RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

There’s an interesting principle of life: Victory produces more victory, and defeat produces greater defeat. Unless the cycle is broken, it’s a fact of life. Success births greater success, and failure births more failure. But in the Christian life, the cycle of failure and defeat can be halted by the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer. He can give us victory — over any patterns we have developed.
There’s a reason in the Christian life that victory produces greater victories. Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21 kjv). When we walk in obedience to God, Jesus promises to manifest Himself to us. This manifest presence of Jesus enables us to overcome sin in our lives. Jesus is our victory. So the more we obey Him, the more we experience His manifest presence. And the more we experience His presence, the more we are empowered to do His will. What a wonderful cycle in which we can live!
Every step of obedience to God produces fruit in our lives. That’s why the Scriptures say we live from faith to faith and glory to glory (Romans 1:17; 2 Corinthians 3:18). One step of obedience leads to another. After walking up a number of those steps, we find ourselves on a higher level in our relationship with Christ. We go from one level of faith to another. We experience one level of God’s glory — and are enabled to go on to another. That makes the Christian life an ongoing adventure with Christ.
When I first became a Christian, I was thrilled with the fullness of walking with Christ. I remember thinking, It just can’t get any better than this. Yet it has gotten better. I told my wife before we were married, “I can’t promise you that we will ever be rich, but I promise you this: life won’t be boring.” And it definitely hasn’t been! I’m writing this on a plane flying toward the Amazon region in Brazil to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ! I had no clue what God would do with my life during all these decades of walking with Jesus. It just keeps getting better — and better. Victory begets victory!
But you may be asking, “What if a person is in the opposite cycle; what does he do? Defeat produces more defeat. Is that person doomed to failure?” This is the great thing about the Christian life. No matter how defeated a person has been, Christ can change that life at any moment. The grace of God is greater than the worst of sin. The cycle can be changed. The believer in Christ has every resource needed to overcome the most terrible cycles in their life. The Holy Spirit dwells deep within our hearts to empower us to become like Christ.
We must confess our sins and truly repent of them. The blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us from all unrighteousness — no matter how bad our sins may seem. Once we have confessed and are clean, we can appropriate by faith the Holy Spirit to empower us to walk in obedience to the Word of God.
We take each act of obedience one step at a time. Before long, we find ourselves on a new cycle: one of victory. Victory leads to victory. That’s why Paul wrote that “we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Begin the cycle of victory today. Take it one step at a time. You’ll find yourself going from victory to victory, faith to faith, and glory to glory!