The mother of Samuel, the first great prophet, prayed, “ I overcome my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory.” At the start of this great prophet’s life, a mother is rejoicing in her victory. This is the secret of overcoming–to rejoice that He has already done it. Not only does this engage faith, it also declares truth. This was before Samuel her son was even born. We declare victory before experiencing it! So that it becomes clear to all the guard, that it is His cross which wins–it is God who overcomes, and waits for us to claim it!
It is not just that praise lifts us into the heavens by spiritual law; it is that God has already overcome all the areas of stress and turmoil in our lives by His Son’s death. We claim it by rejoicing in it, or as the old folks used to say, by “reckonin it so”. When we reckon that what God says is true, we start to experience it as true. It is true, of course, even before we experience it, but as people, we like and need to experience the actual practical overcoming of Christ.
The way into victory is always death. By death, I mean death to ourselves thinking we can, in our own power, overcome anything! We simply cannot. A key to spiritual growth is starting in this place of death in each area, then going on to His resurrection. We must pass through the deaths of the Jordan to enter the promises of our lands! As the Jordan river was a type of Jesus death, it was also a type of His resurrection–as the waters of the Jordan were rolled back all the way to the city of Adam when the people crossed over! We, too, will see the waters of death rolled back when we enter this baptism of death and ressurrection experientially through our faith in the power of His Cross.
The key is that he had the priest and Judahites singing praises–they were already rejoicing in the crossed over state, before they got there! That is hannah’s secret as well. When we need to cross over, we are to enter the jordan and rejoice–that is the way to overcome pornography, greed, fears, self hatred and on and on. Jesus has rolled back the waters through His cross, but we must rejoice. That is our mitzpah or command in the Spirit–to rejoice, to reckon it done by Christ!
