The benefits of Grace and the right heart to enjoy it

Messages for May 2018: Our Month of Great Grace

Message for Sunday 13^th May, 2018

Theme: Understanding the heart of man in relation to the grace of God

Topic: The benefits of Grace and the right heart to enjoy it

Introduction: Last week we looked at what grace is and what the heart of man is and we saw how the heart of man could influence the extent of grace a man could enjoy from God. Today, continuing along that line, we are going to be seeing some benefits of grace and the right heart to enjoy them.

Some benefits of the graces of God and the right heart for each:

In the book of Psalm 103:7 we learn that while the Lord showed the children of Israel His acts, He revealed His ways to Moses. The reason this was so was that Moses showed interest in knowing and following God more than in getting miracles from God. The children of Israel were more interested in the miraculous acts of God than in Him. See Exod.33:14-17 and Exod.34.

As a result of knowing the ways of God, Moses was able to command His acts. Therefore, the children of Israel relied on Moses to get their needs met instead of going to God straight. We in the New Testament Church are indeed more privileged than them because we now have God living in us and can cultivate intimate relationships with Him to enable us approach Him anytime we desire and learn from Him of His ways and walk in it. The following are therefore some benefits of the grace of God.

1.     Divine Favour:

This is to be treated with preference by God. It is the magnet that attracts blessings in your direction. This is what enables a person to speak a different language in the midst of adversity among others. This is because the person is divinely exempted from whatever evils are around from which others are suffering. When God wants to bless a person, He gives them favour. When God was to take Israel from captivity, He gave them favour for instance. This is because the favour of God is what sets the pace for our liberty from any kind of captivity; no matter how long standing the issue has been. See Ps.5:12; Exod.3:21 and 12:36.

2.     Divine ability to be and do the following:

Get saved and remain saved: I have asked myself several times why it is that everyone is not saved when indeed, God wants everyone to repent and come to the knowledge of the truth? But a closer look at scriptures reveal that God, while desiring that all get saved, makes it optional so that the will of man would not be violated. In John 3:16, we read that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The “whosoever” included in that verse of scripture shows us that man’s choice is required to complete the process of salvation. In all the texts that addresses man’s need and God’s solution for salvation, man’s will is not violated. This explains why whoever gets saved did so by the grace and faith of God as shown to us in the book of Ephesians 2:8-10. It is also by the grace of God that after we get saved, we remain saved. The Lord orders us to bear fruit that abide; the means by which He keeps our fruit of souls abiding is by His grace because He is the one who keeps us from falling. See Jude 1:24; 2Pet.1:11. To engage the grace of God for whatever reason requires that you come boldly to God to ask for His grace and mercy as you need it. Heb.4:16.

To enjoy the grace of God to get saved and stay saved would require a humble and meek heart. A humble heart for instance would acknowledge they are sinners in need of redemption which they cannot give to themselves. No matter how moralistic such a person is, they would know that only by bowing to the demands of God can they be saved. See Isa.64:6; Rm.3:10 and 1Pet.5:6

However, to stay saved would require that you are meek. A meek person here is someone that is docile to God. It takes meekness to follow God as this is required to receive the word of God that would save the soul to the point where the souls could be saved to follow the spirit. This results in mind renewal that enables you to prove and do the perfect will of God always. See Rm.12:2; Jas1:21; 4:6-7 and Mt.11:28-29.

Grow in faith: Another thing the grace of God helps us to do is to grow in faith. This is because at new birth, every believer receives a measure of faith which God expects us to cultivate until no faith grows to become faith and little faith grows to become great faith and great faith grows to become exceeding great faith. The entire Christian race is known as the faith; thus any failure in faith is a failure indeed because without faith it is impossible to continue with God because He will not be pleased. [Heb.11:6] therefore whatever helps your faith has helped your life. This is why Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith should not fail. When He did, God supplied the grace that enabled Peter to make it. See Lk.22:31; 2Thess.1:3 and Lk.17:6. It is the grace of God that gives you faith for new birth and faith to continue to grow in the faith. We are told to desire the sincere milk of the word of God so that we may grow thereby. For us to desire and then feed on the word of God takes the grace of God. When God’s word is sown, it takes a good and honest heart to receive it and bear fruit with it. The more you hear the word and meditate on it, the more you would conform to it and the more you conform the more you will be able to do it. This is because, the word of God has the inherent ability in itself to fulfill itself. All these boil down to grace because the Lord says in Jn.15:5 that we can do nothing without Him and the means by which He helps us to do all things especially what we cannot do for ourselves is Grace. See Lk.8:15. In the process of growing in obedience to the word of God, we grow in grace as far as obedience to God’s word is concerned. Thus the grace of God would always be sufficient for us.

To be able to enjoy the grace of God to grow in faith, a heart of humility cannot be compromised because anyone who is proud cannot enjoy the grace of God at all not to talk of enjoying the ability to grow in faith. See Jas.4:6 and 1Pet.5:5.   

Grow in grace: Another blessing of grace is to enable you grow in grace. The truth is that the level of grace each believer enjoys varies from person to person. Apostle Paul said that he was what he was by the grace of God and that the grace given to him was not abused as he did not disappoint divine expectations of him because he laboured more abundantly than his peers. See 1Cor.15:9-10. From this text it is clear that another kind of person who can enjoy the grace of God is one who has a diligent attitude. Apostle Paul said God bestowed His grace upon him even though he did not qualify for it but that by the same grace he labored more than the others. This has proven to be true over time because he was instrumental in writing two third of the New Testament to the glory of God.

The means by which we can have access to the grace of God itself demands an attitude of humility and boldness. So to enjoy grace you need both humility and boldness. This is because you will need both to approach the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. See Heb.4:16 and Jas.4:6.  

Walk in the spirit: It is the grace of God that enables us to walk in the spirit. If we walk in the spirit, we would not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is because the flesh is constantly at war with the spirit for the control of the soul. God wants our souls and He can only get it by us listening to and obeying our spirits. Satan also wants our souls and he can only get it if we keep disobeying our spirits. In Rm.6:16, we learn that whoever we yield our bodies to in obedience becomes our master. It could be to sin which is the flesh or to righteousness which is the spirit. See Gal.4:1. From this text, it is evident that when we walk in the spirit, we would become and get the best God wants us to have out of life. The Holy Spirit only communicates with spiritual people and that makes walking in the spirit absolutely important for the saint.

To be able to walk in the spirit would however demand a meek and quiet spirit which the bible calls priceless before God [1Pet.3:4]. All it takes to do this also is grace. May the promise of great grace to us this month find full expression in the life of everyone here in Jesus’ name.

This grace requires self-denial and to be able to live this way, one must have a heart that is not afraid to make sacrifices for God giving up one’s own interest in favour of God’s interest. See Lk.9:23-26 and Jn.12:24-26.

For want of time and space, I will draw the curtain here today. However someone may he reading this blog who is yet to make any commitment to the Lord and as such may not understand the bulk of what is written here. But I have good news for you; you can make that commitment right away by saying the following prayers out loud in faith and you will be born again and you can immediately believe God for the grace to live for Him:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.