Our inner dispositions influence our outward world. We need to become aware of our consciousness. In our day-to-day discussions, as we carry out our activities, there are different frames of mind and there is a mode of being, what you know to be true. This is your awareness. Most people live in a hypnotic state, but we are to awaken to our true identity (1 Corinthians 15:34). We do this by acknowledging God as our source. This does not refer to academic knowledge or information.
It is time for the reason you are on earth to fully emerge. This cannot happen without your volition. What is your sense of reality? This is what is called consciousness. We are to know and see the way God wants us to know and see. Whether you live victoriously or in defeat is a matter of your perspective. Victory is not in circumstances, places, attainment or possessions. Thus winning in everything has to do with the vantage point from which you live – not just what you see but how you see.
In the upper room discourse, right before His crucifixion, the Lord told his disciples:
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33 (KJV)
The term “world” refers to the cosmos, which speaks of the system of things that regulate human life, for instance, politics, religion, the economy, the planet and the systems that govern the planet, those that inhabit the planet, and the resources of the planet. It is an arrangement of things and our Lord said that in the arrangement of things in this world, we would have tribulation. Nevertheless, we are to be of good cheer, to be confident, and not to lose heart. There is pressure in the world but we are set apart from it; we are not to wander and be carried it away by the pressures and inflictions in this cosmos. An unconscious Christian would look at the external things happening in the world and turn them into God’s agenda to resolve them. However, to live sent implies an emphatic focus on Christ’s mission, not losing sight of what He considers ministry. In His ministry and that of the Apostles, there is teaching, preaching and healing, and nothing more.
We are not to live under the pressure, affliction and trouble of the world in such a way that we lose heart and simply live to have a particular problem resolved. You are not to reconstruct your world from the vantage point of a victim. You will never be whom God intended for you to be as long as you are living from a victim mentality. There must be spiritual mindedness. Until you refuse to continue adopting the posture of a victim, you will not heal. Stop giving away your power to what you perceive as your tribulation; the world is always going to have some form of pressure within its structure attempting to direct your life.
Our Lord has won the victory that will not be challenged. This means that we will face pressures in the outward realm, but unless you are able to practice the inner attitude of peace, calm and joyful confidence we have in Christ’s victory, the pressures of the world would cause you to wander. We are partakers of the Divine Nature; however, it is one thing to partake of that nature but another thing altogether to be raised to the fullness of the stature of Christ. Growth and maturation are required. We are to grow up into Christ in all things although we are in Him (Ephesians 4:15). Transformation implies Christ-likeness: that your human form reveals, reflects and expresses Christ.
Faced with the tribulations of the world, we are not to lose heart. We are to be confident and courageous. Christ has overcome the world. But this victory is to be lived from the inside out not from the outside in. That is why your attitude towards the circumstances of life is more powerful than the circumstances themselves. Do not allow your life to be dictated by circumstances. Possessing peace in the midst of the trials, pressures, and afflictions in the world, according to the Lord Jesus, is a vital prerequisite to fulfilling the mission He has assigned to us in the world. Without it, there is so much you will be unable to do.
Apostle Paul spoke of a great open door that was granted to him by the Lord, yet there were many adversaries (1 Corinthians 16:5-9). The term “open door” is a metaphor for an opportunity of service given by God. Paul, who was commissioned by the Lord Jesus as the Apostle of Grace sent to the nations, received an opportunity given by God, yet it was in the presence of oppositions. Things did not work out as he initially planned and he had to change his schedule. One of the reasons why many Christians do not make progress is that they think that any opening God gives them will have no form of opposition. They interpret the opposition to mean the opportunity was not from God. You should have a renewed attitude to take courage and seize the moment irrespective of contradictions. In the world, you will have circumstances that will attempt to afflict you and disadvantage you. But in the midst of all these, know that Christ has overcome the world and the victory that He has won cannot be challenged.
This article is an excerpt from Dr. Shawn Smith’s message titled “Winning in Everything”. Order the complete message on gcmonlinestore.com.