Truly Amazing Grace

From Joseph Prince, “Destined to Reign”:

“Under law, the burden is on you to perform. Under grace, the burden is on what Christ has performed on the cross. That is why Jesus said, ‘Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Jesus was not speaking to people who were tired and weary from their secular jobs. He was talking to people who were weary and heavy laden by the requirements of the law of Moses. The yoke of the law is hard and heavy. Jesus came to reveal grace, and the yoke of grace is easy and light because it involves none of you and all of Christ. He has borne the burden of sin on your behalf. Under grace, your part is to believe only on Jesus Christ, and when you believe, you are blessed and made righteous! Isn’t this amazing grace!”

“Even though the law is holy, just, and good, it has no power to make you holy, just, and good. You see, the law was designed to expose your weaknesses, your sins, and your inability to be holy, just, and good. It is like a mirror that exposes your flaws–your blemishes and pimples. But you cannot take the mirror and begin to rub your face with it to clean off your blemishes and pimples, because that is not the mirror’s purpose! You need to understand that no amount of keeping the law can make you holy. Only the blood of Jesus can do that.”

“God blesses you not because you are good, but because He is good. Grace is based on His faithfulness and goodness toward you. It is not contingent on your performance, but it is based on His undeserved favor. If it were contingent on how good you are, then it would no longer be based on grace and would instead be based on the system of the law. It would be deserved favor. This is the difference between the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace. “

“Grace is not a topic–grace is the gospel. It is the good news! The word ‘gospel’ simply means ‘good news’. Grace is not theology. It is not a subject matter. It is not a doctrine. It is a Person, and His name is Jesus. That’s the reason the Lord wants you to receive the abundance of grace, for to have the abundance of grace is to have the abundance of Jesus! ‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ (John 1:17) Grace came as a Person and His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the personification of grace. Jesus is grace!”

“People are afraid that when you tell a believer that he is completely forgiven by grace and no longer has to earn his right standing before the Lord via the law of Moses, it would cause him to go out and live a life of sin and debauchery. However, the Bible is very clear that the ’strength of sin is the law’. (I Cor. 15:56) It is not grace that gives people the strength to sin. It is the law! The more you are under the law, the more sin is strengthened! Conversely, the more you are under grace, the more sin will be depleted of its strength. ‘For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.’ (Romans 6:14) This means that the more grace you receive, the more power you have to overcome sin. “

“You are either righteous or you are not. There is no such thing as first having ‘positional righteousness’ and then having to maintain that through ‘practical righteousness’. You are the righteousness of God in Christ, period!”

“Only the radical preaching of grace brings hope to believers. Only the finished work of Jesus can bring us wholeness, completeness, and shalom-peace. Some people say that the Christian life is very hard. My friend, it is not hard, it is impossible! The only One who can live it is Jesus Himself, and He wants to do it in us today. That is why it is not up to our own efforts to fulfill the law of Moses. It was fulfilled on our behalf and the price for our sins has been paid on the cross. Our part today is to believe in our Savior and receive from Him the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. The Christian life is a life of rest in Christ Jesus and His finished work. It is time to rest from your own efforts and to enjoy Jesus!” 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Apostolic And Prophetic Reality

I believe a significant transition is underway in the body of Christ. I see a growing frustration among many believers, an unmet desire for reality, substance and stability. This is resulting in a kind of migration from sand, sawdust, and superficiality to apostolic ground-a sure foundation (II Ti.2:19). There seems to be non-stop movement from meeting to meeting and teacher to teacher. People are seeking meaning, purpose, His presence and genuine fellowship. And whether they realize it or not, they are actually looking for a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God. This is a pursuit of the authentic, a compass, His voice.

At the same time, there has been a rapid expansion and growing facsimile of the two words “apostolic” and “prophetic”. Could it be that the foundation and genuineness of the church might be impaired for want of a better understanding of these two terms? I by no means have some kind of superior grasp on this issue but rather I’m stretching myself and reaching for a greater apprehension of it. After all, Paul tells us that the church “is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself the Chief corner stone”. Without the genuine, you will have that which is built on some sort of “equivalent”; and though you may have an acceptable commodity, you move into something of a much lesser kind. The superstructure cannot exceed the foundation and therefore the foundation deserves the most exceeding attention.

John the baptist came as “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight”. A prophetic voice in a wilderness of legalism, doctrinal elitism, dead religion, hyper-spirituality and hollow, psuedo “voices”. Here was a man who was not part of the religious system yet was able to turn hearts, bring radical change and influence an entire nation. “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.” (John 1:6). We see here the union between the prophet and the “sent one”- the prophetic and the apostolic coming together. What if a foundational builder is, in part, simply one sent by God with a prophetic burden, a prophetic voice calling us back to the sure foundation? This might not line up with current day definitions of the apostolic or prophetic anymore than John did in his day. With John you see no titles, he wasn’t even close to providing a sufficient answer for those who questioned his ministry pedigree. He had no regional or national “network” submitted to him and no signs and wonders “ministry”. (Of course we value the empowering grace of God in healing and setting the captives free; that’s not my point here). He didn’t even prophesy like many of our current day “prophets”. Maybe John shows us that the definition of who is foundational is not equivalent to personal ministry accomplishments or a certain style and external achievement. It might be less about the gift they exhibit and more about the gift they are.

Interesting to note what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the apostolic career, I Corinthians 4:9-13, “For I think that God has set forth us apostles as last, as it were appointed to death; for we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable, but we are despised.  Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now”. This refusal to acknowledge or inability to discern foundational gifts could explain why so many people are floundering, falling and nominal, failing to recognize the genuine from the facsimile. We need to keep in mind that the words apostolic and prophetic are synonymous with the words authentic, genuine and real. That is their anointing, that is what they impart.

I have to stress that what I’m saying isn’t simply about the apostolic or prophetic. It’s about God’s longing for a church built upon a sure foundation because built into His foundation is the truth concerning His nature, the totality of His love for His people, and as a result, the radical security of His followers in the finished work of Jesus Christ. They are genuine, the thing in themselves, living letters of the reality, and totality of a walk with God. They live under grace, empowered by grace, built upon Christ, the Chief Cornerstone.

There is great need in this hour for stability, security, and identity. And there is, as in the days of John the Baptist a voice, a voice restoring true apostolic foundation (Eph.2:20-22, I Cor.3:10,11, Mat.16:15-18, II Ti.2:19, Eph.2:7), apostolic authenticity and community (Acts 2:43-47, 4:31-34), apostolic intention (Acts 2:42, Eph.4:11-16) and apostolic grace (Acts 4:33, Eph.2:8,9, I Cor.1510, Acts 20:32). 

Sent Ones

Awhile back I started to think about how important a true sending of God is. Though we are already equipped to go, maybe the idea of being sent speaks more about unique and specific sendings. It could be that God’s intention is not always about us going and initiating but sending what is resonating.

My own observation is that many Christians are trying to fulfill the Great Commission in their own strength. It makes for religion and redundancy.This may be in part why Jesus said to pray that the Lord of the harvest would “send forth laborers into His harvest”. Spirit-empowered sending, the kind that “came upon” the book of Acts church, does not find its origins in a law-based, guilt-driven evangelism. No! Going forth is compelled by a kind of apostolic necessity in the inner man. No wonder the apostles said in Acts 4:20, “But we cannot help telling (we cannot keep quiet about) what we have seen and heard”. When our spirit is quickened and yearns to move out in expression and demonstration of the grace of God, the result is a testimony that inherently contains and spontaneously creates living faith in the hearer. This is the sort of message that comes from a sent one, led by the Spirit. (Acts 8:29, Romans 10:14,15)

So, do we sit around in inactivity “behind closed doors” until heaven comes knocking? No. In Acts 4:29-31 we see there is a ministry before the Lord, receiving from Him that which will insure much sending. Emboldened by God, we are filled with such life that the Lord must advance it out to overflow onto others. It is said that the early apostles flooded Jerusalem with their message (Acts 5:28).

I believe there is coming a greater esteem for the phenomenon of God’s sending. Where we realize the church and the world not only need to be assisted but also “turned upside down” by the reality of God released through sent ones. (Acts 17:6) There is, in the the sending of God, an apostolic distinction that continues to identify one of the church’s essential characteristics from the beginning.

In God’s sending, He imparts to us a love and a fearlessness to face people who may be intrinsically hostile, bound up, or indifferent to our message. (Phil.1:28-30 Amp) The way of entrance into hearts is the way of being sent: having been with Jesus, bearing a sent word, coming out from His presence. As Jesus said, “He who sent Me is with Me…”.

Grace: The Divine Disclosure of Christ

In this post I am going to be speaking less about grace as the gracious act of giving, and more about grace as the substance of Who is given. John 1:14,16 says, “And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth. And out of His fullness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. What is His fullness? Grace and truth. Grace is the substance, the essence, of everything He is. The word “grace” in this context means more than a doctrine; it is the property that constitutes the Christ. The word “truth” in John 1:14 is the Greek word “alethia” which means “unveiled reality; the reality pertaining to an appearance”.The release of His grace is His appearing; it is making visible what was invisible, material what was immaterial. When you say Jesus is “full of grace and truth”, you are saying that when the inner substance of everything He is (grace) manifests,, you have the unveiled reality of Christ or “the truth”.

What is interesting is that John the Baptist says that out of the Lord’s fullness we have all received. Received what? “Grace upon grace”. So what is contained within us is that substance or property which constitutes Christ. And when released, that grace contains the transformational ability of God. It is the appearance of that grace compliant with the substance within that brings the divine disclosure, the distribution of Christ. The pre-existent One, from outside this time/space world, becomes Immanuel-God with us, full of grace and truth. Jesus died to do away with the veil, that body of flesh that hid His eternal being. (Hebrews 10:19-22, II Corinthians 5:16). It is difficult to reduce the significance that God has placed upon our lives when we acknowledge what the Lord went through in order to live in and through us personally.

We can’t buy this grace, merit it, or labor for it. It is given (Ephesians 4:7).When we receive it, it becomes our divine “engine” and defines who we are. I Corinthians 15:10 says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am (identity) and His grace toward me was not found to be for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them, though it was not really I, but the grace of God which was with me” (the engine). I don’t have to wear certain kinds of clothes to know who I am or derive my energy through self effort; I am what I am by the grace of God. And I do what I do by the grace of God; so much so that when I look back, I realize it could ONLY have been by the grace of God! What was seen was energized by Someone within. There is this substance in us that drives us; it is the hard drive of His being. That engine determines the output of His appearance, and He just cannot remain invisible!

When we go forth, we are usually an answer to a cry for help. Paul admonished those he was sent to “not to receive the grace of God in vain (the grace in Paul; the means by which Christ would exert His holy influence on hearts through him). For God says, In the time of favor I have listened to and heeded your cry….” (II Corinthians 6:1,2). We are His grace distributed. However, in the same chapter, Paul went onto lament over the Corinthian rejection of that grace (verses11,12) just as Jesus did over Jerusalem’s rejection in Matthew 23:37-39. Without the recognition and reception of the measure of grace upon each one, there will be the loss of what God intended to impart of Himself into need in order to bring that which sustains and builds up the inner man. He distributed Himself to a many membered body so that He might continue appearing everywhere, impacting lives, full of grace and truth.

My God Reigns

Wanted to share this awesome song from Abundant Life Church in Bradford, England.  Praise our mighty God!! He truly is GREATER!!

He WILL Keep Us From Falling

Here’s more from Grace Walk by Steve McVey.

“A guaranteed way to be defeated by the flesh is to focus on the sins that we want to avoid. That’s like going on a diet and then reading the menu at Pizza Hut every day just so we’ll know the foods we want to avoid! We don’t experience victory over the flesh by being preoccupied with it. We are to be obsessed with Jesus, not sin. ‘For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.’”(Ro. 8:5-6)

“Satan can’t make a Christian sin. The Bible says that God is able ‘to keep you from stumbling’. (Jude 24) A Christian’s problem isn’t that we are spiritually weak; the omnipotent power of Almighty God is in us. Our problem is that we focus on the temptation to sin and not on  Christ. We confess greater confidence in Satan’s ability to cause us to fall than in the ability of the Holy Spirit to keep us from falling.”

Never a Worm Again

“We’ve been programmed to think of identity as inseparable from behavior. But God doesn’t look at it that way. He doesn’t determine identity by behavior but by birth. A person born into the family of God receives a new identity.”

“It is important to see yourself as God sees you. If you were to see a butterfly, it would never occur to you to say, ‘Hey, everybody! Come look at this good-looking converted worm!’ Why not? After all, it was a worm. And it was ‘converted’. No, now it is a new  creature, and you don’t think of it in terms of what it was. You see it as it is now–a butterfly.”

“In exactly the same way, God sees you as His new creature in Christ. Although you might not always act like a good butterfly, the truth of the matter is you are never going to be a worm again!”

“Don’t believe the lie that you are a worm. You are a butterfly. Remember who you are! Your identity is determined by your birth not your behavior. Why would a butterfly want to crawl around in the mud?”

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, ALL things have become new.”                -II Corinthians 5:17

(Excerpt from “Grace Walk” by Steve McVey)

Don’t Calm Down

This came to me the other day, “The Lord loves us and He doesn’t want us to apologize for our intensity”. Have you ever gone through a time when it feels that there is little shared intensity or interest in what you have to bring? Even rejection? Well, don’t be discouraged. It’s all intended by the enemy to erode our passion for the purpose of God and the reality that we have been given something incredibly important, timely, and urgent from Him.

When we perceive a certain lack of receptivity by an esteemed person or group, we can often assume it’s because of our presentation or flawed performance. In fact, the enemy can try and convince us that there is something about us that is impeding the Lord’s message. But think about it…Jesus was the most wonderful and glorious Person that ever walked the earth and many rejected Him; yet He was not moved, He stayed completely secure in His Father’s love.

We listen to the devil’s lies too often. We ruminate in self-analysis, trying to figure out why things weren’t acknowledged as we had hoped. But remember, it was said of Jesus that “His own received Him not”. However, He was on a mission to do what His Father called Him to do. Think about Peter’s attempt to “calm” Jesus down. He said to Peter, “Get behind Me Satan!” Jesus had a mission and a message and “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”.

The disapproval of others (perceived or otherwise) is intended to cause distraction and ultimately silence the messenger. This is a primary weapon of the enemy to get us out of the game. He is the accuser of the brethren and has a list of our faults ready to use falsely against us.

Let it be known that our God does not regard our excitement and intensity as a defect. Instead, He delights in us and in our excitement over the grace message; including the passion that propels us to speak prophetic words revealing His unconditional love and fervor for His church. After all doesn’t John 2:17 say, “And His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘The zeal of Your house has eaten Me up’.”

Let’s not bother trying to be conservative enough or “respectable” enough to get a pat on the back from those who value moderation regarding the message of grace. We will only wind up like Jeremiah who wrote, “If I say, I will not make mention of the Lord or speak any more in His name, in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot contain it any longer”. (Jeremiah 20:9).

Instead of pursuing acceptance from others, we can joyfully submit to God’s acceptance by His gift of righteousness. We find our inclusion in Him and He locates inclusion for us. I Peter 2:6 says, “the one who believes on Him shall never be ashamed”.

How Great Is Our God

We posted this song once before, but were again struck by it as we enter in to this amazing week and celebrate the Ressurection and the finished work of Jesus! Worship our amazing God!

From A Trickle To A Torrent

We have been at a turning point - a great shift from a trickle of grace to a torrent. The Lord seems to be relentless with this emphasis and the wheel is spinning, picking up pace.  What we are seeing is “seamless”; that is,  God’s grace is permeating every area of our lives.

As I have said before, the Ark of God’s grace does not need to be “steadied”. The love, intervention and total acceptance of the Father provided through the finished work of His Son is resulting in the departure of many Christians from a performance-driven, law-based “Christianity”. This will  produce what all of creation is groaning for, sons and daughters of God walking in full assurance of His love.