There Is Something More Than Mere Survival...

Isaiah 60:1-2 was the verse I read today.

"Arise, Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you."

It has been 2 months since I left for USA. And in the blink of an eye, I have one month left. As I reflected the pass 2 months, the ONLY reason why I am still surviving, is Jesus. As I thought about everything that happened while I'm here, I can only attribute the reason of me still being here, to His abundant grace.

I found out something amazing as I thought about Isaiah 60:1-2.

The Lord rises upon us, His glory appears over us. His grace fills us and towers over every adversity and trial we face. His love shatters every darkness of the evil one. Often times, I realized, that I just wish for God to help me survive a particular trial. That I will still be ok after the trial. That I will survive it and not be defeated by the challenge.

But somehow my mindset has changed after reading Isaiah 60 and I thank God for the change.

We are NOT destine to SURVIVE a Challenge. We are destined to be OVERCOMERS. We are destined to OVERCOME the challenge.

A challenge is not meant to be survived! If we survived a challenge, it is like the challenge is still present and we are merely sticking our heads out of water and finding our breath. It is like saying a person who fell into a deep swimming pool, is simply floating with his head bumping in and out of water catching breath, instead of holding onto a buoy that is right in front of him. He is SURVIVING, but he has not overcome yet. If he has overcome, he will be holfing the buoy and not constantly struggling to catch his breath.

That is the picture God gave me. We are not meant to just be on the fringe, hanging, surviving. We have a God that will help us OVERCOME the trials we face and when we overcome a challenge, it is not a challenge anymore because God has challenged it and won.

There is a very big difference between survival and overcoming.

We are destined to overcome.

Overcome means to prevail to triumph over something.

Look at Revelations 12:11.

"They triumph over him (the evil one), by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony..."

We are the "They" that Revelations 12:11 is talking about.

We triumph over our situations. We do not merely survive.

As we all enter into a time of exams, desserts (I refuse to say "stressed" because I refuse to agree with the enemy that stress exit. Because I do not have to give satan the authority to carry out his evil plans), and as each of you all have your own trials, battles to fight, either relationships with friends, tension, or whatever situation, remember one thing...

We are Overcomers!! That is clearly stated in the Bible. And we are His sons and daughter, with authority from Heaven.

Satan only has authority when we empower him. He is nothing but a leech. He takes our power only if we allow him to stick to us. We are the ones with the authority. Not satan. Let us stop giving the stupid guy authority!!

I sincerely believe we all will overcome the upcoming challenge and testify that Jesus has brought each of us thru. I look forward to all the wonderful stories from you guys.

"Father, thank You for the authority You have given to us. That we are the established generation. A generation of Youths, that are of royal blood. Father, with You in us, I believe all of us will triumph over our situations. We are for the strength, the power, the wisdom, the joy, to study for You, to serve You, to love You, and to obey You. In Jesus name I pray, AMEN!"

Love you all very much.

Chris