Don’t allow yourself to be disqualified from being an overcomer!
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in 1st Corinthians chapter 9:
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (a castaway).
To be disqualified means to fail the test or meet the requirements. There is a difference between an overcomer and those who are “overcome”.
Paul also wrote by The Holy Spirit in Titus chapter 1:
15 It’s true that all is pure to those who have pure hearts, but to the corrupt unbelievers nothing is pure. Their minds and consciences are defiled.
16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are disgusting, disobedient, and disqualified from doing anything good.
If Paul was concerned about being disqualified, we should be as well!
Paul never doubted his justification for a moment, as he preached in Romans 8:38–39 that “nothing would separate us from the Love of God.” But he was concerned about losing the prize of the reward of inheritance. He knew that it was possible to be saved and yet still not participate in the coming Kingdom, that is, to be justified and yet not have a part or a role in the Millennium. Consider Moses who was disobedient and was not able to enter into The Promised Land.
We are to forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before, we are to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)
We will either overcome or be overtaken. The goal of the race is that we might become “partakers of His Holiness, conformed into His Image” and win the prize. This is the reason why Satan is on such a rampage to destroy the message of overcoming and inheriting the kingdom.
Peter understood this when he wrote by The Holy Spirit in 2nd Peter chapter 1:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His Divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Paul, as well, wrote by The Holy Spirit in Hebrews chapter 12:
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live?
10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His Holiness.
Don’t run from the testing and chastening, embrace them with the expectation of becoming a partaker of HIS Holiness as an overcomer.
FATHER has given each of us different talents, abilities, and giftings to advance the Kingdom of God here on earth. The question is: What have we done with these talents? Have we used them wisely, squandered them, or buried them?