From Grace to Faith to Good Works

8“For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10

God is doing something in me that I cannot put my finger on. Since really pressing in for praying in the spirit, I have felt “off balance” internally. For a while, I could not string any thoughts together. At the time, my mentor said this was good as my mind was disengaging from thinking (worrying and planning through the flesh) and my spirit was taking precedence.

Then, after a while, I lost all motivation. I lost motivation to find work. (I have had odd work here or there rarely, and it was just barely helping me get by.) I was comfortable with just getting by, but then my mentor called me out about that.

“You need to get over just getting by.”

This didn’t make sense to me. I thought I was waiting on the Lord to do “it”. My mentor has been teaching at the revival in Brandon and over coffee that by grace the new covenant promises are complete.

The new covenant entails total provision, total supply. The new covenant entails total healing, total wisdom, total peace, total direction; as Adam and Eve had it in the garden. All things were restored. Perfect communication was restored. Perfect communion and fellowship with each other and God was restored. Perfect provision, health and vision were restored.

All of that was restored with the new covenant. Man was brought back to a perfect relationship with God, a relationship in right-standing (righteous) by Jesus’ sacrifice.

Well, that resulted in me waiting for God to provide food, shelter, clothing, work or whatever else was needed. I even wrote about a thought I was having about the phrase “birds of the air.” I thought that referred to the ravens feeding Elijah by the brook. I felt that the Lord was taking me through a season of being fed morsels.

I stopped in that scripture just before it spoke of going to the widow. I stopped because I was more interested in the confirmation of where God had me (being fed by the birds of the air) than where it could take me (the widow, who or what group is that referring to; her child close to death, was this the church as a widow separated from her husband with a languishing church; this could go on and on forever!)

Then, I happened upon the scripture in Matt. 6:26 and Luke 12 where we are instructed to look to the birds of the air. They do not sow (work), reap (look for the harvest), or gather into barns (save, etc). Yet, it tells us, we are move valuable than even they.

I took this to mean that I should not have to work. Under the new covenant, by faith (His faith) through grace (as a gift; Gk. charis) (Ephesians 2), I should be able to walk in total provision and total supply without lifting a finger.

Well, you hear protests all the time that say “well, you cannot do NOTHING.” And I have not known how to respond to this.

Even though I believe that God is bringing me through understanding total reliance on Him, for His faith and grace to fulfill the covenant in my life, I also see a need to “walk it out.”

And my mentor articulated this.

“Grant, walk it out! I walk it out all the time. I believe that all things are working for my profit, expansion, and prosperity. I believe that even through the ups and downs that God is moving me forward, prospering me and expanding my territory. I had two investments go sour. I am moving into a trailer near the revival for a season most likely. Are these signs that the covenant is not working? Are these signs that I am not understanding something in the word?

“No! God is still expanding me. God is still prospering me. He will move this forward. He wasn’t caught off-guard by these events. He didn’t cause these events. But He is using every event to move me into more and more of the covenant fulfilled in my life.”

I began to understand that I need to step forward boldly, declaring and believing that God is fulfilling His covenant in my life. I need to not worry about the results, but put my hand to the plow and let God bring the increase. I need to let me be a conduit by stepping forward one step at a time.

So, I apply to 100 jobs, be the best at every interview, and let God choose which I am to get. Some would call that leaving it up to fate. I call it relying on the Holy Spirit.

So, I put out 100 bids on free lance work, be the best bidder and servant, and let the Spirit guide the right clients to me.

I find 100 contracts for low-priced homes, be the best negotiator, and let the Spirit guide the right buyers to me.

I am the best at what I do because I am blessed at what I do. The Lord will do what He sees fit. I just stay focused on the fact that, high or low, He is working out His covenant, His covenant promises, and His spirit in my life. I focus on knowing Him and the price He paid, and the kingdom will come to me. I won’t have to create it.

And, so, reading Ephesians 2 for the power of grace that has overcome sin, destruction, distraction, poverty, sickness and lack of all kinds, I think I may finally understand Ephesians 2:8-10.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

I realized that there ARE works to do. They are not works to achieve any kind of salvation or blessing. They are the works “prepared beforehand” that result from salvation, that result from grace, that pour out of us by His spirit; they are the works that result from us “walking it out” in the power of His grace and spirit.

This is where God has me.

My First Revelation in Years

There is something interesting and amazing going on. I believe I had my first revelation in years about something.

This weekend, my mentor used this phrase again:
“People are always trying to get a revelation to be able to explain it, or teach it, or communicate it. Instead, they should be pursuing it to walk in it.”

Now, there are years behind my little revelation here, and it will sound too simple in writing, because I cannot explain it, teach it, or communicate it.

To better explain it, my mentor began teaching on grace (eternal security, unmerited favor of God) about 5 or 6 years ago. We closed the church after preaching for a year. He continued to work on it. Slowly, God showed him about ‘receiving,’ and at this point it is ‘the now anointing.’

I have been working through how to understand what my mentor means by “now.” I mean, I KNOW what he means when he says that ‘God has already paid the price for every good and perfect gift (grace), we just need to receive it (receiving) now! (the now anointing.)’

I KNOW what he is saying logically, but I have spent so much time trying to explain it that I have overlooked flowing in a spirit of receiving all that Christ has paid for NOW in my life.

We rarely look and spend any time on focusing on aligning our mind and spirit with receiving those things. We settle for being able to explain it. We rarely see it manifested.

For example, if the Word says that God teaches us to prosper and adds no sorrow to it, then why do people not see themselves knowing how to prosper? Of, if they do prosper, why are they usually so full of sorrow, confusion and regret? If the Word says that by His stripes we were healed, why do Christians walk around unhealthy, handicapped, and sick? If the Bible promises that we are now living in the spirit, that we have been set free from the bondages of this world, that we should give on every occasion, that we will be lenders and not borrowers, that if we ask we shall receive, that we are to be Christ’s example here in the earth THEN WHY AREN’T MOST CHRISTIANS WALKING IN IT? Why am I NOT WALKING IN IT?

So, I stop and realize that I have a mental understanding of these things, but I have not aligned my faith for them. I mean, seriously, it means one of two things. A) God is not real or B) I lack faith on these things. (I know that there is a lot of underlying theology here. I assume you can work through some of that yourself. a] the bible is the inerrant word of God. b] you have already tried to live out the Christian life and have messed up as much as I had. etc.)

The Grace Teaching helps us to realize that everything Christ promises we do not have to strive for. It is given to us, free of charge to us. Christ paid the price. If that is true, then every good thing in the word should be mine. But there is a breakdown somewhere. People have not received. I have not received.

So, the Receiving Teaching comes along and says that we do not have to DO anything to receive. We just need to know how to receive. For mental, rational people like me, this has been difficult. What got in my way was trying to understand. To communicate to people what my revelation was, my “click over” if you will, I say it like this.

I asked myself why I was trying to understand it.
Well, I responded, I guess so I can explain it.
Why am I trying to explain it? Who am I explaining it to?
I guess so I can help other people understand it.
Understand what?
My revelation on Grace, Receiving, and finally flowing in the miraculous Christ says He died for.
Is that a revelation for you? Is that manifesting in your life?
Well, uh, no.

And my mind clicked over and I thought, I need to stop trying to understand it. I need to focus on believing it.

I believe that the Receiving Teaching is nothing more than a teaching on BELIEVING in what Christ has said about us. We know it. We do not believe it yet. If we did, we would be manifesting it.

This weekend, getting this “click over”, was more of a revelation. I have stopped trying to understand, and just started to receive it.

And I fully believe the teaching my mentor gave on praying in tongues helped me get here. A short time ago, he began teaching that praying in tongues is the key to living the Christian life that Christ taught about. He believes that “it is the perfect being praying the perfect will in the perfect timing for our lives.” Romans 8:26-28.

Eliminating English from my prayers and only praying in tongues has had the following effect on my life. It has disengaged my mind from the process. I have stopped trying to understand anything. When someone asks me what I think, I find that my mind is pretty much empty for the first time in my entire life.

As a thinker, I am usually aggressively pondering things and trying to explain them and understand them. After praying in tongues a little bit (half hour up to an hour a day concentrated), I found that my thoughts were not formulating any real ideas. I felt boring in that I did not have anything interesting to say. As all of my friends in Lakeland here are building businesses and planning and moving their life forward, I find that I have put down my plans for tomorrow.

I am yielding my plans. I am yielding my ideas of what should be and what shouldn’t be. More and more, as I pray in tongues, I begin to truly zero-base my thoughts, beliefs and emotions. I become more and more a mental blank slate. I am not trying to be able to explain it. I am not trying to build my own life.

Praying in tongues is yielding our mind, and that is the first step to yielding our lives.

That being said, I feel that this weekend I have my first real thought in some time. This mental click-over with being able to receive was, I believe, my first thought derived from emptying my mind from praying in tongues.

That all being said, lets put this together now.

I believe that I have finally had a revelation about Grace for the first time in 5-6 years. I believe that I have a first sliver of revelation about what it is to first receive the grace of God, receive the zoe life, the life eternal. I believe I am gaining a revelation on the power of tongues.

Instead of trying to first understand and then get blessed, I am simply yielding, receiving, believing God will fulfill His work of grace in me, and then, maybe if I am lucky, will I understand it.

Transitional

For me, this has been a rather unique breath of nothingness over the last few weeks. After the changes with my main client, I kept going to the office. I was seeking what I should be doing, scraping together client work, and trying to figure out “what next.”

The Kruses moving here, provision coming to me from random places, and a general unfruitfulness with most of my busyness, I began to understand that it was a time to do…nothing.

So, I have been getting up, praying, getting ready and going to Panera (I moved all of my stuff out of the office entirely). Sitting at Panera, coffee with the Kruses, and networking on the phone have been my most frequent activities, but most of my waking hours have been spent praying in my spirit. (Terry enlightened me further with 1st Corinthians 2:6-14 as to the power and implications of praying in the spirit.)

I feel that so many areas of my life are coming to a close. I feel doors shutting in my heart, like steel doors clamoring sealed on many things. I feel as if I have been standing at the mouth of a cave, facing out over a tropical vista, and a steel door clanging loudly behind me as it seals off the cave.

I do not know what that means, but that is how I feel: released.

I feel released.

When I put the last item from the office into my car and made my way to Panera for the first time in ages, I felt further release. I felt a return to the mentality I had when I moved here; I have a gentle apprehension about what God is ending in my life, a soothing peace about not doing anything right now, and total excitement about what is coming next.

And other than that, I know…nothing.

I feel good; living in the middle of the now…at least for a season.

Laminin and the Cross

A good friend sent this to me today. It was amazing how integrated our lives are with our creator.



Laminin is, according to Wikipedia, "vital to making sure overall body structures hold together." Its a powerful protein molecule that holds our bodies together. This video puts the protein molecule laminin into a good context!

(The interconnnectedness of life astounds me daily.)