Home »
Grace brings a mighty change, a promotion in your life, for the scriptural truth is – grace takes you from where you are to where God needs you to be. So, wherever you are in life right now, you are destined to be promoted.
The foundational source of all grace is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fountain of grace.
How Christ becomes your source –
‘If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.’[Romans 8:11] It is by the Spirit who now indwells in you, the power of Him who raised Christ from the dead. And on that final day of resurrection, the mortal body that is sown in dishonour will be raised in honour as mortality is clothed with immortality. [1 Corinthians 15:43]
How the Holy Spirit helps you live now –
‘For the death He died, He died to sins once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.’ [Romans 6:10,11]
Even so consider yourself –
Sin is the root problem of death. But Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world on the Cross, overcoming the power of sin and death on the Cross. He rose again for death could not hold Him. And because of His victory you too can be victorious.
How the victory manifests in your practical living –
‘For the Law of the Spirit of Life has set you free from the law of sin and death’. [Romans 8:2] The laws that operate both in the natural and the spiritual cannot be broken, but they can be superseded by a law that is higher and more powerful. And thus it is that when the law of sin pulls you down, it can be superseded by the Law of the Spirit of life that is more powerful. When sin increases grace increases even more. It super abounds. And Jesus is more powerful than the devil. His blessing is more powerful than the curse of the law.
No condemnation –
The verdict has already been pronounced. The wages of sin is death. But now, in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation – for He has paid your penalty on the Cross. You do not have to serve your sentence for the sins you have already committed.
What happens when you are faced with sin and temptation now-
The book of Judges and Psalms 107 describe the plight of people who were unable to break free from the cyclic bondage of continuing sin. But now, through what Christ has accomplished on the Cross, you can live in the freedom of the new covenant. The Law of the Spirit of Life has set you free from the law of sin and death. [Romans 8:2]
It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. [Galatians 5:1] Since Christ has set you free from the power of sin, you can remain free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
How you can remain free –
You are now free to dominate over sin, the curse and the devil. You become the dominator, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
How the Holy Spirit helps you to remain free –
‘The mind that is set on the flesh is death. But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. [Romans 8:6] It is through the mind set on the Spirit that you experience peace and wholeness, overcoming the sinful flesh. And when there is a battle in your mind whether to walk according to the Spirit, or according to the flesh, you need to choose to side with the Spirit of God.
‘For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on things of the Spirit’. [Romans 8:5]
Nothing mystical or magical, but the mind that is set on the Spirit brings peace of mind and abundant life.
How it works out in you –
When you have the Spirit of God in you but still find yourself plagued by needless fear and anxiety, you need to know what your part is in receiving all that Christ has made available through the Cross. Knowing involves understanding, for only when you understand how the truth of God’s word operates you will stand and not buckle under pressure.
Peace reigns in you through a process as you –
1. Prioritize –
No matter where you are, often you may find yourself unable to focus as your thoughts are all over the place. But the Lord teaches clearly, “Seek first the kingdom of God… [Matthew 6:33] It is all about keeping first things first in your mind, for out of it flow the issues of life. And the truth is, you will give importance in your mind to that which you value. Therefore if you value the word of God, you will automatically give importance and priority to it. You will involve yourself in the word of God. Otherwise, even one small problem will take you away from His word.
Value determines how you determine your priorities, and the right order would be –
1. God
2. Spouse
3. Family
4. Work
Christ is the beginning, the First born from the dead, that in everything He might be pre-eminent. [Colossians 1:18]
God and His word come first, and this may not be too difficult for most people. The problem invariably crops up in the second place. But giving your children that place will see you facing the empty nest syndrome when they grow up and leave home. On the other hand giving your work second place will find you married to your job. But work can never be as important as a relationship, and money can never replace a relationship.
Therefore in your thinking, in your mind, God needs to come first. And what He thinks of you is of utmost value, not what others think of you. People may erase you from their lives, but He never wipes you off. He has engraved you in the palm of His Hand. You are precious and of great value in His sight.
2. Particularize –
Caleb said unto Joshua when they were in the Promised Land, ‘So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said’. [Joshua 14:12]
Caleb rightly believed that God would give him the specific hill country that He had promised to him, though forty five years had gone by. And he did not dilute the promise of God by saying that he would settle for any land that was given to him. In your life, as you walk in the fear of the Lord, He is very specific about the promises that He gives to you and your children. [Psalms 128]
He describes the work of your hands, your wife and children and says, “This is the way you shall be blessed”. There are no approximates with God. When you arrive into a crowded airport, among the waiting throng of people it is the one particular face of your loved one that your eyes seek out.
When you receive a particular promise from God, by grace through faith, confess it and make it yours. Paul’s prayers in his epistles to various churches were very specific. As mothers when you pray specific prayers for your children, you will indeed get specific and special answers from the Lord. And He is able to do much more than you asked or imagined.
3. Persevere –
Even as you begin to set your mind on the things of the Spirit by prioritizing and particularizing rightly you will inevitably find it to be a struggle, for the devil does not give up easily. But problems that you face will also be an opportunity for the demonstration of God’s power in your life.And it is then that perseverance comes into play. Perseverance is diligence that does not give up when the pressure mounts, but works instead to overcome it.
It is definitely not a passive laid back attitude that accommodates or gives up by saying, ‘Let it happen when it happens’ regarding organizing your thoughts. Rather it is like the woman whom the Lord describes, who lights the lamp and searches diligently till she finds the one lost coin. [Luke 15:8-10] Perseverance progresses till it receives or accomplishes what needs to be done. For just when you set out to think rightly a problem will invariably crop up leading you to think wrong discouraging thoughts.
But it is like running a race that also includes hurdles. You cannot stand before the hurdle and pray for it’s removal, or move away from it either. You have to jump over it. Every Christian faces hurdles. They come so that you can overcome them. And it all starts with the mind. When God gives you a promise, the devil will send you a problem. But you need to persevere, be diligent in your confession, not diluting the promise of God. And you can do it in His strength for greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.
Summing it up- in the context of prayer:
‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus’. [Philippians 4:6,7]
Prioritizing –
Top priority is prayer. It is by praying and not worrying – keeping first things first.
Particularizing –
This is by submitting to the Lord with thanksgiving, your specific requests and petitions in prayer. Then His peace will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, for ‘Call unto Me’, He says, ‘And I will answer you, tell you great and hidden things that you have not known’. [Jeremiah 33:3]
Persevering –
Then when people come along to play the devil’s advocate with you, not to complete your need but to complicate it, you need to persevere by – ‘Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’. [Philippians 4:8] You are a blessed person when your delight is in God’s word and you meditate on it day and night. ‘He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields it’s fruit in season, it’s leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers’. [Psalms 1:3]
Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer
