Our faith is born of God.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. The world system is like an opponent who wants to beat, defeat, and destroy you. When you live to love with Jesus, you have a foundation and mindset that can overcome all the schemes and attacks the world has to offer. It counters the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life with humility and love. Where does this love come from? It comes from Jesus who dwells in you as you believe in Him. With your eyes fixed on Him, as the author of your faith, He lives His life in you and loves through you. That faith works through love, and you overcome the world by faith in Him as you live to love with Him. To those who overcome He says in Revelation 2:7, “I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” In this verse, John said that our faith is born of God. John wrote about this in his gospel. John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” God has given us to His Son (John 17:2), and Jesus has conquered the devil, sin and death, and the world system. He has overcome the world for us, and when the Holy Spirit opens our hearts and cleanses them by faith, Jesus’ victory becomes our victory. Peter described the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts 15:9, “He (the Holy Spirit) made no distinction between us (Jews) and them (Gentiles), cleansing their hearts by faith.” The new birth accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit in birthing faith in our hearts is the victory that has overcome the world. This means the world cannot keep the children of God from believing in Jesus Christ and loving with Him. We overwhelmingly conquer, as Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 8:37 “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” People in the world or the church can’t make us not love them because we choose to love them like God chose to love us—not based on what we have done or not done. Such love is how the faith of Christ works in us. We live to love with Jesus by the faith which God has birthed within us. This is the victory!