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His high school coach cut him from the basketball team his sophomore year. But he refused to give up and quit! He worked hard and moved his way up over the years, but he stayed humble. In fact, he attributes his success to failure.
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan is an overcomer and one of the greatest basketball players of all time!
IN ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
His parents suffered from chronic depression. It is believed that his parents chronic depression was past down to him. He sought a doctors help for depression.
He once said, “I am now the most miserable man living …Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not.”
He talked often about committing suicide. In a republican convention in Illinois, an observer called this man “one of the most diffident and worst plagued men I ever saw.”
They say his melancholy made him more approachable and sympathetic to the public and that’s what helped him be elected as the 16th President of the United States of America.
President Abraham Lincoln was an overcomer and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation into law ending slavery in our country.
In Mark 9 we read about a man who is fighting to overcome a huge obstacle in his life. (Share Story)
Mark 9:20-24- “So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.“How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
This man is saying to Jesus, “unbelief is trying to overcome me, so help me overcome my unbelief.”
In this story this man is starting to be overcome by unbelief so he cries out to Jesus and in essence is saying “help me overcome what is trying to overcome me!
If we don’t overcome what’s fighting to overcome us we’ll be overcome!
Overcome- To cause to rule us. To make ruler, to have power, make oneself master.
The Bible tells us that discouragement can try to overcome (rule) us. It also tells us that sin can try to overcome (rule) us. We can be overcome (ruled) by misery.
This man was crying out to Jesus saying “don’t let unbelief rule over me, help me to rule over unbelief!
When you and I rule over what’s trying to rule over us we are OVERCOMERS!
BEING AN OVERCOMER IS NOT ABOUT DOING IT’S ABOUT “BEING!”
You are an Overcomer! “Be” and Overcomer! It’s your identity!
1 John 4:4- “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who
is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Overcomer- To Vanquish. To overcome in battle subdue completely. To defeat in a conflict or contest. To gain mastery over an emotion, passion or temptation.
HOW CAN WE WALK IN OUR IDENTITY AND “BE” AN OVERCOMER?
- Know the Father and his Son
1 John 2:13-14- “I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.”
I love this passage of scripture. This is talking about the different stages of your spiritual growth. A child. A youth. An adult.
No matter what stage you’re at in your walk with God, you’re an overcomer!
What’s key in “Being” an Overcomer? Knowing the Father and Son!
When you know the Father and the Son, You know who you are! You’re an Overcomer!
NEXT TO WALK IN YOUR IDENTITY AS AN OVERCOMER:
2. Hear the Spirit’s Voice
Revelation 2:7- “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
Six times in the Book of Revelation overcoming is directly connected to hearing what the Spirit is saying!
One of the greatest benefits you and I have as children of God is hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit!
1 John 4:13- “And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.”
LAST TO WALK IN YOUR IDENTITY AS AN OVERCOMER:
3. Have Faith
1 John 5:4-5- “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Mark 9:23- “Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
John16:33- “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
There is nothing that is trying to overcome you that Jesus hasn’t already overcome!
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Do you need to ask God to help your unbelief?