Messages for May
2018: Our Month of Great Grace
Message for Sunday 13th 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.