The Overcomer’s Mentality

Text – 1John 5: 1-5

Everyone who believes (adheres to, trusts and relies on the fact) that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) is a born again child of God; and everyone who loves the father also loves the one born of him (his offspring).

By this we come to know (recognize and understand) that we love the children of God: when we love God and obey his commands (orders, charges)…

(Amplified Bible).

Did you know that the bible says we are Overcomers? Many of us have confessed it for a long time but the reality staring us in the face is the fact that a great number of us have been constantly overwhelmed by many difficulties of this life, especially financial. The reason we are not overcoming, as we should (in spite of our confessions) is because we have not experienced a change in our mentality. If we do not develop our mentality we cannot overcome. The difference between the 2 (Joshua and Caleb) and 10 spies was their mentality(Num.13:1-14:9). You could describe them today as Christians who feared the Lord but whose perception of Him was different. You’d notice the ratio. It’s almost always been like that, even today. What did the 2 see that the 10 did not see? It doesn’t matter where you fellowship.

You would notice that verse 4 of our text didn’t say ‘whosoever…’ but ‘whatever’ (which includes persons, products, ideas, systems, institutions, etc that is born of God). It refers to anyone/anything that takes its rise from God. Such entities have in themselves the ability to overcome every obstacle or resistance. The question now is, did your business, for example take its rise from God? Many dreams have been dreamt by many and they have been unrealized in spite of the conviction the dreamers had at the beginning, just because such dreams did not arise from God. Ensure that your dreams arise from God. This ministry would have collapsed on its face if it didn’t originate from God going by the opposition that came against it at the beginning.

This potential to overcome is not present in an unbeliever because he is already overcome. It is your faith (your unrelenting belief and unshakable confidence in the fact that God started this thing) that overcomes the world. You cannot live without faith. Jesus told Peter once that Satan requested for permission to sift him as wheat but he told Peter that he had prayed for him that his faith fail not (Luke 22:31,32). What keeps many alive even when they are falling is their faith that they will rise again.  Faith will give you the leverage to climb up. It doesn’t matter how many times you have been beaten down. Tell yourself I am not going to be counted out. Let your confidence in God not fail. The writer of Hebrews says cast not away your confidence (Heb.10:35). This is the instrument that will enable you do valiantly.

If you believe in Jesus you have faith. Apart from Him you and I will fail but through Him we will triumph. You will rise again! Let this be your confidence in the Lord. While praying and fasting is important, faith is probably more important. It is very easy to have this “Overcomer’s Mentality” inside the church building but outside, when the giant of reality confronts us many cannot find the voice with which they sang so eloquently (while in church) ‘It is well with my soul…’ . You will never be able to sustain your success if satan is able to move you to and from the realm of faith.

What does the word Mentality mean? Mentality means a mind-set, a pattern of thinking, and a way of perception and worldview. The way you react to the world, depending on where/how you were raised. People are bound to react differently. You have an Overcomer’s Mentality when each time you are faced with an obstacle, a challenge, an opposition, fear and resistance; you take a deep resolve to continue with the fight. It’s a determination to go through despite the opposition. You know you have the Overcomer’s Mentality when in spite of your awareness of the depth of the spiritual warfare raised against you; you are going to come out tops as the winner. Why? Because your faith and boasting is in the Lord, not in your abilities. You know you have the Overcomer’s Mentality when you prevail through barriers that seem impenetrable. You are willing to prevail over the giants you see. You have a readiness to break through the obstacles.

Why is it important to have this Mentality? If you do not have this mentality it will be easy for satan to neutralize you. You were created for dominion and satan fears nothing but the Sons of God. All he does is try to frighten you and bring you down to the level of your senses, trying to make you respond only to information from your 5 sensory channels. The 10 spies sent out by Moses didn’t speak like the sons of God but as human beings (guided by their senses). But you are the sons of God and you are not expected to be senses-led but Spirit led.

Satan is determined to squeeze us into his mold/way of thinking. He does this through the TV, Radio, Newspapers, etc every day so that he can get us to think like the people of this world do. That is a slippery ground and you can hardly defeat him there. But God has given you a higher platform to fight satan. It is the higher ground of faith. Outside this platform satan can get you to become unproductive in fruit bearing. Satan becomes effective in this when we exchange God’s value system for the value system of the world.

 ‘Then I will become like any other man’, Samson told Delilah shortly after telling her the truth about the secret of his power(Judges 16:7). Like Samson, a Christian with faith/belief in God’s power is not like any other man. Those who do not know this think and act like the world. Realize the fact that there is a war of values going on. Unknown to many Christians they are buying into the value system of this world. Satan’s purpose is to pull us out of the realm of faith to the realm of reasoning (like he did to Eve). You cannot defeat him on that platform. Eve could have simply resisted him but she allowed him to pull her to his turf of human reasoning. Of course you know why it is said that the wisdom of this world is foolishness unto God; it is controlled by the devil. Christians must not allow themselves to put on the value system of this world or allow themselves to be squeezed into the world’s thinking mold. Many of us started in the spirit but are now maturing in the flesh – from resisting headaches to taking analgesics at the slightest sign of a headache. This is because we have been moved from the level of faith to the level of reasoning. Always strive for the higher alternative: God’s standards/ways.

It is important that you put on the Overcomer’s Mentality because of the need to transit to the next level. Your system of behavior will have to change. Anyone who does the same thing over and over again expecting different results is not being sincere. You’d recall that not everyone who came out of Egypt went into the Promised Land. The Promised Land was the next level. It was almost impossible for former slaves to see themselves as owners of houses and vineyards they never built. Those who came out of Egypt were former slaves who didn’t have an updated desire to want to get into cities and occupy homes and vineyards they did not build. It is not possible for such persons to move on to the next level. There has to be a mental rebirth of some sort. Like them, many of us have remained at the same level because we have remained prisoners of our past. For us to make progress in 2014, there has to be a mental renovation.

They couldn’t go in to the Promised Land for a number of reasons:

• They were a fearful bunch imprisoned to their past as slaves. They couldn’t see themselves moving on to a new phase. Remember, in the things of the spirit you can ONLY get what you can see.

• They were a complaining and murmuring people. Their attitude to every challenge or struggle was negative, always wanting to go back to Egypt. Such persons never go forward.

• They were generally lazy. What mostly defined their lifestyle was that they “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” (1Cor.10:7). They never were the sowing, laboring, working type. They were a people who only needed to wait for the cloud to move before they moved. But there was nothing like the cloud mentioned at the time Joshua led them into the Promised Land. He wasn’t led by a cloud but by wars and by the Commander of the Hosts at some other time. That was the mentality of those that came out of Egypt. We may repeat their mistakes if we do not learn these lessons.

The ‘Entering-in generation’ did not have the Cloud to direct them. Neither did they wait for manna (in fact manna ceased before they got to the Promised Land). Subsequently they needed to fight, conquer and work before they ate. They had to fight for every advancement unlike the ‘Coming-out generation’ that cowered in the face of the slightest challenge. The ‘Coming-out generation’ lacked preparation to transit to the next level. The only choice that seemed open to God in the circumstance was to eliminate them and raise a new generation with Occupation Mentality.

Exactly what are we supposed to overcome?

•  The World’s System (a far greater enemy than satan himself); this is a system we daily participate in and one which constantly works to squeeze us into its mold. And satan is synonymous with this system sometimes.

•  The human nature which wars against the Spirit, especially when you express the desire to embark on some spiritual exercises like fasting, preaching, praying, giving, etc. This also includes our ingrained stereotypes, biases and prejudices. If you are an old believer from the S U (Scripture Union) times, recall your initial reaction when you saw a professing believer with processed hair. To you it was outrageous, carnal, etc. You reacted that way because the stimulus you received was rather new. For many people, whenever they see something new, rather than finding out whether it is intelligent, good or bad, they react negatively, rejecting it. They would not even consider the possibility of cultural differences. It is part of human nature. But this tendency has to be overcome and rightly utilized because many packages God sends us are sometimes wrapped with the strings of the unfamiliar. Be less swift and less violent in rejecting new/unfamiliar things.

•  Every other obstacle that stands against God’s plans for our lives. Such obstacles could come from friends, spouses, finances, etc.

How to Develop the Overcomer’s Mentality.

Break the bonds of your past experience.Do not be tied by the negative experiences of your past. Follow Paul’s example who in spite of the rejection from most members of the early church (on account of his past life) moved on (Acts 9:1-2, 26). He refused to be bound to his past life even when people treated him, holding the misdeeds of his past against him. It doesn’t matter if you were a pimp or prostitute; while there isn’t much you can do about what others think or say about you, there is a lot you can do about yourself. “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (2Cor.5:16).

Don’t allow people to define you from the human point of view. The word says you are an overcomer. Believe this and let your thoughts and actions be defined accordingly. Speak the word; read it and set yourself in agreement with it.