Whatsoever is born of God.

1 John 5:4 (NKJV) FOR WHATEVER IS BORN OF GOD OVERCOMES THE WORLD. And this is the victory that has overcome the worldour faith. I don't think there is anyone in the world who doesn't love the feeling of victory, the feeling of overcoming whatever thing it may be that one has to overcome; there is not a feeling as sweet to the soul as victory, Solomon says "THE DESIRE ACCOMPLISHED IS SWEET TO THE SOUL..."(Proverbs 13:19). The opening scripture is one of those most powerful verses in the bible that gives us a way forward in our thinking, it is as though its a spiritual law that God placed in the Spirit, and it remains "whatever is born of God overcomes the world." It is safe to say that there are no contradictions to such a law; if anything is born of God it overcomes the world. The bible says "by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, SO THAT THE THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN WERE NOT MADE OF THINGS WHICH ARE VISIBLE."(Hebrews 11:3), which lets us know that the creation was under the influence of the realm of the Spirit, whereby the physical was made with the invisible. To this day that hasn't changed because the course of this life is still greatly influenced by the spiritual realm, Paul talks of those who can't seem to grasp the concept of this great salvation as those "whose MINDS THE GOD OF THIS AGE HAS BLINDED, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."(2 Corinthians 4:4) - He reveals to us that their resistance to the gospel is due to a blinding influence on their minds from the god of this world, Satan. The same Paul says to the Ephesians about their former conduct of sin in the world "and you He made alive, who were dead IN TRESPASSES AND SINS IN WHICH YOU ONCE WALKED ACCORDING TO THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD, ACCORDING TO THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR, THE SPIRIT WHO NOW WORKS IN THE SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE."(Ephesians 2:1-2) - he alerts us that while we were still in sin we were under the influence of the prince of the power of the air, which is a spirit who even now is at work in the lives of the disobedient, which are sinners and he mentions that the whole world of sin is under the power of that spirits influence. There is also David who was influenced by Satan to number the children of Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1) and also Judas whom Satan caused to betray the Lord (John 13:2). The spirit world has a great influence on the natural world to such an extent that there is nothing that happens in the natural world unless it has been predetermined in the spirit world. Sometimes we wonder where people get such wicked ideas from, what is the inspiration behind their thoughts. Every living soul receives inspiration from some place, as a friend of mine likes to say "a soul derives things from some place in the spirit" , one of these days we will share about the thought realm and why it was so important for Paul to say to the Philippians "WHATEVER IS TRUE, WHATEVER IS NOBLE, WHATEVER IS RIGHT, WHATEVER IS PURE, WHATEVER IS LOVELY, WHATEVER IS ADMIRABLE--IF ANYTHING IS EXCELLENT OR PRAISEWORTHY--THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS."(Philippians 4:8). The bible says "now by the time of supper, THE DEVIL HAD ALREADY PUT IT INTO THE HEART OF JUDAS, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray Jesus."(John 13:2), imagine the thoughts of Judas' heart at this point, his mind was dominated by the idea of how he would betray the Lord and because of his

regret afterwards it is clear to us that the idea didn't originate from him but from somewhere else. The reason for us to discuss all these things was so that we can see how the spirit world influences the natural world, now if the realm of darkness can influence the natural world so much how much more the realm of Light? - and that is where we need to go to. John says "WHATEVER IS BORN OF GOD OVERCOMES THE WORLD..." and not "WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD OVERCOMES THE WORLD...", (even though most times we understand it that way - I guess since Paul says we are a new creation we don't really fall under the "who" category but the "what") indicating to us that there are other things that God can give birth to. For instance the creation was God's baby, it is what God brought forth, it is what He gave birth to and we are part of that creation. However there are ideas that God gives to His children by means of influence and inspiration and those ideas can be considered to be "born of God". Now he says whatever that thing is or those ideas are they overcome the world, in other words they can't fail in the world . Have you ever experienced having godly ideas? Those ideas are not from men's thinking or our Christians way of thinking or men's wisdom they are given to us by the Spirit of God. There is a certain Mary in the bible that Jesus loved and the bible says "meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, A WOMAN CAME IN WITH A BEAUTIFUL ALABASTER JAR OF EXPENSIVE PERFUME MADE FROM ESSENCE OF NARD. SHE BROKE OPEN THE JAR AND POURED THE PERFUME OVER HIS HEAD."(Mark 14:3), this very woman was Mary since the bible says "THIS MARY, WHOSE BROTHER LAZARUS NOW LAY SICK, WAS THE SAME ONE WHO POURED PERFUME ON THE LORD AND WIPED HIS FEET WITH HER HAIR."(John 11:2) - She received an idea from God that she should anoint Jesus and Jesus responds to her actions by saying "when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial."(Matthew 26:13), then this comes from Jesus "truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."(Matthew 26:14) O how wonderful it is to move in God's ideas and in God's voice - Imagine such great glory because she moved in the idea of God given to her, even to this day she is remembered for that idea. However she did face discouragement of some sort, even from the disciples as they said Why this waste? It could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor.(Matthew 26:8-9). Truth be told, there is no idea that God will give you that the devil will not try to discourage you in, Satan can even use people close to you to discourage you, the bible lets us know that even Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in Him (John 7:5). If we think that everyone is going support our God-given ideas and visions we are wrong, we need faith to become victorious over discouragement and doubt even John says "and this is the victory that has overcome the worldour faith." - Our faith is our victory; no one will ever win without it. Nehemiah is one extraordinary man who listened to the voice of God, obeyed and as a result moved in the ideas of God, he says something like this "then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I TOLD NO ONE WHAT MY GOD HAD PUT IN MY HEART TO DO AT JERUSALEM; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode."(Nehemiah 2:12) - Nehemiah did what we constantly fail to do because of doubt, and that is to acknowledge that it is God who puts it in our hearts to do things, and if something is born of God it proves itself true by the great amount of opposition it receives. For instance even in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah and his cohorts there were men who wanted to create confusion and discouragement, the bible says "now it happened, when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard

that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, AND ALL OF THEM CONSPIRED TOGETHER TO COME AND ATTACK JERUSALEM AND CREATE CONFUSION."(Nehemiah 4:7-8). Satan will always make you see the area of the idea that looks impossible to achieve and the amount of work you still have to do to discourage you, we see this in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem when the bible says "Then Judah said, THE STRENGTH OF THE LABORERS IS FAILING, AND THERE IS SO MUCH RUBBISH THAT WE ARE NOT ABLE TO BUILD THE WALL.(Nehemiah 4:10) but one shouldn't give up, one must believe God at all times, and the words of the Spirit speaking through Zechariah are very encouraging when He says "DO NOT DESPISE THESE SMALL BEGINNINGS, FOR THE LORD REJOICES TO SEE THE WORK BEGIN."(Zechariah 4:10 - NLT). Get the idea from God and write it down, there is power in writing, Habakkuk says the Lord said to him "WRITE THE VISION AND MAKE IT PLAIN ON TABLETS, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; BUT AT THE END IT WILL SPEAK, AND IT WILL NOT LIE. THOUGH IT TARRIES, WAIT FOR IT; BECAUSE IT WILL SURELY COME, It will not tarry."(Habakkuk 2:2-3) - the scripture is just powerful, it has so much revelation - write the vision down, write the idea down, it is given to you by God, He says "THOUGH IT TARRIES, WAIT FOR IT", patience is another important element in achieving the success of the vision and idea that God gave to you and most importantly "because it will surely come." - you will see it materializing before you, you will see it happening as God told you, "but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie", its born of God so it overcomes the world. Lets look at the apostles at the first days of evangelism, the apostles were cast into prison for the sake of the gospel and an angel lets them out and tells them to continue preaching, and they are brought before the council to be examined and the council was angry with them to the point of desiring to kill them however a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people said something too powerful to the council members, he said "Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and CAME TO NOTHING. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; FOR IF THIS PLAN OR THIS WORK IS OF MEN, IT WILL COME TO NOTHING; BUT IF IT IS OF GOD, YOU CANNOT OVERTHROW ITLEST YOU EVEN BE FOUND TO FIGHT AGAINST GOD.(Acts 5:35-39) - too glorious. Gamaliel seemed to understand that whatever is born of God can't be overthrown, it overcomes the world, but he does state however that if it is from men it will come to nothing. Mens plans by their intelligence will always fail at some point, mens wisdom will always be limited, the bible says has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world (1 Corinthians 1:20) and also about plans Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand (Proverbs 19:21). The plans of God are given and supervised by God, a Psalmist says UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE, THE BUILDERS LABOR IN VAIN (Psalm 127:1) it all begins in the Spirit. The more fellowship with God one has, it seems the more they receive these ideas from God, because there are things that God needs us to do for the course of our lives and we need to be connected to Gods planner and schedule, the Psalmist says the secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, (Psalm 25:14), the word fear means reverential worship and to some extent fellowship and we need to engage in that for us to receive the secrets of God. Paul says

For we are Gods handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, WHICH GOD PREPARED IN ADVANCE FOR US TO DO.(Ephesians 2:10), there are these works that God needs us to do which He prepared for us, we need not worry about what it is we will do, God has everything planned out for us already, isnt He just wonderful. David wanted to build a temple for God and God said to him Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, YOU DID WELL IN THAT IT WAS IN YOUR HEART. NEVERTHELESS YOU SHALL NOT BUILD THE TEMPLE, BUT YOUR SON WHO WILL COME FROM YOUR BODY; HE SHALL BUILD THE TEMPLE FOR MY NAME.(2 Chronicles 6:8) I love the fact that God acknowledges that David did well in that he had it in his heart to do a good work for Him, but God tells him that He has someone prepared for that very thing in his heart, that means God communicated the idea to David but He had someone else He intended to do the work, which was his son Solomon. Nonetheless God had showed David the plan because the bible says Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. HE GAVE HIM THE PLANS OF ALL THAT THE SPIRIT HAD PUT IN HIS MIND FOR THE COURTS OF THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.(1 Chronicles 28:11-12) How powerful, THE PLANS OF ALL THAT THE SPIRIT HAD PUT IN HIS MIND. The Spirit of God will put ideas in your mind if youd open yourself up to Him. Youll be the person with the greatest ideas at work, and your colleagues will be amazed at your creativity because youll be functioning in divine creativity, in the mind of the Spirit. Does He not say But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.(1 Corinthians 6:17) and also BUT WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST.(1 Corinthians 2:16)? The ideas of God are divine that is why they cant be overthrown, that is why they cant be put down they contain divine strategies. If you have been thinking about how to raise money for an orphanage and you havent had the slightest idea about how you are going to go about doing it, wait until the Holy Spirit deposits an idea in your heart and you will be amazed at how efficient it works. Look, when Gideon arrives at the camp of the Midianites with the 300 soldiers, he hears the dream and its interpretation and is strengthened in the deliverance of the Lord, so the bible says then he divided the three hundred men INTO THREE COMPANIES, and he put a trumpet into every mans hand, with e mpty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers.(Judges 7:16) This was a divine strategy and the bible lets us know that Gideon and his men and the rest of Israel had a great victory. Sometime later another man arises from Israel, Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal, this man was evil because he murdered his brothers and hired worthless and reckless men to follow him. However when he had become king over Israel, Gaal a captain of the soldiers of Shechem fights against him and the bible says of this battle And it came about on the next day that the people went out into the field, and they told Abimelech. SO HE TOOK HIS PEOPLE, DIVIDED THEM INTO THREE COMPANIES, and lay in wait in the field. And he looked, and there were the people, coming out of the city; and he rose against them and attacked them.(Judges 9:42-43). Now, this strategy of war had been seen in Gideon, THEN HE DIVIDED THE THREE HUNDRED MEN INTO THREE COMPANIES, and because of this same strategy Abimelech won the battle against Shechem, it appears God had allowed Abimelech to use this strategy even though he was an evil man because God cared too much about Israel to have them defeated and fall at the hands of Shechem, Paul says It is true that some preach Christ OUT OF ENVY AND RIVALRY (Philippians 1:15) why does God allow them? And amazingly Paul says But what does it matter? THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT IN EVERY WAY, WHETHER FROM FALSE

MOTIVES OR TRUE, CHRIST IS PREACHED. And because of this I rejoice (Philippians 1:18), the salvation of people is too important to God but we must pray for the preachers of Christ, sometimes we are too quick to judge other peoples motives. You see God will never give any of us a plan or an idea and not follow through, it says FOR IT IS GOD WHO WORKS IN YOU TO WILL AND TO ACT IN ORDER TO FULFILL HIS GOOD PURPOSE.(Philippians 2:13) he says God doesnt just give you a desire to do what He purposes but also works in you the power to act it out, Paul says to this end I strenuously contend WITH ALL THE ENERGY CHRIST SO POWERFULLY WORKS IN ME.(Colossians 1:28), my God, ey. Sometimes I am personally challenged in doing the work of God, I feel so useless and powerless in the body of Christ, like I dont have the energy to carry out the plans that God has given me to accomplish, but I remember the words of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah when he says SHALL I BRING TO THE TIME OF BIRTH, AND NOT CAUSE DELIVERY? says the LORD. SHALL I WHO CAUSE DELIVERY SHUT UP THE WOMB? says your God.(Isaiah 66:9) O how I love the Spirit of God. No matter how fruitless you think you are or how small you think you are in the body, remember that Jesus said YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME, BUT I CHOSE YOU AND APPOINTED YOU SO THAT YOU MIGHT GO AND BEAR FRUIT--FRUIT THAT WILL LAST--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (John 15:16), for the fact that Jesus chose you means you have it in you to bear fruit for God, fruit that lasts, dont put yourself down believe in God. God will turn your smallness and make it great, O the wisdom of God says to you In fact, SOME PARTS OF THE BODY THAT SEEM WEAKEST AND LEAST IMPORTANT ARE ACTUALLY THE MOST NECESSARY. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. SO GOD HAS PUT THE BODY TOGETHER SUCH THAT EXTRA HONOR AND CARE ARE GIVEN TO THOSE PARTS THAT HAVE LESS DIGNITY.(1 Corinthians 12:22-24) We like to say God will use someone or God is using someone because we have learned that way of talking, as if there are people that God uses and doesnt use but truth be told God doesnt use anyone, He walks and works with people, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and says Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, FOR NO ONE CAN DO THESE SIGNS THAT YOU DO UNLESS GOD IS WITH HIM.(John 3:2) He didnt say unless God uses him, he says unless God is with him, we are sons and daughters more than we are servants, the bible doesnt say Jesus served as a servant in Gods house but CHRIST, HOWEVER, WAS FAITHFUL OVER GOD'S HOUSE AS A SON (Hebrews 3:6) and also NOW A SERVANT HAS NO PERMANENT PLACE IN THE FAMILY, BUT A SON BELONGS TO IT FOREVER.(John 8:35). Let us move in our God given ideas to the glory of God, we are born of God and our ideas are also born of God. And the angel answered and said unto her, THE HOLY GHOST SHALL COME UPON THEE, AND THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST SHALL OVERSHADOW THEE: THEREFORE ALSO THAT HOLY THING WHICH SHALL BE BORN OF THEE SHALL BE CALLED THE SON OF GOD. (Luke 1:35). God Bless You.