Overcomers are Self-denying Persons who are Properly Aggressive and Love God’s Presence

The way God selected the three hundred men with Gideon points to how God is selecting His overcomers; He is the One fighting for us, and He is looking for self-denying persons who are watching diligently for any attack of the enemy.

Amen, we want to be the Lord’s overcomers in this age! Gideon is a pattern of being an overcomer, and the way the three hundred men with him were chosen shows us how to be an overcomer.

May we be like Gideon and his three hundred men today so that God would have a way to defeat His enemy and head up all things in Christ!

One outstanding feature concerning Gideon was that he listened carefully to the Word of God. In those days the word of God was rare, just as in the days of Samuel.

When Samuel was a little boy, the word of God was rare; Samuel’s mother, Hannah, prayed desperately to God for a son, and the Lord gave her Samuel.

But Eli, the high priest in those days, did not have God’s speaking, neither did he care for the speaking of God. So he thought that Hannah, as she was pouring out her heart to the Lord, was a drunk person. Oh, Lord!

May we be those who are open to the Lord and who desire to hear His speaking, and may we listen carefully to God’s speaking.

These days the Lord’s word is not rare; the Lord speaks to us, and we need to have an ear to hear what the Spirit speaks to the churches.

The Lord may speak to us, but we need to listen; people around us may think they have the Word of God but they do not listen to His word, but we, on our side, need to listen attentively and carefully to the Lord’s word so that we may obey His word and be one with the Lord.

God reveals Himself to us by His word; He speaks His living word to us by our reading and praying over His word, and we can have His instant word by coming to His written Word.

The words that He speaks to us, that is, the words that we hear from Him and have our name written on them, these words are Spirit and are life. We want to have the Lord’s word every day, and we want to listen to His word, even obey His words.

May we be like Mary who, when was visited by the angel Gabriel with the news that she will be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah, said, May it be done to me according to God’s word.

Nothing is impossible to God; we may think being an overcomer in this age today is impossible, but with God nothing is possible.

May we just tell the Lord that we are willing, and may we have the attitude that we say Amen to what He wants to do – may it happen to us according to God’s word.

The Lord is speaking to us as the Spirit to the churches, and we need to have an ear to hear what He is speaking; He is calling for the overcomers, and we need to respond to Him, even say amen to His call for overcomers.

The Overcomers do not want to Glorify themselves, are not Fearful nor Afraid, but are Properly Aggressive

How the overcomers are selected is seen with the selection of the three hundred men with Gideon; by telling Gideon that he had too many people, God was indicating that He would fight for Israel.

The first selection in Judg. 7:1-2 resulted in twenty-two thousand people leaving.

Gideon blew the trumpet and thirty-two thousand men came to him to be the army of God.

However, God said that there are too many, for He said that, if Israel would win the battle, they would glorify themselves and not God, thinking that they delivered Israel from the enemy.

So God asked all those who are afraid or fearful to go home, and twenty-two thousand left.

Those who left wanted to glorify themselves. In John 5:41 and 44 the Lord Jesus told us that He did not receive glory from men; rather, He sought the glory of God, and He wanted God to be glorified.

All those around Him sought glory from men, especially as they did things for God and according to the Scriptures, but the Lord did not.

The overcomers do not want to glorify themselves; they do not seek their own glory, neither do they want to be recognized for what they do or can do.

How can those who receive glory from one another, not seeking the glory that is from the only God, how can such ones believe? How can such ones be overcomers? Oh, Lord!

Furthermore, those who left were fearful and afraid; Gideon asked that all those who are afraid would leave and go home, and twenty-two thousand left (Judg. 7:3). Oh, Lord!

How does this apply to us? We may not be fearful outwardly, but we may be fearful inwardly to use our talent, the talent that the Lord has given to us.

In Matt. 25:25 we see that the one who had only one talent went and buried it, and his reason for doing this was that he was afraid.

We should not be afraid of using our talent; rather, we should be positive and aggressive in using the Lord’s gift.

The Lord has given each one of us something of Himself. We need to be positive and aggressive to invest that talent in the Body or by preaching the gospel and ministering Christ to the saints.

We need to be positive and aggressive. The problem with us, however, is that many times we may be positive, but we are not aggressive; rather, we are positive but quite passive, and we don’t invest our talent.

At other times, however, we may be quite aggressive, but we may not be that positive or proper, so we do a lot of damage.

Many times those who function in the meetings are aggressive but not very proper, while those who are positive and proper are passive, not releasing their function.

May we forget about our feelings concerning ourselves and what our condition is, and may we forget about our perceived condition – may we simply use our talent for the Lord and speak the truth of God’s eternal economy!

Amen, may we be the overcomers of today who do not seek their own glory and are not fearful to use their talent, but seek the Lord’s glory and are properly aggressive to use our talent for the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we love You! Make us Your overcomers today. Save us from seeking our own glory; save us from trying to gain glory for ourselves. We come to You, dear Lord, and we give You all the glory. May You be glorified in us and through us, and may You gain all the glory. Amen, Lord, we just want to enjoy You, experience You, and minister You to others. Thank You for giving us something of Yourself for us to partake of, experience, and also minister to others. We want to be properly aggressive in following You and in functioning in the church and in the gospel so that You may be expressed and gain all the glory!

The Overcomers are Self-denying Persons who are Absolute for God’s Glory, Loving His Presence

The second selection of the three hundred men with Gideon shows us something quite important. Gideon was left with ten thousand men, and God told him that he still had too many; so God asked Gideon to take them to the water, and there He will choose.

When the men reached the water, they drank in two different ways: some put down all their gear and luggage and freely drank from the water, lowering their head to drink, while others took water in their hands to their mouth and lapped the water from their hands (Judg. 7:4-6).

First of all, by telling Gideon that he had too many people with him, God indicated that it was Him who fought for them; it wasn’t the size of Israel’s army that determined the outcome of the battle but God being with them.

Those who drank directly with their mouth from the water were eliminated by God, for they were not qualified to fight for Him.

Those who drank by bringing water in their hand to their mouth were selected by God because they were self-denying persons.

By drinking in this way, they were able to watch diligently for any attack by the enemy. Such ones were vigilant, on guard, ready for battle, even though they were thirsty and were drinking water.

The Lord is looking for such overcomers today, those who do not love themselves but are self-denying persons.

This means that, if we have the chance to indulge ourselves but do not do it for the sake of the Lord, we deny the self and allow the cross to operate.

Such self-denying persons who are dealt with by the cross sacrifice their personal rest and comfort for the sake of God’s purpose in the day of His warfare (Psa. 110:3).

The overcomers realize that today is the day of God’s warfare, and He is calling His overcomers who deny themselves, allow the cross to operate, and do not seek their own interest and comfort.

This may entail enduring suffering, and this suffering is not mainly material but in the soul and in the spirit.

We do need to “drink from the water” just like the others, that is, we need to have this and that thing, go to work and do our chores and take care of the details of our human living, but we are vigilant, being self-denying persons.

Others drink freely from what the world has to offer – they put down all their arms and luggage, and drink freely; we, however, even though we have the chance to indulge ourselves, do not do it but rather, we allow the cross to operate in us.

In the day of the Lord’s warfare, we learn to deny ourselves and put aside our interest, and we join ourselves to the Lord and are one with Him for Him to display His victory.

The Lord Jesus is the only self-denying person; in ourselves we are not such ones, but in our spirit, we have a self-denying One!

Hallelujah, when we exercise our spirit and touch the Spirit, that Spirit in us denies the self. It is not us who try really hard to deny the self; it is the Spirit who applies the cross to the self so that we may be one with God.

The Lord Jesus, who was perfect in His humanity, rejected Himself and denied Himself to live out the life of the Father. Such a One now lives in us.

The One who denies Himself lives in our spirit, and when we turn to our spirit and live in spirit, He is the self-denying One in us.

The overcomers are absolute for God’s glory and are afraid of nothing except offending the Lord and losing His presence (Exo. 33:14-16).

The overcomers allow the cross to deal with the self (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14; Rom. 6:23; Gal. 2:20) and are self-denying persons because the One who denies the self lives in them and through them.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to be one with You, the self-denying One in our spirit. We come to You, again and again, dear Lord, to be infused with You and filled with You until You are the One who lives in us. We acknowledge that in ourselves we cannot deny the self, neither do we want to. We come to You, Lord, and we desire to have Your presence with us all the time. Make us Your overcomers today, the self-denying persons who do not indulge ourselves. We want to live one spirit with You, the self-denying One in our spirit. We dear losing Your presence and we do not want to offend You. We love You, Lord, and we give ourselves to You, to be one with You in the day of Your warfare, in the splendour of our consecration!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, pp. 772-774, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 8, The Intrinsic Significance of Gideon as God’s Valiant Warrior.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – By the cross discern the spirit, / Put the soul to death alway; / Bear the cross, deny the self-life, / Walk in spirit day by day. (Hymns #748)
  – Lord Jesus, I long in Thy presence to live, / From morning to evening my one world Thou art; / O let not my heart be contented or rest / When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part. (Hymns #389)
  – Overcomers Christ will take, / Those who all for Him forsake, / Those who of first love partake— / Win in time! / All the deadness overcome, / With the living Christ be one, / Toward the goal now swiftly run— / Win in time! (Hymns #1304)