Grace Powered
Living life through the enabling power of God's grace
God is good
Sep 1st
There really is nothing else worth persuing in life than the knowledge of God. To know him is eternal life. All the riches in the world cannot buy that knowledge, and despite it’s immense value it is free. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Why am I here?
Nov 27th
I’m sure you’ve heard it said that if you were the only person living on the earth, Jesus would have come and paid the price for you. Well did you ever have the thought that God would have made the whole earth and everything in it, just for you? Did you ever think that he made everything around you just so that he could have a place where he could demonstrate his love for you – a place for you to learn the deepest of all truths … his unconditional love? God was pleased with the works of his hands and said, “it is good” … but it means nothing to him in comparision to you. Am I saying that God does not value what he has made? No. But you (singular and on your own) are worth more to him than the very earth itself, and he would trade it in an instant for your heart. In fact he would trade both heaven and earth for you. How do I know this? Well he gave his own son freely and willingly for us – what can possibly be worth more than that?
Who’s fault is it?
Nov 27th
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
(John 9:2-3)
Why do we love to ask this question? Whenever something goes wrong, or even if something that should have gone right failed to come through, we want to know who to blame. “I came up for prayer but did not get healed – is it my fault or the minister?”
Listen to how Jesus answered, he basically said, “Hold on a minute, you’re asking the wrong question – the point is, God is the answer.” You see, God is never interested in who’s fault it is – he doesn’t even go there. The solution is always the same – I AM!
I used to read Jesus’ answer and think it sounded like God made provision for, allowed it to happen to, or made the guy blind so that he could then get glory from healing him. Duh! To be fair I suspect that original language does not translate well. But that’s not at all what Jesus was saying.
The goodness of God is always our Advantage, never what we earn for being right. He is always the gift, not the wages. Every single one of us has come from a place of error, of failure, of sin. And in the flesh that’s who we potentially are. But God does not camp there for one moment.
Are there things we can do in order to receive? Yes. 1) believe, 2) doubt not. Both equally important. But is it your fault that you did not receive? Wrong question. Don’t make it about you… like Jesus said, it’s all about God.
Fasting
Sep 11th
I have been doing a 30 hour fast, theoretically each week, but actually averaging 3 times per month, for the last 5 years. There are many benefits – one of them being that it gives you control over your appetites and you become “master of your own vessel”. I used to do longer fasts (10+ days) which are also beneficial, but I have found the regular 30-hour fast gives the most gain. I think if you try and do this more than once a week it becomes hard to sustain and you will be discouraged and give it up. I fast from midnight Sunday till breakfast Tuesday. I experience an energy boost Tuesday through Thursday afternoon, then start to ‘normalise’ over the weekend… and then the cycle starts again. Doing this once a week gives you like a “reset” button each week when you can re-affirm your intentions on any issue – and is a powerful way of strengthening your resolve. Works especially well for decisions regarding diet. Great for countering the promiscuity of this age. It’s hard to be a man, or a woman, in this visual media culture and not experience your body pulling you in directions you don’t want to go. So if you don’t like your body telling you what to do – let me tell you – this is what you’ve been missing.
Did you marry the wrong person?
Aug 3rd
If you think you married the wrong person it looks like a Loose-Loose situation from which the only escape is death! But I have some good news for you, and some of the most amazing scriptures in the Bible.
First let’s have a look at a few things people deal with:
- I had my doubts she/he was the right one, I even split up from them … but then I change my mind and we got married.
- Well we were in a serious relationship, heading towards marriage … then I made her pregnant so that was that.
- I knew we were not right together – we didn’t even believe the same things – but I wanted him/her too much.
- We were fine till we got married – then it seems like she/he became a different person … I feel like I was deceived.
- We both had a “prophetic word” that we were meant for each other, and we thought that was enough … now I know different.
There are in fact lots of situations that could lead to you coming to the conclusion that you are trapped with the wrong person. It doesn’t even matter whether or not you believe there is such a thing as “the right person”, or if there is such a thing as a divine plan for it. If you now think you are married to the wrong person (however you define that) – the answer is the same.
Enter the Gibeonites.
As Joshua set about conquering Canaan, the Lord told him to utterly destroy the inhabitants of the land. But through a combination of trickery and lack of wisdom Joshua made a peace covenant with some of them. We can read in Joshua chapter 9, the Gibeonites were afraid of Joshua and so they pretended to be travellers from a faraway place. They wore old shoes and clothes, put stale food in their bags, and deceived Joshua into believing they were not from Canaan but were from a faraway land. Verse 14 says “So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord.” In other words they just made their own mind up and didn’t ask God about it. So he made a covenant with them. Have you ever done something like that?
So here we have Joshua leading the people of Israel into a binding covenant with the enemy – the very people God had told them to destroy. Does this look bad or what? Surely this was a covenant doomed to failure. Surely you would think God was a little disgruntled about this, right? Well the five kings of the Amorites, the neighbouring cities, were surely disgruntled with the Gibeonites for making a covenant with Joshua, so they got together to make war against the Gibeonites.
At this point you might be forgiven for thinking, well, this was not so bad. The Gibeonites will be wiped out and the Israelites would have a way out of their bad ‘marriage’ without lifting a finger against their new partner. But instead this turns into one of the most amazing revelations of scripture – the power of covenant, and how far God will go to honour your free will. You see, the Israelites were God’s people and he was their God. And when Joshua made a covenant with Gibeon he brought God into that covenant. God was now 100% behind the covenant and 100% behind the Gibeonites because of their alliance with Israel. Immediately God went from the position of commanding their destruction to the position of moving heaven and earth to defend them. And what follows is simply one of the most amazing incidences recorded in history.
The Gibeonites – under attack from the Amorite kings – sent word to Joshua and called for help. Joshua mobilised his whole army and the Lord told him that the Amorites would not be able to withstand him. Now look at this scripture from Joshua chapter 10:
“Joshua travelled all night from Gilgal and took the Amorite armies by surprise. The Lord threw them into a panic, and the Israelites slaughtered great numbers of them at Gibeon. Then the Israelites chased the enemy along the road to Beth-Horon, killing them all along the way to Azekah and Makkedah. As the Amorites retreated down the road from Beth-Horon, the Lord destroyed them with a terrible hailstorm from heaven that continued until they reached Azekah. The hail killed more of the enemy than the Israelites killed with the sword.On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said, ‘Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies. Is this event not recorded in The Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and it did not set as on a normal day. There has never been a day like this one before or since, when the Lord answered such a prayer. Surely the Lord fought for Israel that day!”
The Lord himself fought for Israel – on behalf of the Gibeonites – and even killed more of the enemy with hailstorm than Joshua’s army. Not only that but he caused the sun to stand still in the sky until Israel had defeated the kings – an amazing miracle, showing God’s total commitment through a most extravagant answer to prayer.
There’s more can be said of this. If you follow the fate of the Gibeonites through the reign of Saul and of David you will see how David, generations later, defended the Gibeonite’s cause which had fallen badly from favour under Saul. This covenant was established throughout the generations.
Are you seeing the picture? You might have made a bad choice but God is 100% behind your marriage. Perhaps it wasn’t God’s choice for you, but that’s not relevant any more. What is relevant is how you see it now. God is totally committed to your choice, your covenant, your partner. He will move heaven and earth to defend it. As you understand this, I pray you will once for all settle the issue. Use the knowledge of God’s unshakeable favour for you both to conquer all doubts about it, and build a strong marriage together.
The Case for Grace
Jun 16th
You get some folks on one side who talk a lot about the grace of God, emphasising what God has already done – and an inner motivation that comes from simply receiving it. Then you get those on the other side that emphasise our part. They say, yes God has done it all, and the reason we’re not seeing more revival is to do with our obedience, holiness, witnessing, spiritual warfare, etc … These two stances often seem to be opposite to each other.
For a long time I couldn’t figure out where the emphasis really should be, and thought it was one of those “balance” things – they are both true but, like two sides of the same coin had to be held in some sort of equal validity.
I just want to give a short testimony by way of explaining that it’s not about balancing two sides of a paradox. It’s really a lot simpler than that. I’ll get to my testimony in a minute,, but first I want to say it this way: there are many instructions and, if you will, requirements of us as believers that come from submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. But there is only one way to achieve them FROM THE HEART and that is through the empowering of God’s grace. In other words we need the power on the inside that changes our “want to”. Think back – wasn’t that what happened when we were first born again?
Anyway, back to my testimony. I was one who tried for over 16 years to get my “Christianity” to work. Have you ever pulled over your car and asked directions from someone, and they say something like, “Well, go for about 5 miles and take the road that is signed SuchAndSuch. Keep going straight for about 10 miles until you reach a junction, then take a left… your destination is about 200 yards on the right, just past the McDonalds.”
Several hours later you still have not seen your destination, but instead of questioning the directions you decide to retrace your steps and try again. Several days later you are still repeating the exercise. This goes on for several months. Sixteen years later you are still going over the same directions and getting the same result!
Religion is always promising a future tense victory, “just keep going… it’s just round the corner! Revival is nearly here. God’s just about to move. It’s us, we’re holding it back. We just need to be more holy, we just need to be bolder, we just need to be delivered of spiritual strongholds, we just need XYZ.” Another 10 times round the mountain, and God is still saying the same thing he was 10 years ago… and we are still not doing it because “the breakthrough” has not happened… so off we go again round the mountain!
But we have the victory in Christ NOW.
The point is this: grace delivers the promised life that Jesus said we would experience. It brings an experience of his love, his peace and his joy. It brings the victory. If you are not experiencing this victory in increasing measure isn’t it time to question what you were told, and what you believed. Grace works. If what you believe does not work then maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at the grace of God. It’s not about what you’re doing or what you’re not doing. It’s about discovering that you died and Christ now lives in you, and letting his respond come from within you!
“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” He inspires the action and he lives it out… through us. It’s him from the start to the finish. Be still and know that he is God.
If you’re a believer, the law is not for you!
May 18th
I think there is something profound in the fact that Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When we choose to live by law it is the same thing. God said, “in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” We were not designed to live by (consult, measure up to, aspire to) an external standard of righteousness. The purpose of the external standard was to show how evil sin is. But once we come to Christ we must not use the law for this purpose. That point is made very strongly in Galatians.
There is no purpose for law in the believers life, except perhaps to help the lost see how lost they are.
Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
1 Timothy 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.
If you’re righteous, the law is not for you! The purpose of the law is to show you that you need a Saviour. Once you are a believer the law ceases to have any purpose for you in regard to knowing sin or knowing righteousness.
Galatians 3:24-25 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Galatians 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
So what does this scripture mean. The bondwoman and her son represent the law. Once you have come under grace by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ you need to “case out” the law. That’s a strong phrase. You don’t entertain it, play with it, use it as “Plan B”, or consult it’s opinion about what is right or wrong in your own life … you cast it out. Period.
FAQs – is God Sovereign?
May 2nd
I’ve covered some FAQs about the topic that is known as “the sovereignty of God”. For an excellent examination of this subject see the resources on this page (off site). I’m sure there are gaps and if you have a specific question feel free to ask it in the Comments section.
1) Is God in charge of the earth … is he in control?
The best way to answer this is by way of illustration. A good one is that of a tenant and a landlord. God as the landlord “leased” the earth to Man, giving him every-day authority and responsibility to manage and run it. Ultimately the Earth is the Lord’s and the current lease will expire at a future date.
2) Does God ultimately make every decision about everything?
No. As God has delegated day-to-day management to Man then our authority is effective. Also the Lord has initiated physical laws that govern the earth. And it’s worth noting that some of these physical laws actually work against us since the fall – see below.
3) If God does not make every decision, does he not “review” them on a case-by-case basis?
The idea that God sits at a desk in heaven “rubber stamping” the decisions we make, is bogus. Some say that he does not make every decision but he approves or denies each – effectively giving him the last say. Actually there is no practical difference between him making every decision and him vetting every decision. It amounts to the same thing, ie, responsibility is in the same place. This is false.
4) Why do “bad thing” that happens in the world?
Sin entered into us when Adam made a choice that violated God’s will. The spirit of man that was connected to God was disconnected at that moment. This does not mean we do not have a spirit, it means that our spirit is separated from God. That is the definition of death. Since the fall, we have not been able to govern the earth using the resource of a spirit connected to the creator. This leads to a creation that is out of balance.
5) Is the fallen state of Creation a factor to be considered?
This is important: the earth is now working contrary to our best interests at times and natural law in this state is at odds with God’s purpose and will. God allows (see 1 above) the Earth to be subject to corruption because it is our responsibility and he gave it to us to manage. If God were to intervene and reverse this then he would have to “cancel the tenancy agreement”, in which case he would have to judge the world at that time. But that time has not yet come even though it certainly will. Until then creation “groans”, waiting to be liberated.
6) What about the devil – is he responsible for it all?
The devil is the seed-sower of sin. He was the one that brought the offer of independence from God. He is certainly to be blamed. However, Man must take responsibility for his own choice. Since Adam fell we have been disadvantaged with the devil – he became our master. Man was not designed or built for independence. We are designed to be inspired and influenced by the Spirit of the Lord and take our lead from Him. But since the spirit was separated from God by sin, a type of vacuum was created into which the devil has easy access. The devil and demons now influence and inspire in the place where the Spirit of the Lord did. The fact is that the devil cannot do anything in the earth without using a human being or the authority that a human being gives him. Jesus delivers us from all this and gives us back a spirit connected to the Lord.
7) What about earthquakes and natural disasters – is that God’s judgement?
No, natural disasters are the result of Man’s spirit being separated from God. It follows that as the earth’s population increases, so does sin’s effect on nature. As sin increases in the earth, so too will natural disasters because natural law was placed under Man’s authority. This is nearly a reversal of God’s plan in the beginning for Man to “increase and subdue”. His plan remains, but instead of subduing the earth we are ruining it simply by operating out of our corrupted nature.
8.) Is suffering not the result of the curse that God made on the earth and on Man in Genesis 3:15-19?
A curse in it’s primary form is simply a negative word. In this case God was declaring the consequence of the action – not inflicting a punishment. When the Lord said “I will do such and such” you might think that he is taking some kind of revenge for being snubbed. In fact I believe he was simply permitting the terms of the tenancy agreement to go ahead. He was allowing Man to continue on, but without being connected to the Spirit of the Lord. And the consequences of this were expounded in these verses. Don’t get me wrong, if God had decided to punish then he could have done so in complete righteousness and we would have been totally deserving of it. There are examples of God saying he will punish men for their sins, but this is only found in the Old Testament. While “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”, the way he deals with Man is not the same. There are two covenants due to the fact that Jesus took all our punishment! But that will be the subject of another article.
The Widow’s Secret
May 1st
These days I find myself regularly thinking about the “widows mite” … you know, the time when Jesus and his disciples watched as the offering was made at the temple. There were those that threw in large amounts of money, while a widow came and put in two mites (the equivalent of half a penny). Jesus was so impressed that he called his disciples to him and pointed out to them that this widow had put more into the offering than all the others.
I used to think about this as a percentage thing: they might have thrown in £100 but had a spare £500 that month – so they were giving a noble 20%. But still, they had £400 free spending cash after all the bills were paid. This widow only had half a penny and she gave 100%.
While this is a true and valid point, I have found myself reflecting on another matter. This widow was living for the audience of One. When everyone around her was looking like they were doing so much, how did she have the motivation to look past the derogatory looks and the murmurs of “what’s the point?” (Prosperity in that culture was often seen as proof of God’s favour, and poverty that you had sinned.)
She didn’t care what anyone else thought about her meagre offering, or what they thought of her as a person. She was taking it to God to tell him she loved him with all her heart. She had a desire to bring her offering because, despite her situation, she recognised God’s love for her and wanted to say “thank you” for his companionship and comfort. It reminds me of Paul’s comments to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 8:4-5 Begging us … that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we expected, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
They first gave their own selves to the Lord. It doesn’t matter what you put in the offering if you have not done this. And then once you have done this it also does’t matter what you put in the offering – the point is give yourself!
Jesus made a profound statement about faith when he said to the Jews, “How can you believe, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only?” A great way to become more intimate with the Lord, and to get rid of doubt, is to start to practice living “for his eyes only”. This was the widows secret.
Communion – breaking bread
Apr 25th
Paul the Apostle said that when we take communion we declare the Lord’s death until he comes again.
Jesus is coming back again Until he does, let’s remember him, all he means to us, all he has done and is doing for us. Let us REMEMBER Jesus!
I recall a time when I was considering communion, mulling over what it means to remember Jesus. Why would I remember someone who I have a present tense relationship with? Let me share a few thoughts: Even though Jesus is very real in the present tense, he is no longer with us in the flesh. But if it was not for the fact that he had to die for my sin he would still be with us today – in the flesh. He would never have died … there would have been no reason for it.
I started to think about a particular relative of mine. I’ve always had a good relationship with them. I started to imagine that he had to go away to a far land, and I would never see him again in this life. I knew that he had to go because my life depended on it. And he was doing it for me – giving up his career, his chance of a family, his right to live this life to his full potential. I started to feel a deep sense of love and gratitude to him – not just because it meant my life was saved, but because of his willingness to give it up for me. I could actually imaging him doing this for real, so that helped.
Now I transferred this to Jesus. Oh my! How much more did he deserve a life, a career (King of Kings and Lord of Lords), a family – to live out his sinless days on the earth he made – with the ones he loved? He gave up so much for us. But here’s the clincher: he’s coming back. One day he will actually walk these streets again, he will breathe this air again, he will be among us again. He will come to claim his inheritance!
I think part of the reason Jesus gave us the bread and wine to remember him was that it is physical, you can touch it, feel it, break it, slurp it. He doesn’t want us to forget he was here, very real, in the flesh.
Interestingly communion is always seen in the context of a meal in the New Testament. I’m sure that’s not the only way it can be taken, but there is always something intimate about eating and sharing together that makes communion in this setting very appropriate. And in fact it was in this setting that Jesus first said, “with great desire I have a wanted to share this meal with you before my death …”
In whatever way you take communion, let us remember him … until he’s here in the flesh again!
