The Outpouring

Let’s get prophetic:

All over the world there is a cry for freedom; freedom from religion, release from controlling leaders, freedom from condemnation and accusation. God is responding to that cry through a fresh outpouring; a fresh outpouring of revelation regarding the gospel of grace. Because of the guilt, shame, fear and uncertainty plaguing much of the church today, great grace is coming; Acts 4:33 says, “And with great strength, ability and power the apostles delivered their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace rested richly upon them all”. There is a rapidly developing distinction between law teaching and grace teaching. God Himself is bringing it. And those who oppose it will be dismayed at how fast it is going to spread. An increasing revelation of the righteousness of God is going to flood the earth until the end of the age revealing the infinite magnitude of God’s love, power and grace: “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is REVEALED – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written the righteous will live by faith”. (Romans 1:17). This will not be a short term local “revival” that will have an emphasis and disappear, no, the gospel of grace is being released and will be going forth everywhere. We are going to see the establishing of a grace culture and a greater understanding of the New Covenant in the church at large. It’s time for freedom to break free.

We’ve stepped into something. And that is because we are stepping out of something. The highest priority of the enemy is to get people to drift from grace. Look at how much of the church still lives under a mixture of law and grace; a culture of Old and New Covenant thinking and teaching.Because most Christians understand grace to some extent and know they are in the New Covenant, it kind of camouflages the fact that Old Covenant mindsets are still hanging around. In Galatians 5:9 Paul said don’t be yoked again to slavery to any degree because even a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Jesus said you can’t put new wine into old wineskins. He was saying you cannot put the Old Covenant into the New Covenant. Why? What’s the problem? Paul says this ultimately makes Christ of no value; that His value is diminished by the degree to which Christians live under an Old Covenant ethos. Think about it, how many Christians are still trying to secure their standing before God, trying to procure His favor and access His presence by performance? Much of the church fills its time with dead works; conscience-driven works born out of the knowledge of “good” and out of fear, guilt, and condemnation, not out of a free conscience that follows the leading of the Holy Spirit. That’s why I believe the message of God’s grace is increasing from a trickle-down event to a torrent. There is a harvest waiting to be saved, and Christians waiting to be set free. And we shall see signs and wonders following this mighty gospel of grace, the Lord confirming His word, liberating the captives.

We are going to see mixtures of law, grace, and legalism forced out into the open by the gospel of grace, stripped of their disguises so that even the naive and deceived will see it for what it really is. Those who embrace God’s grace will live in a new boldness, no longer conscious of themselves, and fearlessly taking advantage of any opportunity to help others get free of doctrines that have been controlling the church for centuries. I feel we have entered into a new spiritual atmosphere and that the second half of 2008 will see more and more of God’s people“testifying fully the gospel of the grace of God”. (Acts 20:24). This in order to bring the church not into partial freedom but into full freedom where condemnation and accusation become strangers and grace becomes a constant companion.

Why? Because no one is going to stand in the fullness and freedom of New Covenant grace pulled down by the residue of Old Covenant thinking. Those who think it’s about how much you pray or how “holy” you are or how much you obey that gains God’s favor and access into His presence are wrong. Access into His felt, tangible presence is through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s it. Period. End of story. For a believer to be rejected by the Father, Jesus Christ would have to be rejected by the Father. That’s how secure we are in Christ and how “finished” the work of Christ is. For we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (II Corinthians 5:21). We are fully credited with all the obedience of Christ. Everything in the Kingdom of God is received, not achieved. And it was all achieved at the cross. That’s called grace, outrageous grace! “But if it is by grace, it is no longer conditioned on works or anything men have done. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace [it would be meaningless]”. (Romans 11:6). The Gospel is about God changing the way He relates to us in the New Covenant. Not by law or performance, but by grace and grace alone. All our boldness, confidence, obedience, and holiness emerges out of that New Covenant relaltionship.

Failing to live up to the standards of the law (no matter how subtle or camouflaged by some grace additive) can rob us of our dreams, our hopes, our security in Christ, and our joy. But the gospel is not about right behaving, it is about right believing. When you come into more revelation of God’s grace you realize God looks at you every moment of every day as perfect all the time through the lens of grace. We have no delusions about our own goodness, but that only enhances our regard for our standing in Christ. And though religion is obsessed with counting up men’s sins, the Bible teaches that God is NOT counting the believer’s sins against them. If we are believing, New Testament Christians, we should increasingly sense this wonderful reality in our consciences. When we wake up in the morning, we are struck with the glory of being the righteousness of God in Christ and that He’s never counting our sins against us. We are the righteousness of God in Christ all the time regardless of our behavior. I know that may sound arrogant, but it is based on the performance of Jesus Christ. It is stupendous grace! We are raised up IN Him and stand LIKE Him before God! “For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be one with Him in sharing His resurrection”. (Romans6:5).

Paul leaves us with this farewell from Acts 20:32 “And now brethren, I commit you to God. And I commend you to the WORD OF HIS GRACE. It is able to build you up and to give you [your rightful] inheritance among all the saints”.