"Balanced grace" is a denial of the gospel. Balanced with *what?* Law? Personal responsibility? Moral behavior? By nature, grace is unilateral. Grace is the pure expression of the Father's agape delivered to us through His Son and experienced in His Spirit. Beware of warnings that "grace must be kept in balance" because what comes next is likely to disavow true grace altogether - Steve McVey
The skewed theology of Grace being balanced with anything is the element that confuses much of the church. The logic around that reasoning calls for people to leave grace for a moment in order to find the "missing piece" that completes it - it happened when Paul preached the pure gospel of Gods grace, and it's happening today too.
Nowhere in scripture is there the sharing of tension between Gods grace with anything else, not even faith.
This tension between Grace and faith is not biblical. It's 100% grace and it's 100% faith - i.e 100% God's favour and 100% us trusting that it's God's favour. It's at this point when true, peace-filled productivity begins to reveal itself (as a FRUIT).
I love what Charles Spurgeon says, "We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all."
The arm wrestle evident in scripture is between faith and works, not faith and grace...and faith is the product of 2 sources:
1) A gift from God (each is given a measure).
2) Renewing our minds with the gospel of His grace.
Faith is a response to His Grace, not the completion of it.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Have you got the right perspective?
'Why do Christians who earnestly desire everything that God has for them, never receive the blessings promised to them?
The answer: they await and strive after a reward for their service, but because they are heirs, the Father can never give them as a REWARD, what belongs to them as a BIRTHRIGHT!'
Man's primary call is to be reconciled; find rest in His reconciliation and discover true identity which is already existent IN CHRIST.
Holy Spirit will take us on His journey for us (almost always brewing within us as desire).
We are not primarily called to discover "our purpose in life" - this ambitious mentality has crushed many young believers. Believers who burn with desire, but since they are not informed and discipled to walk in the Spirit, they pursue the "ministry" and not the Maker. Is there a journey mapped out for us? Yes there is, but HE wants to take us on it.
It's interesting, in this regard, that Jesus Himself (a man whose purpose was dripping with prophetic confirmation) only spent 11% of His life fulfilling His "calling" (at least as our modern day church culture would recognize it to be).
Despite the anticipation and desperation in all of creation for one man to fulfill His ministry and calling...there He was, throughout His entire twenties...carving stuff out of wood.
Many adamant believers (ironically in their twenties) have "backslidden" from "ministry".
Why?
Because they were discipled to believe that "carpentry" is a selfish waste of time; that they are called to perform a responsibility that supersedes their selfish desires.
Are we then to leave people to their own desires without a care in the world? No. But are we to force people onto our desires? No.
Lead people. Not merely according to biblical principles, but offer them something better - a personal encounter with God...a gift of personal relationship where they are free to walk, and respond to Christ, and this not as our next series entitled "Walking with Christ" or "living by the Spirit", but as a lifestyle of faith and rest. Knowing that the good we increasingly desire as we are lead by the Spirit of grace and truth, is the good God desires.
Let's sow the seeds and water with love, but let Him bring the growth. It's what He so wants to do.
Grace and love to you!
The answer: they await and strive after a reward for their service, but because they are heirs, the Father can never give them as a REWARD, what belongs to them as a BIRTHRIGHT!'
Man's primary call is to be reconciled; find rest in His reconciliation and discover true identity which is already existent IN CHRIST.
Holy Spirit will take us on His journey for us (almost always brewing within us as desire).
We are not primarily called to discover "our purpose in life" - this ambitious mentality has crushed many young believers. Believers who burn with desire, but since they are not informed and discipled to walk in the Spirit, they pursue the "ministry" and not the Maker. Is there a journey mapped out for us? Yes there is, but HE wants to take us on it.
It's interesting, in this regard, that Jesus Himself (a man whose purpose was dripping with prophetic confirmation) only spent 11% of His life fulfilling His "calling" (at least as our modern day church culture would recognize it to be).
Despite the anticipation and desperation in all of creation for one man to fulfill His ministry and calling...there He was, throughout His entire twenties...carving stuff out of wood.
Many adamant believers (ironically in their twenties) have "backslidden" from "ministry".
Why?
Because they were discipled to believe that "carpentry" is a selfish waste of time; that they are called to perform a responsibility that supersedes their selfish desires.
Are we then to leave people to their own desires without a care in the world? No. But are we to force people onto our desires? No.
Lead people. Not merely according to biblical principles, but offer them something better - a personal encounter with God...a gift of personal relationship where they are free to walk, and respond to Christ, and this not as our next series entitled "Walking with Christ" or "living by the Spirit", but as a lifestyle of faith and rest. Knowing that the good we increasingly desire as we are lead by the Spirit of grace and truth, is the good God desires.
Let's sow the seeds and water with love, but let Him bring the growth. It's what He so wants to do.
Grace and love to you!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Manifesting Reality
An excerpt from an article by John Crowder (be warned, the revelation you may receive could be uncomfortably freeing LOL). Be blessed:
"Robert Capon tells the following parable of faith. A man is in a hospital bed in traction, his arms and legs motionless in casts. Meanwhile, he hears that his house is falling apart. As he lay in the hospital, he is helpless to do anything about it. Later, his friend comes along and tells him, “I have just paid off the contractor I engaged to repair your house. It’s all fixed – a gift from me to you.” The man’s friend has repaired his house. All the man can do is either believe or disbelieve his friend’s good news. He can trust that his friend’s word is true. But his belief does not “change” the truth. The facts are the facts. All his faith accomplishes is the enjoyment of the facts. Capon writes:
“Look at it another way. Suppose I had decided, while staring at the hospital ceiling, that if only I could work up enough faith, you would undertake to repair my house. And suppose further that I had grunted and groaned through every waking hour trying to get my faith meter up to red hot. What good would that have done unless you had decided, as a gift to me in response to no activity on my part whatsoever, to do the job for me? No good, that’s what. Faith doesn’t fix houses – carpenters and painters do. And faith doesn’t pay bills, either. Faith, therefore, is not a gadget by which I can work wonders. It is just trust in a person who actually can work them – and who has promised me he already has” (The Astonished Heart, p. 41).
Christ the miracle worker has already done it all. It’s only an issue of therevealing of what He’s done so we can wake up to reality. Right now, the earth is groaning for the revealing of the sons of God. For us to manifest an already existing reality. I am convinced as ever before that we are about to see a major outpouring of the supernatural like never before. But it will not come from groaning and pushing and trying to “make ourselves” manifest the kingdom. It is coming through a revelation of our identity – that we have already arrived. Our arrival is not a future point (when the manifestation occurs). Our arrival has happened – it is Him. You are a source of endless possibilities. Your identity is in Him, and your actions are an outflow of that. The problem has been our attempt at creating identity by carrying the responsibility for evangelism, miracles, kingdom advancement, etc. on our own. Those things will happen. But it’s about being over doing. And doing out of being. But never doing to become. It all starts with realizing our identity.
You are not going to pump up the faith to shine forth your sonship in the realm of unusual miracles – no more than you pumped up your own salvation. You see, the gospel was never about your faith – it was always about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ."
Much love, grace and revelation to you :-)
"Robert Capon tells the following parable of faith. A man is in a hospital bed in traction, his arms and legs motionless in casts. Meanwhile, he hears that his house is falling apart. As he lay in the hospital, he is helpless to do anything about it. Later, his friend comes along and tells him, “I have just paid off the contractor I engaged to repair your house. It’s all fixed – a gift from me to you.” The man’s friend has repaired his house. All the man can do is either believe or disbelieve his friend’s good news. He can trust that his friend’s word is true. But his belief does not “change” the truth. The facts are the facts. All his faith accomplishes is the enjoyment of the facts. Capon writes:
“Look at it another way. Suppose I had decided, while staring at the hospital ceiling, that if only I could work up enough faith, you would undertake to repair my house. And suppose further that I had grunted and groaned through every waking hour trying to get my faith meter up to red hot. What good would that have done unless you had decided, as a gift to me in response to no activity on my part whatsoever, to do the job for me? No good, that’s what. Faith doesn’t fix houses – carpenters and painters do. And faith doesn’t pay bills, either. Faith, therefore, is not a gadget by which I can work wonders. It is just trust in a person who actually can work them – and who has promised me he already has” (The Astonished Heart, p. 41).
Christ the miracle worker has already done it all. It’s only an issue of therevealing of what He’s done so we can wake up to reality. Right now, the earth is groaning for the revealing of the sons of God. For us to manifest an already existing reality. I am convinced as ever before that we are about to see a major outpouring of the supernatural like never before. But it will not come from groaning and pushing and trying to “make ourselves” manifest the kingdom. It is coming through a revelation of our identity – that we have already arrived. Our arrival is not a future point (when the manifestation occurs). Our arrival has happened – it is Him. You are a source of endless possibilities. Your identity is in Him, and your actions are an outflow of that. The problem has been our attempt at creating identity by carrying the responsibility for evangelism, miracles, kingdom advancement, etc. on our own. Those things will happen. But it’s about being over doing. And doing out of being. But never doing to become. It all starts with realizing our identity.
You are not going to pump up the faith to shine forth your sonship in the realm of unusual miracles – no more than you pumped up your own salvation. You see, the gospel was never about your faith – it was always about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ."
Much love, grace and revelation to you :-)
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