The Winning Spirit

‘We are more than conquerors through Him.” Rom. viii. 37.

Tuts word of the Apostle expresses the victorious mood in which victory was achieved. The early believers in the Lord Jesus won the victory in their hearts before they won it on the field. In Christ Jesus they anticipated triumph, and their anticipations made the triumph possible. And this mood is one of the secrets of victory in every kingdom. Is there any record of an army winning a battle when the soldiers entered the conflict believing they would fail? Such a gloomy lack of confidence would breed a dismal progeny of wants, and the army would be sapped of its vital resources before the battle began. Our biggest inspirations blow from the gates of the morning! Let those gates be closed, and the soul will be deprived of the mystic oxygen which is absolutely essential to her life and strength. There is to me a very real significance, and therefore something of spiritual direction, in the words of the prophet which tell me that the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gateway ‘* which looked towards the east.”” He entered by the door which looked towards the new dawnings, the new revelations, the door of expectancy and hope! ‘“Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of Glory shall come in!” Our eager confidences become the highway of the Lord.

And so it is that, in a very real degree, we can ascertain the nature of our coming victories or defeats by examining the character of our expectations. We may regard all our unbeliefs as the ministers and precursors of disaster. Whenever did unbelief go into battle singing a song of praise? When did unbelief hammer the strongholds of iniquity with blows which shook its walls into dust? When did unbelief stride out into the second mile with the fine determination to make the second mile the justification of the first? It is only the assurance of victory which works miracles of this kind, and it works them every day. In the spiritual realm a healthy confidence not only sees a highway stretching through coming days, and brightening ever more and more unto perfect day, but it makes that highway the road on which there come the marvellous reinforcements of the spirit, which transform all antagonisms into opportunities of glorious achievements.

And surely this victorious mood is needed to-day. Our tasks are tremendous. To lose confidence is to lose everything. The devil always wins when he breaks our assurance. To be sure in Christ Jesus is the beginning of victory. Nay, it is victory! ‘‘ This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.”