The apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth concerning what is expected of one who would seek to be a witness to faith in Jesus Christ in this world. We read on in his second letter in chapter 4, verses 8-10:  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; If one ever was to imagine that living as an empowered Christian would be easy, there will be opportunities to rethink that.

The enemy of God does not want for any of us to be empowered by anything at all—let alone the Spirit of God. Therefore he can be expected to press, to perplex, to persecute, and to strike down those who would serve the living God:  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. But the solid promise of God is that he will be with us in these times, and he will deliver us from the enemy’s influence.

It is directly because of the victory of our Lord over Satan that we are able to stand firm in all of those times of difficulty:  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, The death of Jesus on the cross was not his defeat at the hands of Satan, but the victory of our God over the worst that this enemy had to offer. It is in dying to self that one is enabled to be raised up for service to our God in ministering life to all.

Our singular goal is to reveal the victorious glory of our resurrected Lord:  so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. His death makes possible our life, and we are to be committed to sharing that victory with each and all we meet. The enemy can throw anything and everything at us, but he can never defeat us if we will remain under the banner of Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and our Lord. YES!