LUKE 4:16 (KJV) And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

LUKE 4:17 (KJV) And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet essays. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written,

LUKE 4:18 (KJV) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

LUKE 4:19 (KJV) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

LUKE 4:20 (KJV) And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him.

LUKE 4:21 (KJV) And He began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

JOHN 8:32 (KJV) And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

ROM 8:2 (KJV) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

2 COR 3:17 (KJV) Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

If you willfully accept spiritual defeat, you have been overcome by the power of your adversary who’s purpose is to destroy your spiritual life. The moment you comprehend this truth, you are given the opportunity to instantly reverse this potentially destructive behavior.

Your five senses cannot detect the adversary. He moves about in the shadows of spiritual darkness sneaking upon you in moments of vulnerability. He has a duel purpose in his efforts to diminish you. He wants to bind your spirit and he also wants to render ineffective the blood of Jesus which ministers to your life.

In order to accomplish both of these goals, he must successfully tempt you to succumb to some sort of sin, thereby causing spiritual failure on your part. He then uses that failure to mock the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus.

To help us overcome Satan's strategy, God has given the Holy Spirit to us. He makes the words and life of Christ effective in us.

JOHN 16:7 (KJV) Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

JOHN 16:8 (KJV) And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

JOHN 16:9 (KJV) Of sin, because they believe not on Me;

JOHN 16:10 (KJV) Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;

JOHN 16:11 (KJV) Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

JOHN 16:12 (KJV) I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

JOHN 16:13 (KJV) Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come.

JOHN 16:14 (KJV) He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.

The Holy Spirit also empowers the promise of Jesus in his post resurrection appearance when He came to the eleven and spoke the dramatic command of

Mark 16:14-18.

MARK 16:14 (KJV) Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after He was risen.

MARK 16:15 (KJV) And He said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

MARK 16:16 (KJV) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

MARK 16:18 (KJV) They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

I. If you "think" defeat you will eventually experience that defeat.

A. You must allow your mind to be influenced by the Holy Spirit so that your "thinking" will be sanctified.

ROM 12:1 (KJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

ROM 12:2 (KJV) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1. "Thinking" defeat is usually accompanied by living that defeat.

a. You are controlled by your mind. Hunger, thirst, pain, laughter, reflex, fears, tears, worry, victory, defeat and every other emotion.

b. ISA 26:3 (KJV) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.

2. You are not living a healthy Christian life if you allow your mind to dwell on negatives and defeat.

a. If you occupy your mind with problems, bad thoughts, and negative ideas you will have no time to think upon good things.

b. Spiritual defeat for the sinner is normal. It is a way of life.

c. Spiritual defeat for the Christian is neither normal or necessary. You should never accept the philosophy that you will always have your "ups and downs". That is a fleshly, natural, spiritually dead concept.

JOHN 10:9 (KJV) I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

JOHN 10:10 (KJV) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

d. God has a higher level of existence for his people. Listen to these wonderful scriptures.

PSA 3:6 (KJV) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about

PSA 32:10 (KJV) Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.

PSA 118:6 (KJV) The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

PSA 125:1 (KJV) (A song of degrees.) They that trust in the lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

PROV 29:25 (KJV) The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

ISA 12:2 (KJV) Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.

II. Once defeated, a person tends to spread his contagious defeated nature.

A. Have you ever been around a Christian who depresses you because of their continual negative approach to life?

1. Miserable and tends to take it out on others.

a. Some even blame God. But God is not responsible for your failure to resist the devil’s devices.

1 COR 10:13 (KJV) There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

JAMES 1:13 (KJV) Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

JAMES 1:14 (KJV) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

ROM 6:13 (KJV) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

2. Spiritual defeats always come by disobedience.

a. You will never enjoy victory until you learn to obey God and his Word.

III. You are invincible when you live in Jesus and in His power.

A. Your spiritual defeats will stop when you understand and live in your place in Christ’s provisions.

1. Listen to these powerful scriptures.

JAMES 4:7 (KJV) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

JAMES 5:14 (KJV) Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

JAMES 5:15 (KJV) And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

JOHN 15:7 (KJV) If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

LUKE 10:19 (KJV) Behold, i give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

ROM 8:35 (KJV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

ROM 8:36 (KJV) As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

ROM 8:37 (KJV) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

ROM 8:38 (KJV) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

ROM 8:39 (KJV) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

B. God’s way is a way of victory!

1. You must not keep "crying the blues".

a. He has purchased your victory.

b. He knows no defeat; neither should you. He conquered the devil, death, hell, and the grave and he shares that wonderful conquering

triumph with those who love him.

C. If you are a Christian, you belong to God.

1. Obey him, abstain from sin, and you will have no spiritual defeat.

2. You will have joy and gladness in your victories.

IV. God welcomes you into the realm of victorious Christian living.

A. It is an exciting life. It feels great!

1. Satan has no power over you as you abide in Jesus.

1 JOHN 4:4 (KJV) Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

2. Sin has no power over you as you abide in Christ.

1 JOHN 3:1 (KJV) Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.

1 JOHN 3:2 (KJV) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.

1 JOHN 3:3 (KJV) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.

1 JOHN 3:4 (KJV) Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

1 JOHN 3:5 (KJV) And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

1 JOHN 3:6 (KJV) Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.

1 JOHN 3:7 (KJV) Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.

1 JOHN 3:8 (KJV) He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

1 JOHN 3:9 (KJV) Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

ROM 6:1 (KJV) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

ROM 6:2 (KJV) God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

ROM 6:3 (KJV) Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

ROM 6:4 (KJV) Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

ROM 6:5 (KJV) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:

ROM 6:6 (KJV) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

ROM 6:7 (KJV) For he that is dead is freed from sin.

ROM 6:12 (KJV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

B. God has a wonderful reception awaiting the faithful.

REV 2:7 (KJV) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

REV 2:17 (KJV) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

REV 3:5 (KJV) He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.

REV 3:12 (KJV) Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

REV 3:21 (KJV) To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

REV 21:7 (KJV) He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

I truly hope that the scriptures I have shared with you today have impacted your life. My earnest prayer is that you will embrace all of these words of God and allow them to change you. The moment you make the decision to believe and apply these promises is the moment you stop living in defeat and move to victory.

I pray you will make that trip !!