Paul had some difficulties: beatings, stonings, shipwrecks. If God was on His side, you'd think that He could have at least told him to catch the right boat, but three times the boat he was on sank. He's there in the water, holding on to pieces of wood. Not nice - but he never, thought like a victim.
In prison, chained to a Roman soldier, he never, thought like a victim, or as one imprisoned. He said: In all these things we are more than conquerors! Whatever you're facing in your life, believe me, you have got it in you, you are more than a conqueror. Of course if you don't believe that, if you think you're a victim, you're in trouble.
Look with me into Romans, Chapter 8. Last week I was sharing on Breaking Free from a Victim Mentality, and I want to just pick it up because there'll be some who weren't here, and move from there into developing a kingly mentality. No use just breaking out of one thing; you've got to put on something else, and develop a different way of thinking. I'll share with you some things, some practical keys, but I want to just pick up where we were last week. We looked in Romans, Chapter 8 and it says in Verse 34: who is it that condemns? Christ who's died and is risen, is at the right hand of God. He is there making intercession for us right now. He is praying you and I will succeed. Who will separate us from the love of Christ then? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword?
Verse 37: In all these things, no matter what life dishes up to you, and Paul had a few things dished up; beatings, stonings, shipwrecks. I mean you'd think if God was on His side, you'd think that He could have at least told him to catch the right boat, but he had three times the boat he was on sank. He's there in the water, holding on to pieces of wood. That's not very nice - but he never, never, never, never thought like a victim. There he is and he's in prison, chained to a Roman soldier, but he never, never thought like a victim. He never thought as one imprisoned. He said: no, no, no, no! No, no son. In all these things we are more than conquerors! Whatever you're facing in your life, believe me, you have got it in you, you are more than a conqueror. Of course if you don't believe that, if you think you're a victim, you're in trouble.
But the reality is, the truth of God is, you have got all it takes through Christ. Notice the key thing in there? It says: in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him. It is your vital union with Jesus Christ. It's your connected with Him. He has already won the victory. He has already faced every challenge of life. You and I as we connect with Him can arise with His life. When you put off your struggles and put them on Him, and begin to learn how to draw on His life, you are more than a conqueror. I like that - more than a conqueror. That means to gain decisive victory, to have a surpassing victory in every situation. So whatever you face in life, from the little mundane things in family life, marriage and finance, to work, to major challenges, you have got it in you to win, if you hold on to Jesus Christ. You are designed to win. There's no way God planned your failure.
Can you imagine God planning your failure? It's not what He does. He plans your success. I know the plans I have for you, plans for good, not evil, that you would prosper and be positive and be filled with hope about your future. So let's have a look. I want to just pick up there this aspect of victim mentality. I want to touch on it again, and we're going to go over this time into Numbers, Chapter 13 - going to find two different mentalities in Number 13 and 14. We're going to find a victim mentality, and the way it operates and it's consequence; we're going to find a kingly mentality, how it behaves, how it thinks and acts and we'll talk about how to shift.
So in Numbers, Chapter 13, we'll pick it up there in maybe Verse 25: And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days. That's the 12 spies. Now they departed and they came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And then they told him and said: we went into the land where you sent us. Truly it flows with milk and honey, and here's the fruit.
Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; we saw the descendants of Anak there, the giant. The Amalekites are in the South; the Hittites, the Hebusites, Amorites and other ites in the mountains; Canaanites by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people - shhh! Let us go up at once and take possession. We're well able to overcome it. But the men who had gone up with him said: we can't. We're not able to go up against the people, they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land they'd spied out, saying the land through which we've gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, the people we saw are men of great stature. We saw the giants, descendants of Anak which came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so were we in their sight.