When I was a child, I wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to fight crime and bring justice to the world. At the time, I had no idea how I would accomplish this goal, but I knew I wanted to make the world a better place. When it was time for college, I began pursuing a career related to law enforcement. I thought this would be the best way to be a hero. However, where I truly learned to be a superhero was from the Word of God.
Romans 8:37:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
By way of God’s love, we have been made more than conquerors, or superconquerors, in the new birth. We can be the spiritual superheroes of our day and time. As we understand what it means to be superconquerors, we can build a mind-set of being more than conquerors in all of life’s situations no matter what devices our adversary, the Devil, may use against us.
The phrase “we are more than conquerors” is translated from one Greek word, hupernikaō, meaning to have victory beyond measure, to gain a surpassing victory. God, Who loves so much that He gave His only begotten Son, made it available for us to be the victors in every situation every time. For God’s Word to say we are conquerors means, as born-again believers, we have won the victory in life’s competitions. But it doesn’t stop there. It says we are more than conquerors, superconquerors!
As superconquerors, we are able to overcome any circumstance. In Romans 8:35, there are seven words listed that represent circumstances and situations that we might face in this life.
Romans 8:35:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
The adversary uses these challenges to try to get our thoughts away from God’s love and all that Christ did for us. As a result, we may find that we need to overcome some of these circumstances from time to time. As we set our thoughts on things above and not on things of the earth (Colossians 3:2), we can overcome “tribulation”—which is mental pressure. We can overcome “distress”—an attempt to pin us “back against the wall” for the Word we believe and stand for. We can overcome “persecution”—a “pursuit, as of enemies.” We can overcome “famine”—“a scarcity of food” or “hunger.” We can overcome “nakedness”—want. We can overcome “peril”—a source of danger or risk; this can be the adversary’s attempt to get us to allow fear into our minds and hearts. We can also overcome the “sword.” Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, the Founding President of The Way International, once taught that the “sword” here means “cut you to pieces with words.”
The adversary will try to use many and diverse ways to distract us from thinking and doing the Word. We as superconquerors can always come out the victors as we set our thoughts on things above. We can build a superconqueror mind-set by continually directing our thoughts back to God. Here are four actions we can take to help direct our thoughts back to things above, to God and His Word, when we are facing a challenge:
- Remember to be prayerful. This keeps God involved and helps us focus on the deliverance that will come.
- We can remember that “…all things work together for good to them that love God…” (Romans 8:28). This helps us to stand, withstand, and endure in the midst of challenging circumstances.
- We can also remind ourselves of Romans 8:31: “…If God be for us, who can be against us?” No situation or circumstance is too big for us when God is on our side.
- Romans 8:38 and 39 tell us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We hold fast to this truth that absolutely nothing in this life, not even death, can separate us from the love of God.
Out of His love, God gave us all that we need to overcome the adversary in life. No mental pressure, no feeling of being pinned against the wall for the Word we believe, no pursuit by our enemies, no hunger, no want, no danger, no cutting words can separate us from the love of God. In this life we will face challenges. But to God there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The adversary will always use his same old tricks, but we can be the superheroes of our own stories as we build a mind-set of being more than conquerors. God has already declared us the victors in life’s greatest competition. As we continue to build a superconqueror mind-set by directing our focus to God and His promises during challenging situations, we will overcome the devices of the adversary. We are more than conquerors!