Seven Promises for Those who Overcome:

1. The Tree of Life

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)

God loves his creation and wants it to thrive. When God created mankind, he placed them in the Garden of Eden where there were many trees for food. In the middle of the Garden was the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were free to eat from this tree whenever they wanted. The Tree of Life symbolises eternal life. We see at the start God wanted us to choose life.

In Eden, there was only one tree they were not permitted to eat. It was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We know what happened next! Adam & Eve both ate the fruit of the forbidden tree and lost all rights to access to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. Because of their actions they had their, and all of humanity’s, access blocked to the Tree of Life.

God’s plan was for us to have eternal life through feasting on the fruit of the Tree of Life. But when we step outside of God’s plans, we experience the reality of not thriving.

As I said last week, God created us with the express intention that we should be able to rule over sin (Gen 4:7). His entire plan is that we should live a life where we are able to say ‘no’ sin and say ‘yes’ to Him. Through Jesus’ death, this is now possible again.

God’s plan is still to offer access to the Tree of Life. This was brought to us only through Jesus dying on a Tree of Death (the cross) for us. His death reopened the possibility of access to eternal life. We are offered this access by dying to ourselves and rising in Christ (2 Cor5:17, Gal2:20).

In Jesus, we can resist the Devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:10-18, James 4:7) and we can submit to God’s plans. Clothed in Christ we stand against the Devil’s schemes and we stand for the ways of the LORD. In doing this, we discover we can overcome.

God wants you to thrive in him and through him. Every time you choose to say ‘Yes’ to God’s ways you start to lay hold of something eternal. In every ‘no’ you say to the Enemy and temptation you take a bite of the fruit of the Tree of Life.

May God richly dwell within you so that you can take your stand against the enemy’s schemes and overcome all that is thrown at you.

Have a blessed and fruit-filled week.

Fraser