GOG - 20 - Grace Defined (Part 3)
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G R AC E DEFINED (Part 3)
Pastor Nkechi Ene (Mrs.) In this article, we will continue to explore the wealth of God’s grace and get rightly positioned by knowledge to enjoy all that God’s grace has made available for us. So far, we have seen that the grace of God is eternal life, it is the gift of God and His unmerited favour. We also saw that grace is God’s divine ability. In this article we will see two more things about the grace of God. Grace is God’s resource responsibility towards you. Whenever God calls you to do something, He enables you to do it: He provides all you need for it. God will never call you to do something expecting you to generate your own resources. The minute you think you can scheme, plot, borrow, beg, or steal, to get your own resources, you’ve missed it. If you have to labour, do it in the grace of God. No employer is going to employ you without requiring you to do certain things. In my church, we have a school of local church called Ekklesia. Each of our Ekklesia students have their own desktop in class. Loaded on that desktop are the same study Bible I and my associate pastor use and Bible softwares as well. So, they have gotten the resources to do what they need to do. I can teach and tell them, I want an essay in a month’s time on a given topic. They need to go through the Bible, and through the commentaries. Books, and e-books are available to each student. In the same way, when pastors get employed, they get these software on their systems. When a secretary gets employed, some of them even get ipads, and certain things that will enhance their work. That is what a responsible employer does. Where do you think man learnt it from? Grace is God’s resource responsibility towards you. If He gave you that dream, He’s already provided for it, He has given you the enablement to do it, except He did not give it to you. It’s His
responsibility. When God created Adam, He blessed him and immediately, there was no resistance. Adam stepped into the ability and began to name the animals. Adam named his wife, and was doing things easily. Sin had not come in and there was no barrier; but when sin came, what you see is fear every single time God called a man. The Tirst thing the man would say is that they can’t do it, they are small or the least in their father’s house and so on. When God called Moses, the Tirst thing Moses said, in Exodus 3:11, was “…Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” God assured him of His presence with him. That is grace; and the Blessing. However, Moses was still not convinced. In Exodus 3:14, God said, “I Am That I Am …” The response of Moses was entirely different from that of Adam. The same God, called them and gave them assignments but Moses had a litany of excuses. How many excuses have you given for not doing what God has called you to do? When God asks you to do anything, and you understand that grace is God’s resource ability, the expression: “lack of resources” will never come out of your mouth again. When God calls you if the reason you’ve not kicked off is lack of resources then you are saying that grace, God’s resource responsibility towards you is not being expressed. Why haven’t you drawn that plan for the house? You have money for the architectural plan in your account but you don’t have money for the house. Start with the plan and after you’ve drawn the plan, and you have money for a few blocks, mold a few blocks. It is God’s responsibility to provide. He gave you the dream, so why haven’t you started that thing you know He has called you to do? That is what it means to walk by faith. That is how you
access by faith, the grace in which you are standing.
Grace Is God’s Resource Pool For You 2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which Tlows into the Jordan. 4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there”. 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which Tlows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you”. 1 Kings 17:2-9
This passage was popularized by my Pastor: Pastor Charles. At the time he preached this message, it was actually my Tirst time of hearing about a place called “there”. Elijah the man of God in our text above was in a time of famine. God sent him to the brook Cherith and the ravens brought him food there and he drank from the brook. There is a place called “there” for you and that place called “there” is your place of grace. God’s resource pool is supernatural, it violates all-natural laws. Ravens are birds that don’t feed their young, they are nasty birds, but those same selTish ravens fed the man of God in famine. You don’t want to miss your place called “there”. You want to know exactly where God has called you, for there, the ravens are waiting for you.
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GOG - 20 - Grace Defined (Part 3) Another unusual source was the widow of Zarephath. She fed the man of God, sustained him and provided for him. A widow is literally a woman who doesn’t have a man covering her Tinancially. For a widow to feed the man of God, she technically had nothing of herself and we saw that she really didn’t have but she provided for him supernaturally. God’s resource pool is supernatural. There are so many pastors who came to Port Harcourt because Port Harcourt is an oil city. Maybe God called them to Ahaoda, and there are still unbelievers there. Some pastors are hungry in Abuja, God may have called them to Zamfara. You may need to relocate to where your ravens and your widows are. They are in your place called “there”. Churches are found in every corner, everybody is starting a church. Some are supposed to start, some are not and some who are supposed to start are in a wrong place. That is why, I’ve always said, “It is not a luxury to hear from God”. Imagine if the man of God was told to go to the brook Cherith, and he chose to go to brook Kidron. He would have died in Kidron, meanwhile the ravens would have been Tlying around in brook Cherith looking for him. Grace is a resource pool that does not run dry. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8:44 44 As for you, out from your father, the devil you are, and the passionate cravings of you are desiring to be doing. That one was a manslayer from the beginning, and in the truth he did not maintain his standing, because truth does not exist in him. Whenever he is speaking the lie, out of the things which are his own private possessions he is speaking, because a liar he is and the father of it. John 8:44 (Kenneth Wuest)
It’s not everybody who offers you money that God sent to you. It’s not every loan that’s for you. The devil gives out of his own private possessions and resources, which has things such as lies, and death… He’s a murderer, he doesn’t have any truth in his resources. The resources of God are pure, there’s no catch, God’s resource pool is the grace of God. It’s supernatural, it violates all natural laws and it has your name on it. You don’t need to pay any price, otherwise, it ceases to be grace. The only price you pay is the labour of faith and then, it is the labour of grace. Presumed lack of resources does not stand as a bona-Tide excuse of a failed God-given vision as that would be the same as saying there was a lack of grace.
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Grace Is God’s Willingness To Use His God hits you and you’re wondering: “Is this person not a doctor?” The doctor will tell you Power On Your Behalf
God’s willingness to use His power on your what they are supposed to tell you medically behalf is what grace is. It is the willing, working and minister to you by the power of God. There are doctors who lay hands on the sick because power of God, towards you and through you. they understand that as believers, they can do 7 Of which I became a minister according to that. They are in their place of grace. Whatever the gift of the grace of God given to me by the it is you’ve been called to do, you should release effective working of His power. the power of God. You must know that grace is Ephesians 3:7 God’s willingness to use His power towards you Apostle Paul is saying that grace was given to and through you. When you put your faith in every believer by the effective working, the this working of God called resurrection, you operation, and the energy of God’s power, access the gift of grace given to you by the which happened at resurrection. Ephesians power of God. 1:19 says, “And that the exceeding greatness of 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up His power (His dunamis), towards us who believe in all things into Him who is the head—Christ according to the working (the energia), of His 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit mighty power (His kratos ischus), which He together by what every joint supplies, worked in Christ”. This happened when God according to the effective working by which raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at every part does its share, causes growth of the His right hand in the heavenly places, far above body for the edifying of itself in love. all principality and power, might and dominion Ephesians 4:15-16 and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come (Ephesians You are a power house when you are in your 1:20-21). That is the resurrection power by place of grace. When you minister, expect the which you received the grace of God; that is the power of God, expect lives to be changed. When power at work in you. It is according to the gift you teach the Word of God, expect the power of of grace; according to the effective working of God. When you counsel with people, as a premarital counsellor, have your hearts open, His mighty power (Ephesians 4:7). God may tell you something about that couple and lead you by the gifts of the Spirit to save that couple from a terrible marriage and then you can counsel with them, and help them. That is the grace of God. Grace is synonymous with power. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, says, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power…” Demonstration is a word that means a showing forth, a manifestation, a display. There are Tive ministry ofTices: the apostles, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and prophets (Ephesians 4:11). Some people think that the power of God is only evident in the evangelist, or maybe in the apostle. When you think there is no power in any ministry ofTice, then you are saying that ofTice does not exist, because that ofTice is a grace. Grace was given according to the effective working of God’s power. Everywhere the grace of God is, the power of God is. Everywhere, every purpose, every ofTice, every ministry, every grace given by God is according to the energy of His mighty power. When the teaching of the word of grace takes place, the power of God is present because the power of God, established that ofTice in the Tirst place. If Jesus didn’t descend and ascend, He could not have given out those gifts and in His descending and ascending was resurrection power, and when resurrection power came into play, grace was released like never before.
The wealth of God’s grace is the measure of credibility of any miracle. Miracles conTirm the Word that is preached, but miracles cannot replace the Word of God. Anything the power of God gives to you is the gift of grace. God is willing to use His power through you and towards you. That is the power of God. God will always give testimony to the Word of His grace, through signs and wonders. The devil has signs and wonders too but they don’t testify to the word of God’s grace.
When you are a vessel of grace, in the place of grace, the power of God will work through you. Lives will be changed, lifted, and encouraged. That’s your mission. When you’re called by grace to do what God has called you to do, the power of God is at work. Remember that “grace” is God’s divine ability towards you to do what He has called you to do. Grace is God’s resource responsibility towards you, and grace is God’s willingness to use His power on your Do you know that there are some doctors who behalf. you come into their presence and the power of
The Carpenter’s Ministry: All Rights Reserved. No Portion Of This Document May Be Reproduced, Stored In A Retrieval System Or Transmitted In Any Form Or By Any Means - Electrical, Mechanical, Photocopy, Recording Or Any Other, Without The Prior Permission Of The Above.