You are more than a conqueror. It’s time to start living like one.

I've spent a fair share of my life living as a victim. I certainly did not live as a conqueror in Christ Jesus. "Survivor" would have likely been a better description. I remember what it was like to take a hammer to my daughter's pink piggy bank so I could scrape enough coins to get gas to get to work. I remember working two, sometimes three jobs, to make it – sometimes not even seeing my kids while they were awake due to long work hours. I remember living in government housing, using food stamps and welfare. I remember asking my eye doctor if I could finance one pair of contacts and pay him $5 a week because I was so broke. I remember being hit by a man who regularly cheated on me, convincing myself that he loved me because I didn't know my worth. I remember huddling on a bathroom floor in the government housing, contemplating suicide because I thought a broken heart would kill me.

I can write books on the most beat-up, torn-down, broken, overwhelmed, and stressed moments of my life (and I have!). However, something shifted in me some years ago that taught me my authority in Christ Jesus. Through my testimony and the blood of the Lamb, I am an overcomer. And you, too, are an overcomer through your testimony and that same blood.

You need to be reminded that the thing you are in won't take you out. The weight of single parenting won't kill you. The heaviness of the abuse, the break-up, or the cancer diagnosis won't be enough to overtake you because the same power that rose Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you.

My hardships produced fruit. Being pressed from every side taught me how to celebrate when I wasn't being pressed and to recognize that the same God with me in the celebration was the same God with me in the pressing. You have authority in Christ Jesus, and it is time for you to start operating in it.

The biggest challenge that many of us face in fully operating in our authority will be covered throughout this devotional, but there are two that I want to mention as we launch our time together:

1. Fear – The fear of what others will think, fear that we aren't enough, fear that every demon doesn't have to bow, fear that we won't be successful, fear that we don't have enough authority, fear to lay down sin, fear to call out sin, or any number of other fears that has immobilized the church. The Lord did not give us a spirit of fear, yet too many Christians operate fully in it. We tend to operate more fully in fear than in faith and authority! It is time we command every spirit of fear to go from our lives, our homes, and our hearts. We are bought by the blood.
2. Identity Crisis—We don't know who we are. We have a general idea, of course, but the head knowledge hasn't seeped into the heart knowledge that gives us all confidence that we belong to the Lord, and through Him, victory is promised.

The power of God through His Spirit sets the captives free. It’s not Buddha or Muhammad or Mother Earth. It is not crystals purchased from a new age store, meditation, astrological signs, star positioning, or any other false religion that Satan has masterfully woven into the body of Christ. None of that has power – other than the type of power to further bind you into anxiety, depression, suicide, lust, confusion, and more.

The power of God loosens every chain. If you walk with Jesus, you have power. The problem is most of us don’t know the power we have. Let’s learn together what authority we have, what hinders our ability to use it, and how to walk in the fullness of our identity in the Lord Jesus.

Point to Ponder:

• Write Romans 8:11 on an index card and place it in a prominent place in your home or work. God's Spirit lives in you!