Where Victory Is Found

A friend of mine writes the following account of his personal experience.  As I mentioned in the last post - this story has deeply impacted my own experience and has given me direction on my own spiritual journey since.

This revelatory type of vision was probably 20 years ago when I struggling with an area of sin in my life.  I realized I didn’t believe what Jesus said when he mentioned that 'where sin abounds, grace does much more abound (Romans 6), instead, I was choosing to believe what my circumstances where telling me which was: 'where grace abounds sin much more abounds' - the opposite of what Jesus taught.  You could also say that instead of believing 'greater is He that is in me then he that is in the world' I was believing the exact opposite because my faith was continually tested by my circumstances. I chose to believe my circumstances instead of trusting God's word.  

I feel it may be helpful to discuss the definition of sin – I will do that at the conclusion.

One night I went to bed thinking about the struggle I was facing.  I had a dream/vision where I found myself in a boxing ring with an opponent that was skillful in his approach to boxing, doing good footwork and dancing about taunting me to swing at him. He was wearing a shirt that had a logo similar to how your local school might appear, but instead of a school name, there was the word ‘SIN’ in big capitol letters. I was getting extremely tired from swinging at him when he finally (in a moment of vulnerability and while I was actually leaning into him) gave me an uppercut and knocked me to the mat.  I landed with my head on the mat in my own corner with my legs extended to the center of the ring without a corner man to attend to me.  I realized Jesus was really my corner man, but He was outside the ring with His head at mat level, whispering into my ear saying; sin shall no longer have dominion over you (Romans 6:14). 

At some point I realized that as I started to swing at him, my swings (both lefts and rights) were actually my attempts to be the best Christian as possible by controlling my behavior in my own strength and will power as well as trying defeat SIN.

I was kinda shocked because, as in my life experience, sin was not only winning but almost knocked me out. So I got up and stood there starring at him as he continued taunting me – trying to get me to keep up my unsuccessful attempts at hitting him some more.  I thought to myself:  if he hasn't got any dominion over me than why am I even fighting in this ring? So I began taking off my boxing gloves while saying "I am no longer fighting you”. As I said that I noticed that a string similar to a fishing line was attached to him in puppet fashion. It extending into a square hole in the ceiling which a slightly larger person was holding.  This person (holding the strings to the puppet) then proceeded to look up at another person and said, "he knows" referring to me. This other person in the upper ceiling space then jumped down onto the boxing ring and stood looking at me saying, "now you have to deal with me". I noticed he had a shirt with writing on it as well but on his shirt was written DEATH.  That was how it ended. 

The Lord was trying to instruct me that He disarmed and broke the power of sin over all who accept and trust His sacrifice.  We are not to wrestle with flesh and blood because we will never win that battle. Romans 6:6, 12, 18, and Romans 8:3 (Amplified Bible is clearer). Since sin's dominion was stripped of its power over a true believer, (Phillipians 3:3, and Colossians 2:15 Amplified Bible), we are now engaged in a warfare with death, which is the last enemy to be put under his feet, 1 Corinthians 15:26.

I came to realize as well that by trying to fight the battle of flesh and blood and wrestling with sin that I was partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is cursed. Jer 17:5 says cursed is the man that trusts in man. The Lord proceeded to tell me that I must trust the Holy Spirit to discern Life and death - not good and evil.

Written by Ray Goulet

 

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Good News & More

Paul says:  For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation...

(Romans 1:16).

The 'Good News' is the power of God 'in us' to save us from sin and its affect on us, its much more then simply getting into heaven! Jesus says that getting saved is like being born again - this time of the Spirit (John 3:1-21).  Salvation is being born as a child into a new family - its entering a whole new journey of learning to know/trust the heart and mind of a perfect Father.

A very basic part of this new journey is understanding victory over sin.

This is a subject that I've been praying about for the last few weeks.  What I write on this subject will be from my experience combined with that of a friend (Ray Goulet).  Its a result of the growth in our heart understanding/experience of what Jesus teaches us.  Ray is a friend I met a few years ago - one of those relationships that 'you know are of God' and you end up staying in contact with and visiting occasionally. Ray is from the New Hampshire area - which is great since our relationship gives me a good excuse to visit a beautiful state once in a while.

My last post (about the experience with the presence of evil) was an experience that deeply impacted me and changed my perspective and my values.  Having grown up in a religious, formal setting I mostly had a theology for the power of God to bring freedom to my heart, but not a real experience or practical application of it. Emphasis was on appearance - hard work/discipline and meeting the expectations of others - particularly those of the church.  If you could measure up to the expectations of others you got blessed with their approval - so I learned how to do that well.  A few of my friends weren't so lucky and I watched as they were bumped around by a system of belief that has become quite damaging and powerless in light of what Jesus Christ teaches. However, to say I got through unscathed  would be like saying:  living in an environment of very unhealthy expectations where the amount of love given is based on my performance really had no negative impact on me.  Any professional psychologist would have a good laugh at my attempt to avoid the obvious.

Having left the organized church system for some time now, and having visited a number of other church systems, I've found that as part of human nature, we settle for a system/program that appears easy instead of developing actual relationship that are safe, and heart issues are discussed openly.  In fact - the church I grew up in seems to be quite healthy in light of many of the places I've been to and observed. Religion* is something that we will naturally resort to as we seek to live without the pain of authentic relationships both with God and others.    

I'm excited about the next post!  Ray will be sharing a story that has impacted me in the past and reveals a truth that continues to go deeper into my heart.  As I walk out what I sense to be true and resonates in my spirit - I find deeper freedom and restoration to my heart.  I love simple truth, and the encounter Ray had with Lord is just that - simple truth that brings freedom and exposes us to a deeper level of biblical truth.

*

1: A form, list of beliefs or priorities which appear right but will not submit to the leadership of Jesus Christ
2: An emphasis on principles instead of God himself.
3: A way to look good or have an appearance of righteousness without dealing with motives of the heart.
4: The weight experienced as a result of taking biblical principles out of context and/or adding to them in order to have an appearance of righteousness.