Page 81 - The Mark of the Beast

The Mark of the Overcomers

s you have read this book with its focus upon God’s command for men and women to
Asubdue and rule over the beast nature, you may have considered your own life and the
struggles that you have known within your own body as the flesh and the spirit have warred
one against the other. Most people, myself included, have had certain areas that they have
struggled with for years. For one person it might be an independence in the spending of
their money. For another it may be a problem with lust. Yet another may struggle with
anger, and another with a critical spirit. Perhaps you have struggled with a tendency to
gossip, or a rebellious attitude, or with jealousy, covetousness, or envy.
In my own life I have seen victory in a number of areas, but there are still some
strongholds to be pulled down. As you have read this book, perhaps you have thought of
some area in your own life that you have experienced conviction in time after time, and you
have desired the victory, but you have found yourself coming back to God repeatedly to
confess your transgression and to ask for His forgiveness once again. You may have even
come to doubt that victory is an attainable goal while you are still clothed in this sinful flesh.
I want to encourage you by saying that complete victory is attainable. Every fleshly
impulse can be conquered, every stronghold can be brought down, and you can attain
conformity to the image of God in your life. Though you may not see any examples of men
or women today that have reached this place of conformity, this crucified life of complete
surrender to the will of God, and though the majority of ministers may tell you that such
a hope is a vain dream, let God be true and every man a liar. God has said that He will have
men and women in His image, and He will accomplish what He set out to do. He will finish
the work that He has begun.
God never asks men or women to do that which is impossible. Where He commands
obedience He will give sufficient grace to obey. Since God has commanded men and women
to subdue and rule over the beasts, we must agree that it is possible to obey God. Through
His Son, Yahweh has made a way for all men and women to attain to the high calling of
God. What sinful man could not do because of the weakness of the flesh, God did in sending
His Son to condemn sin in the flesh. The Scriptures declare that the power of sin has been
broken and those who have been immersed into Christ Yahshua have been freed from sin.
The saints are now able to present their members as slaves to righteousness. He whom the
Son has set free is free indeed.
Satan works to keep Christians in bondage through the power of deception. Many have
been deceived regarding God’s will for them to rule over the Adamic nature. They do not
discern that the cross of Christ changed things in a very fundamental way. They may believe
that they now have forgiveness for their sins, while not believing that they have power over
sin. The Scriptures testify that the saints have both.

Romans 6:5-7
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we
shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was
crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that
we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.