Many believers are drawn to sermons about the Christian life being one of victory and overcoming defeat. There are many things that cause a believer to feel defeated: fear, depression, doubt, troublesome thought patterns, and destructive appetites of the flesh for example.

Believers want to live a victorious life over these things. But are you living the slogan or living the reality of victory in Christ and how can you discern the difference?

Now that God has called the church back to the original gospel that is according to Jesus’ covenant, He has turned on a much-needed light to shine on the gospel that is according to the flesh, and discernment is now possible.

The message that victory can be yours in all areas of your life, when it is not connected to God’s new covenant through Jesus, is in word only and lacks the power to make victory possible.

1 Corinthians 15:57
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

You’ll notice in this verse that victory is through Jesus. God’s desire for each believer is to be fully outfitted with the tools of Jesus’ covenant so that they are ready to overcome self, Satan, and the world after the pattern set in His Son, Jesus Christ.

But when a believer is walking down a self-made spiritual path, carving out his own concept of victory, his efforts are continually frustrated, and all the things that he is troubled about remain a question mark in his mind: if victory in Christ is promised, why am I still struggling in these areas of my life?

There are surprisingly many who have attempted to define what it means to live victoriously in Christ. Some say that the primary key to living a victorious Christian life is faith in Jesus Christ, but faith is described by God as possessing all the things of Jesus’ covenant, so lacking these things the question marks remain.

Others say that a victorious Christian is one who seeks God to please Him in all His ways, but God’s ways are covenant, so entering into a covenant relationship with God is the first step to victory. Failing to begin a covenant relationship with God, a believer still doesn’t know how to please God.

Another example is quite common, a person will say that living moment-by-moment surrendered to God is how victory can be had. But when God’s new covenant tools are not being used, one cannot surrender to His grace and truth. These are examples of slogans that are offered in place of covenant instruction.

When victory is defined according to the perspective of man then victory bears testimony to self (the flesh). But when victory is defined according to the perspective of God it bears the testimony to Himself (His pattern, purpose and plan through Jesus Christ).

An obvious sign of the testimony of man that points to his own concept of victory centers on health, wealth and prosperity. Many Christians can see the obvious error in that message and have burnt their fingers while dabbling in that erroneous movement. Gaining possession of earthly things is not a sign that one is walking in victory.

But still despite seeing this obvious error, if the transition is not made to Jesus’ covenant, one’s spiritual path does not change and the reality of God’s divine purpose of overcoming and fruit bearing will not be experienced. God reserved overcoming and fruit bearing for those whose faith labors in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

True victory over self, Satan and the world happens because we align ourselves with God through accepting the covenant of Jesus Christ, for this is where the labor of faith works in the interest of God and is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

More subtle signs of the testimony of man that points to his own concept of victory is about defeating the devil and taking back the crown of victory that he stole. This type of sermon is usually about gaining spiritual ground by “rejecting” negativity and “accepting” positivity as to not grant entrance of certain things into one’s life. The language of this testimony of man is usually expressed as: “I don’t receive that” and “thank you, I receive that”.

By accepting what appears to offer spiritual insight for a victorious mindset, the believer attempts to gain a new vantage point to overcome the devil. But in reality, the believer falls prey to shaping his own victory over suffering and defeat from his own perspective.

This self-made spiritual path does not end in gaining the fruit of Christ. Rather this self-made path is how Satan sets you up for failure to place confidence in the wrong thing (not God’s covenant promises) only to crush your hope as your expectations did not ripen.

Though this is all done under the banner of God’s name, in reality man’s spiritual path is not God’s spiritual path. God’s spiritual path is connected to the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is accessed through the door of His covenant. God’s promise of overcoming self, Satan and the world is a covenant promise.

The covenant of Jesus Christ is God’s open door through which God grants access to experience true victory according to the design of Christ. We are called to labor with truth (the holy knowledge of Jesus Christ) to gain the victory of Christ over sin (the system) and death (its presence and its cycle of death unto death) with steadfastness of covenant faith.

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

God built into our natural design a taste for order and increase. By the same power we have a natural taste for victory we also have a distaste for defeat. This natural drive for victory is often mistaken with God’s divine design in Christ to help us to overcome ourselves, Satan and the world. God reserved that power in Jesus Christ Himself. It’s not in us.

To teach a little about the natural appetite (taste) of man to overcome obstacles to gain increase, I’d like to quote from IDCCST Handbook, p. 93:

“Because God imprinted himself upon your soul, we follow the same design. We, too, set order to every environment for the purpose of our own increase; whether it is to manage a construction project, or to organize a fundraiser, organize your closet, plan your day, or plan a company, we set order to knowledge, people, and things for the purpose of increase. The God-Code of the soul is the drive of the soul to fill its own appetite.

Now you can understand your desire/drive for order and increase and why you strive for it. Even those who are disorderly have a map in their mind to their pleasure. It is the appetite of the soul to set order for increase, and no one can deny it or escape it.”

So, the natural inborn appetite for order and increase comes from the feature of the flesh called the God-Code. Likewise, the taste for victory and distaste for defeat is seated in the God-Code. The reason God teaches this distinction is so that this natural drive for victory does not get misappropriated to build for God.

Here again I’d like to quote from the Handbook inside the free IDCCST Handbook, p. 97:

“We know we have a divinely appointed purpose, so we easily equate the drive we have for equity, beauty, and increase with a higher power and purpose, and mistake this imprint for good building material that can be used to know God and please him and get things done for his kingdom.

Let’s examine this conflict. The conflict is between Jesus and the God-Code. We can’t increase the kingdom of God with carnal things. The problem is that both the moral code and God-Code work in rhythm with ourselves (the natural man). There is something hypnotic about falling in sync with a rhythm. There’s a pattern of movement between the moral code, the God-Code, and our mind and emotions that feels familiar and others also connect to. When that happens, we see eye to eye, which is really face-to-face. And something magical happens: When the face of your God-Code is mirrored in others, it feels like it completes you.”

God did not plan for us to progress with Him by referencing the portions of our natural design that works in rhythm with self, for the God-Code is not faith.

The portions of the flesh (our natural design) war against God to build a kingdom of its own, so we cannot follow our natural impulses as a navigational system to enter into the experience of the fullness of God or to build for God.

Progression by the God-Code can leave a person with feelings of being close to God’s fullness for them but God has more in store for us than just feeling like we might be getting closer to Him.

God’s fullness through Jesus Christ means that nothing of Christ is missing and nothing of man is added. Entering into that fullness means we are partaking of Him to be governed by Him. God is the governor of our destiny.

By aligning ourselves to God through covenant faith we make an agreement with Him to progress in harmony with Him, to build His kingdom. By faith we respond to grace and God issues more grace so we can grow (increase and progress with God) from strength to strength and from virtue to virtue.

As you enter through the door of Jesus’ covenant and onto the path of righteousness, God introduces you to the power of His grace and truth that is now your new governing power to experience the fullness of the life of Christ.

As I’ve said earlier – there is a difference between a self-made path of victory and the spiritual path of righteousness that God has laid out for us to experience victory over self (the flesh), Satan and the world through the pattern set in Jesus Christ.

Jesus brought out that His path was from the bosom of the Father to return to the bosom of the Father, and we are called to follow in this same path.

John 16:28
I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Entering God’s bosom is the final victory, however God’s due order and process for daily testing and circumcision of the heart cannot be skipped over. This process of preparation for the bosom of the Father is what happens through service in our daily priesthood and through remaining steadfast in faith through the cycles of our growth which ends in fruit.

When Christians begin a search for God’s true purpose for them, they often choose the familiar path of their own signature gifts, their natural taste for success (advancement by the God-Code), fighting to make something of failure, and seeking ways to live a happy and fulfilled life as their moral code dictates.

Though a believer can know (by Bible knowledge and by drawing from the design of his God-Code) that he is divinely created by God for God, the path of entering back into His bosom (the final victory) is not one carved out by one’s own signature, God-Code and moral code (the portions of the flesh that builds for self).

None of these carnal avenues are the same as God’s covenant purpose. To be clear, God has one divine purpose for us all which is to come into covenant with Him, to make ourselves conformable to His truth so that our labor of faith is in the interest of God and not in vain. To gain the victory over self, Satan and the world is about progressing in harmony with God in a covenant relationship. God defines the covenant boundaries for faith so that there is no confusion as to how to gain that victory.