Look up all occurrences of the work "conquer" in Revelation. You'll find four ways it's used.
1. You, conquer.
Ex. Rev 2:7, 11, 17, et al. "To the one who conquers." The book of Revelation is aimed at helping Christians "conquer."
2. Jesus conquered.
Ex. Rev 5:5, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered"; and 17:14, "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer." Jesus is the past-tense Conqueror, so that we may be future-tense conquerors. His is the victory. Our's is the coat-tail celebration.
3. You will be conquered.
Ex. Rev 11:7, "The beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them"; and 13:7, "It was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them." The call to "conquer" does NOT mean constant, upwardly movin', victory. In fact, that we are to conquer does not mean we won't be conquered.
Behold, a mystery! We conquer by yet being conquered. What does "conquering" mean for us?
4. Here's how we conquer.
Rev 12:11, "They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." We die--are conquered--and yet conquer! How?
What does it mean to "conquer"? It means that we hold to the truth that by Christ's blood, He is the True, Final, Only, Victor. And we hold to this truth no matter what our accuser throws at us: no matter how many, or how accurate, his accusations; how many, or how just-seeming, our afflictions; how many, or how severe, our tribulations. Our testimony holds firm: the Lamb's blood did it all, conquered all, and covers me in life, forgiveness, victory, and freedom, finally, completely, forever.
Summary.
We do not conquer by grit, resilience, moral purity, sinlessness, more-good-in-the-good-column-than-bad-in-the-bad-column, prayerfulness, faith, faithfulness, fortitude, theological accuracy, bible-knowledge, church attendance, "victory" over "sin"...phew!
We conquer by holding the Word of Jesus' faithfulness and victory by His blood. We conquer by letting Jesus do the conquering. We just love it. That's how we conquer. We love the Gospel.
"They loved not their lives even unto death..." More than money, than family, than being right, than safety, than comfort, than affirmation, than pleasures, than anything else in all creation, than our fear of death or our love of life, we love the Gospel. That's our victory.
Conclusion.
This New Year, make your resolutions. But don't love them. Don't love your future-self of resolution-success, or your past-self which your resolutions seek to rediscover. Don't love your ideal spiritual condition. Don't love your safe religious hermitage. You, we, will fail and fall and be conquered.
Love Jesus. Love His blood for yours sins. Love His victory for your eternal joy. There is your victory. This is you, conquering.
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