Wednesday, October 19, 2011

He is on YOUR boat!

Have you ever ACTUALLY wondered how the "story" would have gone, if the disciples chose to remain at REST in the boat during the storm?
Exactly how far would the chaos have gone? Yet Jesus was adamant they should have simply trusted and "chilled".

I mean, how can simply trusting that Jesus is with you actually get you through a practical, literal, physical problem or period in life? Hahaha, SHABBA!!

I'll tell you!
As un-nerving as circumstances may be... as lengthy and as ruthless a "rough patch" might seem (sometimes you may even start seeing cracks forming, and water rushing onto your boat after you've said and done all things "holy") hahaha, there is still space to rest.

I encourage you, emmerse yourself into the pure Glory of HIS FAITHFULNESS.

Life isn't always fun, but it is possible to TRULY REJOICE during ANY circumstance (and that's no contradiction).

The secret lies in the nature of your trust:

If you are hoping and trusting for Christ to "break in at any moment now", your waiting will be filled with anxiouty, frustration and energy-sapping anticipation, until something good happens. And then the cycle starts over again.

But, if your trust in Christ is in the fact that He has ALREADY "broken in", and is currently "SLEEPING ON YOUR BOAT" right now (WITH YOU), you'll begin to see an increase in your ferver for living, and begin to "rejoice in all things"...even during those "cruddy" times in life!

Hahaha!!
Have a JOYFUL day :-)

Monday, October 10, 2011

Love

An excerpt from writings of "Isaac the Syrian" (died AD 700'ish):

"...Love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.

When we find love, we partake of heavenly bread and are made strong without labor and toil. The heavenly bread is Christ, who came down from heaven and gave life to the world...The person who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and every hour.

...Love is the wine “which maketh glad the heart.” Blessed is the one who partakes of this wine!
...Licentious people have drunk this wine and become chaste;
sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling;
drunkards have drunk this wine and become fasters;
the rich have drunk it and desired poverty;
the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope;
the sick have drunk it and become strong;
the unlearned have taken it and become wise..."


Many who thirst for a greater revelation of God's love have been labelled "selfish" or "passive christians".
I label them as WISE!

Have a glorious day guys :-)

Friday, September 2, 2011

The GREATER reality!

What's your "reality"?

The slog of life? The "making-ends-meet"?

Sure, these are real, but what consumes your thinking and perspective?
What are you MOST strongly CONVINCED about?

Paul himself said fix your mind on things above,
he said our lives are hidden in Christ,
he said he himself was compelled by Love...he was possessed by love...CHRIST'S LOVE!

Christ is our mystical REALITY, eager to manifest around us!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Rest in HIM

Some people study their problem more than they study their promise - Mark Hankins.

We all, at times, fall into the trap of trying to deal with a problem in our own strength, empowered by the knowledge that there is a problem, and not empowered by the Holy Spirit who leads us INTO A BETTER WAY (our promise).
We don't overcome the flesh by simply deciding to overcome the flesh.

Many "preach" behaviour modification. And while bad behaviour is indeed bad behaviour (there's no denying that), an attempt to cut off the fruit, doesn't kill the root.

When a person is habitualy steeling (for example) his REAL problem isn't steeling (that's merely the manifestation of his problem. And as much as this may carry effects and consequences, my focus here is not the social impact of the problem, but restoration within the individual), his real problem is the OBJECT OF HIS FAITH.
If the battle is in the mind, then surely it's ultimately in THAT arena where victory or defeat is given birth.

For such a person to overcome the lust of his the flesh (i.e steeling instead of trusting - and of course assuming that he wants to overcome it), "those who are spiritual" (as Paul would say) should gently lead him to repentance (i.e change of mind), so that his focus is not empowered by his habit and "need" to steel, but on the spiritual realities of himself in Christ (the gospel).

You don't hold up a packet of salty chips to a person thirsty from eating many packets before hand, and tell him to stop if he wants relief. You give him water, where his focus isn't on the problem at all anymore, but now on the goodness of the quench...taste, and see!

Coming to a place of freedom in a certain area is sometimes a journey. We are 'taught by grace' - remaining mindful of the finished works of Jesus Christ - where we become familiar with the GOOD nature of God, and the fulfilled promises that are in Christ. Ripe for the picking as we begin to trust and walk in the Spirit.

That temptation to "better oneself", is as much a lust of the flesh as pornography is (it's just that pornography is morally frowned upon, whereas "christian DIY" SEEMS less destructive).

There is a BETTER way. And it's not the moral code...it's the Supernatural promise, by a Supernatural Father, calling us into a Supernatural relationship.

THANK YOU JESUS !!!!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Grace is NEVER the problem

The message of God's grace is often misunderstood by many to be suggesting that sin is fine, and that it's ok to live however we want.
It must be clearly understood that this is NOT the case.

This, however, does not mean that we have licence to "adjust" the gospel in any way because of fear of such misunderstandings, or even the fact that some might even use the "grace message" to preach that sin is ok (I personally haven't come across anyone who preaches that).

God, by His grace (and through our faith in Him) actually has a new and COMPLETE life HE would rather lead us into, instead of us attempting to patch together our own one...with a bit of "Rock" here and a bit of "sand" there.

Paul himself said that if anyone (including himself or even angels) were to preach a different gospel to what he had layed down before them, they were to shun it!
Realistically, what Paul was saying here was, "if by some chance it ever seems I've started preaching law, or started mixing law with grace (like many jews around him were buckling towards again - even some elders), or maybe even begun persecuting again, don't follow me just because I'm Paul, but stick to what I first preached to you, regardless!"

Did Paul go around encouraging people to sin and do evil?
Not at all.
Was he slanderously and repeatedly accused of preaching a message that was doing this?
Yes.
Then how can he be slandered for what there was no account of him actually doing/saying?

It’s called ‘religious political propaganda’ stirred up by demons.

[Romans 3:8] – “Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, ‘The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let’s just do it!’ That’s pure slander...” (The Message).

The term ‘political spin’ is used to describe when someone takes something that is essentially true, but subtly distorts it so that it comes across contrary to what is actually going in.

If we look at the accusations against Steven and Paul (they were accused of speaking against the temple of Moses, and against God’s law that was delivered through Moses), we think to ourselves...”Well, Steven and Paul were actually doing that!?”.
It’s the spin that the Pharisees put on it that made it look like it was evil what Steven and Paul were going around saying...that it was encouraging rebellion against leaders...that it was encouraging licentious, loose living...that it was ignoring God-given codes and principles. And that’s NOT what Steven and Paul were ACTUALLY doing at all!

[Acts 6] – Steven accused, with political spin and lies, for instigating against “truth”.
[Acts 13] – Who forced Paul and Barnabas to eventually leave after they presented the gospel? Was it the sinners and pagans, was it satan worshippers? No.
[Acts 21] – By this stage the Jews had pretty much gone back under law, and the elders were embarrassed since they had now become aware of how this message of God’s grace carried controversy with it – not within itself, but due to the resistance it stirred in the face of the religious – Martin Luther also tasted a bit of this sort of resistance).

It’s important to know that the Holy Spirit is not stirring up this controversy around the truth of God’s grace, it is stirred up by religious demons – “The battle is not against flesh and blood...”!

If we don’t want controversy to surround us because of this message, but want to balance it with a bit of law so as to make it palatable to the religious, we would then need to distance ourselves from Christ and side with demons and the flesh of man (sounds harsh, but we must understand that people are not demons, demons are demons – let’s love people, but use the purity of Christ’s gospel to “overcome” the deception of the demonic realm).

Many could then compromise and say, “Ok, I will accept that we are saved by grace, but then we are most certainly sanctified by the keeping of the laws of God” – this is a lot of nonsense.
[Romans 10:3] – “Christ is the end of the law to all who believe...”
We don’t have ANYTHING to do with the law; we are DEAD to the law.
Christ is the end of the law.
Our sanctification is by grace and by the Spirit of God.

Don’t just assume that because someone carries a title, even of an apostle, that deviation, mixture or abandonment of the gospel is permissible. Paul had to rebuke Peter (an apostle) to his face because he deviated from the gospel.

The issue, in fact, is not about law and grace.
The issue is about who controls the church.
If we mix law and grace together, the leaders (i.e. man) controls the church.
If we take the law completely off (as we should do), then the Holy Spirit controls the church of Christ.
We still have elders and leaders, but they are not the managers, rather, they are the liberators of God’s people!

Many leaders, ALL of whom God sincerely loves (and let’s be careful not to become judgmental towards people), but many leaders are frightened of losing control of their churches, and can react very angrily when their own control is in question since they have probably carried with them a "mission statement" they've been working towards as a yardstick of success for years.
And as you give in to that bully-boy tactic (empowered by the religious spirit) everything is sweet and nice again - you fit in and create no waves. However, if you dare to preach the gospel that Paul preached, you will then be sweetly asked to be more accountable, and if you carry on you will see the brutal cruel face of religion.
WE ARE NOT FIGHTING AGAINST HUMAN BEINGS HERE. WE ARE NOT FIGHTING AGAINST MEN AND WOMEN’S NAMES. It’s just that behind such people, there is something very destructive manifesting.

The call is NOT to create problems, but to walk in the purity of the gospel under the leading of the Holy Spirit – let’s not rebel (that is legalism in itself). But, if responding to our revelation of the pure gospel of His grace and goodness results in conflict...then be encouraged to persevere and endure in Him who has set you free from sin and death (and the law, which is the power of sin).

“By one sacrifice, He has perfected forever all of those who are sanctified.”
In Christ you have been perfected FOREVER in the eyes of God.
Sanctification, a completed work in Christ, bears it's fruit by grace through faith, and not by the law or mixture.

[Colossians 1] – He sees you without accusation; without condemnation. He sees you as perfect forever. He sees you in Christ Jesus.
He does NOT, nor will He EVER, hold our faults and mistakes against us [2 Corinthians 5]

This security that comes into your heart makes you open to the Spirit of Grace, and the power of the operation of the Spirit.
His grace is not a message to simply agree with. It is a lover having removed EVERY stumbling block, and calling His bride into an intimate, non-judgmental relationship with Him (lead by Holy Spirit).

[2 Corinthians 3] Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And we are all being transformed from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory; into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
We are not being progressively changed by legalism, judgment and wrath, but we are being transformed by a Spirit of LIBERTY, in the KNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE ALREADY FOREVER PERFECT IN THE EYES OF OUR FATHER.

Legalism points out and highlights that you’re “not quite there yet".
And the fact that there is certainly evidence of imperfection in everyone's life, makes focusing on the PROBLEM all-the-more tempting and logical, leaving one attempting to beat themselves up toward perfection (in fear).

The ultimate sanctification, in fact, is when someone loves Jesus more than anything else, because they have become established in the truth that He loved them first...unconditionally! And this change is evidenced by fruits of love.

You may very well be aware of areas in your life that require change, but while legalism highlights these areas (even with good intention at times) and makes them your yardstick of pleasure unto God, the grace of God distracts us from being overtaken by our current imperfections and draws us into the revelation of HIS - and this "distraction" comes with freedom and power to change.

If someone puts you under PRESSURE to present YOURSELF holy, run...to God!
Grace is a voice that says, “Why are you hiding in the knowledge of your imperfections? Don’t be ashamed. Come to me and let ME clothe you.”

Our biggest problem (in the wake of religion), is being impatient with the RATE of the manifestation of grace in our (and other’s) lives.
And do you know why?
Because we don’t like sin.
But praise God, the cross has done a work of cleansing us from being sin conscious aswell – and surprisingly, GOD is not as hung up on our sin as WE sometimes are.

God should be comfortable to live with.

Boldness and shame cannot be present in the same room together, and God beckons us to approach Him with BOLDNESS.

Everyone, even the most bound-up legalist, is under grace because the law has been done away with, and grace is God’s only and everlasting covenant with ALL.

Even those who have embraced and opened themselves up to the message about the grace of God, are still on there own journey of appropriating grace and the accomplishments of the cross to every area of there lives (If not, I encourage you to. There is far more abundance in the cross than just forgiveness of sins - and I'm certainly not watering that down).
So we must never become grace Pharisees with an elitist attitude, shoving the grace finger into other’s noses, because that’s ungracious and counter-productive in itself.

Let’s be motivated by Love and lead by the Spirit.
And if what we say is constantly opposed, quietly leave without rallying a rebellion.

Be encouraged, because it is for FREEDOM (from sin, death and the law) that Christ has set us free. No longer to be subject to a yolk of slavery...but to pursuit Him and embrace the new life He has for us in Christ.

Thank You JESUS!!!

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Spirit of life in Christ!

Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them — living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells — even though you still experience all the limitations of sin — you yourself experience life on God's terms.
It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

"Resist the Urge"

The apostle Paul told the Collosians, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God". We can very easily get caught up in the rat race of "good works", yet not be walking in the Spirit.

Since Jesus was in a fleshly body, limited by time and space etc etc, there was naturally alot of "good things" he still could have done, but didn't...why didn't He go to bed just one hour later each night and roam the streets to minister to a few more people?
Yet, he never carried any condemnation concerning good works going "undone".

Why?

Simple.

He never walked according to the flesh, He walked according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Am I frowning on people ancouraging their brothers and sisters in Christ to continue in good works?
No, but keep it simply that...a Spirit-lead ENCOURAGEMENT.

God's grace does far more than motivate us towards good living, it EMPOWERS us towards it, and IN it.

Let's make every effort to not just enter, but REMAIN in Him (His rest) - and of course, it is possible to have a busy life and still be in His rest (rest is not a state of immobility, it is a state of complete TRUST), but that's a story for another blog.

People often blame "time" for lack of "revival", they say things like, "history repeats itself", but the bible hints to the real reason...something along the lines of 'a dog returning to its own vomit'. Others will "urinate" on the finished works of Christ by trying to add or bring balance to a finished work by trying to WORK FOR CHRIST instead of LIVE IN HIM (I am tempted to apologise for the harsh vocabulary, but the bible itself refers to such efforts as "dirty rags" or "menstrual cloth").

Here is a good article that I hope will be of encouragement - that we remain in Him, and learn to walk with and talk with and listen to Holy Spirit, enjoy:

Resist the Urge (by Wayne Jacobsen)

It's often been said that the greatest enemy of the best is the good. It often is. The greatest distraction to being a part of what God is doing in the world is to be focused on human efforts, especially what we try to do for him. Nothing disrupts God's work around us more than when the arm of flesh asserts itself to try to do for God what we think God cannot do for himself.

When we feel unattached, unproductive, or insignificant this growing urge will prod us to "at least do something," as if misguided activity is preferable to a quiet, listening heart. If that doesn't spring from our own flesh, then it will from someone's near us. Many of our fellowship groups, Bible studies, and outreach efforts have begun with the perceived guilt that we are not doing enough for God. More time-consuming and irrelevant religious activities have been generated from that distorted impulse than any other. Authors manipulate it to sell books, and would-be leaders exploit it to get us to embrace their programs and contribute to their income.

The fruitfulness of God rises out of rest not anxiety, out of the gentle nudge of his Spirit not the vision of a charismatic leader. In truth, God is not asking us to do anything for him. He's already doing the best stuff in the world and as we learn to live inside of him he will invite us to be part of what he's already doing. One of the things I notice about the life of Jesus is that he rarely created the environment, or planned meetings for other people. He simply joined them in the environments in which he found them.

When we get so involved with our own planning we easily miss the moments Jesus puts right in front of us. They are always far simpler and yet more magnificent than what we conjure up. At the beginning they never look as flashy as our plans or appear to be as far reaching. Usually he's just inviting us to love someone. We have no idea how simple acts of obedience can snowball into consequences we never considered.

As long as you have any confidence in your flesh's ability to work for God, you will confuse the urge to be productive with the nudging of the Spirit. And the more capable you are in your own efforts and intellect the greater danger you're in of substituting the arm of the flesh for the breath of the Spirit.

Being part of his church happens by simply loving the people God puts before you each day.


Much love
Troy

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

If love is a "doing word", and "God is Love"...

...it would be selfish and prideful NOT to live a life positioned in the experience and desire, and regular consciousness of HIM lavishing HIS love (i.e ACTING it out) towards US (since WE are the objects of HIS love)!

Sure, the cross is the u...ltimate demonstration of His love for us, but like everything provided in the cross, receiving the fullness of it by faith alone should be an ecstatically exciting lifelong journey - Calvary didn't just leave us with a "party-pack" of goodness, it actually opened the door and provided free access into the engine-room of creation and life itself - ALL OF HIM IS MADE AVAILABLE!

Increasing in His Glory is impossible, if all we hearing is God saying "Go", and we shut ourselves off to His constant whisper of "Come".

When God said He resists the proud, I don't believe He was referring to those who refuse to take instruction (legalists thrive on instruction), but rather, He was referring to those who do not know how to receive unconditionally (all the while aware that there is no expectation apart from believing and trusting).

Understanding His grace towards mankind and His love for us, will help us let go of a dictator-mindset of God, and position us to increasingly consume the limitless goodness of all He is and has, whilst fully knowing we ourselves have earned none of it (yet being at peace with that truth) - this is true humility!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Cheating On Jesus!

Extracts from an article by Santo Calarco:

"Legalism does not necessarily mean “you need to keep the law to be saved!” That is not what the New Testament calls legalism.

In Gal 3:1-5 Paul defines legalism as human attempts to combine what Jesus did on the Cross for us with obedience to the law in order to gain or maintain relationship with God: “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing … after beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort” Gal 3:2-3. New Testament legalism is not salvation by law, but Jesus plus obedience to the law in order to maintain relationship with God.

Until Christmas Eve 2008 I believed this very error. I reasoned that God wanted me to keep his law as a believer as a love response to what he did for me on the Cross. Although this was correct and I still maintain this position, it became polluted. I began to “fine tune” my approach to law and grace and taught that although the law played no part in my justification it did have a part in my sanctification. Then I realised that this was the very heresy that Paul confronted in both Galatians and Romans. In Galatians 3 Paul was talking to saved believers who introduced law into their relationship with God as a basis for on-going fellowship. Re-read Gal 3:1-5 slowly and carefully and you will see this.

In essence Paul says that victory over sin comes as we remember who we belong to. Is sin your master or Jesus? Is the law your spouse or Jesus? See Rom 6:1, 2, 14, 16, 18-19 cf. Rom 7:1-5. Paul discusses victory over sin and tells us that the key is in our perception of who we belong to. Identity determines behaviour!

The law does not have a part in my sanctification. Any attempt at trying to combine Jesus and the law was bigamy and adultery – cheating on Jesus! I was not going to produce holiness through any combination of Jesus plus the law. In fact trying to combine faith in Jesus plus obedience to the law to produce victory over sin would result in further sin!

If we try and keep the law to produce holiness whilst at the same time remain married to Jesus we will fail. We are in fact cheating on Jesus. Paul tried this himself. He speaks about his own Christian experience with Jesus and says that as he tried to stay married to Jesus and to the law in order to experience victory over sin he only failed more and more.

In our pursuit of holiness [as a fruit in our lives] we need to remember that we are only married to Jesus and that we have died to our former spouse (7:4). And the good news of sanctification is this: regardless of my attempt to keep the law of God, my relationship to God remains totally in tact because I am married to his Son; regardless of the result I am never condemned in his eyes! As I remember and practise this truth then holiness [as a fruit] will surface. As I remember that my partner is my Saviour and I spend more and more time with him – then his Spirit will transform me from the inside out and the RELATIONSHIP, and NOT the law, will change my behaviour – Grace is indeed amazing!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Good Works/Fruits!

Eph 2:8-10 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."


Paul is pretty adamant in stressing the point that we are freely positioned into Christ as a GIFT by His GRACE (through Faith and not works or any effort on our part).

He goes on to say that we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created IN CHRIST JESUS.
For centuries many have taken it upon themselves to emphasise the "GOOD WORKS" part of this text, and while I completely agree with this fact and truth, I'm emphasising "HIS WORKMANSHIP" and "IN CHRIST JESUS" (I do this because while it is true that God does indeed have wonderful, powerful, liberating works in store for us to be PARTAKERS of, Paul's previous comment eludes to the fact that our works OUTSIDE OF Christ Jesus is actually a dead fruit since our lives are to be found IN Him) - Paul tells the Collosian church that our "lives are hidden in Christ", so it is IN CHRIST that we will discover our good works.

"Workmanship" (Poy-ay-mah in the Greek) refers to being a product or fabric of something/someone, so until we discover who we are as a joint fibre (having the DNA and fullness of Christ Himself engraved into our very fibre) our efforts will be in vain and strenuously laborious. Scripture is pretty clear here that we were not just created, but actually created IN Christ Jesus.

It is very easy to use scripture to control people who are searching for truth, and effectively this is what the church has been subject to at large for centuries, especially when the bible does refer to our participation and outward fruits as such. But what is God actually looking for?

Mar 12:41-43 "And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box."


Jesus looks at out heart.
In Mark (as seen above), we see a whole lot of people doing a good work - i.e giving financially to the Lord. Of course to an onlooker judging this, the fruit of giving is clearly visible, yet Jesus points out that the right motive/heart makes the difference.

So how do we get this "Heart/motive"?

Friends, there are indeed many awesome works for us, but I struggle with the term "working FOR Jesus", when in fact "It's no longer we that live, but Christ that lives in us". Our works and fruitfulness are expected to naturally ooze from us, since they are embedded in the fibre of who we are (IN CHRIST JESUS) woohoo!!!

As we saturate ourselves with the truth of a completed work (the gospel of Jesus Christ), we begin to grow in revelation of this powerful reality (our freedom), and a willful response to what we begin to hear spoken in us by Holy Spirit (who is tasked to lead us into all truth), will allow Christ Himself to manifest (through powerful and awesome good "works") - it's not us who work FOR Him, it's Him who works THROUGH us.

Revelation of the gospel will empower us far more than sheer will-power could ever, and as we hear Holy Spirit, let's respond to what He is saying (I simply encourage you).

So let's Press into the finished works of Christ (The Gospel) - soak in it, be saturated with it and drink it up...His pure, undiluted love for you!

Eph 2:10 cannot be read as an instruction to go work, but rather a calling to find our lives which are IN CHRIST (which naturally engraved within it's DNA are the works prepared beforehand).

Be blessed and encouraged!