Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Grace 2

The way that we receive grace is through faith.  Rom. 5:2; Rom 4:16; Eph. 2;8

II Peter 1:2-4 says grace and peace is multiplied to us through knowledge.  Which is it? Faith or knowledge?  Knowledge (full discernment) brings us faith (the ability to believe).  Verse 4 says those promises will make us a partaker of the divine nature.  Whatever promise we receive through faith will make us like Jesus in that area.  If it be in the area of health, He is well.  If it's in the area of peace, He has peace.  Hebrews 6:12 says we inherit the promises through faith and patience.  Romans 8 says we are joint heirs with Jesus. 

For us to inherit the promises, we have to have knowledge of those promises (the Word) so that we can receive the faith from them.  That will allow us to believe God for those promises therefore allowing God to fulfill those promises from His Word in our lives.  As we receive those promises they will make us more like Jesus.  It all happens in the heart (spirit) first.  God influences our heart and it is reflected outwardly in our lives by us becoming like Jesus.

Like I said earlier, writing is a lot different than standing and teaching.  I would probably have taken at least twenty minutes to explain what I just said, but I expect the Holy Spirit will reveal it. 

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Introduction

Well,this is going to be different. Those of you that have heard me teach know how I like to develop a point and thoroughly explain it. Writing this blog, probably weekly,
I will not be able to present subjects like I would be if I was speaking. So
you can just use this as a starting point to do further study on the subjects that
I cover. I'm going to start out on grace. We have all heard of grace as being
the unmerited favor of God. This definition of grace though does not fit in
all the places it is used. John 1:14 says Jesus was full of grace. My question
is, was Jesus full of the "unmerited" favor of God? Everything He got from God,
He got through the channels He was supposed to. Also, Gal. 5:4 says we can
fall from grace. So we can get bad enough to not qualify for something we didn't
deserve in the first place? The Strong's Concordance defines the Greek word
that is translated grace in the New Testament as "the divine influence on the heart
that is reflected in the life". Jesus was full of grace and He said, "If you have seen
Me, you have seen the Father".
In the next blog, we will discuss that the way we get grace is through faith.
Eph. 2:8, Rom. 5:2, and Rom. 4:16