Overcomers!

                            "Tears come from the heart and not from the brain."
                                                   Leonardo Da Vinci




Leonardo da Vinci is touted today as one of the most influential artists in all of history. He lived during the 1400's and  lived among the contemporaries of Raphael and Michaelangelo. He was a genius and a visionary and left a powerful legacy not only in art, but also in the field of science. He was a sculptor, painter, engineer, architect, scientist, musician, inventor, mathematician, geologist, botanist, and writer. Today, when we think about the Renaissance era, there is no other name that better symbolizes this period than the name of Da Vinci.

His masterpieces include the works of The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Centuries later, artists around the world still try to replicate the genius of this artist. He is admired and honored throughout the earth.

As we appreciate the beauty that Da Vinci left behind, it is also important to note that his life was shaped through the lens of overcoming adversities. He was born as an illegitimate son of a peasant woman and a Florence notary. This meant that he was never allowed to have a proper surname. The name Da Vinci literally means  "of Vinci", which is the town in which he was born.

His low socio-economic status prevented him from attending any good schools and most professions were simply out of reach for him. However, his determination and strength propelled him to seek other options. He became a voracious reader to compensate for his lack of education and he served as multiple apprentices to successful artists. He wrote, "Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve."

He ultimately did achieve success within his lifetime, but that was never really what fueled him. He measured internal success as more valuable than external success. He spent a lifetime in pursuit of truth and valued his own approval rather than that of other men. He looked deep within himself, saw his own potential, and then spent his lifetime in pursuit of it. He wrote in his journal, "You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself."

While Da Vinci painted religious pictures with passion and life, little is really known about his own personal faith and beliefs. He was baptized in the Roman Catholic church but he was not devout. It seems to many that he valued reason and philosophy more than he did faith. Many historians speculate on this topic but there is little data to support what faith, if any, Da Vinci may have had.

If he really did not have a genuine faith and was still able to leave beauty on this earth that exists for centuries, how much more beauty, as believers, could we possibly leave as our legacy? As Christ followers, who are filled with the very spirit and power of God, there is an eternal legacy and not just a temporal one, that can fuel our very existence.

That is because what we are building now is one that will never disappear because it is the very spirit and nature of our God. And, what we build will never dissipate or be forgotten because it will enter into eternity with us. It will be honored and esteemed forever because it is actually God, Himself, who accomplishes His purposes through us.

The Bible tells us that as believers, we, too, are given dominion. David says, "You made mankind rulers over the works of Your hands; You put everything under their feet" (Psalm 8:6). The word dominion  literally means "rule or power over". God commands us to rule and have mastery over the things of this world and to walk in the authority and power that He so freely gives to us.

Jesus assures us that we will have opposition and adversities, but He also tells us that He has already overcome the world (John 16:33).  And, He tells us that we, too, will overcome by His blood and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). This means that we will overcome every spiritual adversary that comes our way when we walk in The Truth of God's Word and the truth of our testimony of what God has done in each of our lives. No one can legitimately dispute His Truth or the truth of what we say about His work in our lives.

We are made in His image and we are called to be His ambassadors (or representatives of Him) on this earth. That means that we can show others what God is like by allowing His Spirit to dominate our lives and by walking in the fruit of His Spirit. As we walk in dominion, we are to do so in a way that reflects both the nature and the character of God.

We multiply biologically and we multiply spiritually. Believers are the only people on this earth who can multiply life spiritually. No one else can do it. We defeat death and bring resurrection life by the power of Jesus. He is glorified when we stand against evil and death and call forth His Light.

We are surrounded now in a culture of death. It comes through sin and brokenness and much pain. We are the only ones who have hope and a solution for this culture of death. We are the only ones through which God would make His appeal. We are loved, and blessed, and esteemed by our God, and we can share these truths with those who honestly just don't know.

Whatever challenges that we ourselves have overcome by the grace and help of Jesus, we then become the most qualified to help others to also overcome. We have earned our PhD and are being commissioned to reach out to others that are struggling under the weight of that thing. We can teach others how to also become overcomers and multiply an overcoming spirit in the earth. This is truly how we occupy until Jesus returns again!


"For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith."
                                                            1 John 5:4


****As Believers, we know The Truth, which is found in the person of Jesus Christ. When we also find our personal truth, through God's eyes, we will then know our purpose and message in the earth.