"Why are we sitting here until we die? This is what the four lepers said in 1 Kings chapter 7 when they felt that their life was hopeless. The resided in Samaria, which was not only besieged by the Syrians, but also the people were suffering starvation. They were boiling their own children for food.

"Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die? 'If we say, 'We will enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die'" (2 Kings 7:3,4)

The four walked out to the Syrian army's camp and found that the Lord had caused the Syrians to run for their lives based upon a "noise" that they had heard. The lepers had all they wanted to eat, and eventually called the people of Samaria out to share in the abundance of food left behind by the Syrian army.

You may be in oppressed circumstances. But you need to know that there is something you can do. First you need to know that the spiritual army that has besieged you is already defeated. Jesus defeated Satan at the Cross. Next you need to know that if you enter into the overcoming lifestyle that you will enter into the abundant life. As you walk and live this lifestyle, you will bring others into it just as the four lepers did.

The overcoming lifestyle is summarized in Revelation 12:11, which says, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11).

If you want to do something, read on!

 

"O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, And lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, Your gates of crystal, And all your walls of precious stones" (Isaiah 54:11,12).

Life has enough suffering to go around for everyone. If you are reading this book and are a believer in God through Jesus Christ, you are not exempt. You may be an atheist, an agnostic, or a strictly secular person. You may be an animist, worshipping ancestral spirits, or perhaps a practitioner of Voodoo, or one of the many New Age or Eastern religions. Perhaps you are a Buddhist, a Muslim, or a Hindu believer. None of us are exempt. Some of these belief systems have developed their own way to reconcile suffering.

Many of the ways we humans attempt to compensate for an imperfect life full of unmet expectations, broken marriages, failed business, unexpected tragedies and terminal diseases seem to work for a season. However, they are really just different degrees of bandages that cover a deep wound.

 

My wife and I have both faced horrible circumstances in life. In them we sought Jesus, the God of the Bible, through the Holy Spirit with intensity, total commitment and passion.

We noticed several things over the years.

1. The "junk" in our lives has always turned into "jewels." God show us that the eternal value in our overcoming process was far more valuable than our own personal victory.

2. With each trial we found ourselves becoming more intimate with the Living God.

3. God has given us eyes to look back and notice a path that became a familiar one. He has shown this path to us in the Scriptures as something that He calls "overcoming."

4. God considers our afflictions, sicknesses, poverty, etc. as a gateway to abundance, not as our final judgement, or our designated lot in life.

5. God has used the Book of Revelation to help us see things from His point of view. God told the apostle John in Revelation chapter 4 to "Come up here." When we allow God to lift us above circumstances and see things from His viewpoint, our circumstances can be used as seeds.

6. This path is based upon the principle of death and resurrection. Jesus, the perfect lamb sacrifice for your sins, suffered perfectly and completely for every evil in your life. Jesus took the ultimate evil that confronts you; therefore, by law, that evil must turn out to be a blessing (if you are on the overcoming path).

 

Resurrection always requires a death!

When the Bible talks about "death," it does not always refer to just the death of our body, as we commonly define the word. There are degrees of death; there are the sub-works of death. There is a death of the spirit and the soul. There are deaths of dreams, expectations, hopes, and deaths of our good health. There are deaths of relationships. We will call these "shades of death." It really does not matter whether or not you are responsible for your suffering. Sometimes we just are victims of living in an imperfect world.

Quite often people are born into a generational curse that comes down the family line from many generations, which makes them victims from the womb. You may not even know that you are a victim. You may feel that your afflictions are just the result of your own actions. It could be that your afflictions are the result of a spiritual curse passed down from your family. Maybe you are the victim of parents who did not show you love and perhaps have even rejected you. Perhaps you have tried hard at making life work, but everything just seems like you are "wrestling against a shadow."

Perhaps you are in a different category. Perhaps your overcoming has to do with your character, something from the old nature that still attempts to "hang on." Perhaps it is something like Paul experienced and described in Romans chapter 7, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (Romans 7:15).

You may have been born into some kind of shade of death. Perhaps you are living in a third world country where just existing is a difficult daily task. You may be facing starvation, unemployment, civil wars, filthy water, and homelessness. These are all shades of death and are all the result of thousands of years of Satan's work, and of man's work who is disconnected from his Creator. You did not choose where you would be born. You had no choice to be born the son of a queen or the son of a slave. But you do have a choice to do something positive with your circumstance, rather than to just sit and feel like a victim. I am not talking about positive thinking or some kind of self-improvement scheme. I am inviting you to tap into the power of the God who created the universe!

There is yet another way you may be experiencing afflictions. If you truly decide to live by faith in the Word of Jesus Christ, with no compromise, you will suffer persecutions and afflictions.

I challenge you with this question. Why should you be afraid to die, or experience some shade of death, if it is the first step to resurrection? "Resurrection," you might say, "I thought that was for Jesus and perhaps for me in the afterlife, after my body dies?" It is, but Jesus always taught that the Kingdom of God could be experienced here on Earth, in this life. So many people miss God's best because they refuse to embrace their afflictions as seeds. They insist on hanging on to their lower life. "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?'" (Luke 9:23-25).

 

Afflictions are seeds!

God set up several laws when He created the material universe, as we know it. A law is something that always works. He set up gravity, and it always works unless another law interferes. He set up the principle of seed, time, and harvest as stated in Genesis chapter 8:22, "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease." In the seed principle, He established that a seed must die in the ground before it produces much fruit. The fruit contains more seed, which, when planted also must die. So the process is, death first, life, or resurrection next. Jesus, referring to His crucifixion and resurrection said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24). If we look at our shades of death as seeds, then we can rejoice as the farmer who just planted a crop of corn and is anticipating life, or fruit, from the death of his seeds.

Looking deeper into this law, we see how God pre-planned a super abundant gift for mankind. He knew that Satan would bring death in all its forms. He knew that Satan would convince Adam and Eve, and you and me, to become disconnected from our Creator. Satan convinced the first couple, and billions of others, that they could live independent of God, His Word and obedience to it. "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

God, however, saw this in advance. He established the law of life from the dead and put it into operation before He ever created anything material. "…The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). God, in the form of His Son, had offered His very self as a blood covenant sacrificial offering in exchange for our sin, or to put it in simpler terms, for our independence from Him. He paid the price and absorbed each and every result of man's independence and/or sin. Romans 5:20 says, "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). The literal meaning of the words "abounded" and "abound" are, "before sin even was, grace was present waiting for it." God has prepared a landing pad for each of our infirmities.

Each result of our separation from God is some form of death, some shade of death. It can be called a curse instead of a blessing. However God did not stop there. Thousands of years after Adam, Jesus was born of a woman with God's Word acting as the male sperm. God was actually crucified in the material world. But He did not stay dead! Three days later he rose from the dead. God resurrected Jesus His son, thus defeating death, and every shade of death, including yours. What looked like the greatest tragedy turned out to be the greatest blessing! If Satan had known the end result, he would not have convinced the people to crucify Jesus.

If you feel or think that your affliction is not a candidate for this process, if you feel that somehow your situation is beyond God's ability or even His desire to work out for you, think about the resurrection and the miracle of it. Jesus was beaten to a point of being unrecognizable, His body was torn apart on the Cross, He died, He was wrapped in hundreds of pounds of cloth and ointment, He actually suffered in Hell. He was dead and in Hell. It looked hopeless. However when God spoke to Him, "…You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"? And again: 'I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son?" (Hebrews 1:5b), He was miraculously resurrected. Resurrected does not mean just brought back to life as was the case with Lazurus in John chapter 11. When Jesus was raised from the dead He was born all over again, a new species of being, a new creation the Bible calls it. Jesus died a man of our race, the race of Adam, and He was resurrected a new race, which you and I now partake of. So it is with our afflictions. We bury them as something corruptible, but they are resurrected into blessings and jewels for the New Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God.

God did not violate man's free will to rebel and not serve his creator, but He did provide a way to turn the disastrous results into a blessing! Jesus, as a perfect sinless man, suffered every kind of death and shade of death deserved by you and me, the most imperfect and rebellious men and women. If we accept this free gift, the divine exchange, then our "deaths" turn into resurrections of super-abundant proportions. Even our final death, the deaths of our bodies, propels us into the presence of God in Heaven, if we accept the exchange. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55 KJV).

Jesus took the very essence of your pain and suffering. He absorbed the cause and the result of it. Therefore, if you believe and cooperate with Him, He will transfer the benefits of His resurrection power to your present circumstances. He will deem your curse a seed. He will walk you through planting that seed, nurturing it, and with faith and patience hold your hand until that seed of death resurrects from the dead into a blessing that you cannot contain.

The seeds of afflictions will bear fruit.

The fruit will be luscious, and it will contain more seed for forming a new crop with which to bless others. "Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness" (2 Corinthians 9:10).

This process I just described is called overcoming, also called "turning junk into jewels." That is the subject of this book. We will go into more detail to help you step on to and stay on the overcoming path and lifestyle.

So why are you cursing your seed of pain, your disadvantage, your lack of opportunity, your sickness, loss of relationship, etc? Rejoice! Sure it came from Satan, but Satan has just provided your seed for a blessing. "…which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). Praising God for the victory and rejoicing while we are still in pain will give God more to work with.

 

Daniel.

One of the finest Scriptural examples I know of this kind of overcoming is contained in the Bible story of Daniel in the lion's den in Daniel chapter 6. Daniel was wholly following God and became persecuted by his enemies and God's enemies. Rather than being delivered from the lion's den, he overcame in the lion's den. The result was his enemies were totally defeated.

"At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land: 'May you prosper greatly! I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures for ever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.' So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian" (Daniel 6:24-28). I doubt that Daniel would have prospered, and that his enemies would have been defeated if he had not gone through the lion's den. Daniel turned his junk into jewels for God's Kingdom.

 

Overcoming is more than just making it.

I believe that overcoming is more than just making it through something difficult, although it includes that. I believe that overcoming is a vital process about which God wants His people educated. I believe a great deal of Scripture is about overcoming. I believe that only a Scriptural guided overcoming process can accomplish the work that is closest to God's heart. I believe that God wants His people to be intelligent about this process and not just achieve its benefits by accident.

I believe that God's main purpose for this book is to educate and encourage His people so that His purposes may be accomplished in Heaven and Earth. Secondly, I believe that God wishes to relieve much pain and suffering for the future generations, our children, and their children. I believe that God has rewards for overcomers both now and in eternity. I also believe that God may have drawn you to this book as a means of getting to know Him, perhaps for the very first time!

Overcoming accomplishes evangelism. It is a historic fact that the First Century church knew that for each martyr approximately 300 people were saved for Jesus. It is much the same today. When a person overcomes affliction he is a successful martyr for the Kingdom of God. A person does not need to be a martyr unto death, just a living sacrifice as Paul talked about in Romans chapter 12.

My wife and I believe that Jesus has been revealing to us the spiritual truth behind pain and suffering and it is our desire to share that with as many people as possible. Notice I said "truth." Truth is what will stand against all assaults. Truth will stand just as a scientific law will stand. I am not writing this in an arrogant attitude that only I have the truth, or that I have received some special revelation knowledge that no one else ever has. I am not saying that! My desire is to see others find the overcoming path that we have found and to walk it out in their lives.

I will attempt to write here only what is based upon Scripture. Even then, honest people will disagree. However, I will not write just about theory, but I will back up our personal experiences and encounters with God and circumstances with Scripture.

Perhaps you have never looked at Scripture the way you will read about it in this book. Perhaps it is because you have either not overcome as much as my wife and I have, or perhaps you have overcome much more than we have. Perhaps you have a much greater understanding about many things. However this I know. The same voice that spoke to me when I saw Jesus for the first time and was born from above on August 26th, 1979, is the same voice that has walked my wife and I through our overcoming. That is what I will write about here. I may not include all of the personal details of each situation and overcoming season, but I promise that everything that is written herein is based upon actual experience.

In 1979 I had a radical encounter with Jesus. Prior to that time my remedy for problems was to work hard, scrape, scramble, fight, manipulate and try as hard as I could to rise above them, and even to avoid them. What I could not conquer, I just buried deep down in my soul. I became a master of deceiving myself.

When God revealed Himself to me, I knew I had encountered the Living God. My son, who at that time was 18 years old, led me to believe in the Lord through a book by author Hal Lindsey titled, There is a New World Coming . It was an exposition of the book of Revelation showing it to be God's clock and prophetic picture of the end of human history. We read this book along with the Book of Revelation for four hours, after which I said, "Patrick, Jesus is alive, He is God, and this Bible is His Word!" I saw Jesus as the victorious one, I saw the Word of God as something I could depend upon, and I saw God as my father who would take over the rest of my life. The Holy Spirit came to dwell in me in a mighty radical way as I read, "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son" (Revelation 21:7).

I will always be grateful to my son and Hal Lindsey. I studied Revelation and most commentaries and books about it for almost two years. I thought I knew exactly how things would end. What it ended up showing me is that the Word of God can be trusted no matter what circumstances would come into my life. The Bible prophecies fulfilled to their exact descriptions and in many cases to their exact dates proved to me that the Bible was the trusted Word of God. I would need this for the trials that were on their way. Then God turned my interest to character change, and I studied the Word from that point of view.

Since that time God has ordained many afflictions in my life. Notice, I did not say that God has afflicted me, but He has allowed me to go through many things that were either the result of my own former lifestyle, my former generational curses, and even attacks from Satan and demonic forces. God does not afflict us, He is the one who delivers us. However, as I will expand in this book, He is not surprised by these afflictions and He turns them into blessings.

Sometime around 1986 as my wife and I were going through some very difficult circumstances, the Lord began to open the Book of Revelation up to me again, but this time in a current day devotional basis. He began to show me the Book as a script for what was happening in my current life. As I saw that, deliverance would come for our circumstances and overwhelming trials. Some of the most miraculous healings and deliverances for my family have been based upon "end time" Scriptures such as, "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation (meaning my generational curse) will by no means pass away till all things (meaning the tribulation in my life) take place" (Luke 21:32). Some of the afflictions had to do with life and death issues, others were business and financial.

As we discuss Revelation in this way, I am in no way saying that is it is not about end time history, I am just saying that it is not limited to that. Just to set the record straight, I do believe that much of the coming end time history is stored up in many Old and New Testament books and the Book of Revelation.

Because of the marvelous outcome for these very severe trials I began to discover the pattern and path of overcoming as emphasized in the work of the Cross of Jesus and in the Book of Revelation. Many times since then, 20 years as of the writing of this book, my wife and I have experienced overcoming in many others areas of our lives, and it has always been on the same path. That is the path we will write about in this book. We invite you to take your junk, step onto God's path, grab His hand and watch the jewels appear!

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11).

 

A devotion quoted from Streams in the Desert says it well.

"'I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel' (Isaiah 45:3).

Years ago, before the city of London had modern paved streets, the story is told of an incident in Ruskin's life. He was known during his lifetime for never having missed an opportunity to relate the goodness of his God. While walking down one of the streets of London with a friend, the friend turned and disgustingly commented to Ruskin, 'What dirty, dreadful loathsome stuff!' He was referring to the peculiarly unpleasant compound, the mud of London streets. 'Hold my friend,' said Ruskin. 'Not so dreadful after all. What are the elements of this revolting substance? First there is sand, but when its particles are crystallized according to the law of its nature, what is nicer than clean white sand? And when that which enters into it is arranged according to a still higher law, we have the matchless opal. What else have we in this mire? Clay. And the materials of clay, when the particles are arranged according to their higher laws, make the brilliant sapphire. What other ingredients enter into the London muck? Soot. And soot in its crystallized perfection forms the diamond. There is but one other, water. And water when distilled according to the higher law of its nature, forms the dewdrop resting in the exquisite perfection in the heart of the rose. So in the muddy, lost soul of man is hidden the image of his Creator, and God will do His best to find His opals, His sapphires, His diamonds and dewdrops.'" T.L Cuyler.

 

Help Wanted

Construction Workers

 

Limited number of positions open for the construction of New Jerusalem, a City designed by Jehovah God and being built by Jesus of Nazareth. Exceptional pay. The Master has a habit of paying for a full day in compensation for one hour of work. Fringe benefits include health insurance, retirement with full pay, protection in all forms of evil, need and want; free emotional and psychological counseling.

 

Job consists of using The Master's own tools and property to add several finishing sections to The City, called New Jerusalem.

 

Qualifications: Applicants must be willing to submit to being changed (during a probation period) from a foolish to a wise virgin in the context of Matthew chapter 25.

 

Warning-Disclosure: Many former applicants have been disappointed and quit during the probation period when they discovered that the Master's tools were their problems, perplexities, infirmities and handicaps which have been strained through The Master's Cross, washed and coated in His Blood disarmed and defused of all evil and their ability to harm, and converted to a highly valuable construction material known as jewels through an amazing but time proven process known as "overcoming." Many preferred to stay as foolish virgins and see these "tools" as enemies. When their Master returned at the end of the probation period, they did not even recognize Him.

 

After the conversion process from foolish to wise the few that made it discovered that they had been carrying around the most valuable raw material in the universe. When they plunged these problems into the Cross the very nature of these former problems had actually been changed from bitter to sweet, from enemy to friend, and their reward was beyond explanation. Some actually reported that they saw wolfs fellowshipping with lambs.

 

Interested parties should contact:

The Holy Spirit

larry chkoreff June 13, 1991