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Make this Easter a special one by refusing to back down from what you believe. Walk through the doorway from death to life. Celebrate the victory of the empty tomb!
In Israel, tourists have the opportunity to visit the Garden Tomb, what some consider to be the place of Jesus’ burial and resurrection.

I remember visiting the Garden Tomb site myself. Stepping over that threshold and peering into that empty tomb is a pretty amazing experience. At that moment, you’re not necessarily concerned if it was the actual place where Jesus was buried. Instead, you’re reminded of what the empty tomb represents—the power and provision of God now available to His people.

Two thousand years after Jesus’ resurrection, the empty tomb still stands as a reminder of all that God has made available to us as Christians. Jesus died not only so we could have eternal life, but also so we could be saved, set free from sin, and delivered from death, each and every day that we live.

How can we access that kind of life? That’s what I want to show you.

Life as God Knows It
First, let’s take a look at how the Bible defines life. The word life is usually translated as the Greek word zoë, which means “life as God has it.”

Think for a moment about how God experiences life. Does He have the sniffles on the throne today? Is He in the middle of an unresolved argument with Gabriel? Is there an economic problem in the heavenly arena? No! God doesn’t experience any of these things. There is no sickness, disease, insufficiency, lack, or oppression of any sort in heaven.

The things that God experiences—love, peace, joy, health, prosperity—are all part of the life that is available to you as a Christian.

Be a Fighter
If that kind of life is obtainable for us, how then can we access it on a daily basis? First Timothy says:
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
(1 Tim. 6:12KJV)
If we want to experience life as God knows it, if we want to lay hold on zoë life, the first thing we must do is be a fighter. The God-kind of life doesn’t just fall into your lap once you accept Jesus as your Savior. To experience more and more of His zoë life, you have to fight for it.

I’ve always wondered why some people just let life happen to them. They don’t resist anything. They may confess a few Scriptures here and there, but if the trouble in their lives isn’t that bad, if there’s just a little sickness, disease, or lack, they coast along, unwilling to fight for anything.

If they only knew the kind of life that was available to them, they would never settle for second best.

Becoming a Fighter
Knowing that you should fight is the first step. Becoming a fighter is what follows.

How do you become a fighter? The first place to start is by looking at the fighters we find in the Bible. One of the best known is David. In 1 Samuel 17, when David saw that the entire army of Israel was intimidated by a nine-foot tall giant named Goliath, he was frustrated (verse 26). In today’s terms, his response probably sounded like this: “Who does this guy think he is? I don’t care how tall he is. He doesn’t have a covenant with God. How dare he defy us, the army of the living God!”

His older brother, Eliab, was angry at what David said and confronted him about it. David responded in verse 29 with what I think is a key statement.
And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
(1 Sam. 17:26 KJV)
No one in the Israelite army recognized the reason to fight Goliath. They were frightened. But David was ready to fight because he knew there was a cause to fight for.

This is one key element in every fighter I have seen. They have a righteous cause about which they can be passionate. They can pursue that cause amidst anything that would come their way.

If you are a fighter, your life means more to you than living from one day to the next. You have a passion and a purpose you are actively pursuing. Maybe it’s to be a businessman in the corporate world, maybe a school teacher, maybe a missionary in a particular country. No matter the plan, you know you have a specific part to play in God’s earth today. God has entrusted that life—that plan—into your care, and you will do everything in your power to fight for that cause.

In order to walk through the doorway provided by the empty tomb, you too must have a cause that you are willing and ready to fight for.

“Enough Is Enough!”
I’m reminded of a situation that Lynne and I ran into years ago. We lived in a house on a lake and had a nice yard; the only problem was that there was a black dog that would often come and leave a calling card in our yard. And because he was a big black dog, he left a big calling card, and he did it day after day after day.

I like dogs and was rather pragmatic about the whole situation, so it didn’t bother me that much. But it really bothered Lynne. She would go outside and tell that dog, “Shoo,” in an effort to stop him from doing his business in our yard. I knew that wasn’t going to do anything, so I finally said to her, “This isn’t going to work, Lynne. That dog’s laughing at you.”

Weeks went by, with the same thing happening over and over. And then the day finally came.

Lynne walked out on the stoop one morning, still in her slippers, curlers, and bathrobe. Guess what she stepped in on the stoop?

Enough was enough! She laid in the bushes for that dog and when he showed up, she got the garden hose after him and chased him with it. We never saw that dog again!

And that’s the way it has to be with you. You have to get to the point where you say, “Enough is enough. I’m standing my ground. No more sickness, no more back pain, no more headaches, no more lack, no more death in any area of my life! I will complete the plan God has for me—and I will do it living the God-kind of life.”

Stand Up and Fight
Are you ready to stand up and fight? Are you ready to walk through the door from death into life? Maybe you have victory in some areas of your life but there’s a small patch of your harvest that continues to get robbed every year by the enemy. Or maybe you feel like the enemy keeps taking your whole harvest, again and again.

Whatever the case may be, be a fighter. Stand up and say “Enough is enough!” Fight for what Jesus already made yours. If you don’t, Satan will view your harvest as something he can have, just like the Philistines did to the Israelites.

Jesus died so you could come to the Father. He rose again so you could partake of the God-kind of life—starting now.

Make this Easter a special one by refusing to back down from what you believe. Walk through the doorway from death to life. Celebrate the victory of the empty tomb!
Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Mac Hammond
Web site: Mac Hammond
 
Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
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