OPERATING UNDER THE GRACE AND POWER OF GOD

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES

TOPIC: OPERATING UNDER THE GRACE AND POWER OF GOD

SERMON BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu
President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Ephesians 2:8

THE POWER OF GOD’S GRACE

It is so important for us as believers in Christ to fully understand the meaning of Grace.

The most powerful, significant, and liberating message ever given to the human race is the gospel of grace. The Christian life is established on the foundation of this wonderful truth, which emphasizes what Christ did for us on the cross and what the Holy Spirit does in us in our daily life.

In Jesus Christ, we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand,
Romans 5:2. This is so amazing which reminds me of the song:
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
was blind but now I see.

So what is Grace and why is it so vital for us as God’s people to understand the meaning of Grace and the impact it has in our lives.

Grace is God’s unmerited favor or undeserving favor of God to those who are under condemnation.”
In Christ we are no longer under condemnation but under the Grace of God.
The number 5 symbolises God’s grace, goodness and favor toward humans and is mentioned several times in Scripture.
In other words, Grace is God doing good for us that we do not deserve.
However, Grace and Mercy are not the same. Mercy is God withholding judgment that we deserve whereas grace is God giving us blessing or good that we do not deserve.
Because of God’s mercy, we do not receive the judgment of God against our sins; and God’s grace, offers us eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ and the promise of heaven although we do not deserve it.
Both mercy and grace come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The mysteries of the Kingdom of God are the highways to your supernatural breakthroughs in life (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). When you understand a mystery and engage in it as a lifestyle, you command supernatural breakthroughs cheaply.
Understand that nothing makes great like grace. The grace of God is one of the vital mysteries for provoking supernatural breakthroughs on earth.

Your breakthrough does not lie in your strength (1 Samuel 2:9), hard work (Psalm 127:1-2), or mental smartness (Ecclesiastes 9:11; John 3:27; Romans 9:16). Your breakthrough lies in the grace of God, because it is His grace that makes the difference in any life.

What is Grace?: Grace is the tangible and undeniable hand of God on a man’s life and in all his affairs. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). That means, the grace of God practically reflects in the life of the carrier. Paul said, “I am what I am by the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

God said to Abraham: I will make of thee a great nation… (Genesis 12:2). Grace is God’s hand on a man’s life, and that hand is what makes a man great.

Characteristics of Grace: Grace is a living virtue with characteristics that you must understand, if you intend to flow in it.

• Grace can be frustrated, paralyzed and crippled: Paul said: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if the righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain (Galatians 2:21).

Where God is at work in grace, abounding sin is conquered, hope begins, and good becomes perceptible. This better state is always markedly the effect of a break in the natural course of things, a supernatural product which would never have been seen in this poor world had it been let alone.

All the blessings of salvation are a gift. All the inheritance of the covenant is a gift. All that which comes by our Lord Jesus to save and sanctify men is a gift. A gift is not a return for purchase-money. We are not asked, in any sense, to bring a price to God wherewith to purchase pardon, justification, or eternal life. Where the notion of purchase is for an instant hinted at, it is only to show more plainly how free is the blessing: “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” God freely gives his grace, expecting nothing in return, but that we do as freely receive as he does freely bestow; and even that free reception is a part of the gift which he bestows upon us.

Salvation to be complete must be by free favour. The saints, when they come to die, never conclude their lives by hoping in their good works. Those who have lived the most holy and useful lives invariably look to free grace in their final moments. I never stood by the bedside of a godly man who reposed any confidence whatever in his own prayers, or repentance, or religiousness. I have heard eminently holy men quoting in death the words, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” In fact, the nearer men come to heaven, and the more prepared they are for it, the more simply is their trust in the merit of the Lord Jesus, and the more intensely do they abhor all trust in themselves. If this be the case in our last moments, when the conflict is almost over, much more ought we to feel it to be so while we are in the thick of the fight. If a man be completely saved in this present time of warfare, how can it be except by grace. While he has to mourn over sin that dwelleth in him, while he has to confess innumerable shortcomings and transgressions, while sin is mixed with all he does, how can he believe that he is completely saved except it be by the free favour of God?

Did you know that Grace always abounds more than sin.
Romans 5:20 tells us that:
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
What this means is that at any given moment, the Grace of God exceeds sin.
However, this does not give us as believers the license to sin.

Therefore, as the recipients of God’s grace, we are to be gracious to others. Grace is given to us to serve others and to exercise our spiritual gifts for the building up of the church (Romans 12:6; Ephesians 3:2, 7; 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10).

Grace enables us to not be self centred but rather to serve others, to forgive, to
overlook offense as well as do everything else while completely relying on the strength of God.

Hence the scripture we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Philippians 4:13.

May the Lord God Almighty continue to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away . . . all things have become new . . . that we [our spirit] might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17–21)

The “he” that Paul refers to is our spirit man. We possess the very righteousness of God in our spirit (v. 21). This describes our new legal position in Christ—how God sees and relates to us. In Christ, all things have become new pertaining to our spirit. This includes being fully accepted by God, receiving the authority to use the name of Jesus, and possessing the indwelling Holy Spirit. All of this enables us to resist sin, sickness, and Satan; to walk in victory; and to release the works of God through prayer.

The core reality of the grace message empowers us to walk with God in a relationship of wholehearted love. Jesus called this commandment “the first commandment” (Matthew 22:38). In other words, the Holy Spirit’s “first” agenda is to establish the first commandment in first place in the Church. This must also be our first agenda. Wholehearted love is to be “first” in our response to God, because it is how the Father relates to the Son and how the Godhead relates to us.

Grace. We as Christians love that word. It is our life and our breath, literally and spiritually. We know it and hold it close, because it is by God’s grace in Jesus we are rescued from our sin.

What we don’t always think about, however, is that grace – Christ’s generous mercy toward us – is the daily, soul-sustaining power that God imparts to every believer.

The answer to many of our worries is simple: grace.

God will give it to us, though we are but sinners, in our time of need. Our strength will fail, but His does not. Just like our salvation is established by His grace, our faith and our life are carried by His grace, as the Holy Spirit works in us and through us.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

Grace is seeing God’s kindness in His Word, and letting it infuse our heart with strength, courage, purpose, and peace. It is the untouchable love of God leading us to our flawless heavenly home, despite the brokenness of today.

Grace to live, grace to die to self, grace to persevere, grace to thrive. Grace to stand, grace to serve.

It is God’s sustaining grace that not only saves us, but sanctifies us in every trial. It preserves us in the present, protects us from the past, and prepares us for eternity.

This gift of grace is so powerful, it is what brings blessing and endurance in the midst of the most debilitating circumstances. It is the very sustenance that allows us to say with Paul in every situation, “I can do all things in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:13)

God’s sustaining grace is knowing that when you are falling to your knees in despair, the hands of Jesus can and will pull you up.

When you cannot face another failure, the Holy Spirit’s calming presence presses you on. He transfers His divine and infinite resources to us, that in our weakness we may shine with His glory.

Every attack, every anxiety, every loss, while seeming to drag us to destruction…cannot. Because He walks us through these fires, determined to refine us into something more precious than gold.

Consider the freshness of every form of grace being poured out upon you day-by-day and moment-by-moment. We enter every year not fully knowing what lies ahead, but we are assured that God’s never-ending grace is awaiting us no matter what. His grace will empower us to handle circumstances beyond our natural abilities to process, whether they are challenging, victorious, overwhelming or tragic.

I pray that the grace and the mercy of God will locate you to make you partaker of the power of the Almighty God from this season and forever more in Jesus name.
AMEN!

SHALOM!

FOR MORE SPIRITUAL INSIGHTS PRAYER REQUESTS PLEASE CONTACT US AT RHEMA PRODUCTIONS TV ABUJA, NIGERIA.

PHONE: +2348033083732

EMAIL: revinnopeace@gmail.com

WEBSITE:
www.rhemaproductionstv.rptvblog.com