Prayer Pastoring - Chapter 2 - Grace

This is the second chapter of our eBook on Prayer Pastoring. The first chapter dealt with step one praying for mercy. We often have judgements against us that halt our prayers for ourselves therefore we need God’s mercy. Without mercy our prayers are hindered. We often mistake opposition as coming from spiritual warfare but many times it is coming from God himself and we are reaping what we have sown. This opposition is the judgement of God. Chapter one explains this process.

 

Our next step in Prayer Pastor-ing is praying for grace, chapter two in our book.

 

Chapter 2

Grace

 

“For with confidence that you may come to the throne of grace where you may obtain mercy and find grace to help you in the time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

 

What is Grace?

The two things that God gives us from His Throne are mercy and grace. They are not the same. There is a significant difference between the two. Mercy is a path that when activated, allows grace to flow. Everything that God does for us comes as a grace. It is His undeserved favour shown to us in giving us what we need. If you need healing then you need the healing power (grace). Whatever you need there is a grace for it.

 

If you take the word grace in the Bible and substitute it for the word power, you will find that it fits. Why? Because His grace is His power towards us. He favours us with power. That’s what grace is. It is empowerment. Grace is not a cover up. What some people mistakenly call grace is really mercy. Many people extend what they call grace to others when they sin. That is not grace. It is forgiveness and mercy but it is certainly not grace. Grace does not cover sin. Grace gets you out of sin. When you give someone grace it means you pray for them releasing God’s power to their need. His grace will then lift them up out of their sin. That is grace.

 

The law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Paul said neither we nor our fathers could obey the law. Grace is the very power of God to enable us to live the truth.

 

Grace is to a Christian what an anabolic steroid is to an athlete. Ben Johnson ran in the Olympics and broke the 10 second mark in the one hundred metre dash. Later he was proven to have taken anabolic steroids and disqualified. Who won the race? Was it Ben Johnson or the anabolic steroid? The anabolic steroid broke the record. Grace takes us over the line. It empowers us to run the race of life with endurance. It is the supernatural performance enhancing power of the Holy Spirit to the Christian! It enables them to do what they cannot do in their own strength. That is grace!

 

The Spirit of Grace

 

“He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10: 28- 29

 

 

We talk about “being under grace”. The punishment and penalty for sin while under grace is actually worse than the penalty for sin under the Law of Moses. If, at the witness of two or three people, someone was put to death when they transgressed the Law of Moses, then “how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing” and it says “And has insulted the Spirit of grace.” (Heb 10:29) If you go back into sinful ways and do sinful things, it says you trample on the blood of the Son of God and you insult the Spirit of grace.

 

The Spirit of Grace is first mentioned Zech. 12:10

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

 

When the Spirit of God was poured out on the church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), the church was birthed. It was called the Spirit of grace and supplication. Grace was the empowerment of God. It was the supernatural power of God given to enable Christians to live the life that Christ taught.

 

It says that Jesus Christ Himself was filled with grace. Grace and truth came through Him. Even as a child the grace of God was upon Him. God’s empowerment was upon His life to live a godly and holy life. Without grace you cannot live holy and without grace you cannot live in God’s will. The Holy Spirit came as the Spirit of grace and supplication. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers you to live godly. If you go back into old ways, you are saying, “God, Your power of the Holy Spirit was not enough and it couldn’t keep me in a holy life so I went back into sin.” God says that is an insult because you can do it. The Holy Spirit is more than able. The power of God that comes from the Spirit of God is more than well able to keep us in a place with God.

 

If we look at this word grace all the way through Scripture, you see that it is God’s empowerment to us, His Church. Every gift that God has given to the Church, it is counted as a grace. It is God’s empowerment to the Church. It is God’s ability to the Church. It is His power to the Church.

 

The Power of God’s Grace

 

Hebrews 12:28 declares “since we are receiving a Kingdom that will not fade away and perish, let us have grace whereby we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

 

Grace on this occasion, empowers you to serve God with reverence and godly fear. If you turn it around, then without grace you will not serve God with reverence and you will have no godly fear. The Bible says in Romans 6:14, “for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” and the power that enables us to walk free from the bondage of sin is grace. It is God’s power which enables us to walk free.

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”

Romans 3:28

 

Grace doesn’t do away with the law. It gives us power to fulfil the law. Jesus said that the fulfilment of the law is that you love God and love people. (Mathew 5:17-48, 22:36-39). When you love people you will not backbite, you will not gossip, you will not murder, and you will not steal (Rom 13:8-10). Grace empowers you to love and to do all the will of God. That includes everything that God has asked you to do. Grace enables you to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. You insult the Spirit of grace if you say His grace was so insufficient that He couldn’t keep you. No one can state that they are falling but they are under grace and they are still okay. They cannot say ‘God knows where I am’. That is not true. True grace lifts you up and out of your sin. It does not keep you in your sin. True grace brings freedom from sin and power over sin

 

You can read articles on amazing grace and how God gave people grace because they were homosexuals and how God still gives them grace. However, that is inaccurate. God may have shown mercy and patience, but He never gave any grace. God’s grace would have empowered them to get out of their homosexuality and repent and come to Christ.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, [12] teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, [13] looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, [14] who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. “ Titus 2:11-14

 

That is what grace does. Grace does not cover your lust. It does not cover your worldliness. Grace is the power to get you out of it. When you turn back, you insult the grace of God by saying you couldn’t do it. Grace gives us the power to live a godly life.

 

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: [2] For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, [4] traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, [5] having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 2 Tim. 3:1-5

 

Such people deny the power of grace. They have a form of godliness; they are going to church, doing the religious thing, but their lifestyles illustrate only a form of godliness. They are still at home watching dirty movies. The power of grace to get them out of their ungodliness is not evident in their life. They deny its ability to lift them out of it. Their end is not good. Grace is empowerment. How does it empower people? It is grace is that saves people.

 

 

 

“For by grace are you saved…” Ephesians 2:8

 

Yes, we are born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, but the grace is the power that draws us initially. Grace is the power that receives, that comes to us, enlightens us. It opens our mind to receive the Word so we can understand and accept the Word into our heart. Without the Holy Spirit you cannot be saved. Without grace it is not possible to be saved. It is a grace from God.

 

We see in Ephesians 3:2-8 Paul is talking about his ministry to the Gentiles. He says he has to tell them about the grace God gave him to make known the manifold wisdom of God to the Gentiles. He assigned his own ability to grace. He goes on, “I am the least of all the saints…” He talks about how the grace of God was working in him. He acknowledged that grace equipped him to do the work of his ministry. Grace is at work throughout the New Testament for example Peter speaks of” the exceeding abundance of grace”, and also of” the grace in its various forms…”(1 Pet 4:10 NIV) Grace takes various forms. Grace is what you must find to help you in your time of need. Whatever the need is, there is a grace for it. There is a power for it. You can come to the Throne of His Grace with confidence to obtain mercy. As a result of obtaining mercy you can then go on and find grace to help you in your time of need.

 

In the Book of Esther under Persian law the only way a queen could come into the presence of the king without an invitation, was if he stretched out his Sceptre to her. Then her life would be spared and she could approach the king with her petition. When Queen Esther went in before King Xerxes she knew it was under threat of death that she went in there.

 

God says that we can come to the Throne of Grace to obtain mercy and find grace. That is exactly what we do when we come into His presence. We see that when Esther came in before the king Xerxes, he looked at her, and he loved her. In the same way Christ looks at us and loves us and stretches out His Sceptre so we can approach Him with our petition. Esther found mercy. But she didn’t stop at mercy. She came right up to the throne with her petition and found deliverance and grace for the Jewish people. She saved not only herself, but her whole nation. We just don’t come into God’s presence for our own life. We come for others. God will stretch out His Sceptre to us and the sceptre of His Son, who says, “Come in, what is your request?” And we say thankyou for grace, for saving grace. Thank you for the flow of grace for not only our lives, but our children’s lives. The grace that flows out is a river of grace. There are rivers of grace; rivers of the Spirit.

 

In Romans chapter 12, it says “each of us, having gifts” What different gifts? There is ministry, music, business, hospitality, youth, counselling. Everybody has a ministry. Everybody has a gift and God has a purpose for your life which you need to find. Get involved with God’s purpose for your life. No matter what it is, God has a grace that can come to your life and enhance your efforts make it better so you can do more.

 

 

 

“Each of us, having gifts, differing according to the grace given.” Romans 12:6

 

Every gift comes as a grace. Use the gift according to the grace given. There are many gifts. There is prophecy, teaching, exhortation to name a few. Romans twelve talks about the gift of giving which is a business gift or one contributing to the needs of the saints. It amazes me that He assigned the gift to giving and not to the making of money. It covers all these aspects of the Christian church and it empowers them with a grace for the gift given.

 

For example, if I was to give you a brand new Mercedes Benz car. The car is there. It is not according to the car that you drive and use it, but it is according to the fuel that you can put in that car. The distance you can travel will be according to the amount of fuel in it. The amount of grace that comes to our life measures the amount we can achieve. All of us have gifts; my gift is in the gift of business and later in giving. I have conducted business for twenty-five years and twenty-three years in giving. Assigned to that is a great grace. It is God’s power that flows and does many miracles.

 

I was reading an article about Ronald McDonald House in America. They had a Givers Club. In the club you had to give away $200,000 a year which was the entry level to get in. The biggest giver in that club gave away US $35 million in one year to God’s work. The gift that he has and the gift that I have is exactly the same gift. However, there is simply a different level of grace that flows to him than flows to me. It is the same as the pastoral gift. There is one on you, Pastor David Yonggi Cho, your pastor etc. There is a different level of grace that flows on Pastor Cho than on us. It is according to the grace given. When we know this, grace is obtainable. If we take the time to come to God, to the throne of grace, there will be a rich flow into our lives that will enhance our everyday work for God. We will do far, far, far more and far greater things than we could ever imagine! But it is according to grace.

 

Believers need grace to do the work of ministry. The work of ministry was given to the people to perform not to the clergy. The work of the clergy is to build up the Body of Christ for the works of the ministry. Ministry grace flows out to you. Every person in ministry has special graces to equip them for their work. Your ministry is in the marketplace, the schools, your workplace and your friends. Your ministry is not in the church, it’s outside the church. Your time in church is for your exhortation, empowering, and basically to get you ready so you can go out and minister effectively. The work is yours.

 

The three great truths that God gave Martin Luther, the great Reformist, have been evident in many movements like the Puritans, Pietism and the Holiness Movement. They are new birth, the priesthood of all believers, and the fact that the believer’s ministry is outside the church. You are the minister. It is not about us sitting back expecting the minister to do the work. This rich grace will to come to you as you become the minister. It can flow through your life daily.

 

 

There’s a grace for the gifts, there’s a grace for godliness, there’s a grace to get out of worldliness. There is a grace to deny ungodliness and worldliness. What else is there a grace for? There is a grace for giving, for finance. Finance is spoken of often in the Bible because finance is a large part of life.

 

The Grace To Give Your Life To Jesus

“Therefore by the mercies of God, I beseech you present yourselves a living sacrifice which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1

 

Present your body as a living sacrifice – your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Do you want to know what God’s will is for your life? Then act on the verse and give God your life. What do you give Him? Everything, sometimes we verbalise it but in reality give him nothing. Why, because we keep our time, our money and our thoughts. You need to give God your life, all of your life. He is not happy with anything less.

 

Next you must transform your mind by the word of God. Let his cleansing blood wash your mind. Put the blood of Christ over your mind then you will know what the will of God is. Have you given God your life? Has He all your time, all your mind, all your capacity, all your strength, everything in your heart, every part of your dream, every vision? If not do in now!

 

“You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength, and with everything that is within me.” Mark 12:28

 

There is grace to give our life to Jesus. There is grace that comes from heaven to empower you to do that. Look at the hardship of trying to do everything for God. Look at it and you will never live it, but come to God and He will empower you with His mighty divine grace and then you will do it!

 

The grace for generosity

2 Cor. 8:1-7

And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. [2] Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. [3] For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, [4] they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. [5] And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. [6] So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. [7] But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us--see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

 

 

 

In Second Corinthians, Paul was boasting to Titus, the pastor of the Corinthian church about what he had found in the Macedonian Church. He told them about the incredible grace that God gave the Macedonians. God gave the Macedonians such an amazing grace that “they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own” 11 Cor 8:3. Despite their deep poverty the Macedonians gave liberally. Paul acknowledged that grace came upon them and empowered them to give beyond their ability. God’s grace empowered their generous giving.

 

Paul adds, “So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.” Each of us needs to wait upon God and draw down the grace of giving into the church so that it has an effective work in everyone’s lives.

 

Speaking of giving verse seven says, “But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us--see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” Grace causes a compulsion and power within you to be able to give.

 

Giving: Grace or Law

There is much preaching and teaching in churches telling people they must pay their tithes but this only puts them under the curse of the law in Mal 3:8. With all of this teaching there are still less than twenty-eight percent of people who tithe across the churches. The law has never managed to get people to tithe but GRACE WILL DO IT and grace will go way beyond giving ten percent. Grace will lift you way above where you are giving now. This grace is there for your giving.

 

How do you get this grace? Only from the Throne of grace, ask God for mercy and grace to help you in your giving. The Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Grace wants to help us in every area of our life including money. Money is what you work for, what you give our life for. It is not easy to take what you have worked so hard for and give it away. When you give you give yourself and become a living sacrifice and God enables us to this with His grace.

 

More is spoken about money in the New Testament and Epistles than most other subjects. David explains, “I have a Family Trust that we put money through. We have a Trust and everything you put through the Trust you don’t pay tax on. My accountant said to me once that there are better ways of avoiding tax. ‘There are superannuation funds that would better serve you! This is money you are giving away! You are giving away the thing I worship most in life,’ he said”.

 

“This I say, whosoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, whosoever sows bountifully, reaps bountifully But let each man give as he is prompted or purposes in his heart, not of necessity.” 11 Corinthians 9:6

 

Who’s in your heart? Jesus Christ lives in us through the Spirit. Let each man live as he has purposed in his heart. This purpose is the prompting of the Spirit. Follow it. He lives in you prompting you to give not of necessity but grace. What is of necessity? It is the law of the tithe. Many think the law of the tithe says “if you want to get blessed you’ve got to give.” The law never did anything for you. It has no power to save you or to bless you. The law has no power within itself. But the Spirit of grace has the power to prompt your heart. The very same power that is there to prompt you is there to bless you. If it is not there in your giving it will not there in your receiving. If it is not there to prompt your heart, it is not present to be able to multiply.

 

Grace Multiplies Your Money

David says, “I believe in multiplication and have seen it many times. I live in it. People criticized the American preacher John Avenzini for the message of the one hundred fold. However, I saw the one hundred fold in one meeting. He has a faith for it. I had a $300,000 debt I couldn’t pay. I wrote a check out, borrowed the $3,000 and within two months it was paid off. In two months my profits increased and I paid the debt.”

 

“I had a twin engine aeroplane which was a nightmare to keep. I wanted to sell it. It cost me a quarter of a million. Everything went wrong, engines had blown up, everything that could have gone wrong with it, did. I could not sell it. No one wanted to buy it. I said to God, “it is a noose around my neck. I’ve got to get rid of this thing.” As I was listening to John Avenzini talking about the one hundred fold principle, I was inspired. I only wanted $70,000 for it so I threw $700 into the offering and came into agreement in prayer and claimed the sale of the plane. Within a week it was gone. There is a grace for giving. The grace comes in our giving and is present in our giving.”

 

2 Cor. 9:8-10

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. [9] As it is written:

 

"He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever."

 

[10] Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

 

 

There will be more than enough for every good work if grace is in your giving. That is a promise from God. He is not a liar. The thing that is missing in giving in churches is grace. It is not of necessity it of the heart in our spirit. It is His Spirit that comes and affects our lives.

 

Dr Cho says that he has fifty thousand millionaires in his church. He said that they were poor when they came, but now they are rich. Verse declares that grace on giving will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” Righteousness is a work in us that increases and multiplies as we sow righteous acts like giving. God supplies the seed and He blesses and multiplies it. What does He multiply? The seed you have sown.

 

People come and ask me (David) to pray for their finances. I say, “Bring me an offering. I can pray over something, but I can’t pray over nothing. He blesses the seed in your life, if you want financial blessing, you can pray all you like, but if you have no seed, there is nothing to bless.” The grace that is always present is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a river of grace.

 

In 1 Corinthians chapter three it says, “Paul planted, but Apollos watered.” The watering that Apollos brought was the flow of the Spirit. That means there is a river flowing from his ministry to the church, to the people. It says that Paul planted the seed. He sowed the seed of Christ into the hearts of the believers and Apollos came and watered the seed. When we sow a seed of finance there is a grace that always abounds toward the seed through our faith and the flow of the Spirit in you waters your seed making it grow. Your prayer watered it by grace and grace flowed to it. Then God gave the increase and did the multiplication.

 

II Cor 9:8

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work.”

 

God’s Grace multiplies the seed. Why? So that you can, “have an abundance for every good work.” If you are poor you cannot be generous on every occasion. The purpose of sowing finance is that grace can not flow through nothing. If nothing is planted nothing will grow. You cannot produce twenty acres of fruit if you plant an acre. God can never lift up the levels of your finance without sowing.

 

One of the pastors of a northern New South Wales Church was having a fund raising event in his church. He asked people to wait upon the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit what they should give. His son-in-law who was earning $25,000 a year and had $1000 saved in the bank. He and his wife asked the Lord how much they should give. The Lord told him to give it all, the whole $1000. His wife asked the same question at the same time and the Lord said to her, “Give it all.” They discussed what they felt the Lord say. They were both shocked, but they obeyed the Lord and emptied out their bank account. Within six months an opportunity opened for them to go into a business. Within 12 months they were making a net profit of more than $100,000 a year. God’s grace was there in the giving and the Holy Spirit was there in the multiplication. The grace flowed to the seed and the multiplication happened.

 

The couple sowed their seed and grace flowed over it because the prompting was there. The grace that was in the Macedonian Church was the same grace that was working in the couple. Today, they have three businesses. Was it God’s intention to empty out his bank account, or was it God’s intention to give him $100,000 a year? God just didn’t bring him into $100,000 dollars a year. He had to sow the seed and then God blessed it. If you are in times of financial difficulty, you cannot get out of it without sowing seed. It is not possible. I don’t care how poor you are, you will not get out of your financial state without sowing seed. If there’s grace with your sowing and faith is there, you will receive multiplication. Does it work? Absolutely!

 

Grace And Faith In Giving

“For we access this grace, through faith, for by grace are you saved through faith.” Romans 5:2

 

Faith must be employed in giving. This is what I (David) say to people in churches about their giving on Sunday. “If you just pay your tithe, after working a 40 hour a week, and add an offering, very few of you would be mixing faith and grace to this seed. Can you even pray four minutes before sowing your seed?” Grace is accessed by faith through prayer and prayer alone. What we need to do is start to add faith, and allow the flow of grace in over our seed. Pastors, you can bring that grace of giving down over people in your church. It’s not in the law, nor the tithe, nor the teaching, nor the education but the power is in the flow of grace.

 

In a small church of two hundred people in Innisfail, Northern Queensland, there was such incredible giving. They gave over a million dollars to the Pacific Islands in five years. That giving was beyond the church daily running expenses. Yet the church was run efficiently and still had money in the bank. It has never been in debt. It has always paid cash for everything. Why? Two things – it was a praying church; grace was flowing and it was a giving church. Because of those two things, the seed was blessed. More than five hundred churches have been sown out from their Bible College.

 

David testifies “Years ago, I was disobedient to the Lord and I was dishonest. I found myself in a terrible state of what should have been bankruptcy. At the time as a young man in my 20’s, I had borrowed well over a million dollars and had no assets to cover that.

 

I had five banks that knocked me back and said I couldn’t make it. I had friends who put up half a million dollars of property to allow me to borrow some money. The banks still wouldn’t take it. I repented from what I had done and I made a commitment for restitution. God spoke to me in prayer, and God said, “I want you to sow”

 

Remember I am almost a million dollars down. We started to turn around, things were starting to happen, work started to come back in – I had gone ten months without a contract – God said, “Give $6,000 a month” I wrestled with it. It was not my money, it was my creditors money. The word just kept coming.

 

I kept money in my personal bank account, so when my wife, Rita went through the old checkouts, it didn’t say ‘no money in the accounts’, because there wasn’t any. I kept a private account. I emptied that whole account out and we scraped up enough money to make that first deposit of $6,000. At the start of every month, that $6,000 went out.

 

The money wasn’t in the bank but when we sent the check out, by the grace of God and the work of God, it came in, and we did this for years and we paid off every cent.

We paid off a church debt. They were being sued for $200,000 We paid it off, $40,000 a year every cent paid off. We had a miracle every week. God wanted to bless me. It was his intention and heart to bring me out of debt, pay my bills, and give me a good reputation. He wanted to bring me a lot of money, but He couldn’t do it because I needed it. HE DID IT BECAUSE HE ONLY BLESSES THE SEED!”

 

The Abundance of Grace

God makes grace abound in the church to sow the seed, and God makes grace abound to the church to water the seed, and then to bring multiplication to the seed. Everything is centred on the seed. Grace begins on your knees in the morning. Lift your hands to God and know that you are obtaining mercy and finding grace that will flow into your gifting, your work of ministry, into your life of holiness and godliness and into your giving. What else does grace do? There is grace for giving, a grace for ministry, a grace for gifts. Paul acknowledged his whole life’s work was the work of grace. He knew what it was to access grace through faith.

 

Romans 5:17

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

 

When we come to Christ, we receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. The abundance of grace comes separately. Righteousness is one thing, but the grace that empowers you to live righteously, is another. God is rich. He is the God of more than enough. He is the God of abundance so that an abundance of grace comes to our life. Thank God for this verse of Scripture every day.

 

1 Cor. 15:9-10

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. [10] But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

 

Paul acknowledged, “I worked harder than all of them, He understood and was emphatic where the real power was, “yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Everything is by God’s grace; His empowerment. God empowers us to seek Him. God empowers us for every work.

 

You are working hard at church to build something for God; yet not you, but the grace that you can bring into the church. It is by grace that you are going to win. Grace is the supernatural ‘performance, enhancing power’ of the Holy Spirit to your life that allows you to do what you cannot do in your own natural ability. What anabolic steroids are to an athlete, grace is to the Christian. That is what you have available to work for you today. You have a supernatural performance-enhancing power. Can you see that? It is flowing into your life. When you lift your hands to God, there is a grace flowing into you. It is empowering you to be supernatural. You are no longer mere human beings, but you are much more. There is something of a God-likeness inside of you that enables you to live godly lives! You can live a righteously and holy life. There is a great work that you can do. There is so much power in understanding that it is by grace that we do His work.

 

Grace and Humility

2 Cor. 12:7-9

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. [8] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. [9] But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

 

Concerning this affliction Paul pleaded with the Lord three times, and He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” What is the power of Christ? It is grace so he said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me”. What is he saying? Paul said of all the work he had done it was not him, it was grace. Now that is humility.

 

God gives grace to the humble. Peter says it. James says it. Proverbs says it. He gives grace to the humble but He resists the proud. Paul revealed “Lest I be exalted above measure”, or in other words, “lest I become proud.” Paul understood that because of the greatness of the revelations he receive he could easily become proud and loose the very source of His power. God therefore used affliction to remind him of that source of power “I asked the Lord to take it, but the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for me.” Grace was the source of Paul’s power but without humility grace cannot be accessed.

 

If you will stay humble, God can keep grace on your life. Grace will then be in ample supply to empower your ministry. Humility is one of the most powerful truths. Jesus said these words in Luke 9:48, “For he who is least among you all will be great." Pride weakens our ability and humility strengthens us. Godly leaders are successful because of humility.

 

It is grace that keeps your heart and your heart that keeps Grace. The Bible talks about drinking of the cup unworthily in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This is speaking about an offence with your brother. If you are offended with your fellowman, you lose grace. When you belittle people, when you are arrogant with people, it hurts you! These are hard lessons. It is in your relationship with people by which you measure pride and arrogance. This is a great truth! Walk in a place of “least”, a place of servant-hood, a place of honouring, a place of being able to wait upon people and lifting up people in your conversation. Don’t exalt yourself. Lift others up, encourage them. Be an encourager. That will keep grace flowing in your life.

 

Where there is pride, there is no grace. Where there is humility, there is great grace.

 

More teaching by Ps Peter Earle here