Persevere to Victory

Let us turn to Hebrews, Chapter 10. I must confess, I only understood it at 8 p.m. Why only now? Because I kept looking, and found it all fragmented. I couldn't integrate it. Since Sunday, I haven't felt settled. Last week, I missed it due to a flight, but this week, there's no escaping. Later, I spoke about something, and it coincided with this chapter: you must persevere to the very last minute, persevere to victory. Therefore, I want to title today's Bible study: Persevere to Victory with Faith.

For an entrepreneur, the most important quality is faith. Without faith, there's no way to persevere. You have faith, and you persevere, but you don't know if you'll be victorious in the end. I have good news for you. The Lord Jesus has opened up a new and living path for us, a path to 100% victory. What could be better than that? The question is, can you persevere to victory?

In the Old Testament, people offered sacrifices, but they could not perfect people, that is, they could not lead people to victory. No matter what you did, you could not be victorious. It only cleansed the conscience, because that era spoke of sin. But after the Lord Jesus came, we no longer speak of sin, but of victory and defeat.

I often hear some Christians say, I am saved, I am going to heaven. But I don't see any sign of salvation in them. Why? Because they think salvation is dying and going to heaven. But after reading the Bible, I found it's not like that. We believe in the Lord today to be victorious in this world. Why? Because the Lord Jesus has opened up a true and living way for us, telling us that sacrifices and gifts are not what He desires.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.” Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’ (Hebrews 10:5-7)

Imitate the Lord Jesus, Offer Yourself Completely

Jesus offered His body. It turns out that this path is the path of offering oneself completely, offering His body once according to His will. Jesus opened this path, but you insist on taking another. Jesus offered Himself, but you keep yourself for yourself. That cannot lead to victory.

We must know that Jesus did something in the spiritual realm that overcame death, overcame the power of death on earth. This was epoch-making. The Lord Jesus opened up the path of offering oneself for us. All who are willing to offer themselves for God will be 100% victorious. All who offer themselves completely in Christ Jesus no longer need to talk about sin or innocence.

So, when these sins have been forgiven, there is no longer any need for sacrifice. Today, we are not talking about offering sin offerings and burnt offerings. We are talking about offering ourselves. What is the good news? All who offer themselves completely in Jesus Christ are Mingding Destiny people. Such people will be 100% victorious. If God gives us a 100% victory promise, it cannot be good sometimes and bad sometimes; victorious sometimes and defeated sometimes. It's not like that. We must be clear that this is a path to sanctification.

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)

You may ask, Why should I offer myself? Just because you talked me into it? I'm not stupid, I'm not crazy. This really needs some explaining, how can I prove it? I tell you, I am truly a man of faith. If I were not a man of faith, I really would not have made it to today. Every Saturday and Sunday is extremely painful for me, like childbirth. Before the discomfort is over, Wednesday comes again, and I have to study Hebrews again. It's really too painful. But I discovered a secret, and that is to persevere.

Even though at five or six in the morning, my head is still buzzing, completely without ideas, and I keep worrying about how to preach. But what is the result? As long as I dare to persevere, when I persevere to the end, I suddenly have ideas. This feeling is really great. Working with God is the best thing. For example, when we dig a well, we must dig until we find water. But some people dig very deep, and when they see there is still no water, they leave. Another person comes along and sees that it has been dug so deep, and I will dig a few more shovels. As a result, the water comes out as soon as they dig. Wouldn't the previous person have been working for nothing?

Why did Isaac dig a well, and one was snatched away, and another was snatched away? In fact, the Canaanites were also digging wells everywhere, digging one here and one there. Isaac saw that the well had been dug so deep, so he dug it again, and as a result, there was water. Who dug this well in the end? It's really hard to tell. Don't take what I said today seriously. This is not what the Bible says. I am just using this story as an example. The purpose of me making up this story is to tell you to persevere until you dig up water.

If you are extracting oil, you must persevere until you extract oil. If you are studying at university, you must persevere until you get a degree. If you are studying at primary school, you must persevere until you graduate. If you are doing business, you must persevere until you make money. It's the same for doing everything.

I have this perseverance in my bones. When I encounter problems, I never back down, never compromise. I often encourage myself: With your puny self, I don't believe I can't handle you. What happens as a result? Every time when I'm struggling very hard, God's word descends. I say, God, you are really humorous. If you had given it to me earlier, I wouldn't have been so painful and struggling. But I have to say, it is precisely because of this struggle that what is obtained is very precious.

I am very excited today. At eight o'clock, I walked out of the room swaggering, walking with a spring in my step. I am happy! Because I understood everything at once. It turns out that the path God has opened up for us is the path of persevering to victory. If we don't persevere to victory, wouldn't it be for nothing? Seeing that we are about to dig to the water in the well, but give up; seeing that we are about to be victorious, but give up again. This life is very hard, very tortuous, but there is no result, no accomplishment. Don't be such a person.

The book I like to read most in the Bible is about Jesus. Jesus is my life idol. How much I desire to be like Jesus. Fortunately, I didn't think about perming my hair like Jesus, and I didn't wear a big yellow robe. I don't want to imitate that way, because that's not important, it's useless. In my heart, there is a very deep desire: I must do what the Lord Jesus did.

I say, God! I must be like you. How you do it, I will do it. If you touch someone and they get better, but I touch someone and it doesn't work, then I will touch them a hundred times. If a hundred times doesn't work, then I will touch them ten thousand times. I will keep persevering until one touch works. Think about it, how many people will be released! I have made up my mind in this way, because having God is really good. God's promises, you will get them as long as you persevere. Do you agree with my view?

But what's the problem? Some people believe when they see what I have accomplished. Some people see what I have accomplished, but treat me as a heretic. There are also some people who have not seen what I have done, but have only heard that what I have done is becoming more and more like Jesus. These people say, Oh! This guy can really boast.

There was a cancer patient who came all the way to find me. She lay on my sofa, rolling her eyes. She had not drunk water or eaten for two weeks. She was brought to me. We prayed, and she got better. This person is really better, and is still alive. People say, You can really boast! What's the problem? Some people can do what I do, and some people can't do what I do. Why can I do these things? Because I persevere. I am a person who perseveres to victory with faith.

Do you want to be such a person? If you can't be such a person, you will lose a lot in this life. What God despises most is people who give up before they dig up water. They always do things and then give up. You say how hard it is to live like this.

Sometimes when I teach people, I say to them, Don't be like buying a hamburger at McDonald's. You line up in several lines, and when there are only two or three people left, you think this line is too slow, so you change to another line. You line up, and then you change to another line. When will you be able to eat a hamburger? Why? Because people are stupid. It's really stupid to have no faith. Many entrepreneurs are just short of the final heat, but they don't persevere to victory.

Jesus Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and his sweat dripped down his cheeks like beads of water falling from a broken string. Why was Jesus so uncomfortable? Because he was about to be crucified.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

If Jesus thought when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, What am I doing? Why should I suffer this pain? And then he left. If Jesus had done this, there would be no redemption on the cross, and our mankind would be in trouble. But Jesus persevered, he endured it! He went to the cross, shed his blood and sacrificed himself, and rose from the dead.

Why did Jesus talk about being crucified three times, and talk about rising from the dead three times? Because going to the cross was an extremely painful thing. If Jesus went to the cross, died and was buried, and his body remained in the tomb all the time, then the cross would have been for nothing! So every time Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die, he would mention that he would rise from the dead on the third day. Our Jesus is the Lord who has conquered death! If we are still spreading the finger bones of Jesus in the world today, that would be troublesome.

So you should know that the Jesus we believe in has overcome death. Are you willing to be a person like Jesus? If you are willing to walk the path that Jesus walked, you may be as painful as Jesus when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, just like the pain I felt before the Bible study. But compared to the pain of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, it's far away. Although it's painful, you will definitely be victorious!

Why was Jesus able to persevere? Because in his heart there was a very clear goal: he came into this world to do God's will, and God's will is for us to be victorious. Today, if this matter comes upon us, will we choose to persevere to victory? Don't just drift aimlessly, not knowing where you are drifting to today, not knowing where you come from, and where you are going.

Today, why am I willing to follow Jesus and offer my life completely? Don't think I'm stupid! Look at my face, it doesn't look like a fool at all. Why am I willing to offer myself? The reason is that I have figured out what it means to be alive. I see people dying one by one. One day I am visiting him in the hospital, and the next day I am at the funeral home. What's the point of living like this? In my primary school class, there were fifty people in a class, and six people have already dropped out.

I think, People live and then die? Then what is the meaning of people living? Although I know that human life and death is an irresistible natural law, I have an eternal hope inside. I feel that the spiritual world is real. How good are the courseware I wrote! The first lesson of the 101 course is that the spiritual world is real. When it comes to making disciples, the 201 course is to offer oneself completely. 101 says that the spiritual world is real, then 201 should come out of the empty life.

If Jesus was nostalgic for this world, if he wanted to live well in this world, could he have walked the path of the cross? If you go to the cross, you won't enjoy eating anything, you won't enjoy drinking anything, and that day will be over. Jesus didn't think that way. He knew that he was walking a path that overcame death, and as a result he rose from the dead. Some people challenge me: Have you seen it? No, I really didn't see Jesus resurrected. I saw an empty tomb in Jerusalem. Is this the tomb of Jesus? I don't know, everyone says it is. An empty tomb doesn't prove anything!

Later, I discovered that Jesus said it well:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons… (Mark 16:17)

Today, I am really good at driving out demons! I'm not bragging, what I'm saying is all true. There was a couple who joined us online. They didn't really believe it before. They thought I was just bragging, so they bought plane tickets and came over. They must have thought in their hearts, This guy can really brag! As a result, I really did a good demonstration. When they saw it, wow! It really is like this. After we drive out many demons, we pass five levels and kill six generals. When the demons see us, they run away. Sometimes when we drive out demons, the demons speak, and it's very funny: Oh, I'm afraid of you. Of course the demons are afraid of us, because I punish them so hard.

The Jesus we believe in today has engraved his words in our hearts, not engraved on stone. We act according to God's words, fulfill God's law, and then God no longer mentions this sin and repentance, but wants us to be victorious. What God wants is for us to be victorious!

We no longer sacrifice for sin, but we want to offer ourselves, to be holy, to be pleasing to God. We want to enter the new and living way, pass through the curtain into the Most Holy Place of God, and be completely united with God. We no longer say this is mine and that is his, but we say mine is God's and God's is mine. This is a good deal!

God's is also mine. This sounds powerful too! Where in the world is there such a good deal? You actually back down when there is such a good deal. How stupid! We must have faith and persevere to victory. I can tell you, it's really not difficult to persevere to victory with faith. Because miracles and wonders follow you every day, do you think it's difficult?

Hold Fast to the Confession of Our Hope Without Wavering

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. (Hebrews 10:32-34)

The Christians described in Hebrews were remarkable. They endured great struggles and sufferings, facing adversity while supporting others in distress. Today, if your possessions were seized, could you willingly endure it? Can you comprehend their actions? Living is a simple matter. With God, even the loss of worldly possessions is insignificant. Like Jesus, they saw through life and death, recognizing that life is a spiritual matter and that one must overcome, just as Jesus did. You must obtain that better, enduring possession!

Let us consider a hypothetical: if life ends in death, and death is the end, then one might as well die sooner. For what is the point of living? Brothers and sisters, I offer this advice: if you cannot understand various sufferings, it is because you lack insight, and therefore, you live miserably. During prayer, one sister always complained of aches and pains. I thought: My God, how can she not understand that life is not sustained by the physical body? All those health supplements and detoxifications are nonsense.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19-23)

How wonderful this scripture is! We hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Whether you are a new or long-time believer, you must emerge from a life of emptiness. If you do not understand, you cannot walk this path and will falter, lacking hope! Then it would be better to give up. Our Christian path is filled with exciting stories, all tales of victory.

What you need is persistence, persistence, and more persistence! Some people simply cannot persevere. In fact, the easiest thing to persevere in is attending church, which is not a great burden, unlike carrying fifty kilograms of rice. Yet some cannot manage it because they are always busy with this and that. Work, wife, and children consume them. Career and family are their priorities. They still lack insight!

A few days ago, a sister came to me. Her child was being naughty, with a bruised face. I admonished her, saying: Is life not a simple matter? Why would you want to experience a near-death illness again? She had previously suffered a life-threatening illness but recovered through our prayers.

Do not neglect gathering. In over twenty years as a Christian, I have never missed a gathering, not even one Sunday. I find this quite remarkable. Why? Because I have held fast to this heavenly hope. With God, what else do I need? He is with me in affliction, comforts me in sadness, and never forsakes me when others depart. Without God, I do not know how I would cope, but with God, nothing else matters! It does not matter if things are taken away or money is lost. I am most capable of earning it.

For that day of victory, the day God promised us, is before our eyes. Perhaps it is like digging a well, where the next strike will bring water, or drilling, where just another meter will strike oil. With one more paragraph, Hebrews chapter ten will be understood. With a little more effort, the Sunday sermon will be ready. Persist, persist, and persist! This is a true, living, and fresh path of life! Those who trust in God will never be put to shame.

The most commendable thing in my life is knowing Jesus Christ. He is my treasure, and nothing can compare to my God. Therefore, I let go of whatever I need to let go of, and you need not doubt my words. I am such a person; I know what I am doing. As long as I have my God, everything else is minor.

After listening to my sharing, what are you thinking? Can you recognize that this is a new and living path of life, the path to victory? Is gathering so important? Gathering is not the most important, the body of Jesus Christ is. But gathering is a manifestation of the body of Jesus Christ, the coming together of the body of Jesus Christ. Some say that physical presence is necessary, but I believe whether there is physical presence or not is not the most important thing, because it is a spiritual gathering.

Do not be like those who are accustomed to stopping. Those who stop habitually cannot persevere in anything. Believing in Jesus requires persistence! When I train people, including my son in painting, he goes to painting class at the appointed time. Why? Because that time is fixed; other things can be set aside. Those who habitually neglect gathering cannot hope to achieve anything in this life. Such individuals lack the character to persevere in faith.

The Path of Trusting in the Lord Does Not Retreat

My advice is to persevere with faith until you achieve victory in everything you do, including your faith in the Lord. Persevere with faith until you achieve victory. Do not be deterred by persecution or other challenges. Just persevere until you achieve victory. Then you can endure so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what was promised. This is 100% certain.

Do not cast away your boldness, for those who possess such a heart will receive a great reward. In terms of blessings, God will bestow great blessings upon you. In terms of descendants, your offspring will multiply. These are the ones who run forward with faith, the righteous in God's eyes. Why worry about repenting of this or that sin? Turn back to God and run directly toward the goal.

I hope that you will be like me, and one day come before God and say: I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, and I have finished the race. I will receive the reward that God has prepared for me in eternity. The momentary, light afflictions of this world will pass away, and you will receive a glory that is weighty beyond all comparison and eternal.

This is what God has prepared for me in eternity, and I must obtain it. Without it, what is the meaning of my life? Without God, what is the meaning of my life? Even if earthly possessions remain, even if you have money, drink, and food, what is the point?

Brothers and sisters, begin to know God and receive your Mingding Destiny. You will discover that what you eat and drink is no longer of great significance. Although we still eat and drink, it does not bring us any true enjoyment. What allows us to experience enjoyment today is relying on the promises of Jesus Christ to live a victorious life in this world. We no longer fear death; we have seen through life and death. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, and nothing can stand before us.

We must become those whom the world is not worthy of. If you have this mindset in business, you will succeed. If you have this mindset in believing in the Lord, you will succeed. Whatever you do with this mindset, you will succeed and never give up! For if you shrink back, God will not be pleased with you. If you shrink back, you are not a person of faith. If you shrink back, the Bible says that you will be destroyed.

Today, we have embarked on a path of no return, a path of faith that leads to complete victory. It is because of faith that we hold fast to the hope within us and run the race, so that in our days on earth, we may complete the will of God. This will is to offer ourselves completely! What do we offer ourselves completely for? To become a blessing to this generation, so that this generation and generations to come will be blessed through us. We live to fulfill the purpose for which God created us, the Mingding Destiny He gave us. This is the meaning of life.

You and I are no longer cattle, horses, or pigs fattened for meat, or monkeys entertaining in a circus. We have the image of God, are precious and glorious children of God, and can overcome through Jesus Christ! May God bless you all!