God bless you for joining us again on our sermon review, and we believe previous reviews has been a blessing to you. Today we went further expounding more on the topic we treated last week “The great cloud of witnesses of the overcomers”. Check the link below to read the first part if you missed out.

The Great Cloud of Witnesses of The Overcomers I

TEXTS:Hebrew 12:1-2, Hebrew 11:1-3, John 1:12, Hebrew 11:33-35, 1Cortinthians 10:3-10, Hebrew 11:31, Joshua 2:19, Act 8:26

What is Faith?

Faith means revelation, and revelation means “understanding of the word of God.” Thus, faith means to trust, rely, depend and have confidence in the word of God. The bible told us that we are surrounded by so great cloud of witnesses, these cloud of witnesses can also be called cloud of example –of whom he was the first: God in his creation only spoke the words out, making the things that we see out of the things that are not visible, however he believed and had faith that what he has said cannot return to him void, and sooner or later, his spoken words became visible. He also made his son, Jesus Christ another example for us to learn from: Jesus did not enjoy anythong on earth here, but he enjoyed God, he lived his life enduring the mandate for which he came to earth for. Brother, suffering has an end, otherwise, you don’t need to endure –we are instructed to endure whatever suffering because it won’t last forever.

WHY DID JESUS ENDURED THE CROSS?

First, the cross Jesus endured was not the one the devil gave to him, (though the devil gave him a cross, he rejected it), the cross he endured was the one God gave to him, and that he carried. He endured that cross because he had faith (trust, rely, had confidence) in God.

Jesus, having confidence in God and the joy that was set before him endured the cross, the joy he had was the joy of his inheritance which he will receive after he overcame. The joy Jesus was promised is the same joy that was promised every of his followers who will also overcome. Jesus told us that if we suffer with him, we will reign with him. God will never put biblical faith to shame. But please, you have to overcome to be crowned; God has and will have a testimony about anyone, just like he testified about Enoch before he was translated. The testimony of God is greater than man’s, so He is the one you should rather please. I’m sure if the Pharisees’ were called to preach on Jesus’ funeral, they will call him a renegade, but that’s not the testimony of God concerning him, He says “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

There are things that goes beyond our level of comprehension, and that is why trials come our way; the testimony God boasted about Job caused him series of trials. But he lived to prove that he believed and had faith in God, not because of material things. And because he overcame, he became one of the clouds of witnesses.

All these men who were mentioned in Hebrew 11 were not the only men in their time, who were on earth following God, but these men are the ones that stood out as overcomers; it is an individual race, and you have a role to play in becoming an overcomer. Many left Egypt, but did not enter into the promise land; coming out of denomination is not all that matters, denomination must come out of you –enter the promise land –Holy Spirit! Until the word of God is controlling you, God cannot be pleased with you. Faith will make you hear, recognize and act upon the word of God. We disobey God because we don’t trust him. Faith is simple and faith is hard, but faith will make you an overcomer! God does not require so much from you, He only requires Faith from you. The 3000 people who were baptized into Christ on the day of Pentecost simply obeyed God because they had faith in his word, and thus obeyed his instruction. If you want to obey God, you have to disobey somebody!

You have to be careful because you can be overthrown: the evil, sin, character, level you have overcome can come back and overcome you, in such case, you are not standing, you denied God, and he cannot be pleased with you. How are you standing? Are you pleasing God? Yes, you have believed the doctrine of Jesus Christ, but the Bible also forewarned us to be mindful of the sins that easily beset us. The bible told us of women who refused to be delivered and was tormented to death. So much as the stories of the overcomers that were written for our examples, the bible also wrote to us about those who failed, so that we will not fall into the same mistake they fell into.

You and I are left with no excuse upon exploring what these great cloud of witnesses and what they did, regardless of whatever situation we are and what we’ve been, we have countless people who have been such and still overcame, and if these were written for our examples, then, we have to embrace what they did to also overcome. What did they do? They believed God, they obeyed his word. And if you do likewise, you will overcome; you cannot get revival outside the word of God, fasting doesn’t bring revival, if you want to have revival, return to the word of God, and obey its instructions. God bless you. Amen!