Growing Personally

The Law dealt with us as slaves - Grace and truth now deal with us as sons. Grace and truth is the new reality; it is the new way that God speaks and it is the new way that He deals with us. It is the new way that He empowers. Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. In Ephesians, everything begins and ends with Grace. This is the big idea of the New Testament. By grace, we are blessed with every blessing. By graces, we are chosen in Him. By grace, we are redeemed. By grace, we received wisdom and prudence. By grace, His inheritance is in the saints. Grace raises up and places us in heavenly places. We are saved by grace. Grace is the unmerited favour of God. And Grace is the unmerited ability of God. Grace is the unmerited revelation and word of God to us. Grace means the freely given favour and empowering life and voice of God. All three! If there is favour but no voice how does uncommunicated favour help us? If there is only favour but no power toward us, we would be blessed but helpless. We know He is the truth. There is no truth if there is no Grace and Christ is grace. The juxtaposition here in John 1, is not Law with Truth, it is the law with grace and truth. Truth does not equal law. The law is not a person. It is a portion of the revelation of truth, but not its fullness. The grace of God encompasses everything that is in Christ. He interprets it. He displays grace and shows forth the truth.

Friend, Grace is God giving His son Christ to live His life through us. Grace is Christ within us.

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Joseph walked to where his brothers were keeping the family sheep, sure that they would be glad to see him. Little did he know that they were very jealous of him and planned to kill him? Eventually, through the actions of the first-born brother Rueben he was not killed but only sold to traders on their way to Egypt. The only beloved son of Israel becomes the one sold to Egypt by his brethren freedom but also becomes the incredible picture of Glorification or what God finally plans for His children. We are trained in this world but are destined for the throne of heaven. It seems incredible; about as incredible as a prisoner becoming a governor in one day. In one day we shall be made immortal and raised up to sit with Christ upon the royal throne of heaven. Right now we don’t look that different from everyone else. The world cannot see that you are a king or prince and son of God and who really a cares. Joseph looked like a prisoner to everyone else; just the same but God had a Day coming.

Friend, like Rueben our firstborn brother of the new creation stepped up to keep us from death that eventually we may reign. Today all creation is waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God, when they rise from the prison of the earth, to rule with the King in the kingdom.

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Imagine that tomorrow the family lawyer rings you up and says a relative has died in England and has no close relatives. We tracked you down and you’re the closest survivor and will inherit her wealth. With your mind racing, you enquire “How much?” 10 million dollars is the reply. Now that is an inheritance! But when you inherit the money, did you work for it or receive it? You received; you don’t deserve you didn’t work, you just received and was very thankful. We are co-heirs with Jesus which means we get to share in His inheritance. In the world, people try to get things. To get a blessing, get ahead, get a wife and get a child, but it is really an unbiblical way of thinking about life. Every good thing comes down from heaven as a gift. That’s Christian thinking. We’re not trying to get things from God; we are learning how to receive things from God. Everything we receive from God we receive as a gift. Father wants to give you an inheritance. He gave you the gift of salvation and you received it. Success is the Christian life is about who can receive the most from God. The more you can receive of God’s grace and gifts the better you live as a Christian. The moment you stopped receiving from God today, was the moment you decided you didn’t need grace; didn’t need Gods power or His help to stay walking in love. Those that do exploits for God are those who keep receiving from God all the time.

Friend, we will always be receivers, so that way He gets all the credit. All we can do is become better at receiving grace. That’s the difference between a believer and a more mature believer; they have learned to be better receivers of grace.

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Luke Skywalker, Batman and other superheroes are the icons of our day. We like the idea of people just like us having great supernatural power. God promises us a great power too through His spirit but there is one step before being strong and that is weakness. Heb 11 tells us that out of weakness many Old Testament heroes were made strong and became valiant in battle. The hall of faith gives the list of hero’s names and gives the secret of their admission to the list. They were all weak, first. There are two parts to Gods' economy; first weakness and secondly strength. Only after weakness, they became valiant in the battle. We must understand today the power of weakness. I say that because weakness is not something we have to gain it is something we have to recognize! It is something we have to embrace. I'm talking about of course a weakness that is recognition of our actual weakness. Jesus said to Peter “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That was not a criticism that was and is a fact. It not that Peter can do anything about it. The flesh was going to be with him and us till the day we die. Jesus wasn't saying Peter "how could you have flesh? If you’re human you’ve got it. But he was saying how come you didn't recognize when it began to influence your life and you dropped back to natural from the supernatural.

Friend, God has not left us in the flesh without God. In fact, you are not merely in the flesh any more if the Spirit of God dwells in you. We are not just human flesh without God now we are new creations who have supernatural DNA.

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The disciples are in the boat and Jesus is there too. When the storm stills He wonders where their faith was. He never said have you any faith but where is it? Your faith is misplaced! Our faith is sometimes focused upon us - Can we be sunk? Instead of on Christ can he be sunk? No! Our faith is in whether He is in control of the storms in our life. The question should be... “ Is God in control of the storms that are coming against Him? Of course! He is in control over all the storms that are coming against Him and His purpose. Against His boat and against anyone in His boat. If no weapon formed against us can prosper it certainly is not going to prosper against the Lord of hosts. He is the Ruler of the universe. Waters winds storms and devils are nothing to Him.

Friend, when a storm from the enemy comes into our life, freshly submit to God. Say “Lord, I'm on the mission with you. You are in the boat and this is your storm!” Matthew 28 tells us that as they went the Lord worked with them because it was His work they were on.

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