Have you ever felt defeated? If you’ve been on Earth for any period of time, you will have felt defeated at least once.

Over the last 19 years or so since I gave my life to Jesus, I have had many opportunities to quit and give up. There have been business ventures that went down and I lost all my money. There has been a broken relationship with a girl who I thought I was going to marry. There have been battles with my health.

In spite of a lot of setbacks, the Bible says we are victorious. I have leaned over the years that victory is not a feeling, it’s a position. It is our position in Christ, what he has done, what the Bible says, and that’s a fact, not a feeling.

Feelings are temporary and fickle; you can’t trust them. I have been married to my wife Tammie for 10 years and I can tell you from experience there have been many times over the last decade that I didn’t feel married, felt in love or even felt like loving Tammie. However, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m married to her or the fact that on our wedding day I made a covenant with Tammie to be married to her for the rest of my life. The fact is I am married, no matter what I feel like, and that’s such a blessing to me. If I had listened to my feelings and acted on them, I would not be enjoying the benefits of this beautiful marriage.

Similarly, once we have given our lives to Christ, we belong to Him and everything  Jesus died for is available to us as we are in Him. Sometimes we don’t feel victorious, saved, healed or loved. But, I want to ask you, does that change the fact that in Jesus we have all these things?

No, I believe feelings don’t always reflect the truth.

We need to have faith in God and faith in the victory that Christ paid on the cross for us to have.

So, what are some facts from the Bible?

 What about when we don’t feel saved?

Let’s look at

John 3:16 (NIV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.”

If you have given your life to Jesus, then no matter what it feels like you are saved and God has wiped the slate clean; the past is the past and whatever you have done is forgiven and made new before God. Psalm 103:12 tells us God has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. What we did in the past is in the past. Jesus died for our sins. If we feel condemned or like we are unworthy then those feelings are not the truth of scripture.

Romans 8:1-2 (NIV) says “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. “

Jesus paid the price for our condemnation; we don’t have to accept feelings of condemnation.

What about when we don’t feel healed?

Well, by the stripes of Jesus we have been healed.

Jesus was beaten on the cross and took our sickness (see Isaiah 53:3-4). If we look at Deuteronomy 28 from verse 15, it tells us that sickness is part of the curse. Verse 61 even tells us that sickness not even recorded in the Bible are included under the curse.

The good news is WE HAVE BEEN REDEEMED from the curse. Galatians 3:13 tells us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. We are no longer subject to the curse; we are under God’s blessing. We have been redeemed from the devil’s dominium and we have been brought into the kingdom of God’s dear son (see Colossians 1:13-14). We no longer have to be subject to sickness or the dominium of the devil; we have been redeemed.

Sickness is real and I’m in no way saying that it isn’t. I myself have suffered a lot with sickness. But, go and study the Gospels. Look in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. There was sickness and then there was JESUS. Sickness was a reality, but Jesus was a higher reality and a higher truth. The sick were healed when they encountered Jesus and came under his authority and Kingdom. When we gave our lives to Jesus, we came under His authority and Kingdom, so what Jesus was doing then, he can still do in us now. The Bible says Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews13:8). Jesus healed the sick before in the Bible, he can heal the sick today in our time, and he can heal the sick forever in the future.

For many years, I have felt sick and have even had various kinds of sicknesses but Jesus has delivered and healed me of all of them. Some healings were instant, some healings God used doctors, some healings took a long time of standing in faith, but in the end God has always come through.

What about when we don’t feel loved?

Love is not a feeling; it is a person and his name is God. God doesn’t have love; He is love (1 John 4:16). If we look at 1 John 4:14-19, it tells us that if we have given our lives to Jesus then God lives in us and we live in God. And, we will know and rely on the love that God has for us. In verse 19, it also says that we love because God first loved us.

God loves us! That’s not a feeling; it’s a fact. Loneliness often accompanies feelings of not being loved; we feel left out, abandoned and all alone. But, the good news is if we are in Christ then we are never alone. We are never without love, because the very essence of Love Himself, the Holy Spirit lives inside us.

Hebrews 13:5-6 (NIV) says “God has said ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’”

God loves us and He has given His very own son for us, so that we can spend all of eternity with him starting right now (John 3:16). God left us the comforter, the Holy Spirit in us, and he will reveal the Love of God to us (John 14:15-21, John 16:7-15). No matter what we feel like, we are loved, we are loved by God. It’s a fact, not a feeling.

Victory is yours now; take it and live in it.

Lots of Love

Byron and Tammie

Byron is author of the book “Testimonies of a Good God”, more details can be found below

Testimonies of a good God book Byron van der Merwe