
Revelation 3:12–13. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
To learn more, see Revelation 21; Hebrews 3:1-6, 12:22-23; 1 Timothy 3:15; Acts 2:22-47
(7) Glorification with God
Found in Revelation 3:14-22 when John is told to write to the Angel of the Church of Laodiceans. The name Laodiceans means “The rule of the people” and speaks of overcoming a world of people that do not take a stance to glorify God, nor care about being one of His children as a pillar of the God’s church and sitting on God’s throne alongside Jesus:
Revelation 3:20–22 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
To learn more, see Psalms 119:165; Proverbs 17:15; Isaiah 5:20; 1 Timothy 2:15; Matthew 19:27-30)
Conclusion
We can see that God has established a specific plan and purpose and has given us the power to overcome as born-again believers in Christ. If we summarize what it is that God does to enable us to be overcomers, we also see it begin with our salvation and proceed to the end of time and into eternity when we are sitting next to Christ on the Throne:
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- Eternal Life – Revelation 2:7
- Salvation from Death – Revelation 2:11
- New name in Heaven – Revelation 2:17
- Given the Holy Spirit – Revelation 2:2-28
- Eternal Security – Revelation 3:5
- Made Part of the Church – Revelation 3:12
- Glorification with God – Revelation 3:21
We have looked at these seven churches in their representation by name as related to being enabled to overcome as children of God. However, if we dig down deeper into the characteristics of each church, we can see that they also represent periods of time in church history starting with Ephesus in 33-110 AD and progressing through the centuries. We are now in the church age of Laodicea, which began in the late 1800s and will last until the return of the Lord.
Looking forward, we do not know when the return of the Lord will be, but there are plenty of signs we are in that age. The good news is that through Him we can be content and overcome all things through Christ:
Philippians 4:11–13. “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Let us rejoice in the fact that we can do all things through Christ and overcome the world:
1 John 4:3–4 “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
May God bless us in being overcomers for Him and sharing what He has taught us with others to help them find victory in Jesus to meet in their needs to overcome!
