A Generation Of Overcomers In A Dangerous World

Author: Romeo Pelle

A Generation Of Overcomers In A Dangerous World

Part I – The Making Of An Overcomer – 1 John 2:12-14

“I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. 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 evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

I believe that your generation is a big threat to the enemy and his cohorts. Why? Because God has a huge call for your lives, once you realize who you are in Him. You are like no other generation before you: I strongly believe you are the last days’ generation that is rising up and responding to the call of following Jesus! YES, I believe that your generation is a big threat to the enemy and his cohorts.

However, there is a big difference between a divine call and responding to that call, and the Devil wants to create a huge space between God’s call and you actually walking into that call! Living in the last generation, we are witnessing an increase and intensification of the Holy Spirit’s activity moving the Church both locally and in areas of missions, evangelism and taking the Word of God to the last tribes and groups of people. But in the same time, we are also witnessing an intensification of the works of the evil one, a fresh release of demonic forces that attempt to counter any effort that the Body of Christ, His Church would attempt to fulfill the Great Commission.

There is something about your generation that makes Satan hate you so much… that makes him so afraid of you surviving, being of sound mind, and fulfilling your destiny in God. It was never before, for the previous generations, so difficult to concentrate on God like it is nowadays for your generation! The devil does and will do everything in his power to get your attention and time and resources and heart away from God and His purposes for your lives.

It is time for your generation to stand for God and give Satan his due. This is the highest call for us, the Church of the 21st Century to walk with God, to be co-workers with God in achieving the purposes of His Kingdom here on Earth, and to be His servants. When you walk with God, and become centered in His will the world will be shaken when they see that you move in the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to see you thrive in Jesus and be all you can be for God.

In this message and the next, we will look at the Word of God describing the steps us Christians must take in order to be able to overcome a world system that is stacked up against the people of God.

There are three categories, or three stages of spiritual growth: little children, young men, and fathers. Matthew 13 confirms this three-step to maturity. In parable of the sower Jesus reminds us that when the good seed (which is a picture of the Word of God) falls onto good ground, it brings forth in three degrees — some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some a hundred-fold. The same thought is repeated in John 21:15-18, where Jesus calls on Peter to feed on His lambs, on His sheep, and on His little sheep (in original Greek).     These three stages of spiritual growth are also evident in the three types of food the Scriptures mention as available to Christians: “milk” for babes in Christ, the “bread” of life, and “strong meat.”  In these three types of spiritual foods you have a reference to these three stages of spiritual life.

Let’s remark here that spiritual maturity has little to do with the physical maturity. I am sorry to say this but there are in our churches people that came to Christ 30 or 40 years ago but they remained spiritual children. Then, are those young people that just came recently to Christ with a huge hunger and thirst for knowing Him intimately and they experienced a spiritual growth that left behind those that became Christians decades before them! As an anonymous thinker stated, “Some people never grow up – they just grow old. Many a woman has a teenage husband and many a long-suffering male has a child bride with wrinkles.” (Inspiring quotations – Albert M. Wells)

How weird would it be if we could see the spiritual maturity of all the people sitting in the church? Let’s say, if everybody had special glasses that they could put on and see the spiritual growth and maturity of everybody else. In any church there would be spiritual babies, young people, and adults. How many would simply be playing dress-up and not really at the stage of maturity that they are pretending to be and pretending to serve! How sad!!!

Back to 1 John 2:12-14, we find him addressing each of these categories again. Repeating these stages over them he adds another clause, this time not to describe what they are like, but to explain what made them this way. Like in the first list, he first addresses the little children.  In the previous section they were described as those “whose sins are forgiven.” That is the most elementary thing you can say about a Christian: his or her sins are forgiven. Why forgiven? Now he makes it clear: “Because you know the Father.” That is why sins are forgiven. They have joined the family of God and come to know the Father. They have come to God through the only way any one can come to know the Father, as Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me,” (John 14:6).

The first thing a new born baby Christian must learn is that he or she has come to the Father. Our relationship is not with a stern and cruel Judge, as many perceived God before they became Christians! However, God is also not an old and emotional Grandpa who gives everyone what he or she wants. The newborn Christian must learn that he has come under the care and love of a true Father, with a father’s heart. As Apostle Paul reminded us, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6). We are the children of a Father who has a great desire for our spiritual growth, and who is deeply interested in all the details of our lives, that knows the number of all the hairs of our head, a Father who is aware of our needs and is able and willing to provide them.

But, can you imagine the sorrow of the parents if their baby remains undeveloped, and after 20 or 30 years he or she still remained a baby? In Hebrews 5:11-14, Apostle Paul lists some of these concerning spiritual infancy.  “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (NIV).”

Paul describes here three characteristics of a spiritual infant:

• He cannot discern between good and evil,  and he is always getting into trouble, most of the times without realizing it.
• He is “unskilled in the word of righteousness,” not knowing how to apply the Word to his life and behavior.
• He cannot teach or help others, but needs to be taught again himself.

John continues to address the fathers: “I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.” That is exactly word-for-word what he said before, without adding anything. He described them as those “who know Him who is from the beginning.” That is the mark of a father: both the way to maturity and the mark of maturity are the same thing. When a believer walks year after year in the Spirit of God and has tested the faithfulness of God, he has come to know the One who is from the beginning and God’s perfect will for his life, and walking in life accordingly.

This is not in the sense of faultless; no Christian ever arrived to faultless perfection in this life (“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” – 1 John 1:8), the Word of God makes it clear. Here it is used in the sense of having mastered and applied (“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use… – Hebrews 5:14)  the fundamental principles of spiritual life. These spiritual fathers reached this stage in their growing process, and for the rest of their life they are resting in God, experiencing God at work in their lives.

The last category – the young men: “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” John has already described these young men as those who have overcome the evil one. He repeats that again, but he adds this explanation, “you are strong, and the word of God abides in you.” I believe John placed this category last because here he reveals the secret of growth. What makes a spiritual child become a spiritual young man? The Word of God abiding or living in him! What makes a young man become a father? The Word of God living in him! This is the secret of spiritual growth. The Word of God enables a spiritual baby to grow from one stage to another until he becomes a father, able to reproduce himself in others. It is by the abiding of the Word of God in us!

Conclusion

1 John 2:12-14 introduces us to the only divine instrument of growth that was given to us: the Word of God.  It is absolutely impossible to grow up and mature spiritually, unless the Word of God abides in you. There is no shortcut in spiritual growth!!! We probably understand now why Satan fights not only the veracity of the Holy Scriptures, but the whole idea of Bible study and you being “Centered” in the Word of God!

Satan cannot stop us from becoming Christians, but he will do everything that’s in his power to keep us from becoming strong Christians. And this is exactly what he does best: he tries to divert our attention and get us overly busy. He also attempts to drag the new Christians in a realm of make-believe offering shortcuts to maturity. Instant spirituality, instant maturity! In both physical and spiritual realms, no newborn baby can develop and mature without going through the stages of feeding on milk first, then soft foods, and progressing to regular, solid food! Only in the tales for children, a prince can grow in 3 days like others in 30 years, and go out there and slain the three-headed dragon! In spiritual realm, we, as young men and women “are strong because the word of God lives in us,” – that’s how you overcome the evil one!!!

Are you a spiritual young person that has progressed from spiritual childhood? You may physically be a young person, but does John’s description of a spiritual young person describe you? Are you strong and not easily swayed by negative influences? Can you see the effects of the Word of God in your life? Are you experiencing spiritual victories? God desires that every one of us would live like OVERCOMERS, in a world that is totally against us, that want to eat us alive and destroy the goals God has for you and me. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).