Defined

 The only one in authority to define victory in a given battle is the general in charge. The only one in authority to determine what a spiritual victory is, is God. We’ve all heard the ‘I feel like I did really good’ speeches from friends, family, or acquaintances, which usually prefaces why they feel they failed in a given pursuit or endeavor. Once the story unravels and more details are known, you typically come to suspect that even they don’t believe they did really well or that they even tried to accomplish what they’d set out.

My opinion as to whether or not I succeeded is arbitrary and will always tilt toward making allowances for myself. I will always see my endeavors, my striving, my attempts, and my consistency in the best of lights because the ego tries to protect itself at the expense of facts more often than we would like to acknowledge. God’s conclusion is not arbitrary, however, and when He defines victory for the believer, that is the standard toward which we must aim.

Revelation 12:9-11, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.’”

Not only is the Word clear on how God defines victory, but it also underlines why He is the one who gets to do it. Because victory can only be had by the blood of the Lamb, no one can claim they are victorious without it or independent of it. That’s why it’s wise to be skeptical whenever someone insists they’ve been victorious through a given program or a handful of steps because the Bible is clear that without the blood of Christ, no victory can be had.

That’s not to say some people don’t trick themselves into believing they are victorious; some even do it for a protracted period, but save for the blood of Christ, any perceived victory is an illusion. Morality may keep you out of prison, but only the blood of Christ can keep you out of hell.

There are moral people, some more moral than certain professing Christians who, save for repentance and being made clean in the blood of Christ, will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Morality isn’t salvific. Being washed in the blood of Christ is. Having been washed in the blood of Christ, the subsequent fruit of said transformation become evident.

When the rich young ruler came to Christ asking what he needed to do in order to have eternal life, he was already keeping every commandment Jesus told him he should keep. He checked every box, he was moral by the standard of the law, but then Jesus told him he must do something that was not contained within the law itself.

Nowhere in the law does it say you should sell what you have and give it to the poor, yet it’s what Jesus asked of the young man because He knew that’s what his heart was tethered to. You can do all the right things, the moral things, the lawful things, yet, if your heart does not wholly belong to Him, if you are not made new, born again, and made clean, true victory will always be out of reach.

God’s promise of victory is declarative and prescriptive. Not only does God promise you’ll be victorious, but He also tells you how you’re going to do it. Like any tactician, He has identified the weaknesses and reinforced them. He has identified the enemy’s line of attack, so you might not be caught unaware. He provided the weapons, the training, and the gear, and all that’s needed is for you to follow orders.

I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have the promise of victory, to have the means of victory, to have the roadmap to victory, and yet see so many wallow in defeat, a hair’s breadth away from giving up because the enemy wormed its way in and made them believe their situation was hopeless.

The enemy knows that the only way to keep you from having victory, the only way to keep you from standing on the promise of God that you will, is to convince you to give up. As long as you put one foot in front of the other, as long as you press in, as long as you faithfully follow even when the road gets hard, victory is assured.

That’s not to say victory is effortless. It is incumbent upon you to fight the good fight, to finish the race, and to keep the faith. No one can do it for you. These are not things you can outsource or hire out; these are things you must do in order to receive the crown of righteousness on that Day.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.