In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: If Jesus Christ the triumphant one is living within you today, what can conquer you without your consent? Nothing. If it can’t conquer him who lives within you, it can’t conquer you. Listen, we cannot be conquered because he says Christ has become our life. We are conquerors. I can only be conquered when I choose to believe what Satan says about me. Then I'm going down in defeat.

Guest (Male): Are troubles pressing in on you so much that you feel defeated and broken? Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, you’ll hear an encouraging message from Romans chapter 8. Learn about how it’s possible to live above your circumstances. Here’s part two of "Out of This Wreck, I Rise." Let’s listen in to Dr. Stanley’s message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: When your best plans get halted, and you get derailed and set on the highway side over here, when your dreams get shattered and your plans come to a screeching halt, what is your reaction? Is it to blame God? Is it to look for someone else to blame? Or do you respond the way a believer should respond according to the scriptures?

The man who wrote this, the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was certainly not a novice to hard times and difficulties and heartaches. But what he’s written in this eighth chapter here, he knew by experience was the truth. It had been tested and tried. He knew it to be the eternal truth.

And so when he wrote in this 37th verse, "but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us," here is a man who is speaking out of the testimony and the witness of his own life. He knows what he’s saying to be true. Now, when you and I think about the things that we go through, the difficulties and the hardships that you’ve faced in life and the things that people face every day, what is our response to be?

Are we to mature in that situation or to fight back at our circumstances? Are we to try to remove the circumstances or to ask God, "Lord, what are you saying to me in these circumstances?" Listen, this is always the proper question. Whatever your circumstance and whatever your situation, the proper question is, "God, what are you saying to me?"

He never loses an opportunity to teach us something, to stretch us a little bit further, to grow us up a little bit more, to mature us. He never overlooks a single situation of testing and trial, tribulation and temptation, to teach us something that he knows we need to know, which will shape us and conform us into his likeness.

I want us to look for just a moment at that word "conquer." Because he’s talking about here, having looked at the circumstance, here is a tremendous comforting promise from God. Listen to what he says: "In all these things we are overwhelming conquerors through these things." Look at the word "conquer" there. It is the word in the Greek *nikao* which means to conquer or to be victorious.

But this Greek word here is *hypernikao* which means to over-conquer. That word in essence means a super conqueror. And here’s what Paul is saying. In all of these things—what things? All of our circumstances: tribulations, distresses, persecutions, famine, nakedness, peril, sword—he said in all of these things, we overwhelmingly—that is, we are super conquerors—we do overcome.

We are overcomers of all of these things through him, that is, through the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us. Now, what is the basis of our saying that even in the midst of these difficulties and heartaches that we’re super conquerors? How can we honestly say that, and especially if you happen to be one of those persons who’s really going through difficulty and heartache?

I mean the bottom’s dropped out, the top’s caved in, and every piece of your life is unraveling. You’re just sort of wobbling through life and don’t have any earthly idea how you’re going to get out. My friend, I know that some of you are suffering and you’re suffering deep down inside. The pain is becoming more and more intense. The fears are increasing, and the frustration is increasing.

The anxieties are on the increase, and you’re thinking, "My God, my God, what in this world am I going to do?" Now, listen to me. Listen to the basis upon which God has said you, my friend, are an overwhelming conqueror. What is the basis? The basis first is found right here in this 37th verse: "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him," Christ, "who loved us."

Now, watch this. When you were saved, the Bible says the Holy Spirit came into your life and sealed you as a child of God. And Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you." Who is living within you today? Who? Jesus Christ. Now, let me ask you a question. What was the most crucial test in the life of Jesus as to whether he was really who he said he was or not? What was it?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ validated everything he said. It was the most crucial test, if he were truly the person he said he was. Now, listen. This resurrected Christ has determined to live his life in and through me, in through you. The Bible says Christ is our life. Let me ask you a question. If Jesus Christ the triumphant one is living within you today, what can conquer you without your consent?

Nothing. If it can’t conquer him who lives within you, it can’t conquer you. Listen, we cannot be conquered because he says Christ has become our life. We are conquerors. I can only be conquered when I choose to believe what Satan says about me. Then I'm going down in defeat. But as long as I’m willing to believe what Almighty God said about me, there is absolutely no ultimate defeat.

And it's based on our relationship to Christ. So first of all, the confidence that we have that we can come through these circumstances victoriously and triumphantly is the fact that it is based on a genuine, personal, eternal, unchanging, unalterable relationship that you and I have with Jesus Christ who lives within us. I can tell you something as exciting as that.

Look at this next part. If you’ll notice here in beginning in verse 31, the questions that Paul asks here. And he asks questions and the answer to all of them is the same. Look in verse 31. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? That means, who can be against us successfully? And the answer is no one.

Verse 33. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. No one can rightly bring a charge of condemnation against one who has been declared righteous and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which every believer has. Verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? No one. No thing.

And that's what he spends the rest of that chapter talking about. So he asks these questions. Now, here’s what I want you to see. This is so exciting. Watch this. Here you are in the midst of one of these pressurized situations. Whatever it may be. I mean, you’re really feeling the pressure and you’re getting it from all sides and you don’t have any idea in the world what to do.

You think, "What am I going to do?" Listen. What am I going to do? That is never the question. Listen. Now, if you’re lost, my friend, and you’re not saved, you never trusted Jesus as your Savior, that’s the only thing you can ask. "Oh, what am I going to do?" Because, friend, you’re all alone. If you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, you can’t call on him.

Unless you want to call on him in confession and repentance of your sins and trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you may call on him for some other things, but until then you can’t call on him for anything. So what is your question? "Oh, what am I going to do?" Listen. God’s people should never ask "What am I going to do?" because you’ve already turned your life over to Jesus Christ. It isn't what you're going to do, but what somebody else is going to do.

Now watch this. This is exciting. Listen. Every time you get in trouble and the bottom drops out and all the sides start caving in on you, here’s what you must remember. The question is not "What am I going to do?" The question is, "Holy Spirit, my helper, what are you going to do? God the Father, who said that nobody can be against me successfully, but you have freely given me all things by giving me Jesus Christ, what are you going to do?"

"Lord Jesus, you said you are seated at the Father’s right hand, what are you going to do?" Listen, friend, if those three can’t handle your problem, you’re sunk. And the Bible says that’s what you and I have. We have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, they’re on our team. They’re on our side.

So when God allows us to be put into some circumstance or we get ourselves in a mess, and we’re God’s children, we have the privilege of calling upon God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, who are on our team. The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the one who walks beside, God’s helper he sent to help us. The Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the Father’s right hand to make intercession for us.

God the Father, who says he’s—listen—freely he says he’s given us what? All things. The question isn't, "Oh God, what am I going to do?" but "Oh God, how exciting, what are you three going to do about my circumstance?" Now, there’s a lot of difference in thinking about what I’m going to do about them. If it'll encourage you, ask them what they’re going to do.

Not him, what he’s going to do. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, what are you all going to do about my mess? And what does he say? He says we are super conquerors. He says we overwhelmingly conquer. Why? We overwhelmingly conquer, listen, not mind over matter. Not just psyching myself up to do better, but listen.

Because there are some situations, friend, when you get pinned to the wall, you can psych yourself all you choose and nothing’s going to happen. It is when God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit releases their supernatural power in your circumstance, then you have within you the supernatural conquering power to make you become the person God wants you to be right in the middle of the most painful circumstance of life.

How in the world can you and I go down in defeat and give up when we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit working in and through our lives? Let me ask you something. Can you name anything? That’s what Paul says. Can you name—listen—can you name anything? I mean anything, anywhere, anytime, and any circumstance that can defeat God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit who’s living within you?

What that means is this. Whatever’s coming towards you, it'll never get to you until first of all it hits God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. Now, if God chooses to let something get to you, what does that mean? It means that he’s just getting ready to bless you. It may be one of those painful blessings, hard blessings, difficult blessings, but he’s going to bless.

And what we must do is always look to see: God, what are you going to do in this circumstance? Number two, what are you seeking to teach me? And Lord, how do you want me to come through this? And God always wants us to come through triumphantly because that is exactly what he says we are. He says we’re not victims of our circumstances, but we are victors.

He says we’re not the conquered foe, we are the conquerors. Now, if I don’t believe what God says, I’m going to ask what Satan wants me to ask. And what does Satan want me to ask? "Oh, what am I going to do?" Paul says, "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me," because my relationship with him has tuned me into God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit.

And those three persons of the Trinity are on my side. I’m on their side. They’re the ones who are my strength. And whatever I need, they have already provided. Listen to what Paul says. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has already deposited to your account in the heavenly places all things that you will ever need.

My friend, if you’re a walking, defeated believer, you are walking in defeat today because you have chosen to believe the devil’s lie rather than God. God the Father says you are a super conqueror. You say, "But now wait a minute, I believe that but I don’t have that in my life." But I’m coming to that in just a minute.

Because there’s one other thing I want you to notice here. The basis of our being conquerors is first of all our personal relationship to Jesus Christ in salvation, then the fact God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the whole Trinity, the whole Trinity—listen—that is the sovereign Godhead of all things of all time, for all eternity past, present, and future.

The eternal Godhead is on your side. Listen, I don’t care what your circumstance, they are on your side. There’s one other thing here. Listen to what he says. He says in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Verse 39, he says these things can't separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now listen. God’s love knows no boundaries.

God’s love is unconditional. You know what that means? He loves you just the way you are, regardless of the way you are. His love is unconditional. It’s unlimited. It’s unalterable. It’s unchanging. And there are not enough words in the English language or all other languages together to describe the matchless, incomparable, unchanging, unalterable, unconditional love of Almighty God for you and me.

Listen. You know what he’s saying? He’s saying tribulation, distresses, nakedness, peril, famine, and so on. He says these things can’t do what? They can't separate you from the love of God. Now watch. Friend, you may be in a situation or circumstance and you feel like that you’re really going down. You think, "What am I going to do?"

Let me tell you one thing. Regardless of how low you go, you’ll never get so low to be beyond the reach of the love of God for you. I don’t care how much you complain, how far down you get, how despairing and disillusioned life may be, you’ll never get beneath the everlasting arms of a loving Father who says that nothing under God’s heaven, on the other side, inside out, could ever separate you from the love of God.

Tell me something more motivating than to know that somebody loves you. A girl thinks her husband thinks she’s the sweetest thing on earth and the greatest thing God ever made. You don’t think that doesn’t motivate her? If a man thinks his wife thinks that he’s the greatest guy God ever made, you don’t think that motivates him? What about the love of God?

Shouldn’t that motivate us? Listen, motivate us to do what? To stand up in the midst of our circumstances and say, "Thank God! Praise be unto God! I am the recipient of the unconditional love of a gracious, loving God who loves me in my circumstances, loves me out. Loves me when I got myself in it, loves me when he put me in there." But the love is unchanged. We don’t have to give in.

We don’t have to give up. We don’t have to despair. But I must ask the right question. And the right question is not "What am I going to do?" but "God the Father, what are you going to do? You’ve given me all things. God the Son, you’re interceding at the Father’s right hand. Holy Spirit, what are you going to do? You’re my helper. What are you going to do in my behalf in my given situation?"

I’ll tell you one thing. Almighty God the Father, Almighty God the Son, and Almighty God the Spirit have never responded to you and me except in pure, unconditional love. Isn't that great? That’s the only way they respond. It's the only way they can respond. We’re their children. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, they’re on your side.

Now the question is, how do I get this in a practical way into my life? I want to show you something real simple. First John chapter 5. First John chapter 5, and here’s that same old Greek word again. And the root word of this word is *Nike*, that means a victorious one, conqueror. Chapter 5 of First John and verse 4. Now, watch this.

Whatever is born of God overcomes—*nikao*, the same Greek word—overcomes, conquers the world. You know what that means? The whole system. Not talking about just dirt, the whole world system. That is, because we’re the children of God, he says, listen. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And listen. This is the victory.

What’s the victory? This is the victory that’s overcome the world. And the one thing you and I have to do to become conquerors is what? The last word in that verse: believe God. Listen. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Now, listen to me. I’ve said it about at least ten times in this message.

The question is not "What am I going to do?" but "God, what are you going to do?" What is it that makes it possible for me to be a conqueror in the deepest, darkest valleys I have to walk, in the highest, most treacherous peaks we have to climb? What is it that makes us victor, conqueror, victorious, triumphant?

Simply this: that I exercise trust in the Lord God Almighty through my relationship to Jesus Christ, that what he said about me is true. That’s what makes you a conqueror. Isn't that simple? What does it take to make you a conqueror? What is it that overcomes the world? Even our faith.

Now listen. You want to come through your present discouraging, despairing situation, you want to come through that victorious, having learned, become deepened, matured, strengthened, joyous, excited about what you’re learning about God? What do you have to do? You have to simply say this: Lord Jesus, I’m trusting you, what you said about me, who I am, who you are, and what you promised to do for me in my circumstance.

Christ Jesus, who’s living within you, is the super conqueror. And as I trust him through my circumstance, we together become the super conquerors. You can conquer whatever you think is about to conquer you, if you’re willing to trust him and believe about yourself what he said about you.

Guest (Male): Christians navigate difficulties through faith in Jesus Christ. As you heard today on In Touch, God promises to be with you and to sustain you through anything that comes your way. Maybe you don’t understand why you’re experiencing the problems you’re facing right now, but if you visit us at intouch.org, you’ll find refreshing biblical perspectives and you can also review what you heard today by following the link to Today on Radio.

Connect to our online bookstore and you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley’s complete message, "Out of This Wreck, I Rise." Again, log on to intouch.org or call or text us at 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, P.O. Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia, 30357. How do you stay positive in negative circumstances? Well, the Apostle Paul provides an example in today’s Moment with Charles Stanley, coming up.

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You’re listening to In Touch. Thinking correctly is important when it comes to overcoming difficulty, but it’s not merely mind over matter. It’s truth over lies. Here’s a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Think about the Apostle Paul, how many times he went through difficulty and heartache: stoned, beaten, in the stocks there in Philippi. And what was he doing? Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail weren’t wiping each other’s tears, their hands and feet were in the stock. The Bible says they began to sing.

What were they singing about? They were singing about the fact that the God who was in them would conquer their circumstance. They didn’t see themselves the victims. They didn’t see themselves as prisoners. Listen, those two men locked in the stocks of a Philippian jail were far more free than the jailer himself who had the keys in his hand.

And there are people today who are physically imprisoned who are far more free than those people who are walking the streets, because they know who they are from God’s point of view. Listen to Paul. Does this sound like a man who’s struggling and fretting and just going to make it through life? He says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

He says, "I thank God. I thank God that in Christ Jesus, he always causes us to triumph." That is, always causes us to be not a victim, but a victor over our circumstance. Now why is it that Paul could say that? That in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through the Lord Jesus Christ? Because he knew who he was.

Now listen. When circumstances begin to buffet you and you begin to be pushed and the winds of life begin to blow against you and the hail begins to beat against you and you feel yourself being crowded into an impossible situation, you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen to your life. What is your response?

Is your response to believe what Satan says? What does Satan say? He says, "See there? You're weak. You call yourself a Christian. You think you’re somebody, you’re a nobody." And we have to decide right then and there what we’re going to do. Am I going to believe what Almighty God said about me? Am I going to believe what the devil say?

Guest (Male): Once you receive the forgiveness Jesus offers, you can rest in his strength. Learn more about becoming a Christian at intouch.org. And if today’s program motivated you to get to know Jesus a little bit better, we’d love to hear about that. Tomorrow on In Touch, if you’re a believer, you have the life of God in you. But no human can live that life in their own strength. So find out about your helper, the Holy Spirit, Wednesday on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station by the grace of God and through your faithful prayers and gifts.