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2025 - A Year Of Overcoming

New Year’s Resolutions

Here we are four days into the New Year and already people are ditching their resolutions. The gyms are slowly getting less attended, the diets are being broken by small snacks and sweets, and the books are beginning to gather dust. The television is on for more and more hours and on it goes. Before too long, the collective consciousness of people are getting less and less bothered by those things that we swore we’d start doing or in some cases not doing. I’m not here to judge anyone, I’m just stating the obvious. The change from one year to the next is important and does allow us to look ahead to see if there is anything special about it whether we are the change agent or not. And for me, I’ve been asking God what He has in store for us in 2025 and one word kept coming up: Overcome. As I meditated on that word I inevitably wanted more details from God and He didn’t disappoint.

The Word Of Our Testimony

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Rev 12:11, NKJV)

In the last book of the Bible we read this popular verse and on its face it seems simple enough. The devil is thrown down to earth along with his demons and is furiously working against the saints because his time is short. And Jesus tells John to tell them that they will be overcomers by three things, one they have by grace, another they have organically, and the third they have by a decision in their hearts and minds. The original work in the Greek is also a familiar one: Nike. Actually it is a form of that word nikaó (nik-ah'-o) and it means To conquer, to overcome, to prevail, to gain victory, I conquer, am victorious, overcome, prevail, subdue. The Greek noun of nike means "victory" or "conquest." In the Strong’s Lexicon it tells us this:

The verb νικάω (nikaó) is used in the New Testament to describe the act of overcoming or gaining victory, often in a spiritual or moral context. It conveys the idea of triumphing over adversities, challenges, or enemies. This term is frequently associated with the victory of faith, the triumph of Christ over sin and death, and the believer's call to overcome the world through faith in Jesus Christ.

The lexicon then gives us some history behind the term:

Cultural and Historical Background: In the Greco-Roman world, the concept of victory was highly esteemed, often associated with athletic competitions, military conquests, and divine favor. The goddess Nike, personifying victory, was a prominent figure in Greek mythology. In the New Testament, the use of νικάω reflects a spiritualization of this concept, emphasizing the victory of Christ and His followers over spiritual forces and worldly temptations.

So what is God telling us for 2025 now?

Things Will Not Be Easy

Note I didn’t say we’d be defeated. After many of us prayed and worked to get Donald Trump back in the White House we are now taking a sort of victory lap around the political track. It was the culmination of four years that saw so many ups and downs it made our stomachs uneasy. However, we got there and it’s not a bad thing to take a break and celebrate the victory. Granted, to some it isn’t a victory, but trust me when I tell you it was one. And I won’t begrudge us the time to be happy. But now the harder work of keeping the victory and actually making changes that will last longer than one term of a president is upon us. And when I asked God what we need to overcome He told me several things. There will be challenges that are human in nature. People are not happy and they have plans to fight back. They are heavily funded and their agendas will not stop just because they lost an election. As we’ve seen, assassinations are not below them. Lest we think this is just inspired by flesh and blood we need to remember that the spirit of Antichrist is growing and growing and is fully behind all these schemes. 2025 will see a fight both physical and spiritual and we, as the Body of Christ will be smack dab in the middle of this battle. But, as I mentioned earlier, we have what we need to overcome and we need to take full advantage of the weapons of our warfare. The apostle Paul tells us where the fight will take place first and how to fight it:

For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. (Eph 6:12, TLB)

It is true that I am an ordinary, weak human being, but I don’t use human plans and methods to win my battles. 4 I use God’s mighty weapons, not those made by men, to knock down the devil’s strongholds. 5 These weapons can break down every proud argument against God and every wall that can be built to keep men from finding him. With these weapons I can capture rebels and bring them back to God and change them into men whose hearts’ desire is obedience to Christ. 6 I will use these weapons against every rebel who remains after I have first used them on you yourselves and you surrender to Christ. (2 Cor 10:3-6, TLB)

2025 will be a struggle that we can win, but we can’t be shy or undetermined at all. Rest assured the plots of the devil aren’t going away and he will infest the same people and rulers who lost to fight back.

There Will Be Natural Disasters

I’m not telling you that they will all be supernatural in nature, but God told me that they will be life-altering. When I asked Him for a Biblical example He told me the flood of Noah’s day. Talk about going big, that’s pretty much as big as it gets. When newscasters talk about something being Biblical in nature they’re referring to things like the flood or the parting of the Red sea or the plagues of Egypt big. The Bible does cast some tall tales, doesn’t it? Anyway, He wanted me to tell anyone who wants to listen that there will be birth pangs like we read here:

…and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (Matt 24:7-8, NASB1995)

I don’t want to scare people, but this will be a challenging year from a catastrophe standpoint and we need to be prepared for it. I have relatives who live in western North Carolina and they know exactly what I mean. They were prepared and were ones who helped others. That’s the kind of things God wants His people to know for 2025. While it does rain on the just and unjust, the just should be the ones with extra umbrellas.

Internal Challenges

I then was told that 2025 will be a year of infighting in the religious community. When I asked for a Biblical example, He pointed me to the challenge on Mt Carmel where Elijah called down fire to prove the God he served was the true one. That is the scale of religious challenges we’ll see this coming year. While there will be false prophets who will rail against the true Church, the struggles will be predominantly from inside these believers against each other. I wasn’t told it would be over the last election, but just that the intensity will be that high and even higher. The tensions over how the church should govern itself will be a huge point of contention mainly because the camp that believes Christians should be involved in society at all levels even politics will come to a boiling point. There could even be splits in denominations over it, but it will be public for the whole world to see. Overcoming this challenge will mean praying for Godly wisdom and allowing our words to be carefully crafted when we do communicate on social media or in the public. It can be done, but the word of our testimonies need to be guided by this simple principle found in Psalm 133:

See, how good and how pleasing it is for brothers to live together as one! 2 It is like oil of great worth poured on the head, flowing down through the hair on the face, even the face of Aaron, and flowing down to his coat. 3 It is like the morning water of Hermon coming down upon the hills of Zion. For there the Lord has given the gift of life that lasts forever. (Ps 133:1-3, NLV)

There will be people who want to change your views on the Rapture and Israel that will not want to change themselves but will contest your views to no end. Let Holy Spirit lead you on how you respond. While some have evil in their hearts, most are sincere believers. Do your level best to keep the peace even if it means ignoring their attempts or politely telling them that it is best to agree to disagree.

Overcoming In Evangelism

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20, NIV)

This one was a little odd to me, but I realized that God knows that 2025 can be the start of what some are calling the Billion Soul harvest. I read about a prophecy given back in 1983 by Bob Jones who told us there would be three signs that the huge harvest was coming. In an article found on godencounters.com we read this about the three signs given:

In 1983, Seer Prophet Bob Jones predicted that three key signs would occur as indicators of when the Billion-Soul Harvest, particularly of youth, would begin. I want to review these prophetic signs of the times with you, because I believe it is clear: The Great Harvest has begun! And I want you to exercise faith and believe for this great harvest in Jesus’s name!

The three signs were that abortion would be that abortion would be perfected and be made available by a pill, homosexual marriage would be legalized and openly promoted in the United States, and that workers in rice fields in Asia would be watching 24/7 worship and prayer on unplugged television sets on their wrists. Ok, that last one was very specific, but all three happened. Back in 1983 all three were stretches, yet they happened. So when Jones said these were indicators of that huge influx of souls we now know that it isn't a stretch to say that it’s not just going to happen, but already is happening. And 2025 will see this revival explode.

Overcoming In Our Personal Lives

Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us. (Heb 12:1, TLB)

God then told me that there will be a year of soul-searching in our lives. It will be a year, if we let Him do it, of getting rid of the things that are holding us back. If we recall, the word for overcome mentions a sporting event being won. Here it is again for you:

In the Greco-Roman world, the concept of victory was highly esteemed, often associated with athletic competitions, military conquests, and divine favor… In the New Testament, the use of νικάω reflects a spiritualization of this concept, emphasizing the victory of Christ and His followers over spiritual forces and worldly temptations.

This is the last challenge God told me would mark 2025 and I think it is fitting that we end with this one. Yes, there will be challenges that are external and in some ways global this coming year, but the one challenge that we can intimately control is this one. If we are ready to be overcomers in all the other areas, this one needs to be addressed first. If we aren’t clean inside, the pressures from being seen and heard from the outside will crush us like a submarine that can’t handle the ocean pressures as it goes deeper and deeper undersea. I’m hopeful that myself and others will heed this warning and be an overcomer in 2025. Lord, let it be so.